Bill Leiner Wants to Go to Washington

Bill Leiner

I think it's safe to say that Congressman Charlie Dent will have a primary opponent should he choose to seek re-election next year. But I know a Democrat is waiting in the wings. It's Bill Leiner, a former Lehigh County Commissioner and Coplay Mayor, who is back on Coplay Borough Council again.

A psychiatric nurse, Leiner suddenly left the area and resigned his Lehigh County Commissioner seat in 2010. A year later, he was back. Here's what he's telling people.

1. The website and social media sites are expected to be up during the next two to three weeks.
2. We have a strategist joining us from Washington DC.
3. We have an adviser on board from DC to assist with planning.
4. Responses to recent emails explaining our issues yielded positive responses.
5. I talked to numerous voters during this past week explaining my thoughts and platform. I received very positive responses.

Our next step includes you as we work to build our campaign infrastructure. We are seeking people to join our team in a variety of capacities.If you want to join us please email or call me.

He should talk to John Callahan about the idiocy of using a "strategist" from inside the beltway. Ask him how that worked out. He should talk to Callahan and Sam Bennett both about the insanity of taking on Charlie Dent.  He is the most formidable campaigner I've ever seen and has the Rasputin of political consultants with Shawn Millan by his side. The only hope Leiner has is that Dent decides to take on Bob Casey.  And even with Dent running for something else

As a psychiatric nurse, Bill should commit himself.  

Leiner Goes on the Attack

Bill Leiner is running against Tom Creighton for Lehigh County Comm'r in Disttrict #1, which includes Coplay, Whitehall, North Whitehall, Slatington, Washington, Lynn, Weisenberg, Lowhill and Heidelberg townships. Leiner is Coplay's former Mayor and was a Commissioner himself. He resigned suddenly to move to Texas, but then returned to the Lehigh Valley.

A Democrat, he should win easily in Coplay,Whitehall and Slatington. I think the numbers are against him in other, heavily Republican Townships.

But do voters, even Republicans, want to elect a Commissioner who breaks his word, time and again? That's the question Leiner poses in a mass email to supporters. He wants each supporter to persuade two others to vote for him, an election strategy that goes all the way back to Abe Lincoln.

Please give them my email address billleiner@aol.com or my phone 610 751-2745 if they want to speak with me. I would love to speak to them.

My opponent, a Tea Party Republican, promised during his first term to balance the Lehigh County budget, not raise taxes, not use the County Stabilization Fund to balance the County budget, and not take a pay raise he was awarded in 2010.

His promise results - he voted to raise taxes twice, voted to use Stabilization Funds to balance the County budget, had no plan to balance the budget and after two years of not taking the $1,500. raise in January 2012 he secretly contacted the Board of Commissioners Chair and asked for the raise. It was granted.

His 2013 campaign slogan should be "Promises made; Promises broken." We need honest, open, reasoned government in Lehigh County. The Tea Party extremists in Washington are paralyzing our country. The Tea Party extremists in Lehigh County government are damaging the business environment and public safety in Lehigh County.

I need your help. Join and follow through with the "Two for Leiner Club." Get me two additional votes.

Dougherty, Creighton Break Pledge to Taxpayer For $1,500

In 2006, Lehigh County Commissioners gave themselves a payraise. Their salaries increased from $5,500 per year to $7,000 per year, starting in 2008 and 2010. Dean Browning refused it. When he became Chair, he also turned down the extra $500 that goes along with that gig, too.  He remained true to his word during his term as Commissioner. Percy Dougherty and Tom Creighton, both seeking re-election, broke their word.

During their 2009 campaign for district seats, both Dougherty and Creighton pledged, in a "Contract With County Taxpayer," that they would forego that $1,500 increase if elected. They kept their word, but only for two years. Starting in 2012, they took the dough. They broke their word behind closed doors, too, via memo exchanges with then Chair Brad Osborne.

Dougherty now denies he took the pledge, but I was at the news conference in which he announced it. For a measly $1,500, both Dougherty and Creighton broke their contract with the County taxpayer.

Dougherty is opposed this November by Attorney Susan Wild. Creighton is opposed by Bill Leiner, a nurse and former Commissioner.

