Billy Givens Honored By Northampton County Council

For the third time, the widow of a former county worker was at last night's Northampton County Council meeting. She thinks she got a raw deal on her medical benefits and her husband's pension. On two previous occasions, then President Ann McHale encouraged her rants well beyond the ordinary five minutes, even though Council is powerless to help her. This widow broke down in tears on her first trip to the podium. During her second speech, she screamed at County Exec John Stoffa, who sat quietly.

That must have been music to Ann McHale's ears.

Before last night's meeting, the widow complained about where I was sitting because it obstructed her view. I'll have to start carrying a "Wide Load" sign. But she perked up when she saw McHale. "She's a nice lady. She really hates John Stoffa."

Last night, the widow had pictures.

Sometimes, courtesy of the floor can get goofy, although these are real people who are entitled to be heard. es.

At last night's meeting, former "Courtesy of the Floor" regular was honored posthumously for his years of dedication to Northampton County. Orator. Essayist. Pioneer blogger. Gadfly. Bon vivant.

Billy Givens.

Billy's beautiful wife, Kathy Parker, accompanied by her lovely daughters, accepted both the award and a kiss from Council President Ron Angle. Billy's cartoonist, Nancy Marshall, was also on hand, along with about five family friends.

Angle told Kathy that most people will grumble about government, but sit glued to their television at night. "People like Billy Givens are far and few between." Angle referred to Billy as one of his personal heroes and "one of the most marvelous orators" he ever heard. He "fought for what he believed in."

In heaven right now, Billy is probably giving Wayne Grube the bird.

Express Times Salutes BillyBytes

The big news nationally is the death of Congressman John Murtha. Closer to home, I've been saddened by the death of a fellow blogger, gadfly and a friend - Billy Givens. My Lehigh County and Allentown readers know very little about this remarkable man, but those of you who work in downtown Easton or at the Northampton County Courthouse will remember Billy, his newsletters and that damn bullhorn.

One of his frequent targets was The Express Times, which he always referred to like this - "The Excess-Times (bows and scrapes to excess before officialdom at all times)." Yet today, that noble paper has bowed to this colorful Alabaman.

I'll tell you one more Billy story. He used to bring John Todaro, who is blind as a bat, to County Council meetings. He'd have to hold this guy's hand to keep him from walking into walls or tripping over something, and he sometimes blew it.

One night, after a particularly contentious council meeting, as Billy was walking John from the Courthouse to the parking lot, he spotted a Council member who was trying to get the hell out of Dodge. He started moving faster and faster, but so did the Councilman. Eventually, they were both in a sprint, with blind John trying to run alongside Billy. He ran smack dab into a light pole.

Bong!

Todaro was knocked loony, the pole was dented, and Ron Angle was laughing so hard I thought we'd have to take him to the hospital.

Billy could be rude and obnoxious. But as Reverend Mike Dowd told "The Excess Times," "I think the people who started the revolution weren't always polite."

Cartoon Credit: Artist Nancy Marshall always did Billy's cartoons. This one feature's Ron Angle's 2000 prediction of a massive tax increase.

Update: The Morning Call's Bill White, who has a few funny Billy stories of his own, pays a touching tribute today. "Heck, I admired him myself. Not for some of the things he did or said, but for caring so much and for being brave enough to express it."

Billy Givens Remembered

The best way to remember Billy Givens is through his writing, which makes the rest of us look pretty tame.

