When I wrote about the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission's proposed move to Alllentown's Waterfront, I was asked about "[a]ny recent figures on the salary component of the annual LVPC budget? Does the number of full-time employees merit a large, rented permanent building space or are the two counties paying for a huge conference room that sits empty the majority of days each month?"
Recently, I posted a story about former Allentown Mayor John "Jack" Gross, who mistakenly believed that Allentown's health was dependent on an increasing population. He demolished neighborhoods, created one-way streets, allowed the conversion of single-family homes into apartments and embraced parking meters. He thought he was doing the right thing, but lacked the insight that could have come from a long-range planning organization like The Lehigh Valley Planning Commission.
The LVPC website reports a staff of 20. At a recent NorCo Council meeting, I heard Council President Kerry Myers complain about the salaries paid.. A response to a Right-to-Know indicates they have room or 42. The lowest position is grade 5, which has a minimum $44,840 to maximum $60,535 salary. The highest position is grade 16, with a salary between $225,259 and $360,415.
Nobody is in Grade 16.
From what I can see in googling these individuals, they are all highly qualified and well-educated. Thery also appear to be dedicated. Have they stopped warehouses or increased truck traffic ? No. Under state law, they are more or less toothless. But they've been the canaries in the coal mine for many years. We've ignored them, and now want to scapegoat them for precisely what they've been telling us is happening.
Salaries are below. Staff appears to be paid fairly.
Grade 15: minimum salary of $173,276 to maximum of $277,242
Executive Director Becky Bradley
Grade 14: minimum $133,291 to maximum $283,286.
Administrator Tracy Oscavich,
Grade 13: minimum $115,519 to maximum $173,278.
Transportation and Data Director Patrick Osei, Regional Planning Director Dean Severson.
Grade 12: minimum $100,451 to maximum $150,577.
Controller Vicki Weidenhammer
Grade 11: minimum $87,349 to maximum $131,023
Managing Editor Matt Assad Chief Community Planner Steve Neratko Senior Civil/Environmental Engineer Denjam Khadka
Grade 10: minimum $77,506 to maximum $112,383
Economist and Data Scientist David Jan
Grade 9: minimum $68,894 to maximum $99,896
Senior Environmental Planners Teresa Mackey and Susan L Rockwell Senior Community Planner Jill Seitz Senior Community and Regional Planner Bambi Griffin Rivera Transportation Planner Brian Hite
Grade 8: minimum $61,239 to maximum $88,797
Graphics and Publications Coordinator Taylor Beassley Community Planners Joseph Dotta and Christian Martinez
Grade 7: minimum $55,569 to maximum $77,796
Program Associate Hannah Milagio Executive Administrative Assistant Angela Ellis
Master Planner and Engineer Geoffrey Reese, P.E., is supposed to be retired, but is still listed on the webpage. He works part-time for stormwater reviews
Joseph Dotta and Christian Martinez are community fellows, are interns, and work part-time.
Updated 9:46 AM
Lehigh Valley Planning Comm'n by BernieOHare on Scribd
36 comments:
And Becky started here in Easton. Now she’s making more than the Mayor and me. I got stories.
Considering what the low scale start at it only shows how pitiful the pay is for county employees.
What a fascinating spin. They do nothing, but we should keep our eyes on them. Please. They should be defunded before the end of the day, with an apology to taxpayers whose money they've wasted. Toothless = worthless. But hey, summer hours are coming.
"Considering what the low scale start at it only shows how pitiful the pay is for county employees."
I agree county pay is a disgrace, but click on the names and you will see each of these people is highly educated. Any one of them could head NorCo's DCED.
"But hey, summer hours are coming."
I broke that story, and it applied to LVEDC under Phil Mitman, not LVPC or LVEDC under Don Cunningham.
Paid fairly ? These salaries are an outrage. Cut their pay 32% !
Becky Bragley is the most overpaid government employee in the Valley. She needs to go back to Nebraska.
Bradley is a horrible manager. She can’t hire because people keep quitting. Why would you ever leave a job that pays that much cept if the Boss wasn’t a nightmare.
check out the former employee reviews of LVPC on Glassdoor.com
Paid fairly ? These salaries are an outrage. Cut their pay 32% !"
The last persons I'd want to decide what I get paid are NorCo officials. Sorry. You're too damn cheap.
I am surprised that some mid level people that I thought were entry level just a few years ago are getting paid well into 6 figures. I have no problem with higher end individuals getting paid well. I find it reprehensible that full time Mayors and County Executives are getting paid less than the majority of LVPC, yet have a lot more to answer for.
