McClure Labels GPA a "Rogue Authority," Calls Legal Bills an "Outrage"

Lamont McClure smiles when Peg Ferraro asks,
"Will you say, I do?"

Since January, I've been critical of the General Purpose Authority (GPA). This is a county agency originally established as a conduit for pass through loans by universities and hospitals. But when former Executive John Brown designated this authority to administer what really is a $38 million county bridge building project, the problems started.

It started the year with a Sunshine Act violation, ducking into executive session without bothering to explain why. Review of the minutes revealed that its Solicitor, John Lushis, was tapped by Brown to work on other P3 projects and provide "special legal services" without the knowledge of Council and in apparent violation of the County's own Administrative Code. The GPA also hired Brown's former publicity agent, Sahl Communications, to establish a web page and Facebook page that could have been created by a grade school student. It also voted to pay Chair Shawn Langen $200 per hour yo check the work being done by the third party engineer checking the bridge contractor.

I learned from Langen himself that the GPA and Lushis intended to market P3 projects to other municipalities.

In response to a Right-to-Know, I learned that Lushis' law firm, Norris, McLaughlin and Marcus, billed the County $3,390 for six copyrights that were identified as the property of that firm, and not Northampton County or the GPA. I learned that Langen had submitted a bill for $11,950 to check the work being done by the checker. Finally, and most significantly, I discovered that Norris, McLaughlin and Marcus had billed and received  $813,000 in 2016 and 2017. Brown buried the expenditure in the jail budget

At their April 10 meeting, the GPA refused to recognize Charles Dertinger, the County's second highest ranking official, when he approached them with information they had just finished complaining they had not received. They also voted to hire a Philadelphia law firm for litigation with the County without bothering to seek proposals from anyone. They may have already paid this firm a $10,000 retainer.

During this meeting, they also voted to approve five invoices submitted by Norris, McLaughlin and Marcus, including a bill for $34,000 to respond to three Right-to-Knows (Two from me, one from The Morning Call). At that time, I still did not have a complete response to my requests.

I have it now, and it is a joke. I intend to appeal.

What does Executive Lamont McClure make of all this?

He answered that question last night, in his report to Council. He called the GPA a "rogue authority" and said that the John Lushis bills are an "outrage." While saying he'd like to avoid litigation, he made clear that GPA's role in the P3 project needs to be lessened.

Here's what he said.

"I believe that I was not clear enough when I made my last statement on this issue. I want the P3 project, specifically the P3 project with the 33 bridges in it, to be successful. I want to complete it, and when I highlight the difficulties with it, I want no one to assume that we are anything but completely committed to finishing the project. That isn't to say that we don't want our laws followed, including our 80% rule [80% of all county-financed construction must be with local labor]. We do. That isn't to say we won't stand on our rights in the contract. We will. But we want this to succeed. We will make the milestone payments when it's appropriate under the contract. The construction company will have its cash flow.

***

"We will get this done, but that isn't to say there aren't problems. One of the big problems is we have a rogue authority right now in the General Purpose Authority. And they really are in the way of us getting this project done in a timely fashion. Frankly, some of the things they've done, including bill you - you're paying - 800, almost $1 million in legal fees over the last two years - you're paying that. That's an outrage. We have a bill from [GPA Chair] Langen for $11,000. He's the Chair of the General Purpose Authority. He submitted a bill under the services agreement for checking the work of the third party engineer. Well, as you might imagine, I haven't paid it. These are some challenges that we have going forward.

"Now Ms. Ferraro, you're on the GPA. You were at that last meeting. You saw a bill and I think you voted to approve it, which I think was disappointing. Thirty-four thousand dollars to do a Right-to-Know request  We do Right-to-Know requests all the time around here, and we don't spend $34,000 on them, I was also very disappointed that the GPA voted to use public money to sue this County or to hire a special counsel to do that. That's very, very unfortunate.

Peg Ferraro asked McClure to sit down with the GPA like he did with the Gaming Board.. He said he would, and would be at the next meeting himself.