Resigned LC Comm'r Wants Job Back

Last time Bill Leiner sat on Lehigh County's Board of Commissioners, he quit. He stepped down in early 2010 for a job 1800 miles away, in Texas. For whatever reason, he's back and running for the Board of Commissioners again.

Bill would certainly offset some of the strange - cut off my nose to spite my face - conservative politics on display, where Comm'rs seriously considered rejecting grant money for road improvements.

"There is much work to be done," he claims in a mass email. But it's easier to get that work done when the people who are elected actually stay and do the jobs they were elected to do.

Bill Leiner to Step Down as Lehigh County Comm'r

The following is an excerpt from an email that Bill Leiner sent to fellow Commissioners today.

"This AM I sent an email to Mr. David Barilla which will be followed by an official letter announcing my resignation from the Board effective 1/11/10. As you all are aware, I have been on a temporary work assignment in Texas since November. The work was to wrap up in mid January.

"However, I have been approached by the hospital here, and my contract employer to stay on as a permanent manager. After much reflection and contemplation with my wife and family, I have decided to accept the permanent position.

"I will be home this Friday and expect to retrieve my personal effects from my commissioner office over this weekend.

"I want to express to all of you that I thoroughly enjoyed working with each and every one of you. To me, you are all dedicated, accomplished people who I had the distinct privilege to work with. I will be forever grateful for this experience.

"This was a difficult decision for me as I get a little nervous whenever I leave the Borough of Coplay. My new residence will be about 1800 miles away.

"I wish you all well this year as you discharge your important duties.

May God bless you all."

Under Lehigh County's Home Rule Charter, Leiner must be replaced by a fellow Democrat.

LC Comm'r Leiner Prefers Feral Cats to NorCo Council

Some of you think I exaggerate in my posts about Northampton County Council. After seeing them up close and personal, this is Lehigh County Commissioner Bill Leiner's assessment.

"Bernie, All the feral cats in Coplay have been spayed and/or neutered. The Coplay Town Watch Feral Cat Committee, under the distinguished leadership of chair Dennis Gery, have spayed/neutered 73 ferals in Coplay. The Coplay ferals are now well behaved. I wish I could say the same for NorCo Council. The Coplay Ferals are better behaved. Bill"

Bill's funeral arrangements will be announced tomorrow.

Eckhart & D'Amore to Duel at Coplay Coke Wagon

Get this. This Friday through Sunday, the Coplay Town Watch is actually sponsoring a coke wagon at Sam's Club in Whitehall. You read me right - Coplay is selling coke. The Coplay Town Watch is the parent organization of Coplay's Neighborhood Watch and an assortment of committees for feral cats, "Properties of Merit," Childrens' Bike Derby, Sunday Watch Walk and National Night Out.

Lehigh County Commissioner Bill Leiner is even looking for volunteers willing to commit two hours of their time. "We have sponsored the 'Wagon' for about 10 years. It truly is a fun weekend." I'll bet. I wonder if volunteers get any free coke.

Open times are as follows:

Friday, 6/20 - 2 pm to 4 pm, and 4 pm to 6 pm.
Saturday, 6/21 - 4 pm to 6 pm
Sunday, 6/22 - Noon to 2 pm

If you can assist, please email Bill at Billleiner@aol.com. If you can't volunteer, Bill still asks that you "consider stopping by and partying with some of the great folks helping to make Coplay a ... safer, better and cleaner community."

The highlight of Coplay's coke wagon will be a Sunday duel between Lehigh County Commissioner Glenn Eckhart and Allentown City Council prez Mike D'Amore. They'll be using standard revolvers issued to Lehigh County Deputy Sheriffs, so it's considered unlikely their weapons will actually fire. Echart's second, Commissioner Dean Browning, predicts, "I think they'll just pistol whip the shit out of each other." Originally set for Friday, the contest had to be rescheduled because Eckhart refuses to drive through Allentown.

Lehigh County Comm'r Bill Leiner is Going to the Dogs

Lehigh County Commissioner Bill Leiner is upset. Here's why. "The State of Pennsylvania holds a disgraceful circumstance that must end. It will only end with your support. We are one of the states with the largest number of 'puppy mills'. These are disgraceful business enterprises where dogs - mostly female - are grossly, inhumanely treated for profit. The principle purpose is to crank out as many puppies as possible for sale to Pet Stores. These female dogs are made to have successive litters without regard to their health. They are not allowed out of cages, not walked, receive no veterinary care, and are forced to live in the midst of their own waste. It is unspeakable cruelty."

