Pennsylvania's Sunshine Act requires Northampton County Council to conduct its business at open meetings. But DaVinci Executive Director Lin Erickson, worried that a $10 million grant for an Easton aquarium might be in jeopardy, has tried twice now to engineer private discussions of the people's business with newly elected Council members.
Erickson was at NorCo Council's first meeting, although she failed to speak at courtesy of the floor. She instead arranged for a private meeting that was supposed to take place last Friday at noon When Council Prez Ken Kraft caught wind of what was happening, he directed that the meeting be canceled. Had a quorum of Council attended this meeting, it would almost certainly violate the Sunshine Act.
Erickson scheduled another meeting for Tuesday as well. Council Solicitor Chris Spadoni has advised Council to stay away.
16 comments:
I was told it did not matter because none of the new people elected planned to attend any meeting.
2:19 am I am glad that you talk to EVERY new council member and seem to know everything. its comforting in a strange way to know that an anonymous witch from Easton is so well connected to these people
Just would like to know when council members participate in meetings that violate the Sunshine Act do they get to count these hours as contributing to the 1000 hours a year they have to "work" towards getting the year counted for county pension? Who is tracking these hours? HaHa!
anon9:56, I know one of the elected people and they were not going to the meeting and suggested the group make a presentation to county council.
To the late Great, I Had a Dream it was the American Dream, but the public pandering parasites along with the development a lists had hole other designs. The designs consist of closed door meetings to involk terror and Truma to there nasayers.
Bernie,
I think its worth considering that the DaVinci project may prove to be worthwhile and beneficial for the people of Easton, Northampton county and the Greater Lehigh Valley. The plans appear to mitigate the flood plane concerns that you have raised multiple times. I have been a skeptic of many of the private/public projects in Easton and have seen them consistently perform. The public Market by all accounts has been a great success and the VM Partnership has helped to revitalize classic structures that would likely otherwise be vacant. You have done a great job in correctly identifying the graft and corruption in downtown Allentown, but we're seeing a different script play out in Easton. Your concerns of the competing facility in Mt Pocono by Ripley's are worthy, but beyond that your distaste for this project at times appears to taint your objectivity. I think its at least worth considering the possibility that this could be a very successful venture and improve the economic environment in Easton as well as providing a great, family friendly resource for the people of the lehigh valley. Time will tell and in the mean time, keep writing. I always enjoy reading your blog and perspectives!
Look, The simple reality is that this project is going to suck a lot of money way from many other worthy nonprofits that actually deal with crisis situations. It's a real drain. Easton basically will be in no position to help anyone else. DaVinci wants NC to put itself in that position, too. Assuming it will be successful, it will help tourism and provide some jobs while helping to educate children. What good is that if no money is left for the Third Street Alliance or State Theatre or to the various human services agencies combating the opioid crisis. And to be frank, neither Lin Erickson nor Sal Panto is in any position to claim this will be successful. Panto promoted the ridiculous high school hall of fame and was involved in a family business that went bankrupt, while Erickson has no clue what is required to run a business. So I would want to hear from people who actually know what they are doing. I would want to see an INDEPENDENT assessment of this proposal not cheerleaders or reports that Panto and Erickson fund to say what they want. Even with that, there just is only so much money available, and Erickson wants to suck it all away.
It sounds like you have your mind made up and there is no room for reevaluation. This project appears to have real momentum behind it, so if it should be successful and create a windfall of other benefits that you have not considered here, perhaps that will adjust your future perspective. The alternative is that you may be right and this may be a huge suck of taxpayer dollars and other resources. We shall see. I agree with you that the High School Hall of Fame was never a good idea.
My mind is far from made up. I have said as long ago as this summer that there should be an INDEPENDENT evaluation of the proposal, one financed by the county and hired buy the county. If it is positive, the question would be how much. What Council did in December is irresponsible. They agreed to spend $10 million on a project with no real idea whether it is more than a pipe dream. They did so even though this will have a devastating impact on other nonprofits.
Sal Panto is a Mayor, not an entrepreneur. Lin Erickson comes from the murky world of nonprofits. I'd like to see a real business analysis, not cheerleaders.
Easton doesn't have the infrastructure to handle weekend farmer's market traffic as it is, much less the traffic that a big tourist attraction would generate. While cities around the world are restricting tourism because the costs outweigh the benefits, backward-minded folks are still attempting what failed in cities around the globe did 30-50 years ago--create tourist traps. The focus should be on making downtown attractive to residents. There should be the basic provisions and services such as a supermarket, a pet store, a hardware store, etc. rather than forcing folks to get into their cars and drive all the way to 25th St. Downtown Easton is a food desert--there is not affordable healthy grocery venues that people can access without a car. This "Fish Tank" would be a nightmare for the down residents who have trouble moving about because of the current traffic situation. Has anyone traveled N. 4th St. lately? It is impossible to navigate since they made it two way. The long time, established, respectable homeowners and residents are fleeing already as a result. When you focus only on tourism instead of making a city attractive to thriving residents, you end up with a transient population that has no vested interest in the city.
Great project. Mayor Panto has guaranteed $30 million for it. The county should do the same.
Hey Bernie they canned their aquarium project. It is no longer part of the deal. Therefore they should resubmit all money requests.
I believe you may be right. The project is not the project for which the hotel tax grant was awarded.
Council must not go back on its word. If they do could there be a potential lawsuit?
DaVinci has already gone back on its word. The project is not as represented. Council would have to adopt an ordinance revoking the grant, which it should do. I am disgusted by this change. We spend good money top preserve open space and now are spending $10 million to keep otters, a highly mobile animal that travel 26 miles per day and even practice law, in captivity.
Easy on Larry now, he's human too...
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