One of the biggest issues in November's election was Executive John Brown's secret plans for a jail at Gracedale. Since September 2016, I had been warning you about this possibility. In September 2017, I told you that Brown himself had visited a dozen different locations, had ruled out a new jail at Easton, and had told Council he would build on a greenfield. In July, prison advisory board chair Dan Christenson called Gracedale a "great location." When I pressed Brown on the issue, he said only that zoning approval would be needed. He declined to rule it out. Even when a large group of Upper Nazareth residents invaded Council to complain, he refused to rule it out. He finally did so from his Facebook page in mid-October, when I'm sure he was told he was digging his own political grave. Brown claimed Lamont McClure was trying to scare people. He also repeatedly referred to these stories, most of which came from me, as "fake news." Brown went on to lose the election, this is all water over the dam now. But I learned last night that Brow had every intention of building a jail at Gracedale. His statements to the contrary are the "fake news."
Above you can see the cover page of a 30-page power point presentation that Brown gave to Upper Nazareth Supervisors in a closed-door session on March 27, outside the public spotlight. Under our toothless Sunshine Act, you can get away with keeping the public in the dark by claiming it is just information gathering.
Brown met with Supervisors for over two hours. Attending this secret meeting with him were Corrections Director Dan Keen, Administrator Cathy Allen, Public Works Director Stan Rugis and General Purpose Authority Solicitor John Lushis. His presence is an indication that Brown was considering a P3 financing mechanism for a $180 million jail.
I only have the cover page of the power point for now, but will have the whole thing by the end of the day. i wish I had this before the election..
I'm informed that the power point shows the different sites visited by Keen, and also shows how a site from Kentucky would fit at Gracedale's campus. It even includes different rotations.
It's pretty clear that Brown did intend to build a jail at Gracedale. It'sjust as clear that he wanted to keep the public in the dark while disingenuously claiming to be transparent.
He should look up the word.
In short, Brown was untruthful. It caught up to him.
In June, Supervisors admitted to this secret meeting,. Three of them - Mike Rinker, Donna Hirst and Scott Sylvainus - said they oppose the idea.
25 comments:
This is just an indication of how dishonest Brown and his cronies are. This meeting should never have been private. I hope the Nazareth resident hold their supervisors accountable for this breach of open government.
That is why, when Brown and county council claimed they knew nothing of a jail at Gracedale no believed them. They all including a democrat county councilman blamed O'Hare for fake news.
These are the things that lose political races, not a tax increase like Vaughn and Geissinger think. When you lose people's trust nothing else matters.
Unfortunately, under our toothless Sunshine Act, public officials can meet behind closed doors and say they are fact finding. But they should ask themselves why something has to be private when it could be public. In this case, it's because Brown wanted the public kept in the dark. When he was caught doing this, he tried to claim "fake news." Fortunately, it was astute Upper Nazareth Republicans who sensed something was amiss. Brown also said he wanted to go out on a high note and then tried to decrease taxes to screw McClure.
The was only 1 Democrat on council who said he didn’t know anything, the other one was completely for the project and stated so
Brown and company should take note that even in Scarlett Alabama, their party's scorched earth policies are failing.
Maybe he should try and show some class on his way out, as should the county council.
Typical John Brown and his stooges on council. I'm also disappointed that the Board of Supervisors in Upper Nazareth didn't speak out about this earlier. Thank God they had some angels in Upper Nazareth who did. It just shows how much complicity on council's behalf was prevalent. Besides collaborators with the miscreant John Brown, they are liars, thieves and self-promoted fools who were dealt with in the election. I hope and pray the next council is open and transparent! I personally thought the voters could not see through council's arrogant and non-transparent ways, but I was wrong. Congratulations informed voters, let this be a lesson to the ones who sought office for personal gain and failed to supply good governance.
Who cares ! At least they had the insight and were looking towards the future unlike everyone else. One day maybe people will see it. Until then the county better hope the existing Jail doesn't fall apart and cause millions of dollars in lawsuits. But, I guess that's the county for you.
who cares - he's on the way out in a couple of weeks. Then you will eventually turn on your man crush mcclueless. You are such a cheap whore.
Nice that an elected Bard of "Stupidvisors" held a secret meeting- Would you think that had INTEGRITY, Class and representation of their community? Guess Not Township Whores
John Brown lied to all the people of Northampton County. Now he continues to lie to McClures transition team. He was defeated because he is a schmuck. good riddance..
