Callahan Miffed at DiGiacinto?

Last week, sixty-five people wearing "Civil Rights Now" asked Bethlehem City Council's Human Resources Committee to adopt an anti-discrimination ordinance. Mayor John Callahan, Pa. Human Relations Commission Chairman Steve Glassman and all seven members of City Council voiced their support. But Dave DiGiacinto suggested some changes, including removing the appointment power from the Mayor and giving it to Council. Apparently, the Mayor is miffed.

Reminded that Bethlehem is a strong Mayor form of government, DiGiacinto indicated he was willing to be flexible and split appointments between Mayor and Council. But according to two City Council regulars, Callahan is unwilling to share the right to make appointments, which is ordinarily reserved to the Executive branch. And to make his point clear, he directed his department heads to refuse to appear at today's Public Works Safety Committee hearing, which is chaired by DiGiacinto.

Is this true? I have spoken to neither DiGiacinto nor Callahan, but do know that tonight's meeting has been canceled.

DiGiacinto Spars With Bethlehem Officials Over Poor Audit

David DiGiacinto has only been a member of Bethlehem City Council since January, but was clearly disgusted by Bethlehem's bad marks in an independent audit of the City's finances in 2009. In a local government known for its civility, he had some testy exchanges with Business Administrator Dennis Reichard and Controller Meg Holland at an August 11 Finance Committee meeting.

Listening to a presentation by Tracey Rash, a CPA with MaherDuessel, he summed up his complaints. "Basically, we had a negative fund balance ..., we have misuse of transfers, we transferred funds we shouldn't have transferred. Some of them, I guess, are considered illegal, against City Ordinance. We had internal control failures. We had an inability to make payments, pension fund payables. I'd say that's pretty much a disaster, fiscally mismanaged year. Wouldn't you agree with me?"

"No," answered Business Administrator Reichard. "There's not one bank statement that was negative. ... We did not fiscally mismanage this City. I take exception to that. Every bill was paid, every debt service was paid, every payroll was made."

"That's not what this audit says," countered DiGiacinto.

"This isn't stuff that anybody's going to jail on," responded Reichard, becoming defensive. "You may want to look at fiscal mismanagement. We're managing the City the best that we can. That's your words, that's mine."

"Where's the Mayor. By the way, where's the Mayor?" asked DiGiacinto. Mayor John Callahan was absent from yesterday's meeting, and DiGiacinto's question went unanswered as Chairman Reynolds tried to keep the meeting from spinning out of control.

DiGiacinto: "Is it true or not that the casino revenues last year, without the transfers from the Escrow and the fact that you didn't pay a lot of bills on time, ... that's how you really got through last year, Dennis? Let's be factual."

Reichard: "Isn't it true that if the federal government didn't bail out all the corporations ... "

DiGiacinto: "We're talking about Bethlehem here."

Reichard: "Awww, same thing. Same thing."

At the end of their exchange, DiGiacinto said he's simply unable to understand how Council adopted this year's budget, to say nothing of 2009. "You have a bad economy, as everyone likes to say around here, and you don't act conservatively? That's the disappointing part about all this. Instead, you raise the budget by six million bucks."

Then DiGiacinto asked Controller Meg Holland, "Where've you been?"

DiGiacinto had been Meg Holland's Democratic opponent when she ran for Controller in 2007.

Furious, Holland exploded, "You want to know where I've been. I want to know where the person before me was. That's what I wonder, because this has been going on for years. ... It has not been the fault of this Administration."

She then detailed some changes she's recommended: increasing fees when police serve at private functions; increasing medical premiums; adding use permit fees; and re-billing accounts receivable; stopping the practice of allowing some City employees to take cars home, which costs $100,000 per year; and re-negotiating cleanup costs with ArtsQuest, which often costs the City more than it receives in payment, which is sometimes ten months after it was billed. "I think an expense like Musikfest - the cleanup and whatever, there should be some up front money given for that. We're paying people on a daily basis to go out there and clean up. We're not gonna' get paid 'till ten months later? We should be getting half of that fee up front."

