On Tuesday, Controller Tara Zrinski presented her audit about what actually happened to $5 million that Council had previously approved for retention bonuses at Gracedale. Zrinski was accompanied by her lead auditor, Stacy Duke, as well as Mark Dilberto, the accountant who did most of the legwork. Though she was battling what appeared to be a cold, or allergies or a combination of the two, Zrinski and her staff did a good job. The audit revealed that less than half of the $5 million approved by Council was actually used for that purpose. It was hardly helpful to McClure or Gracedale administrators.
I was impressed by the concerns raised by Brown. He noted that the bonus money was used up in 2023 to pay for Gracedale operating expenses and wondered how the county could have paid bonuses in 2024 and even this year, as it has. Good question, but one that is beyond the scope of the audit.
Brown wondered why Gracedale's former administrator failed to place the bonus money in a separate line item but instead commingled the monies with other funds, making them impossible to track. Another good question, but again, beyond the scope of the audit.
Perhaps most importantly, he suggested that the county was moving money into Gracedale's general fund and did so both in 2023 and 2024 without Council approval. This is also beyond the scope of the audit, but a good question.
Lead Auditor Stacy Duke told Brown several times that those are questions he could ask Fiscal. He could also ask the County Executive
At last night's meeting, as is his habit, Exec Lamont McClure specifically asked Council if they had any questions. Fiscal Affairs Director Steve Barron actually spoke during courtesy of the floor and specifically told Council that he was available for any questions they might have.
Brown had no questions of McClure or Barron about the audit. He instead repeated later that night the irresponsible and debunked claim that the county had only $3,000 in cash on hand at the end of 2024. He insisted that the county is operating at a deficit and his questions have gone unanswered. Therefore, he suggested that County Council reject routine budget amendments of pass-through money that would basically paralyze the government and prevent it from providing vital core services.
"You really think as an ex county executive that we have $3,000 in the bank right now? asked Council member Ken Kraft. "That's your honest opinion?" Brown said he was relying on unaudited financial statements.
45 comments:
Betteridge's Law of Headlines
At this point John Brown is dragging the county party down he’s without a doubt the most notable member and he just doesn’t have the *it factor* others like Trump have when peddling political rhetoric or as others call them half-truths. There very much are issue with Gracedale and how the money was spent but rather than seizing the political moment to ask damming questions he chickened out because he can’t pull it off! Tom should speak up while he has a chance or else Democrats will run the county for the next decade
Two things can be true at the same time. Mr. Browns deficit as an executive is well known and yet his concerns are very valid. AS for being political, he is no more political than Kraft and Kegan and Warren. What is with Warren trying to channel Winston Churchill in every comment he makes?
You Mr. O'Hare have stated committee meetings are important., it is where the sausage is made, yet this Administration blew off council again. Last minute notifications about Birthdays are fine but there are other people who are more knowledge about money in the fiscal department. Barron like McClure wants no one to speak to council who may actually be succinct and truthful and not just repeat the party line.
This administration has reaped what they sowed, as their ongoing disrespect for the county council is evident. McClure and Barron being there tonight is meaningless. It is clear the Gracedale affair is a cover-up and their repeating their tale over and over re meaningless.
Zirinski making sure she did what she could to protect McClure is as obvious as is your support for this crew. I hope the voters are paying attention. Enjoy her fundraiser later this month McClure and Barron as his cabinet plan to be there. This is so slimy and messy it is a shame.
Throughout his entire adult life John Brown has never been able to hold a job. He has been forced out of every single one he’s ever had.
Brown & Lori send Tara on a witch hunt. Tara finds witches. Says they were engaged in witchcraft and that they have been drowned for it. Not good enough. The people who didn’t know the witches were engaging in witchcraft and the Last Witch Hunter (Tara in this case) must be crushed by stone too.
Political question here. Why when Brown during at the conclusion of his committee report announces he’s going to launch a political broad side against Tara, didn’t Mrs. Lori Vargo Heffner stop it. Mrs. Heffner pretends to be a partisan Democrat. She’s prez of the Federation of Women’s Democratic Planets or something. That little troll from the State government or party, can’t really tell who she works for and when, drags her around to all the Democratic conventions and stuff. So, why is Mrs. Democrat Lori allowing the Democratic VOTERS choice for County Executive Tara Zarinski, to be savaged by the “worst county executive in history?”
