Late last month, in 12-minute segments, Northampton County Exec candidates Tara Zrinski and Tom Giovanni had the opportunity to make their case at
Tony Iannelli's Business Matters program. Tara, who has far more experience on these shows than Tom, was definitely more poised and less nervous. But does this mean she should be the next Executive? Yesterday, I had the opportunity to sit down and talk to Tom for more than a few minutes and learn a lot more about him. I want to share his story with you. Maybe it will make you want to vote for him. Maybe not. But at least you'll know why he's running and what he hopes to accomplish.
Giovanni is known as Northampton County's Quiet Man. He rarely speaks at meetings. Some of you consider this a negative. One of you has actually reviewed the minutes of several meetings to note how little he has spoken in comparison to others, as though this somehow disqualifies him. Quite the contrary. In my 74 years on this planet, I have learned that those who speak the most tend to know the least. They fail to listen. They already think they know everything. The reality is that we have one mouth and two ears for a reason. We need people in government who actually listen. Giovanni does that.
Though he is only a part-time employee of the county as a member of county council, I often see Giovanni at the courthouse when I'm there to search a title or plead insanity. What's he doing? He's listening. He listens to county employees when they have gripes. He's met with corrections officers, deputy sheriffs, 911 workers, Gracedale staffers and even human services caseworkers. He knows that there are far too many steps for most positions. He sees the turnover. He probably hears some things that are just not true, as things do tend to get twisted a lot, but he's listening.
As Executive, he told me his door would always be open to people who want to talk to him. If he heard gripes from employees, he'd arrange a meeting between them and their managers to see if the problem could be worked out as a team. "We're all on the same team," he told me.
This, unfortunately, is far from the way things are right now. The relationship between the workforce and administration has increasingly become adversarial, with some employees who rightly or wrongly feel they will face retaliation if they speak out. This is a far cry from the way things were under Gene Hartzell, Marty Bechtel or Jerry Seyfried.
In addition to the adversarial relation between employer and employee, there is also a very unfortunate partisan edge to many things. It was pretty clear in a news release from the county about the "
postponed" centenarian luncheon. McClure made that matter worse when he referred to Senate Republicans who refuse to pass a state budget as "deadbeats." But more alarming, at least to me, was what has happened to State Rep. Ann Flood's Senior fests. They usually attract about 300 people from her district. She has asked the county to send someone from the Area Agency on Aging on each occasion, but her correspondence has gone unanswered. The county does respond to other state agencies. She believes she is ignored because she criticized McClure's handling of an election a few years ago, when the voting machines were improperly tested. If that's true, the only persons being hurt are the seniors in her district.
Giovanni told me he would be neither adversarial nor partisan in his dealings with others. Contrary to one of the rumors being propagated by readers of this blog, he has no intention of asking former Exec John Brown to serve in his administration. He is more interested in governing than in politics and told me his only interest is county government. He has no intention of going anywhere else.
On Business Matters, Giovanni stumbled when explaining why he's running for executive. But when I heard his story, I know why he's running, and it's for all the right reasons.
He's a product of Bangor, as many of you know. Many of you know that he's a product of Pius X High School, Lincoln Tech and Northampton Community College, after which he launched a successful career in IT with 15 employees. Most of you probably don't know that, although he had no obligation to do so, he provided medical benefits for his staff. Only few of you know what made him as interested in human services as he actually is.
Tom's father served in the Korean War. When he returned, he "wasn't right. I don't know what he saw, but he wasn't there. He ended up in Allentown State Hospital." His Dad would later be sent to Norristown State Hospital.
This left his mother, on her own, to raise two boys with a house and a mortgage. She struggled. She worked at three different blouse mills to keep the bills paid and food on the table, but it wasn't enough. One day, "I remember it like yesterday," the "town fathers (and bank) met with his mom in the living room to say they would take over the house and build a parking lot. The family would move from a home to a small apartment next to a news stand. "I was five years old, and my brother was two, and I vowed in my mind I will never let this happen to me."
Tom grew up poor, had a father whose combat experience mentally crippled him, and knows first-hand what it's like to have nothing.
Given his life experience and his Italian heritage, I asked him why he's a Republican and not a Democrat. "I was a Democrat," he answered. He told me Sundays included trips to his uncle's house, where portraits of FDR and JFK adorned the walls. There were so many that he wondered whether they were relations. "No, no, no, they're Kennedy and FDR and the Democrats. So I grew up like that."
Tom eventually changed parties at the request of (now Judge) Craig Dally, who was then running for State Rep.
(I remember tormenting Dally myself once over switching parties when he ran for State Rep., and he responded, "I didn't leave the Democratic party. It left me."
I told Craig he'd lose the election. He won.
That was the first in a long line of unsuccessful election predictions I've made over the years.)
Giovanni also told me that governing requires compromise. "Nobody wants to compromise," he said, noting Council's complete inability to appoint a person to take over Tara's job on County Council after her election.
In conclusion, Giovanni brings a nonpartisan and non-adversarial approach to government that includes compromise and a team approach. He'd listen instead of pontificating. He has a deep understanding of the immense importance of human services, which the county is state-mandated to provide. This is regardless of whether it is technically a core county function.
Tara is a more polished and experienced campaigner who can probably raise more money than Giovanni. She'll probably win. But a Democrat or Independent might want to consider voting for him. Zrinski has been a very good controller and has matured from her experience as a member of county council. I would not be unhappy to see her elected. But she might be more driven by state and federal issues, as her record attests. Giovanni is focused solely on county government.
