Forks Tp Resident Assails NorCo Council Candidate Kelly Keegan

Blogger's Note: As most of you know, I consider NorCo Council President Kerry Myers a terrible public servant. Because he's lazy, he failed to acquire enough valid signatures to be placed on the ballot as a Democrat. After being tossed, he decided to flip parties and seek a Republican write-in. I am perfectly happy to see him replaced by Forks Tp Supervisor Kelly Keegan, who now is running unopposed for the Dem nomination in the Easton County Council district. But Keegan has her critics. Below is an essay submitted by Ed Reagan, a top commenter on the Easton Facebook page, followed by Keegan's response:

Ed Reagan:

On November 18, 2021, at the Forks Township Board of Supervisors meeting Chairman John O'Neil asked Supervisor Kelly Keegan to chair a task force to look into preserving open space in the township and return to the board with options and ideas.

In early March 2023, Supervisor Keegan started posting about open space in the Forks Township Information and Discussion group on Facebook and a newly created Forks Township Open Space Committee Facebook group.

Supervisor Keegan's post advocated for the Board of Supervisors to put a referendum on the ballot to raise the local earned income tax by 25% to pay for an open space program, the only option she presented, even though she was tasked 16 months earlier to return to the Board of Supervisors with options.

When people, including myself, started asking questions about the work and analysis done by Supervisor Keegan and her group, she started blocking the people on Facebook, asking questions, asking for copies of the agendas, meeting minutes, and data compiled by the open space committee.

Since Supervisor Keegan was not forthcoming with her committee's work, I had to file a right-to-know request to access her committee's work over the past 16 months. There were agendas and minutes but no inventory of properties to target for open space preservation, no analysis, and no other options than an EIT tax increase.

When I filed the open records request, I began grabbing screen shots from Facebook in case I needed to appeal with the Pennsylvania Office of Open Records.

I realized that Supervisor Keegan was making many social media posts while working at the Easton Area School District, where she is a school nurse and her husband is an elected member of the Board of Education.

One hundred twelve social media posts were made from work violating the district's policy prohibiting using social media on school property.

The school district's policies prohibit employees from posting about alcohol and drugs online where students can read it. Yet, Supervisor Keegan has posted on social media about alcohol and commented on a few newspapers' Facebook posts about marijuana.

The district has a policy prohibiting political activity on school property, but this did stop Supervisor Keegan from engaging on social media related to the business of Forks Township and posting to her Northampton County Council campaign page from work, including announcing her kick-off of collecting nomination petition signatures. She also announced her campaign fundraising event while at work.

When my right-to-know request was returned by Forks Township related to the open space committee, there were 23 emails sent during the work day by Supervisor Keegan while at work in violation of the district's policy prohibiting the use of external email systems.

Is this the type of politician the residents of Northampton County want on the county council?

Unfortunately, Supervisor Keegan's husband challenged the nomination petitions of her opponent in the Democrat Party primary, making her the only candidate on the primary ballot since the Republican Party did not field any candidates.

Current Northampton County Council President Kerry Myers was the candidate challenged off the ballot by Supervisor Keegan's husband. Mr. Myers has recently switched parties to Republican and is mounting a write-in campaign.

Kelly Keegan, as documented above, is not fit to serve any elected positions due to her willful violation of multiple EASD policies, her censoring of opposing voices, and the lack of following through on tasks assigned to her.

Whether you are a Democrat or a Republican, please write in Kerry Myers for Northampton County Council District 2.

Kelly Keegan's Response:

In 2021 the Board of Supervisors voted to update our 10-year comprehensive plan. To complete the plan we needed resident input and the overall reaction and responses indicated that the residents liked the mix of suburban and rural areas within the Township, they appreciated the availability of green/open space and parks, and generally are fond of the sense of community they feel living in Forks Township. However, they also expressed a concern with uncontrolled development, specifically industrial development and the impact of this on the community, i.e., loss of farmland, increased (truck) traffic, and stormwater issues. There was a general feeling of “rapid growth” occurring in the Township negatively affecting the things residents love about living in Forks. Residents stated that they want to preserve open space and farmland and limit high density residential and industrial development. The township spent approximately $85,000 to update this plan and I felt it was our duty as elected officials to value the data that was collected by the residents, to hear their concerns, and to look into what can be done to make sure that this community remains the place they enjoy and to even possibly improve upon it.

Within the last 10 years warehouse proliferation has been a concern for not only our township, but for the entire Lehigh Valley. The residents stated that they want to preserve open space and farmland and limit high density residential and industrial development. While some people feel that zoning is the answer, it is not. Zoning is one avenue for township planning, but there are others, such as an Open Space Program. Simultaneously while these results came out other townships in the area were approving their Open Space referendums or talking about one. Trying to come up with solutions for our resident’s concerns I suggested an Open Space Program to the BOS and Chairman O’Neil appointed me to investigate this specific topic. NOT all options for preserving open space, but the Open Space Programs that the neighboring townships were voting on at that time.

I contacted experts that work for Northampton County and a supervisor at Bushkill Township who currently has had a successful program. I coordinated two public presentations with experts. The Planning Commission and the BOS were invited and the BOS attended. ONLY an Open Space Program with EIT funding was presented. At the public presentation there were approximately 20 residents who were interested in getting involved and an informal committee was formed. A formal committee was never voted on and approved by the township so formal minutes were never required from the group who supported an Open Space Program with an EIT tax. We met on a monthly basis since January and we discussed how we would initiate public outreach for the residents to become aware of what the program is about so they would be able to make an educated decision and be able to vote whether “they”, the residents, wanted to adopt the program.

My whole point was that the Supervisors paid a lot of money for the 10-year Comprehensive Plan, we asked for resident input, and then when we received the input, I was the only Supervisor that wanted to find a solution for their concerns.

Does the Open Space Program have an increase in the EIT tax? Yes, the increase would go from our current 1% to a 1.25% tax. Did I vote to increase taxes as I have been accused of on Facebook? No, I was in support of the Open Space Program referendum question to be place on the General Election Ballot in Nov. 2023 so the residents could decide whether they wanted it or not.

As for Ed Reagan’s allegations, I have been strongly advised to not engage with him, and at this time I am following that advice.