Northampton County's controversial $111 million megabond:

"On December 18, 2001, in his last act as president of Northampton County Council, Wayne Grube and his fellow rat pack gnawed a hole in the wall connecting council chambers and Community and Economic Development Chief Vincent Dominach’s conference room. Through this hole, the rat pack rolled Michael Solomon’s $111 million wheel of cheese, reeking of Limburger, from council chambers into the conference room. Solomon fancied limburger because it comes from Belgium, home of the company that insures his $111 million wheel of cheese, at a premium cost to Northampton County taxpayers of an unauthorized $880,000. This room is the nest of the Northampton County General Purpose Authority (GPA). There, on December 19, the GPA rats, led by County Executive Glenn Reibman, gnawed and pawed at Solomon’s wheel of cheese. They broke it into pieces of varying size, suitable for distribution to their fellow scavengers in corporate Northampton County; e.g., bankrupt Bethlehem Steel’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chairman, Robert S. “Steve” Miller. The GPA gave Miller a $13.1 million piece of Solomon’s Limburger wheel. In its rush to adjourn, the council rats failed to authorize the $880,000 insurance expense, taxpayer money the GPA rats have spent in rank violation of Pennsylvania’s Municipality Authorities Act of 1941 as amended."

Michael Solomon's Ghost and Northampton County's shadow governments:

"Northampton County Councilman Nick Sabatine says he may challenge State Senator Lisa Boscola in this year's general election. Boscola is the best-known member of the airport authority's board of governors, as is Jeff Skinner, a former chairman of the Lehigh County Commission and, more recently, a number-cruncher for confessed-felon Michael Solomon's wounded, $111-million, 30-year mega-bond.

"A specter haunts the parapets of Northampton County Prison's cold stone walls. It is Michael Solomon's ghost whose plaintive shrieks, sharp as the ribbon-wire atop the prison's perimeter, slice the February night's pre-dawn cold. They cross Easton's Union Street, to the vacant field beyond, as rampant with weeds as the "shadow governments" that spring from Reibman's Medusa-like head. As Solomon's ghost recedes, it is replaced by the apparition of his $80-million prison. At the pace his state and federal investigations and sentencing proceeds, he could well wind up being the prison's first inmate.

"Before building the prison, however, Sabatine and his council cohorts should remodel Reibman's various "shadow governments," beginning with Doughty (pronounced doubty), and his airport authority. Council could then proceed to the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corporation (LVEDC), followed closely by radical surgery on the General Purpose Authority, or GPA."

Easton's Dutchtown-Gallows Hill:

"The Morning Call Girl, prostitute to Easton's politicians, has emerged from those little blue and white whorehouses on the city's street corners, as it does each morning, making its customary rounds, hawking its wares. Today, this lady of the morning perpetuates the party line, promoted by Easton Mayor Phil Mitman, that the Dutchtown-Gallows Hill neighborhood has been relocated from Easton's Downtown Historic District (added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982) to the West Ward.

"Mitman - abetted by Northampton County's Executive Glenn Reibman; Council President J. Michael Dowd, whose district includes the Government Center with the apocalyptic address, 666 Walnut Street; President Judge Robert Freedberg; District Attorney John Morganelli; St. Bernard's Parish; and the Allentown Catholic Diocese - stole the African/Latino-American Dutchtown-Gallows Hill neighborhood from the Downtown Historic District.

"The neighborhood wound up in the possession of West Ward, into whose hot hands it was delivered by that Easton fence known as Weed and Seed. The weeding of Dutchtown-Gallows Hill started with Urban Renewal in the 1960's and 70's when an entire block was demolished to make way for a parking lot for County government offices. The weeding continued with demolition of the Convent of the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, now proposed as the site of the County's new Domestic Relations building. The weeding has progressed to the place where Northampton County and its seat Easton would rip the whole of Dutchtown-Gallows Hill from its roots in the National Historic District. Obviously, no seeding is planned."

Hard On (Son Robin's favorite)

"Each Saturday morning between 10 and 11, protesters against President George W. Bush's preemptive invasion of Iraq gather at Downtown Easton Pennsylvania's historic Centre Square.

"There they huddle beneath the annual Yuletide season Peace Candle. Recently resurrected by workers from its flaccid state of repose at the city's Bushkill Drive storage yard for its yearly erection, the edifice that failed to make it into the Guinness Book of Records as the world's largest candle - disqualified because it's constructed of plywood and papier-mâché, not wax - rises above Centre Square, more a phallic symbol of American male hubris and Pax Americana than it is the totem to a threatened world peace.

