The Issue
At this weeks County BOC I voted in favor of authorizing Chair Brace to draft a letter of support for SB 361 a judicial compliment bill pending in Harrisburg. If added to the bill an 11th Judge in Lehigh Co. would take office in 2026. A Judge has not been added to the Lehigh Co. Court of Common Pleas for almost 20 years.

President Judge Johnson on behalf of all 10 current Court of Common Pleas Judges made the request along with a compelling argument including increasing complexities and volume of caseloads. But the most straight forward rationale is simply the fact that our population continues to increase. Since 2004 when a 10th Judge was added the County population has increased by 20% resulting in an increased demand on the courts. Further, over the next 3 decades the LVPC is forecasting this trend to continue. Valley wide LVPC predicts another 100,000 residents. The majority in Lehigh County. According to Judge Johnsons letter, Judges in Lehigh carry some of the highest caseloads among 3rd class counties despite having as many as 5 fewer Judges. He also cited a now almost 10 year old steady that in 2004 concluded the County required 10.59 Judges. Again, the population has increased since then and will continue to. Important to remember, the window to take action on these items only comes every few years.

Why is this necessary? Why does this matter? And why is the cost necessary? The way I see this, the US Constitution obliges us. The 6th amendment deals with the rights of the accused. This includes impartial Juries, a public trial and one without un-necessary delays. Courts are a core function of County government and among our prime responsibilities. Basically, this is core rule of law stuff we’re considering.

As a matter of background, I’m often pushing back on (even if well meaning) efforts by some to engage Lehigh county government in areas that are “outside of our lane”. This happens fairly often in County Gov because our responsibilities are so clearly defined. What we deal with and what we don’t deal with are specifically laid out.

As per the expense, yes this is going to be a significant expense. But it’s within our core functions and so it’s not just validated but required and necessary. A constitutional obligation.

The Cost
While the state bears (in theory) the cost of salaries, ancillary costs are high estimated at over 400,000 dollars a year. This includes operating costs (software, transcriptions etc) and personnel costs (support staff + sheriff wages).

Looping back to the Judge salary, while the state is obligated to fund it (70k per year) in recent allocations they have not entirely. Most recently only funding at a level of 45k per Judge. As judges are added across the state, the allocation pool has not increased. A problem is that while counties like Lehigh have seen increasing populations across the majority of the state most have seen decreases. Counties with decreasing population have not reduced their number of Judges even if possibly warranted based on population and caseload. This means everyone gets less pie. Including those who need it.

THANK YOU!

First, I want to personally thank all the fine folks who ran for local office this cycle including my opponent Mark Fedorov for Lehigh County Commissioner, District 2 who ran a well fought but clean campaign. Very clear to see he put in a ton of work into it and ran for the right reasons. There seemed to be a chance I was going to be unopposed for a bit but Mark jumped in and offered voters a choice. When voters have choices it’s better for our local democracy. I was hoping to meet Mark at the polls yesterday but didn’t run into him. I’ve heard he’s a good guy and appreciate the issues focused campaign he ran. Running for local office is a HUGE commitment of time, treasure and personal bandwidth. I sincerely appreciate all the folks who ran for local positions from school boards on up.

Next, I want to thank every single volunteer who helped me with this race. A quick count I did just now tallied nearly 100 people who helped in some fashion. From donations, canvassing to poll helpers. It’s even more if I count those who shared posts and made kind remarks on social media etc. And of course those who helped pass the Lower Macungie Open Space Referendum which garnered a resounding 60% yes votes.

Today, I’ll be out to gathering up signs. Tomorrow the work begins. In fact, late last night was already texting some folks about how we can begin to drive a conversation about regional sanitary sewer mandates and associated financial obligations. This is something that impacts each D2 community and an issue the county must take a lead in. In fact, this is a huge issue for just about every one of Lehigh Counties 25 municipalities.

And of course, my last few weeks as a Lower Mac Commissioner the work begins right away game-planning how we move forward the new open space funding! We’ve already scheduled a special meeting of the BOC to discuss as a group moving immediately on preservation priorities. I’ll talk more about this in the next few weeks. Lastly, serving in Lower Mac has been one of the most rewarding jobs of my life. The last 8 years have gone by so fast. We accomplished so much. But it wasn’t done alone and I’ll talk about that also in my last few weeks in this office.

I was interviewed by the Morning Call this AM for my candidacy for Lehigh County Commissioner. I want to thank the paper for covering these critical local elections despite having to do so with less and less reporters. Below are the the areas Morning Call readers indicated they were most interested in and therefore were the subject of most of the interview.