As a retiree and former employee, I didn't realize until now (Reading your blog) and attending the May "retirement Luncheon" listening to Jerry Seyfried's speech" how bad we got screwed as workers of the County. Seyfried didn't mention names but I am glad you pointed this out in your blog. According to Seyfried we're still being shafted. Besides Brown, who else participated in these illegal acts? Brown is a candidate, how many others are candidates?
BO, the tittle of today's blog entry should have been - "Brown Blew It"
Brown thought he was onto to something really juicy. He was so sure that he would uncover a huge scandal and all he did was roll the dice and it came up snake eyes. He asked the same question 50 different ways to try and manipulate Tara to say what he desperately wanted her to say, but as a Controller with integrity and knowledge of her position she did not. She stuck to her guns and stated facts. She wasn't going to be pulled into his dirty mud pit. He violated the code of civility as he was bordering on abusive and then threw out words to muddy the story like "the report is misleading", "illegal activity", and "I'm not satisfied". Of course he isn't satisfied, he was wrong to count his chickens before they hatched- no scandal.
Brown was made to look either incompetent or like a smarmy politician last night. His desperation after all the shit he thew at the wall didn't stick he got even filthier when he personally attacked Tara and then admitted nothing done was illegal. Poor Brown just needed a small stain, none was there. No need to rebuttal because he made himself look terrible.
And then as a petulant child would do, he votes no on serious county needs. Betting is hard, losing is harder.
Who’s the little troll ? This seems like a new and interesting piece to the boring Norco story of Lori hates Lamont.
Worst execs in county history:
3. Reibman
2. Seyfried
1. McClure
Best:
1. (tie) Stoffa
1. (tie) Brown
The thinking is this. Maybe, if nobody talks about the mess we created it will all go away. In many cases this tactic DOES work.
Seyfried was good at government for the unions. He never gave a shit about the other 90% of the rest of us who paid his salary for decades. I'm a retiree and still being shafted by his cozy union relationships and hatred of those not in union.
Bernie, you should do a piece on that P-3 bridge thing and that lucious guy who made over 800,000 from the county on charges and how that horrible deal just ended this june i think, that is 8 years for a 2 year project designed by a little man to "save the bridges" please take this one story and do it justice, the public needs to know how much brown cost us tax payers.
7:17, I don't know what Jerry said bc I was not there and do not attend these bc some retirees really dislike seeing someone like me, who never was a county employee, there. Whatever he did say, I am sure Jerry knows that a tax exempt nonprofit must follow rules re political activity, and he has been scrupulous about following them. I will talk to Jerry.
1:13, Committee meetings are very important for council, not the administration. But I daresay that Barron and McClure attend more than Brown, who even skips Council meetings. Barron missed a 6/17 finance committee meeting so he could take his wife out on her birthday. He made council aware that he was going to miss. No one from Council told him that he better be there or have someone from his department there to be their whipping boy.
I agree that the admin has at times disrespected Council. You can see it at meetings. Barron has cleaned up his act and is far more respectful to council now than he was about a year ago. McClure was disrespectful as recently as the last meeting. You know, the one in which several council members in essence called him a liar. Respect is a two-way street. Both Council and the Exec are guilty of being disrespectful.
Jerry has made the retiree luncheons his own political rally, apparently. Attendance is supposedly down. He just can’t help himself and should step
away.
6:51, This is essentially what happened. She was tasked with finding out what happened to $5 million in retention bonuses intended for Gracedale workers. She found out what happened. She discovered that less than half of the grant money authorized by council went the way intended. The rest was poured into the general account was commingled with other funds and spent on Gracedale expenses. Her audit established that the Exec ignored a County Council resolution, at least with respect to career service workers. Her audit revealed that the admin failed to track the $ with a separate budget line item. It was damaging to both Gracedale administrators and McClure, who oversees them.
After producing this audit, which gave Council exactly what it asked for, she has been attacked as well. I believe this is bc she is running for Exec, and office she really did not want at this point. Brown thought this damaging audit was "misleading" even though it shows that the county continued to pay bonuses after the funds were exhausted and also showed that there was a deficit at Gracedale in 2023, a point he has repeatedly made.
We need to clean house in Northampton County. We have an out of control Executive w/ his minions, and except for 1 or 2, an incompetent Council. Brown is bad, but he doesn't compare to Keegan and Warren, who are the absolute worst possible members.