"Huddled with the protesters last Saturday was www.billybytes.com website and newsletter writer Billy Givens, a veteran of the Korean Conflict and one who is proud that the Soldiers' and Sailors' monument includes a bas relief of the Civil War battle in the bay of Mobile, Alabama, where 71 years ago Givens was born into and grew up under the shadow of a Jim Crow apartheid."

Unfortunately, Billy often had his facts wrong, but his imagery is pure art, better than anything in our newspapers or blogs.

I'll miss this Southern rebel.

Update: The "Excess Times" has its own touching tribute to Billy, who once claimed the Lehigh Valley is "really just something they made up, a Madison Avenue jingle."

LV Blogging Pioneer, Billy Givens, Passes Away

On Thursday night, following a Northampton County Council meeting, a small group of us met at Palmer Township's Tic Toc Diner. Exec John Stoffa likes their vanilla milkshake, while Ron Angle eats salad and drinks unsweetened iced tea. I love the split pea soup, with lots of hot sauce. There's always around four or five of us, with some faces changing. One of the regulars, until he became ill, was ornery Billy Givens, scourge of local governments everywhere.

While we were there, Ron and Rev. Mike Dowd began sharing "Billy stories" about this lanky, bearded Alabama transplant. One night, after Billy called Dowd a corrupt slave to big business interests, he meekly asked him for a ride home. Dowd was happy to oblige.

Billy died last night, surrounded by his lovely wife and daughters, who were always his pride and joy.

Having a mutual interest in good government, Billy and I were friends. Long before the Internet or blogs became popular, he was distributing a newsletter on the "stage of Easton." He would also give unannounced speeches, sometimes in Easton's Circle and even outside the Courthouse. He was thrilled when his daughter gave him a bullhorn for his birthday.

He started a blog before any of us, called BillyBytes. With his characteristic penchant for understatement, this is how he announced it: "With relish, Billy Bytes takes chunks out of those who hold themselves up as models of probity but are venal, be they officials such as mayors and school board members, political parties, or the mainstream media."

The Express Times was dubbed The Excess Times, and The Morning Call was The Morning Call Girl, both regularly trashed as mouthpieces and whores for the Established Order.

He'd get upset with me, too. Two years ago, after I deleted a few of his off-topic rants, he sent me an email entitled "Bernie O'Hare, Please Stay Off Your Bicycle, Even If Your Ass Is As Wide As You Are Tall." He then unloaded on me and, just for the hell of it, included Easton's college hill elite.

"I know you're running away from me, but you're not going to be able to hide forever. Up here in Easton's silk-stocking neighborhood of College Hill, where I live with my blue-blooded, Brahmin neighbors like Phil Mitman, Danny Cohen, and Sandy Woodring, they have their noses stuck so far up the ass of Lafayette College that if it made an abrupt left or right turn without signaling it would break their noses.

I'm from Alabama, the home of former heavyweight boxing champion of the world, who used to say of his opponents in the ring: "You can get on your bicycle and run, but you can't hide."

Back in August, Billy received a warm reception when he visited Northampton County Council for the first time in many months. He posed for a picture with me, and we both give the bloggers' salute.

Now he's gone.

Did he make a difference? Ask Glenn Reibman, Jim Hickey, Ron Angle, John Stoffa or Sal Panto. Ask the reporters and editors he regularly abused. He made them all just a little better.

I just hope Billy takes it easy on God.

Billy Givens Watches Riverwalk Sink

Easton's controversial Riverwalk project has finally taken a hike, but not before $1.2 million in public funding has been flushed down the toilet and into the Delaware. Originally conceived as seven stories of condominiums, a bus terminal, retail shops and a parking deck, it remains a parking lot located in a flood zone.

Last night, Northampton County Council introduced an ordinance to reacquire that sinkhole-infested parking lot for the $595 thousand it received when former County Exec Glenn Reibman decided to sell it. It made no difference to him that the parking lot was being used by county workers at the adjacent Governor Wolf building.

