In early July, Northampton County Council voted 6-3 to establish a Gracedale Oversight Committee proposed by Holland. Earlier that evening, Executive Tara Zrinski condemned the idea. Council President Ken Kraft first tried to table the matter, and when that failed, he voted against it. So did Council members Kelly Keegan and Nadeem Qayyum. (Qayyum had argued in support of the Oversight Committee, so I think his No vote was a mistake.) Though he ultimately voted to establish the committee, Council member Jeff Warren said he had "serious" reservations about the word "oversight."
Each of County Council's standing committees exist for that express purpose - oversight.
After this vote, Kraft chose to ignore the expressed will of a Council majority and dragged his feet at establishing any oversight committee. July and August breezed by with nothing. It looked like that would happen in September, too, until District Attorney Steve Baratta released the findings of an Investigative Grand Jury highly critical of Gracedale's administration.
Now the committee has been established and Kraft named Keegan the Chair even though she voted against it. He also put himself on the committee, although he voted against it, too.
The Chair should have been Holland, who not only proposed the idea of a Gracedale Oversight Committee, but was also himself an administrator there and elsewhere.
Near the end of last week's meeting of Northampton County Council (September 17), Holland suggested that it's time for the governing body to decide how committee members are appointed. Holland pointed out that though the Home Rule Charter provides that the Council President (currently Ken Kraft) has the authority to preside at meetings, nothing in either the Charter or its rules and regulations governing the conduct of meetings invests Council President with the authority to members to Council's various standing committees. That has been a matter of tradition rather than law. He believes the President should nominate the committee members and Chairs, but the vote to confirm should be made by Council's nine-member body.
This matter has been referred to Council's Governance committee, which is next scheduled to meet in October.
If Council does decide to take control of committee appointments, it should do so by ordinance so that it binds future county councils.
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