I still feel LVPC does great work and I cold be wrong with generalizations. However, after seeing these numbers, I think it is time to call PA Legislators to increase pay for Legislative aids and Staff leads. The work they do for constituents are worth more than a floor vote, imo. Some chief of staffs are making low $50s. Some with many years of experience are disjointed from newcomers. Some Legislative aides are making mid $30s to low $40s. For those Legislators that take Union money and push for a $15 minimum wage, do you realize you are paying your staff less than prevailing wage for general laborers? Time for Shapiro to institute a pay study of Legislative staff. Like many corporations, I suspect step increases dont keep pace with pay requirements of the market. The pay scale and rewards for years of service appear to be dreadfully low for the service they provide to constituents.
She’s not from Nebraska, you clearly don’t even know who you’re talking about.
Grudge?
Anyone can post lies or vent anger there, no fact checking.
Staff in many government positions who do the bulk of the work are often underpaid. This should be evaluated & studied on a case by case basis. Often certain elected officials are underpaid in part because their jobs aren’t always full time and they have higher office in mind when they run for those positions.
Professional staff in technical areas have to be educated for their positions, especially if you want quality output otherwise taxpayer monies are indeed being wasted.
Also keep on mind, the LVPC staff aren’t just paid by locals taxes. They are funded by the counties as well as the state and federal government for their work. They do County planning, stormwater reviews as well State and Federal transportation planning work.
So many former employees have complained about their mistreatment at the hands of Ms. Bradley and nothing has been done.
Wow the ratings on GLassdoor would give anyone pause. This one from a 10 year employee notes 2013 when new management took over... ie Ms. Bradley:
Pros
Fellow employees were like family, great benefits, loved the work I was doing.
Cons
The leadership changed in 2013 and things went downhill from there. The higher-ups are getting too big for their britches. They think they're above everyone else, no one else's experience matters. They do take credit for work they didn't do. Took work that took days to do and 'fixed' it. And God forbid you have a family or interests outside the office walls. It's all about image now, not about the quality of work or the people.
Advice to Management
They need to go. Approximately 50 staff members have left since the new management took over. What does that tell you? No one wants to work with you. Can't you take a hint?
“50 staff members left”? your entire comment should be disregarded on that alone — doesn’t even come close to the truth.
And you do realize that when new leadership comes into an organization there’s always people who aren’t willing to adjust to the new expectations. And sometimes these days many employees want the job description to bend to them.
Ms Bradley is professional, an expert in her field, has an increasingly difficult job in the public eye and does yeoman's work.
People can say whatever they want on social media, blog, etc, but this is the problem with todays society. Everyone is a “telephone tough guy” aka internet tough guy. They can say whatever they want with no facts to back it up and can in fact say things that border on slander with no accountability. But, when people lie about the nature of a person’s character it may be deemed slander if the person’s name and the false claim are continuously repeated in public enough times that the public believes the lie.
I seriously doubt sensible people would say the things they say online to someone’s face, unless of course they’re mentally unstable, so what makes the internet different? NO ACCOUNTABILITY.
Everyone needs to take what is said anonymously with a grain of salt, unless the facts align (after checking with reliable sources) and what is being said seems sensible and doesn’t appear to be coming from an angry, disgruntled perspective.
These "canaries" are not earning their keep. Just because they are "well educated" and/or enthusiastic is not good enough to continue to piss the money away. Need to reexamine their ability to affect change. Not a criticism of their work ethic but just maybe they can't do what we need. Have to figure out a better approach. Unless we want to say that it is important to pay well educated folks as a reward for getting the education rather than their ability to get the needed task done.
Where's Billy Givens when we need him? Disband this group.
Excellent point. Streaming saves dollars and expect action from any government funded emploi
You say something angry, “not earning their keep” then in the next breath say that you’re not criticizing their work or their work ethic. I don’t think that you care what they do or what they accomplish, you’ve made up your mind and sadly your perspective is not constructive, it’s destructive. If you want to re-examine their ability to affect change… tell us all how to make that change or maybe volunteer to help. Nope, not you, you’ve just decided what you don’t like. Attitude is everything and it seems like you just want to take down whatever doesn’t align perfectly with your agenda or expectations.
Those salaries are a grace!!!
You’re one of the broken records, disband, defund, etc… sounds simple — NOT and would cost each county more. Maybe not evident upfront, but it would be later, especially when someone with little actual knowledge suggests such a thing.
You can’t stream everything and you can’t collaborate or educate nearly as effectively. It’s useful if people are sick or can’t be there in person for other reasons. LVPC also holds classes to educate municipal officials and road crews.