Amazingly, this parking lot was also in a KOZ, and that was enough to draw the Lehigh Valley's original blogger, Billy Givens, out of retirement. He wanted to see for himself what was happening.

Before Billy discovered the Internet, he regularly regaled passers by in the Easton circle with a bullhorn his daughter gave him as a birthday gift. He littered offices everywhere with daily editions of his Billy Bytes newsletter, using a mimeograph machine from some office downtown. He hated our local newspapers, which he called The Excess Times and Morning Call Girl. They were mouthpieces and whores for local business bigwigs. Naturally, he was rewarded by being named a Bill White Hall of Famer. But he was brash. I once had to pull him out of the street during an antiwar demonstration when he got into a name-calling contest with a motorcycle gang member. Mayor Sal Panto had to persuade a police captain from locking him up. He's spent years taking "chunks out of those who hold themselves up as models of probity." That includes me.

Two years ago, after I deleted a few of his off-topic rants, he sent me an email entitled "Bernie O'Hare, Please Stay Off Your Bicycle, Even If Your Ass Is As Wide As You Are Tall." He then unloaded on me and, just for the hell of it, included Easton's college hill elite.

I know you're running away from me, but you're not going to be able to hide forever.

Up here in Easton's silk-stocking neighborhood of College Hill, where I live with my blue-blooded, Brahmin neighbors like Phil Mitman, Danny Cohen, and Sandy Woodring, they have their noses stuck so far up the ass of Lafayette College that if it made an abrupt left or right turn without signaling it would break their noses.

I'm from Alabama, the home of former heavyweight boxing champion of the world, who used to say of his opponents in the ring: "You can get on your bicycle and run, but you can't hide."

Get the idea? Billy received a warm reception from Northampton County Council last night, which more than once had a deputy sheriff escort him from the podium. .

During an executive session, he posed for this picture with moi, and as you can see, we both know the bloggers' salute.

Two miserable bastards.

Joe Owens: Good Editor, Lousy Gadfly

Ordinarily, Joseph P. Owens is the hotshot editor in chief of The Express Times, where he routinely converts my very intelligent letters to the editor into paper airplanes.

But guess what?

When Owens returns home from a hard day at work and notices no street lights in his neighborhood, he turns into an amateur gad fly. This summer, he attempted to grill Upper Nazareth Township supervisors, but they left him in the dark. Having no gadfly training, Joe blew it. He forgot a bullhorn and interrupted no one, even though he knows those cat calls really throw elected officials off. He never even tried to get himself forcibly ejected. He circulated no petitions, and failed to form a grass roots group like UNSAFE (Upper Nazareth streetlights are for everyone). He never bothered to wail that supervisors are conducting secret meetings with Nazareth Borough Council or something.

Billy Givens, of course, is the holy terror of local government. He's been thrown out of more public meetings than most of you will ever attend. Even when he sits meekly, you know he's just waiting for the right moment to erupt. Before the Iraq war, during a candlelight vigil, this snarling septuagenarian stepped out into the middle of traffic in downtown Easton with his bullhorn, ready to roll around in the gutter with some musclebound guy who looked very much like a professional wrestler. I was able to talk the guy out of taking a swing, but it cost me. I had to date him. On the bright side, I now get my wrestling tickets free.

Sadly, Joe Owens never really took the time to study Billy's guerrilla politics. So as a gadfly, Joe stinks. To make matters worse, he had to publish a letter to the editor from UNaz Super Joe Emrick, chiding him for his sorry performance.

But Joe is not taking this lying down. No sirree.

Last week, when I told you about Upper Nazareth's first ever web site, he tried to pop on this blog with some pithy shot. But because he's such a lousy gadfly, he couldn't even remember the password.

Here's what he tried to say.

