Dowd: When Will Northampton County Council Webcast Meetings?

Lehigh County will soon be doing it. Bethlehem is studying the idea. But Northampton County Council has been trying its best to avoid webcasting its biweekly meetings. Despite spending nearly $650,000 for "renovations" to its star chamber, including the latest technological advances, Queen of Hearts Ann McHale has yet to plug in to the web.

Every council member has been supplied with a fancy laptop computer so necessary I've yet to see one at a council meeting. And despite McHale's claim that she really, really, really wants to webcast meetings, she's done nothing since the remodeling was finished in January.

At last night's meeting, Council member Mike Dowd finally asked McHale what the hell is going on, except he did it politely. He's an ordained minister, after all. Instead of answering Dowd, the Queen of Hearts said, "The first thing is we all have to learn to use the microphone." When Dowd gently pressed her, McHale said, "The camera would go in that corner over there and we would need someone to operate it."

Yeah, she'd need someone to push the on and off button. IT Director Al Jordan, who told me in September that no one on Council had even spoken to him, estimates webcast could cost the county as little as $1,500 total.

To his credit, Dowd continued to press, and Public Works Director Steve DeSalva offered to get something together.

Northampton County Council: 2007's Workers & Slackers

If you want to see who works and who doesn't on Northampton County Council, look no further than their committees. That's where the grunt work gets done. Although Council has eight standing committees, the most active by far are the personnel and finance committees, chaired by Ann McHale and Ron Angle.

Council's standing committees conducted twenty-seven meetings last year. Every member of council is encouraged to participate in every committee. So it's a pretty accurate gauge of the time and effort each councilperson devotes to government service. The committees that meet are also a good indication of what council members think are important.

Council's busy Finance (Angle) and Personnel (McHale) committees, usually combined, met ten times, twice as often as the others. Humans Sevices (Neiper) met five times, and the result is an important baby step towards a bi-county health department. Dertinger's Open Space Committee conducted four meetings, and that means more farmland preservation.

The Intergovernmental (Branco), Judicial (McClure) and Economic Development Committees met just twice. Branco squandered an opportunity to promote regionalism with local municipalities. McClure used his committee as a political tool to bash Controller Schimmel and scream about the importance of a child exploitation unit. Dowd failed to deal with the financially troubled Bachman Publik House, leaving the entire council to deal with it twice during full meetings.

One committee failed to meet at all. Rev. Mike Dowd's Operations and Administration committee might have been helpful in addressing some of the overruns associated with the courthouse expansion, or the windows at Gracedale.

The workers?

Council member John Cusick attended 20 committee meetings last year, making him the hardest working and most dedicated council member in 2007. Nipping at his heels, with 19 meetings to her credit, is VP Diane Neiper. Both Cusick and Neiper are finishing their second year on council, and their attendance record reflects dedication. They are far ahead of their colleagues.

Must be steroids.

Five other council members - Wayne Grube, Ron Angle, Ann McHale, Tony Branco & Charles Dertinger - all have solid committee attendance records this year, ranging between a low of 9 for Dertinger and a high of 12 for McHale.

The slackers?

Rev. J. Michael Dowd attended just six meetings in 2007, very disappointing from a former council president. At the bottom of the heap is Lamont McClure, who was so busy taping robo calls he only attended five committee meetings. His inattention to detail might explain why a candidate who spent no money very nearly beat him. In last year's survey, McClure was dead last, too.

For Easton's Rep on Norco Council, There's Only One Choice - Dowd

District two includes the Easton area.

Express Times: "Democratic newcomer William Wallace has some appealing ideas, including restoring passenger rail service. But voters in the Easton-Palmer-Forks area should choose Republican incumbent J. Michael Dowd because of his business savvy, knowledge of human services and his ability to restore calm during heated debates."

Morning Call: "Keep Republican J. Michael Dowd. Mr. Dowd has a strong challenger in Democratic school teacher William E. Wallace II, but Mr. Dowd's grasp of the issues is commanding. In his years on council, including service as council president, he has strived to be a voice of conciliation and reason. Council needs more people with his style and perspective."

I agree with both endorsements. Mike Dowd, a UCC pastor and Chamber of Commerce VP, is a class act in a classless council. A quiet man who listens. A conciliator, yet a very effective advocate for Easton's interests. He'll work very well with Mayor Panto.

Dowd's opponent, William Wallace, has an interesting passenger rail proposal, which you can read here. I've got two problems with it. First, it has nothing to do with Northampton County Council or core county functions. Second, it is oriented towards passenger, instead of light rail, service. That's a convenience to commuters, but this pipe dream may actually draw more people into this area, making it more congested than it is now.

Norco Councilman Mike Dowd: Let's Study a Countywide Police Department

Late last week, I saw Councilman Mike Dowd trying to sneak out of the building. When he spotted me, he quickly put a newspaper to his face, hoping to evade detection.

Too late!

I quickly cornered him and began to pepper him with questions about everything, ranging from his sore shoulder to his reelection bid. You see, I already had a bunch of really tough questions ready for Councilman Tony Branco, who had agreed to meet me. But I stiffed him. I overslept. I was up too late the previous night preparing questions like, "What's your favorite color? ... What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?" So I hammered poor Rev. Dowd instead.

