Feinberg Leaving Lehigh County ... For Her Husband

Lehigh County's Director of Community and Economic Development, Cindy Feinberg, is leaving. Starting today, she and husband Gregg are opening up shop as Feinberg Real Estate Advisors, LLC. Their offices will be located at 1390 Ridgeview Drive, Suite 301, Allentown, PA 19104. They can be reached at 610-709-6233 or info@feinbergrea.com.

In a news release, the Feibnbergs describe their company as "a commercial real estate brokerage firm specializing in commercial and industrial brokerage, investment sales, development counseling, government relations, real estate law, real estate closings and real estate title insurance. Feinberg Real Estate Advisors, LLC (FREA) offers a unique value proposition in the commercial real estate (CRE) brokerage industry. They call it 'From Contact to Closing'."

“We have a passion for commercial real estate projects. So, now we’re asking Lehigh Valley investors, businesses and tenants to let our obsession translate into helping others be successful with their projects,” said Ms. Feinberg.

Cindy tells me she never planned on staying in government beyond eight years. "I’m very proud of my team and our accomplishments," she states.

She Who Must Be Obeyed

Cindy Feinberg, Lehigh County's Director of Community and Economic Development, was at last night's Commissioners' meeting. They were going to kill the funding for an affordable housing coordinator, and she wanted to talk them out of it. She did, too. In fact, when she was done with them, Percy Dougherty meekly withdrew his motion. She got some help from CACLV Exec Director Alan Jennings, but did not need it because Cindy is She Who Must Be Obeyed.

When she approached the podium to give her speech, she told me to shut my flip cam off because she did not want to be photographed in her reading glasses. Now this is completely ridiculous. This is, after all, a public meeting, and I have every right to record it, damn it. I've sued over this kind of Sunshine Law violation in the past. But I meekly put my flip cam away because Cindy is She Who Must Be Obeyed.

By the way, Cindy is a hot tamale, with or without reading glasses. For some reason, hot tamales have an aversion to being photographed.

How Much Public $ Was Really Spent on That Rail Study?

When I was on my way to Fountain Hill last night to watch their sluggers take on Northwest Bethlehem's Little League hurlers, my cell phone rang, and the sultry female voice at the other end nearly ran me off the road.

"Is this Bernie?"

"Why yes, it is."

"Are you on your way to the ball game?"

"Why yes, I am."

That's as sexy as it got, but I'll take it. I'm practically 59, so a little bit goes a long way.

Turns out that the woman on the other end of the line was Cindy Feinberg, Lehigh County's DCED Director. She only knew where I was heading because she had read my blog. She was calling to correct me. This is my second error in two weeks on the amount of public funding that went into the regional transportation study disclosed last night. I'll try to make amends with a separate post.

When I wrote about this last Tuesday, I told you its total cost was $200,000, with half coming from LVEDC and the other half coming from Lehigh and Northampton Counties. That was wrong. $100,000 came from LVEDC. Northampton and Lehigh County kicked in another $150,000. So the actual cost was $250,000.

Yesterday, I had the correct figure, but was still wrong, and that's why Cindy called. No Lehigh County real estate tax dollars were used for that County's $75,000 share. Instead, Lehigh used administrative fees collected from helping private companies finance through its GPA.

Basically, I'm 0 for 2. I'm sorry for screwing up the facts.

Northampton County, unlike Lehigh, definitely used real estate tax dollars. It dipped into its council slush find, more politely called a contingency account, financed completely with real estate tax dollars.

LVEDC, which kicked in $100,000, is financed by private business as well as a hotel tax from both Counties.