There are members of Northampton County Council who like to complain they are kept in the dark and excluded from what's happening. It's certainly true that there's been unnecessary tension between the Executive and County Council. But when did it start? I believe it was when then Council member Kerry Myers demeaned the Sheriff for refusing to allow deputies to break up a protest outside the courthouse following the election of Joe Biden. Myers stated that, if he were a deputy, he'd refuse to follow the Sheriff's orders because it might put his life in jeopardy. Instead of admonishing these histrionics that undermined the authority of the county's top law enforcement official, County Council rewarded Myers and elected him President. So yeah, things have gone downhill. Now Council member Lori Vargo Heffner wants a progress report on the pay study they voted unanimously to approve on March 2. "I don't need to micromanage them, but I would like to have a conversation at the beginning," she states. But she did have a conversation with Bolton, the company doing the pay study, two weeks before the bid was awarded. Her desire for a mid-study report is an attempt to meddle in what should be an independent review.
On February 15, Bolton's Dave Johnson laid put a timeline of approximately 12 weeks from beginning to end of study. County Council members had the opportunity to question Johnson about his proposal, and they did. So what possible purpose could Vargo Heffner have in summoning Bolton to Council now except to micromanage what is happening?
A suggestion was made to summon Bolton before the full Council, but Council member John Brown cautioned against doing so. He wants to hear from them at a committee meeting instead. He is fearful about exposing Bolton (and Council) "to the other forces that might be present at a full meeting."
In other words, he's afraid of the unwashed masses as well as the people who work for the county who might want to speak out.
Kinda' tells me what's really going on here. This is a turf war, and county workers are the unfortunate victims.