Dowd's a class act in a classless council. A quiet man who listens. He softly told me he'd like to see the county study the idea of a countywide police department next year. That actually makes sense.

Statewide, we have 2,630 local goverments. The Lehigh Valley consists of 62 separate muncipalities in two counties. Locally, we elect 466 officials to represent 578,500 people, or 1 local and paid elected official for every 1240 residents. And this is without looking at our 17 school districts. Given this confusing and fragmented mix of local governance, it's no surprise that our police protection comes from a mix of state troopers, municipal and regional officers and even a few constables here and there.

A countywide police department would run more efficiently, lowering administrative costs. It would professionalize police officers, enabling them to get superior training. Technological advances unavailable to smaller departments would be a reality in a larger county force. District Attorney Morganelli could wield a powerful sword against a growing gang presence. Right now, some Northampton County communities like Williams Township have no police department. That's an abdication of the responsibility to give citizens safety and security. Why bother even having a government if you can't do that?

But are deputy sheriffs really police officers? Not according the state supreme court, at least not when it comes to wiretap requests. There's enough uncertainty that state rep. Craig Dally has introduced legislation equating deputy sheriffs with municipal police officers. Dalley's bill needs quick attention from the boys and girls in the land of midnight payraises.

Will a countywide police department just drive up our tax bills? A study costs nothing. And Allegheny County's sheriff reserve deputy program is a great starting point. Its reserve unit consists of fully trained officers at no cost to taxpayers. It includes uniformed street, motorcycle, firearms and boat patrol units. They are all volunteers. They even buy their own uniforms and equipment. But they are also professionals, and understaffed municipal departments are taking advantage of these reservists.

In addition to being a good starting point,this could actually save money for both the county and its municipalities.

Northampton County Council: The Workers & Slackers in 2006

If you want to see who works and who doesn't on Northampton County Council, look no further than their committees. That's where the grunt work gets done.

Although Council has eight standing committees, only two were active last year. These are the personnel and finance committees, chaired by Ann McHale and Ron Angle.

Two committees have not bothered to meet at all. Tony Branco's intergovernmental committee is inactive even though a top county priority should be regionalization of services with other counties and communities. Rev. Dowd's Operations and Administration committee has also failed to conduct a single meeting, even though the courthouse project is $3 million over budget and courthouse workers were still getting ill as recently as Friday.

Council's standing committees conducted twenty-two meetings last year. Every member of council is encouraged to participate in every committee. So it's a pretty accurate gauge of the time and effort each councilperson devotes to government service.

Council Prez Wayne Grube attended 19 committee meetings last year, making him the hardest working and most dedicated council member. Running close behind, and in a tie for number two, are Ann McHale and Ron Angle, who attended 16 committee meetings. Nipping at their heels with 15 meetings is newcomer John Cusick, who has been brilliant in his first year on council. Another rookie, Diane Neiper, gets an honorable mention for squeezing 13 committee meetings into her schedule. Rev. J. Michael Dowd attended only nine meetings last year, barely acceptable and very disappointing from a former council president who may have needed a year to get his juices flowing again.

But the real slackers are Tony Branco, Lamont McClure and Charles Dertinger.

Branco has attended just seven committee meetings since his appointment. It's no wonder. He has a daily two hour commute to his township manager job in Douglass Township. Although he quit his position on Hellertown's borough council, where he served for years, he has remained on a county council where he clearly is in way over his head. It's painful to watch him.

McClure, like Branco, is an appointed councilman. He's lost every time he's run for the job. Based on my own experience with the dude, that's no surprise. He once pretended he was an anonymous Express Times reader to make senseless personal attacks against me on this blog. He's also bullied me with libel threats, for correctly reporting he ignored the Sunshine Act. Lamont attended a grand total of four committee meetings. I'd better get ready for the libel threats again.

Joining McClure in the basement is Charles "Don't Call me Charlie" Dertinger, who is still bristling that John Stoffa didn't let him kill the open space initiative. On Sunday, the Express Times reported that Dertinger now compares Stoffa with the Bush administration. That's a stretch, Charlie, I mean Charles. Dertinger must be whiffing too much exhaust in his daily commute to the Big Apple. Like McClure, Dertinger only attended four committee meetings last year. He was too busy running for Congress to engage in mundane tasks like reading the county's Home Rule Charter.

Dertinger, McClure and Branco are furious that Stoffa's open space plan succeeded and their plan to cook the books failed. Dertinger is now calling the Home Rule Charter "yellowcake uranium." McClure is probably drafting an amendment to his code of civility prohibiting references to that nasty Home Rule Charter. Branco is skipping council's reorganization in January so he can attend one in Berks County.

If these three councilmembers made a point of attending a few more committee meetings, they might actually become a little more familiar with the Home Rule Charter. But when they seek reelection, and they will, they'll flood you with mailers telling you what you want to hear. For the truth, look at their committee record. It shows them for what they really are - political hacks who will try to buy your vote.