Why I am running? I spoke with the reporter about my reasons for seeking this office. First, I spoke about the fact that in 8-years as a Lower Macungie Commissioner we’ve accomplished many of the major goals we set out to achieve. We preserved a historic amount of farmland, removed warehouses from the zoning code, delivered balanced budgets, enacted a residential property tax reduction and adopted a new zoning code that works hand in hand with preservation efforts while guiding economic development to areas of the township where infrastructure already exists. So, I feel really comfortable leaving my position in Lower Mac. As someone who believes in term limits, I think folks should seek office with a clear platform and goals, work to achieve those goals and then move on. So now, I’m looking now forward to the challenges of County Government which touches so many important areas. From Health and Human services, overseeing local elections, to law enforcement, the court system, land use, the county jail and the county parks system.

1.) Land Use, Warehouses & Farmland Preservation.

• First of all, as a County Commissioner I want to carry Percy Dougherty’s banner as Commissioner focused on land use and quality of life issues. Percy for decades along with Sterling Raber for a long time were the Commissioners most engaged in farmland and land use issues over the last 30 years. The board will miss Percy’s expertise and passion for the area. This is something I hope to continue.

• Warehouses – I want to work as a County Commissioner with fellow commissioners and the LVPC to continue advocating with State Elected officials for meaningful municipal planning code reform in an effort to give communities facing intense development pressure more tools to enact local control for more balanced growth. This is something I already have done as a township commissioner, but serving as a county commissioner will offer a bigger platform for advocacy.

• Farmland Preservation – I will always work to ensure the county program remains fully funded. I’ve served as a member of the Lehigh County Farmland Preservation Board for several years.

2.) Election Integrity

• Lehigh County had no major issues that I am aware of and locally I accept the reported results of the 2020 election. The Lehigh County Voter Registration office did an admirable job under very tough circumstances given they had to deal with rapidly evolving laws at the last minute. Local audits and state audits already occur to verify election results.

• While I do think the 2020 election results were accurate, I believe we have an obligation to always work to always find ways to make elections even more secure. One area I have concern is with overnight 24/7 drop box located downtown. District drop boxes were located inside secured lobbies and limited to certain hours. The downtown box however was open overnight which I don’t think is the most secure arrangement. Additionally, cameras utilized to monitor the downtown box overnight had technical issues and residents did not have access to the video.

3.) Budget

• The biggest consideration coming over the next few years relative to the county budget is possible consideration of a bi-county health bureau. The decision when it’s made needs to be data driven as opposed to political or emotional. The cost to taxpayers is estimated around $1.6 million a year. Throughout the pandemic compared to other counties with bureaus, Lehigh County fared measurably better. One example is vaccination rates. This is in large part thanks to our two world class health networks. Would a county bureau be redundant with existing services? At this time I have not heard a convincing argument regarding how creating another bureaucracy would serve our residents better than existing entities already do. Instead of creating another government department we should explore additional partnerships with existing health bureaus and the local health networks.

4.) Other areas:

I spoke about my endorsements from law enforcement, Percy Dougherty and a myriad of local municipal officials who support our campaign.

Over 900 township residents took this poll in the Spring of 2020. I created it so residents can give Commissioners feedback on our community. It included general and specific issues as well as guidance on what we should focus on in 2020 and beyond.

The survey used an established and reputable survey app. Residents had to provide a valid email and the polling app only allowed 1 vote person. (Note, some questions have fewer responses because questions were able to be skipped.) 

Poll was open to Lower Mac residents ONLY. Here were the results:

1.) Lower Macungie has very low residential property taxes. The rate is among the lowest in the state for a suburban community our size. Part of how property taxes are kept so low in Lower Mac is our use of a homestead exclusion.

Do you know if you qualify for the homestead exclusion to reduce your township property tax bill? 

2.) How important is it to keep the homestead reduction in place as a way to ensure township property taxes remain low while ensuring impactful commercial entities (like existing warehouses and shopping centers) pay a fair share?

3.) Through various strategies, Lower Macungie has successfully and permanently preserved over 500-acres of farmland and open space last 5-years. This includes the 190-acre Weiner Farm located adjacent to Sauerkraut Ln, Brookside Rd and Macungie Rd. This is the largest preservation effort of its kind in Lehigh Valley history. The property was under immediate threat of being developed with over 250+ homes if action wasn’t taken.

Should the Township continue preservation efforts?