DiGiacinto pressed Holland, asking her what she's doing about the problems identified in the audit, such as juggling funds in different accounts. Holland replied that was being done thirty years ago. "I'm asking you now, I'm not asking about thirty years ago," insisted DiGiacinto. "What are you gonna' do about it? Nothing? Just let it go, it's OK? It's a simple question. I mean, I thought that was part of what you were going to do."

"Darn! Or was that gonna' be you, as the Controller?" sniped Holland.

Once again, Chairman J William Reynolds intervened, and another question from DiGiacinto went unanswered.

DiGiacinto to Controller: "Where've You Been?"

DiGiacinto: "Where's the Mayor?"

David T. DiGiacinto calls Bethlehem's finances a "disaster." "Where's the Mayor?" he asks.

Meg Holland's Campaign Explains Her Upset in Bethlehem Controller Race

"The Democratic nominee is David DiGiacinto (and he is going to win).

The Republican nominee is Meg Holland (and she is going to lose)."

That's what BethlehemDem wrote a few days ago about Bethlehem's Controller race. I agreed with him, too. After all, Democrats have a vast registration edge and DiGiacinto outspent Holland three to one. But when the dust had settled late Tuesday night, Holland was standing on top. She won in both Lehigh and Northampton County, squeaking by with 51.38% of the total vote.

So how the hell did Meg pull this rabbit out of a hat? Here's how campaign volunteer/daughter, Meg Holland Schaeffer, explains it.

- Walking to 3,000+ doors

- Poll coverage by family members (almost all polls were covered and we all stood out from 7am-7pm most without leaving) and even with all the press coverage people still did not know much about the Controller race (DiGiacinto floated around between polls, but I believe only had 2 or 3 covered all day)

- Very effective campaign mailers

- Qualifications (people who did read about the race said they understood that she was more qualified)

- "Holland" last name and people's friendship and respect for my grandparents and other family members (Attorney Robert Holland and Marie Holland) (BethDem told me it didn't matter about my grandparents.. a lot of people told us at the polls they came out to vote for my mom because of them)

I'd prefer to think it was magic.

NY Execs Fund DiGiacinto's Bethlehem Controller Quest

David DiGiacinto filed elections office reports today to indicate he's picked up another $4,000 in the Bethlehem controller race. All of this money comes from hot shot execs from the Big Apple. This is in addition to the $55,000 he's already reported for a job that pays $47,000 a year.

All this does is make me more convinced that Meg Holland is the right choice.

Bethlehem Dem: Voters Lose if They Select DiGiacinto as Their Controller

From a well-written article about the Bethlehem Contrtoller race, posted by BethlehemDem:

The Democratic nominee is David DiGiacinto, and he is going to win.

The Republican nominee is Meg Holland, and she is going to lose.

The real losers will be the people of the City of Bethlehem. The voters will be making a huge mistake by electing David DiGiacinto.

If DiGiacinto is elected, the City will be subjected to turmoil and controversy. If you have read my blog you already know that DiGiacinto is part of the Schweder-Rooney faction of the Democratic party. There is a fear that DiGiacinto will hold personal grudges against Mayor Callahan and will go out of his way to cause trouble for him. This is something that the City cannot afford to go through with the impending development of the Steel land and BethWorks.

Bethelehem Controller Race: Holland Getting Democratic Support

As The Morning Call notes, Democrat Dave DiGiacinto has collected three times as much money as his Republican opponent, Meg Holland. But what I find most interesting about the money battle in that race is the Democratic support that Holland has garnered.

Bethlehem Attorney Ed Redding, a behind the scenes playa, has risked excommunication by Bossman Joe Long and kicked in $500. Attorney Phil Hof has also contributed to Holland's campaign.

Bethlehem Controller Race: DiGiacinto Ducking Debate

The League of Women Voters has scheduled a candidates' forum on Halloween for Bethlehem City Council candidates, even though that race is pretty much over. But amazingly, it has skipped the controller's race between Meg Holland and Dave DiGiacinto, which is very much up for grabs.