This is my favorite from Glassdoor... Bradly want over $200,000 in salary. Sounds like she is just a big bully:
Pros
The coworkers are nice, despite upper level management
Cons
Toxic workplace. Everyone is too scared to speak negatively about the management, for fear they will find out and retaliate. Employees are belittled and screamed at in front of other employees, and there are unrealistic expectations for meeting deadlines. The walls ooze passive aggression
Advice to Management
People don’t respect bullies
"the LVPC staff aren’t just paid by locals taxes. They are funded by the counties as well as the state and federal government for their work"
um, yeah, those are ALL taxes, so sit down
Becky Bradly is spending a lot of time “anonymously” commenting here, I’m not sure sure who has a bigger ego, her or McClure. No wondering they’re having a pissing contest. It seems they have more in common than arrogance, their employees absolutely hate both them.
Bradly treats her employees better than McClure. His ego is immense.
1032. Excellent point about potential for slander by repeating potentially false information enought it becomes accepted view. The morning tabloid does this on occasion with the same recycled story. Folks should be cautious when they quote people with political ambitions trying to public shame another. These are seeded stories with snippets of information worthy of honor in the Guild of Selective Reporting.
The LVPC sat doing nothing whatsoever to give guidance to our communities on warehouse developments for several years. Only in the last year did they start working on tools to address this issue - years too late. They did a paper on high-cube warehouses about three years ago - only because Pektor's project in Upper Mt Bethel Twp might allow them. But "traditional" warehouses are the ones plaguing us.
There has been tremendous turnover at the LVPC in just the last 5 years alone - like 75%. The person who wrote above that 50 staff members have left since 2013 may not be far from the truth. This says something about the leadership - the boss.
5:47, I sought these salaries in response to suggestions from a reader and after hearing County Council President Kerry Myers complain at a recent meeting. My take on these salaries is that they are entirely appropriate, given the education and work involved. I also think that the last people who should be telling LVPC about salaries or morale should be NorCo officials. They should look to themselves.
"The LVPC sat doing nothing whatsoever to give guidance to our communities on warehouse developments for several years. Only in the last year did they start working on tools to address this issue - years too late. "
The attempt to scapegoat LVPC for increased warehouses is getting a little silly. We have an increase in warehiouses because of where we are. You know this. The notion that LVPC has done nothing is false. It has been sounding the alarm for years. You are apparently unaware that Pa. is a "right to develop" state.
In 2016, Bradley warned that truck traffic would double in 10 years. ". She noted that many municipalities have local zoning that permits warehouses, even where it is inappropriate. She agreed that warehouses are often on very short term leases."
https://lehighvalleyramblings.blogspot.com/2016/07/the-lehigh-valley-inland-empirre.html
She sounded the alarm again in 2018, at which time County Exec Lamont McClure correctly stated there is little county government can do.
https://lehighvalleyramblings.blogspot.com/2018/03/coming-your-way-truck-traffic-and-big.html
In 2021 she sounded the alarm about high cube warehouses, and noted five plans for them in both counties (not just UMBT). She suggested then that the best defense in multi-municipal comprehensive plans and she is correct.
https://lehighvalleyramblings.blogspot.com/2021/08/beware-high-cube-warehouse-invasion.html
These criticisms of he are a bit silly.
" I also think that the last people who should be telling LVPC about salaries or morale should be NorCo officials."
We assume you must be referring to your loverboy McClure and his gang, since every other county official wants the pay issue fixed. McClure has done everything he can to screw up and delay a pay study. At the courthouse people know if it is not McClure's ideas it either doesn't exist or it must be destroyed. He and his partner the employee union boss work hand in hand For the benefit of McClure's state senator future as opposed to the employees. Please don't brag about how cheap he is, he has thrown a lot of money at what he wants includi8ng his top people. The only reason he is targeting the Planning commission is because they don't do what he wants. That is a big no-no with McClure, so he must smear and destroy them, the way you smear and descry his opponents.
How do you feel about your boy Barron taking down a county council committee meeting video without nitrifying the solicitor or the president of county council If it was not Von Footinmouth you would be screaming about the Sunshine act. Another example of their complete disregard for anyone but themselves. Footinmnouth has a history of this type of over-the-top questionable behavior. It is called being full of yourself as he is. His excuse according to the grapevine is national security. You will praise him. He should work for Trump, but he already does.
No I am referring to County Council as well as McClure. They have the power to do a pay study f all positions and chose to limit it to nonunion, about 1/3 of the workforce. There's plenty of blame to go around.
As far taking down one of the meeting videos, as a member of the council clerk's office, you should know why it was taken down. I also took down my story about that matter as well. It was a matter of national security. Information was imparted that should not have been disclosed. The speaker was unaware he was at a public meeting. Perhaps you'd like to disclose our military preparedness to China and Russia. I'd rather not.
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