I saw no such announcement and I did not believe the questions were "political" until last night, when Brown attempted to bring county government to its knees by trying to hold up routine budget amendments. I thought that, for the most part, they were good questions. John Goffredo had trouble understanding that commingled funds can't be tracked once they are commingled, but the only time I thought he was a bit out of his depth was when he suggested they could find out what happened if they tried harder. LVH asked questions about federal reporting, and that is beyond the scope of the audit. Heckman suggested there should have been a separate line item for the bonus funds, which was the most salient observation made. Brown raised a number of interesting questions that he was flatly told could be asked of fiscal. He had the perfect opportunity to do so last night but would rather just let the questions go unanswered.
You missed a few. I'd rate them, from best to worst, as follows: 1) Marty Bechtel; 2) Gene Hartzell; 3) Jerry Seyfried; 4) Lamont McClure; 5) John Stoffa; 6) Bill Brackbill; and 7) John Brown.
Good suggestion.
Barron is responsible for all County finances. He dropped the ball on Gracedale. Brown’s right. Is Brown right, should he be fired ?
Hey Brown. You tried it!
Hey Bernie, in your ratings of best County Executives, you missed someone. Where do you rank Reibman with that Rogue Gallery
Oops. 1) Marty Bechtel; 2) Gene Hartzell; 3) Jerry Seyfried; 4) Lamont McClure; 5) John Stoffa; 6) Glenn Reibman; 7) Bill Brackbill; and 8) John Brown.
Tom, your running for Executive- say SOMETHING- ANYTHING!
Brown's hammering on this "$3000 in the bank line" is distracting from the issue, but there still appears to be an issue. Millions of dollars earmarked for employees were improperly used by just getting dumped into the general fund.
McClure has made the joke about "having enough cash in the account to pay the light bill" but if the light bill is being paid with funds that were supposed to be dedicated elsewhere...that's a problem. Instead of having the lights turned off, the employees got shafted. This seems very similar to what happened with the conservation district a couple years back. Funds that were supposed to to one thing getting sucked into the general account then *poof*! Council didn't do a special audit back then...smaller potatoes. But who knows what else is hanging out there, council needs to keep pulling on this thread.
Stoffa fell asleep at council meetings, should be lower on list .
Marty did not serve long but like George Washington he established the parameters of the office but I would rate Hartzell ahead of him. Gene surrounded himself with excellent staff and didn’t micromanage.
Jerry’s honesty cost him a second term. I agree with ranking him 3rd
Why is Council using any funds for retention of career service employees at Gracedale? Career Service position are not the ones that need to be retained. It’s nursing and ancillary departments and when I say nursing I mean Nurses that are out on the units doing actual work and a lot of time short handed. Not Nurses in offices who provide no patient care or other office jobs there. Those positions are always at full staff. You would think a former County Executive would know that.
I spoke to Jerry. There was no "political" speech. Jerry addressed pensions. Attendance at the most recent luncheon was very high, well over 100. As for unions, Jerry never received a single endorsement from any union when he ran for office. He opposed agency shop at Gracedale, and they hated him for it. They posted signs attacking him in lady restrooms, where they would be seen by Jerry's wife.
The current county exec asked for those retention bonuses, and they were approved by council in a 8-1 vote. If the exec changes his mind, he should approach council, tell them he changed his mind and ask to modify the resolution. He is not a King.
No politician is for the people they are for themselves that is a fact, Bernie.
No that is an opinion, and a cynical one at that.
Norris mclaughlin is a terrible law firm. That place overbills every client.
Those lawyers at norris McLaughlin made out like bandits. Robbery without a gun. Lushis, Simmons, Sorrentino and the rest. That law firm ripped off the county. That is the tip of the iceberg. They rip-off everyone.
I wish you would stop covering for Zrinski- she's totally incompetent!
Barron, unfortunately would never be fired!
Reibman was terrible
What did Steve Barron know and when did he know it ?
Just another kook out of the Slate Belt..... go figure
Berrnie, John Brown can't hold a job period. Like a used dishrag. A nothing
You missed it
The announcement was
Don't take the Brown Acid
John was never qualified to be County Executive. Your boy Bernie, Charlie Dent, got JB Reilly and Joe Topper to dump tens of thousands of dollars at the end of the campaign that Brown won as an eff u to Callaghan for having the audacity to challenge Dent for his congressional seat. You can thank Dent for Brown.
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