PaCashCrop backs up Bill completely. Some of the practices mentioned, from denying food and water to puppies too old for sale, to killing mothers who can no longer bear litters, make Michael Vick look humane. Some of the mothers are "de-barked" with steel pipes, their back teeth cracked, their jaws broken. Other dogs have scars from undergoing more than a dozen Cesarean sections, all performed without anesthesia by commercial dog breeders, who are generally farmers unqualified to perform such surgeries.

Dead bodies are used as fertilizer. So is dog feces, even though it often contains parasitic worms and dangerous bacteria.

Mmm' mmm' good. At least it's organic.

When you promenade at the mall's pet stores after eating some nice corn on the cob, fertilized by dead dogs and their shit, you get to see those cute little puppies. There's a 99% chance that those pups come from one of those puppy mills.

Bill points to five bills currently pending in Harrisburg that will end all this inhumanity and make the world right as rain. Maybe one of them will even pass in the next thousand years or so. I have links to them at the end of this post. If you actually look at who is sponsoring these bills, they appear to enjoy bipartisan support from our local delegation. It's hard to believe anyone could oppose this.

But legislation is only part of the answer. This problem will persist unless we stop creating a demand. The best way to do that is to use local shelters and rescue organizations.

Pending Legislation:

HB 2525, amending The Dog Law, BEYER, DALLY, FREEMAN, GRUCELA, MANN, MANTZ, SAMUELSON, BRENNAN, REICHLEY - referred to Agriculture and Rural Affairs, 5/13/08.

HB 499, criminal penalties for animal cruelty, FREEMAN, REICHLEY, MANN, BRENNAN, DALLY, GRUCELA, BEYER - Referred to JUDICIARY, Feb. 26, 2007.

HB 2532, criminal animal cruelty, BEYER, BRENNAN, GRUCELA, SAMUELSON, DALLY, MANN - Referred to JUDICIARY, May 14, 2008.

HB 1065, defining criminal animal cruelty, BRENNAN, REICHLEY, FREEMAN, GRUCELA, HARHART, BEYER - Re-committed to APPROPRIATIONS, Oct. 15, 2007.

HB 1926, defining criminal animal cruelty, BEYER, BRENNAN, DALLY, FREEMAN, GRUCELA, MANN, REICHLEY - Re-referred to JUDICIARY, Jan. 14, 2008.

Coplay's Dems Endorse Clinton-Obama or Obama-Clinton!

Some of you may be influenced by the endorsements of print media. Others may be persuaded by political leaders. As for me, I like the way Coplay Dems think. This is from their executive board.

The 2008 Presidential election is the most important Presidential election since the 1930's when Democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected to clean up the mess created by Republican administrations.

We believe our nation can not afford another four years of Republican rule. We have another Republican mess to clean up.

We have two excellent Democratic candidates in Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. The race appears headed to roughly a tie.

We, like many of you, have received numerous phone calls from both camps asking who we are supporting this Tuesday.

We suggest when you get these calls asking you who you support, consider saying the following, "I am supporting the Obama - Clinton ticket, or the Clinton - Obama ticket". The caller will then say to you, "Oh, you are undecided." Consider answering the caller this way, "No, I have decided and I want to see both of them on the ticket, and I don't care if they don't get along. They won't be living in the same house in Washington. But, together they will win. If we win we can have positive change for our country."

Please take the time to vote this Tuesday. After the primary and throughout the Summer, talk to your neighbors, and friends. Get them energized to vote in November for a Clinton - Obama ticket or Obama - Clinton ticket.

The Republican dirty tricks machine will be in full force this year. They will, like in 2000, do anything to win up to and including stealing the election. We must fully understand this is about winning the White House to improve our country.

We believe a Clinton - Obama ticket, or Obama - Clinton ticket will win. If you agree, send this email to all of your Democratic friends and Democratic groups. The stakes are too high. Join us to start the movement to unify our party with a ticket consisting of two great Americans - Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

Thank you for reading this and have a great weekend.