So Bethlehem's Southside Task Force has picked up the slack and has tried to schedule its own candidates' forum, but DiGiacinto has declined. "At this point, my business and campaign schedule precludes [sic] me from being able to accommadate [sic] the special event and timing you are suggesting. I am booked solid with various events, and business related activities, from October 23rd through November 2nd."

Meg Holland, of course, is "very disappointed that my opponent has declined to participate in an open candidates' forum for the City of Bethlehem Controller position. . . . I would still like to hold an open forum to allow the City of Bethlehem residents to ask me questions."

When I have the details about Holland's open forum, I'll post them.

In the meantime, BethlehemDem has an update on DiGiacinto.

Bethlehem Voters Have Tough Choice in Controller Race

Republican Meg Holland (CPA/ABV, CVA, CIA) is opposing David DiGiacinto (DEM) in Bethlehem's controller race. Holland is clearly the more qualified candidate, and her daughter made a nice pitch for her here.

But is she independent?

As a Republican, you'd think she'd be the ideal person to look over the books in Bethlehem, whose Mayor and council are Democratic. But since Holland has the quiet support of Mayor Callahan, some suggest she is actually be less independent than Democrat DiGiacinto.

Today's Morning Call reports that Bethlehem has been dipping into its escrow account over the last three years to cover expenses. Is this a good financial practice? Yesterday, I tried contacting both candidates. Unfortunately, I only was able to reach Meg Holland, and was surprised to learn that she was conducting a press conference about that issue later in the day. Here's what she has to say about dipping into an account with funds earmarked for specific projects.

[T]he city’s actual operations in 2006 required additional cash which the city borrowed from various funds at year end and repaid the funds in March 2007. The liability was properly recorded on the balance sheet at year end. The Auditor/CPA at the finance committee meeting stated she audits four other municipalities and they all have borrowed from other funds to cover short falls.

Holland is not so disturbed about borrowing money from an escrow account. But before you conclude she's just a Callahan rubber stamp, she also stated there are two areas that need investigation: 1. Departmental Earnings – revenue was over $447,000 less than anticipated.
2. General Expenses – expenses were more than $476,000 than anticipated.

I also compared the accrual based financials to the budgeted financials and I noted that departmental earnings reported on the accrual basis were over $2 million dollars higher than the cash basis budgeted financials.

I learned through my conversation with the Business Department of the city, that the major variance in departmental earnings is due to the fact that the city’s ambulance receipts collection are delayed. The billing and collections of ambulance services are performed by St. Luke's Hospital for the city. According to my inquiries the receipt delay is primarily due to claim processing problems. As the Controller, I would perform an operational audit of the entire process in order to expedite receipt of the over $2 million in ambulance fees.

The actual general expenses were in excess of the budgeted by $476,000 and is due to delay in medical reimbursements. Apparently even though the city has catastrophic insurance, the city must first pay all medical expenses and then the claim administrator files for reimbursement from the insurance company for the city for all medical expense payments made in excess of $100,000. I was told that the reimbursement checks were finally received by the city in 2007 for 2006. As Controller I would perform an operational audit of the insurance contract and claims processing to determine any inefficiencies.

Lastly, the second management comment is regarding the fact that all purchases are not acquired with approved purchase orders. This management comment has appeared on the city’s audited financial statements for several years because Wally DeCrosta (former Controller) wanted the purchase orders to match the invoices exactly. Therefore, purchase orders were not recorded in the accounting system until invoices were received. Approved purchases orders should absolutely be required and recorded in the system before any purchase is made, by any city employee. This control is to make sure that a purchase by city employees has been approved, budgeted and is necessary. By not requiring this, purchases can occur for purposes not for the city and in excess of budgeted amounts. I would first notify all city vendors that they cannot except an order without an approved purchase order and any invoices received which did not have authorized purchase orders will not be paid. Then I would obtain a listing of past paid invoices for the last five years on these accounts and investigate them for fraudulent activity.

Now, if you can understand what the hell she said, you're better than me. Clearly, she's in another league. And obviously, she's independent. Mayor Callahan surely didn't write that for her. She'd be an asset to Bethlehem.