Who cares ! They are all BSers. Both parties stink. Brownstain lies to your face, screwed the workforce some more ..... McDuck surrounds himself with the people from "Administration's past" that ran the county into debt and screwed the pooch for many years as his "transition team". All we need now is to bring Jim ( Mr. Catholic ) Hickey back from work release. Makes one wonder what was going on during the Reibman admin when they floated the $110,000,000 bond and Hickey was here at that time as the county administrator ???? One wonders if any monkey business was going on then as well ( say like that of Allentown)??? Now that McDuck has rid the county of all previous exempt positions hired under Brownstain and needs to replace those directors ( most of them deserving ) , I can not wait to see what other rejects he brings in to run the county prison and its updates, Human resources , P3 bridge program, Gracedale upgrades ... The one party who was doing his damnest to get things going and overseeing these projects is now fired. SHAME. You will miss Mr Rugis .
"Typical John Brown and his stooges on council. I'm also disappointed that the Board of Supervisors in Upper Nazareth didn't speak out about this earlier. Thank God they had some angels in Upper Nazareth who did."
My information came from a Supervisor, not one of those angels. The Supervisors dod own up to meeting privately with Brown, but it took them three months.
"I didn’t even know this meeting happened until today.
Are you positive on this, I would like to see the PowerPoint and the attendance sheet"
You can see the cover page of the power point above. I am certain. I have a link to the Upper Nazareth meeting minutes in which the Supervisors acknowledge they met secretly with Brown. When I get the power point, I intend to load it.
10:07, Sorry, but this kind of secrecy, and from an admin that claims it is transparent, is unforgivable. And when called on what he was planning, Brown yelled "Fake News!"like someone else who makes all of us sick. Given that The Morning Call turned up its nose at this story and The Express Times provided no coverage at all, that comment was directed at me. Your justification apparently is that everyone is a liar, so it's ok. You also create a false equivalency between an Executive who lies and another Executive who has been out of office 12 years. I opposed his bond and fought him in court. Where were you? In that fight, he was always a gentleman and was always straight with me.
As for Stan, he was at that secret meeting.He sat on his thumbs when Brown lied to the public. I am disappointed bc he was a good director.
McClure is entitled to a crew that he and the people can trust.
"Exactly why does it matter. What is your pointless point you are making here. Brown is out."
It answers the "fake news" charge. That matters a lot to me. It also proves Brown was dishonest. That should matter to anyone who wants good government.
Fortunately the Bangor boobs are on their way out. McClueless will solve the prison dilemma with his cozy council chums.
Thank heavens Brown was voted out of office - he earned it. He's the exact opposite of transparent. He saw himself as a king.
12:28 - rumor has it bo is getting a large length of chain so he can pull his head out
Bernie 10:49.
They are all full of it. If McClure starts to bring the Reibman era rejects back, the county is really screwed.
Between Brown and Reibman, they both screwed to public and one was a s sleazy as the other. . We can not go back in time to fill cabinet seats with previous rejects. Time to move forward, not backwards. Reibman spent all those million of dollars and didn't address county needs at that time ( just his friends in high places). If McClure brings these idiots back. Nothing will get done in the next 4 years either. My point is, lets not go in reverse and make things worse. Or is McClure just a puppet of the demo party ? I may be sorry that I voted for him if that is the case.
You didn’t vote for him and this post is not about McClure’s cabinet. It is about Brown’s dishonesty and you are trying to switch the subject. Drift off topic again and I will delete you.
A lot of these comments sound the way Vaughn and Geissinger talk.
2:06 is McClure a puppet for the Democrats are you not paying attention, there is no democratic party in Northampton county that McClure or any of the Ds answers too. start going outside once in a while and exploring life and what is really going on.
Bernie,
I know this is totally of topic but I didn't know what forum would be best to reach out to you. I was wondering if you could investigate some members of Team Brown who are suddenly popping up in other positions throughout the county. My main concern is that fact Michael Twining is suddenly popping up as a supervisor at the 911 center. Myself and Mr. Twining went head to head on several issues during his time in HR and now he's going to be my supervisor. I fear retribution. Thanks in advance for any information you can provide on the legality of this process.
I will be discussing this tomorrow.
I always thought it was illegal to go from a exempt position to a career service position without posting the job. I never saw the job posted. Twining should be removed. he is here illegally. Thank you for looking at this Bernie. We have enough dead weight without getting the courthouse clowns up here.
They claim the job was posted. Rest assured, the right people know about this and are looking into it.
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