4.) If you chose YES to the previous question and believe Lower Macungie should continue preservation efforts:

If another major preservation effort was identified BUT would require a small tax increase AND if it would include a sunset provision so the tax automatically repealed after a specific goal is completed, would you support a targeted tax via referendum for the specific purpose of farmland or open space preservation?

5.) Rank these possible Lower Mac initiatives in order of importance. (1 was highest priority, 6 was lowest priority)

6.) Lower Macungie gets our local police protection from the Pennsylvania State Police. Are you happy with the service Pennsylvania State Troopers provide to our community?

7.) A goal is to better market Lower Macungie as it’s own economic entity and unique place to live, work and play. In terms of economic development (*in appropriate locations) what should we focus on for our community as part of these efforts? Check all boxes you agree with. Leave blank ones you do not.

8.) An ongoing project, Lower Macungie Township has spent several million dollars expanding the community center with an additional gym and more community room space. This was paid for primarily through use of a line of credit.

Do you support this?

9.) In 2017 Lower Macungie Commissioners made new warehouses illegal in most all Township areas. This includes Industrial and Light Industrial districts where they were previously allowed. No new warehouse applications can be submitted in these areas.

Do you support the townships removal of warehouses from the zoning code?

10.) Over the last few years, Lower Macungie Commissioners denied several controversial land development applications that the Board of Commissioners felt were too impactful for the neighborhoods proposed. In some cases, the Township was sued and had to defend its decision.

Is it worthwhile for the township to spend public dollars defending decisions to deny certain impactful land development applications?

11.) Lower Macungie has a 1400+ acre park system. What are your priorities for the park system? Choose your top priorities. Leave blank items you do not feel should be a priority.

The choices were (since some were long and cut off on the graph below)

10.) Overall, how would you categorize Lower Macungie as a place to live?

11.) Are Lower Macungie Commissioners doing a good job? Do you feel like you are being represented well?

Trying to understand how last nights vote in the state legislature impacts the shutdown immediately and why the upcoming legal fight concerns constitutional checks & balances. There is a ton of conflicting information to wade through. I hope this helps. I always try to present info on this blog and social media without political theatrics.

As we all now know, last night the State Senate and House passed a resolution to terminate the emergency Gov. Tom Wolf issued in March. (This probably should have been done 2 weeks ago)

What does this mean?

On my Commissioner Facebook Page, last 2 weeks I’ve been sharing stories from small businesses owners trying to navigate the shutdown. In many cases highlighting failures and inadequacies of various state and federal small business stimulus programs from the perspectives of actual self employed folks. Especially the most vulnerable who seem to fall through policy cracks. In many cases, weeks after the shutdown started many small business owners have still not seen a penny of relief.

Here is the most recent story. This time, the business is not in Lower Mac but nearby in an adjacent community and Southwest planning partner. It describes in practice one of the fundamental problems with the PPP program. Has to do with the government inadvertently creating disincentives to work, paired with the fact one of the requirements for PPP loan forgiveness is to keep employees on payroll. (I’ve edited it down slightly, and removed identifiers)

“I tried to stay open for a couple weeks, but lost more money staying open for takeout than if I would have closed. Been closed for a month, employees are receiving unemployment + $600/week now. If an employee regularly makes $16/hour or $640 a week now that same employee is getting $1,000/week on PA unemployment.

The only way I can get some relief from the PPP is to put my employees back on payroll… so now, what should have been a good thing, has become a bad thing.

My best case scenario after going backwards $50k in the last 5 weeks, is to get rent and utilities paid for 2-months. I’m not looking for anyone to feel bad for me, but everything the gov’t does is backwards.

It should have either been PPP or juiced up Unemployment, not both. Or some type of means testing to give people more based on their income. There will absolutely have to be more money available. Going in this I was in a good financial situation, I would imagine other businesses are really in a bad place right now.”

Above is the most recent version of the same or similar story I’ve heard many times now. For an actual small business lucky enough to get a PPP loan it has caused a whole other set of challenges.

Yes, the extra unemployment boost was necessary, but the way the $2.2 trillion (about to be more) CARES Act was drafted, it encourages employees to stay home. But when they stay home, it puts small business owners in a bind since one criteria for getting PPP debt forgiven is to keep employees on payroll. An internal federal study estimates that this scenario applies to millions of Americans.

To be clear, can you blame employees? They are making rationale financial decisions based on realities created by the government. In this case creating a disincentive to work when another government program requires employers to keep people on payroll to get debt forgiven. These are folks in some cases without the luxury of planning too far into the future. Some are worried about how they are going to pay next months bills.