Bernie,
Now that this Web project is over, do you think the citizens in my darkened neighborhood may now get repairs done in the streetlights that have been out for nearly two years?
Nah ... didn't think so.
JPO

Joe, I'm sending Billy to see you, and he won't take No for an answer. Prepare to be enlightened!

BillyBytes Bites LVRamblings

Anyone who reads this blog regularly has stumbled, from time to time, into a BillyByte. Alabama transplant Billy Givens, a one-man wrecking crew, has murdered many a comment thread with his off topic tirades.

In a recent post about Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski, Billy huffed and puffed with five lengthy comments on topics extending from State Theatre Executive Director Shelley Brown to the evils of casino gambling. But it doesn't stop there. He also sends emails, sometimes five a day, with copies to nearly one hundred people.

I deleted a few of his comments yesterday and sent him a snotty email. This morning, Billy fired back in an epistle entitled, "Bernie O'Hare, Please Stay Off Your Bicycle, Even If Your Ass Is As Wide As You Are Tall." Then he unloaded on me and, for no particular reason, Easton's college hill elite.

I know you're running away from me, but you're not going to be able to hide forever.

Up here in Easton's silk-stocking neighborhood of College Hill, where I live with my blue-blooded, Brahmin neighbors like Phil Mitman, Danny Cohen, and Sandy Woodring, they have their noses stuck so far up the ass of Lafayette College that if it made an abrupt left or right turn without signaling it would break their noses.

I'm from Alabama, the home of fomer heavyweight boxing champion of the world, who used to say of his opponents in the ring: "You can get on your bicycle and run, but you can't hide."

Like Joe Lewis, Billy is a brown bomber, but those aren't punches he's slinging.

Easton Mayor: Phil Mitman's Out and BillyBytes is In!

You may have heard that Easton Mayor Phil Mitman has thankfully decided against another mayoral term. No surprise there.

But here's the shocker. The Lehigh Valley's original blogger, Billy Givens, today announced his mayoral aspirations. And he did so in a series of comments posted on my blog!

Billy, a Bill White Hall of Famer, has spent years taking "chunks out of those who hold themselves up as models of probity." His caustic essays have singed pols over the years, but he's better known for taking bolt cutters to free city streets and things like that. He was seriously ill last year, and I'm so happy he's back in the fray. Here's his announcement.

I consider it appropriate, and a privilege, to announce on your blog, and under the posting, "Lehigh Valley Rail Summit: Grassroots or Astroturf," my candidacy as the Republican Party nominee in this year's mayoral contest to succeed Easton Mayor Philip A. Mitman.

Indeed, I credit the publication of my comment on your rail transit blog, criticizing his arrogation of powers exercised legitimately only by Pennsylvania's Department of Transportation and the Commonwealth's Governor and legislature as one of the major issues leading to Mayor Mitman's not to seek re-election.

That and issues such as his catering to Easton's elitist young professionals, or yuppies and developers of luxury condominiums that are glutting Easton's real-estate market, at the expense of the city's older tax- and fee-strapped citizens who increasingly are being forced from their homes.

Easton, Pennsylvania, Mayor Philip A. Mitman has repeated his wise decision of 1983 when he decided not to seek re-election to his one term as the city's chief executive.

As his second term draws to a close, the finances of Easton, a "fiscally distressed city," are as bleak now, and are still into an indeterminate future, as when he first left office after one term as mayor.

As proof that I am not rabidly partisan, I credit myself with the wise decision by Easton City Council Chairwoman Sandy "Ms. Cabbage Patch Doll" Vulcano not to seek the Democratic Party nomination to succeed Phil Mitman as mayor.

Sandy is also co-chair of the Easton Democratic Party Committee, whose chairman is James Edinger.

Edinger is also chair of the Easton Zoning Hearing Board that "grants" waivers and special exceptions from the city's zoning ordinances as a political favor to developers like Abraham Atiyeh, Lou Pektor, Theordore Kheel, Peter Koehler, Richard Thulin, Lafayette College, and the college's alumni like Jonathan Davis, the developer and real estate partner of Greg Schuyler.