And, do not forget the Coplay Democratic Club "Spaghetti Dinner" Friday, 4/25/08 from 4-7 PM at the American Club of Coplay pavilion, 300 Cherry Street, Coplay. For tickets, $10. send me an email [Billleiner@aol.com] or call 610 751-2745.

The Executive Board of the Coplay Democratic Club ....

Nate Kromer, Secretary
Belinda White, Treasurer
Rachel Luckenbill, Vice President
Bill Leiner Jr., President

Dean Browning: The Cost of Community Policing

Yesterday, I presented Bill Leiner's argument for community policing, and they certainly persuaded me. Having said that, Dean Browning raises legitimate budgetary concerns that should be examined and addressed.

If you click on the above picture, you will see Dean's own detailed analysis of budget trends over the past two years, which worries him insofar as it relates to Don Cunningham's $4 million anti-crime package. Here's his findings.

1. Lehigh County's operating costs (paid for by real estate tax dollars) exceed supporting tax revenue. This has been the practice for several years and is actually nothing unique to Don Cunningham.

2. This defecit has typically been bridged by using a carryover of a favorable operating fund balance from the previous year end. This has been the practice since at least the 2004 budget.

3. The amount needed to bridge this budget gap has averaged $6.6 million over the past 2 years.

4. The favorable fund balance at the beginning of this year was $6.3 million.

5. Cunningham's anti-crime package would use a substantial portion ($2.9 million) of this balance. This means less money will be available when commissioners consider the 2009 budget.

6. The 2009 budget could be particularly tight given the state of the economy and what commissioners are hearing from Harrisburg. Browning has legitimate concerns about funding for Cedarbrook, changes in state programs, pension costs as well as the coast of other post employment benefits.

As Dean explains in an email, "the intent was not to derail the bill being considered. And it was not to imply that the Administration doesn't have a firm grasp on the numbers and the County's finances - it most assuredly does. But, as Don pointed out on Wednesday, we control the purse strings. As such, I wanted to try and give each of us some perspective before we committed the county to spending $2.9 million of a potential reserve while increasing the County's ongoing annual operating costs by $650,000 (or $1.2 million if Northampton doesn't join us)."

"Part of my concern with the package is that, in my opinion, it should be considered as part of the overall 2009 budget. There may be valid reasons why that was not possible so my intent with putting together my one page analysis was to try to give the other Commissioners (and the public) some context in which to consider the proposal."

Browning's main concern is the funding source for this initiative. he appears to prefer using the tax relief fund instead of general revenue. I believe, like Commissioner Leiner, that all nine Commissioners can still work this out and get some cops out on the street.

Blogger's Note: This is written primarily for Republicans. Dean lost me somewhere between his first and second point.
Update: The Morning Call today endorsed Cunningham's Safe Streets' proposal. "While it is true that police departments are not part of county government's traditional responsibilities, citizens have a right to expect elected officials to be innovative when it is for a good reason."

Lehigh County Comm'r Bill Leiner Argues for Community Policing

Lehigh County Commissioner Bill Leiner posted his own take on last week's decision by Lehigh County's Republican commissioners to refuse to fund, at least for now, Don Cunningham's community policing program. I thought I'd share his comments.

It is remarkable that this rolled off as a party line vote. Republicans against; Democrats in favor. The funds are there, the need is clearly there, the Chiefs who know the value of community policing were there, the DA strongly agrees ..... the arguments against the proposal - no money, budgetary future fears, not happy with the Bill's procedures, "I see plenty of cops when I drive through Bethlehem", "pork prices are down", we need more information, this is not a core county responsibility - are unthreaded and thin at best. If you had to take the Republican arguments as your debate positions in a school debate, the event would be over in about 15 minutes. I believe at the end of the day we nine thoughtful individuals will get the information we need to satisfy all 9 and then coalesce and take this bold step forward to fund the Safe Streets Initiative. Someone once said (and, Bernie it was not my friend Sterling) that passing legislation is a lot like making sausage. It is messy. The challenge is to preserve decorum, collegiality as we all drift to the correct decision of funding the initiative.

Tomorrow, I'll share Dean Browning's budgetary concerns.