2013 General Election Platform
1. You may ask what I bring to the table
Experience & Training
- 20 years experience as County Commissioner
- Chairman for six years
- President of the County Commissioner Association of Pennsylvania
- PhD in Physical Geography and Geology from Boston University
- Professor Emeritus at Kuttown University
- Specialist in water and sinkhole-published several scientific papers
- Published 4 books and 60 journal articles
- Background in planning
- Past Chair of the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission
- Past Chair, Lower Macungie Township Planning Commission
- Member County Commissionsers Planning Committee Nationally
Leadership
- Chairman of the Board for 6 years
- Past Chair, Lower Macungie Township Planning commission
- Past Chair, Lehigh county Planning Commission
- Past President of the County Commissioner's Association of Pennsylvania
- Chairman of several professional organizations and chaired several conventions
Independent and not part of any "bloc" or "Team"
- County problems are neither Republican or Democrat
- Government decisions should be what is best for the people
- Each item before the Board deserves special attention
- Will intelligently weight the merits of each item/dd>
Proven Results-I am not telling you what I will do; I can tell you what I have done. I have cut taxes,, I have cut spending, and I have instituted cost saving measures while never voting for a tax increase.
2. What are the major stands?
Fiscal conservative
- Never voted for a tax increase
- Brokered a budget compromise this year
- $3.0 million tax decrease
- $3.0 million rebate
- $.5 million cut in spending
- Three straight budgets with decrease
- 2013 budget $5million less than 2012
- Number of county workers 6% fewer than 20 years ago
- Proponent of outsourcing
- Proponent of reinventing how we operate-combination of the Register of Wills, Clerk of Courts, and the Recorder of Deeds save $500,000/year
- Looking at priority based budgeting
- Champion of computerization to become more efficient
- GIS system/Pictometry, that I championed saved us $5 million in reassessment
- Responsible for the computer search function for commissioner documents
- Supported office automation
Intergovernmental Cooperation and Regionalization to save tax money and increase efficiency
- Economy of scale saves money
- Working together we can save money and keep taxes lower
- Cooperation improves services that cannot be provided locally
- LANTA
- Airport Authority
- Regional Crime Center
- Police intake center
- Emergency services
- Need strong planning to protect the environment
- Urban sprawl is expensive because of its low density
- Causes traffic problems
- Causes flooding
- Creates more students and requires more schools
- Results in higher taxes
- Higher density needed for the infill areas
- Need to preserve farmland and open space
Need to improve the Quality of Life through joint ventures
- Cheaper to do projects regionally and through intergovernmental cooperation
- Support the Congress of Governments
- Parks and Recreations-cooperation with municipality helps to leverage County $
- Green Futures Fund
- LMT-Camp Olympic, East Texas Park, Leister Farm, Farr Road Tract, Camp Olympic improvements
- Alburtis-Lock Ridge Church, Bird Preserve
Lehigh Valley Zoo and Trexler Game Preserve
- Owned by the County but run by a non-profit organization
- Trexler Game Preserve a cooperative effort with the Wildlands Conservancy
Grants to the non-profits organizations, Childrens’ groups and the artsEmergency services important to the safety of our residents
- Encourage regional cooperation
- Encourage grant applications
- Need more coordination between County Emergency Services and local fire, police and ambulance companies
Joint agreement between Cetronia Ambulance and Coroners’ Office a good example.
Serve our aging population
Proponent of Public Safety and Tough on Crime
- 70% of property tax money spent on law and order
- Strong Support for reducing crime
- Supporter of the Lehigh County Central Booking Center - Big money saver for local police forces and a model of intergovernmental cooperation and regionalization.
- Supporter of RIIC (Regional Information and Intelligence Center - a regional crime information center run by the county
- Lead proponent of Court House expansion
- Supported modernization and expansion of the Work Release Center
- Support cooperative agreement with first responders and LC Emergency Services
- Supporter of the joint Cetronia Ambulance Corps Building which is shared with Emergency Services
Keep taxes low by increasing income - not by cutting across the board
- Cutting across the board increases unemployment and disrupts essential services
- We need gradual surgical cuts AND an increase in income to balance the budget
- User fees for law violators - make the legal system pay for itself.
- 60% of the County budget
- increase fines and payments to the max
- Support economic development to create jobs and new wealth
- KOZ - Olympus, Butz Center, and PPL Center, the biggest successes
- Tax increment Financing - New Smithville and proposed Costco on 222
- Support of LVEDC and other development agencies
- Bring in new jobs by attracting new companies and retaining current ones
- Keep taxes low by increasing the accessed properties
- Market our assets - Airport, water and sewer, educated work force
- Great quality of life
Some of my views do not sound consistent, but I assure you that I can be both an environmentally conscious person (tree hugger) and be a proponent of growth. Good planning can accommodate both.
