On December 21, 2011, a few days after the Christmas Party for the Municipal workers of Northampton Township the following post, What the $%^ happened at the Christmas Party? was put on this website. Since then additional information has been forthcoming about the same supervisor. She notarized her own signature on a circulators oath, which means she acted as a witness for herself. PA’s notary law is pretty clear that a notary cannot notarize anything in which she has an interest. Her signature was incorrectly notarized or her notary was incorrectly used. Either way, it appears to violate the PA notary statute.

But, unfortunately, there is more. It’s about changing the minutes of a supervisor meeting.  At the June 22nd, 2011  meeting Supervisor Rothermel wanted to make sure the minutes of the May meeting reflected the truth about the discussions. Instead George, Vince and Eileen voted against it. Fast foreword to January 25, 2012. The supervisor at issue made a motion to change the minutes of the November 2011 Board of Supervisors meeting where there was a lot of politicking going on when one supervisor decided to change his vote. The Board didn’t want the public to see the discussion so they went into Executive session, possibly in violation of the Sunshine law that mandates all discussions of three or more supervisors be done in public. When they returned the issue was either re-voted or some votes were changed before the matter was closed. Now the same supervisor who voted not to change the minutes in June of 2011 wants to change the minutes of November 2011. How quickly some people forget how they acted in the recent past.

Ǿ And there is even more. Her attitude towards the municipal workers could be taken as a threat. If it was a threat, it might be considered an assault. Generally, the essential elements of assault consist of an act intended to cause an apprehension of harmful or offensive contact that causes apprehension in the victim. In the case of a municipal worker who is called dumb, drunk and drug taking by a supervisor who is in charge of managing the township, it could be serious so far as a tort is concerned. Even if it is not quite a civil threat, most reasonable people would consider the words a threat that their job with the township may be in jeopardy If someone was inclined to file a complaint about these matters with the Secretary of State it might affect the judgment of the State ahout the good character needed to be a notary.

What the $%^ happened at the Christmas Party?

 Rumor has it an elected official became extremely upset; began f-blasting; got even more agitated; used even more despicable language; kept up the atrocious behavior; was asked by police, we believe off-duty, to leave; refused; became even more abusive using language that embarrassed every adult within earshot, language that I’ve never heard before and which embarrassed me when it was reported, and, which official was finally persuaded to leave and had to be helped outside by another elected official. We have names but because we believe in not mentioning names when the consequences of the report would be damaging and because we have respect for ourselves will not be the first to publish them. It’s being reported as a rumor. It’s based on reports from people who have credibility and we believe the incident happened just about the way it’s reported above. Of course it may be unfair to every official who was not involved but there is no alternative which reveals itself. The lack of knowledge about the personal life of an official who goes far over the line make it prudent to keep certain information to one’s self.

 It is unfortunate when we witness people who cannot control themselves. It’s even worse for people who are elected officials. They are held to a different standard, as they should be, because they have power because of their position and more responsibility. An incident like this embarrasses innocent bystanders who are swept into an incident through nothing more than they happen to be near the miscreant. The embarrassment is because even though people have accidents some bad behavior far exceeds the norm. Adults have a vast range of experiences that inures them to the unusual and to the abnormal but when the un-acceptable goes well past even the most flexible standard, we cringe inwardly. We hope this incident doesn’t happen again although word of mouth indicates it’s happened before and more than once.   Developing…

Check out the video of the Feb 1 Northampton Bucks County Municipal Authority meeting where the chairman, as usual misused the position of Chairman, shut down people who tried to address the Water Board. He even told an elected supervisor to shut up then adjourned the meeting. the head of the Water Board insulted, condescended to, condemned and tried to demean private citizens. The chairman is a political appointment of the old Republican regime. A bad choice because he’s  a mean-tempered bully. His attrocious behavior got the West End citizens so angry that they came to the meetings and told him off. It didn’t work. He disrupted the peace and tranquility of the neighborhoods. He’s still the chairman and even more obnoxious.

The present Water Board is a corrupt, Rogue Board which has four members who were appointed out of sequence so the mistreatment of the citizens could continue. Out of sequence means their terms should have been staggered bu they were all appointed at the same time. November, 2011.  Here’s how the swindle was carried out. One of the supervisors of the old Republican regime sold insurance to the Water Board. When it came time to appoint new Water Board members the Insurance Seller would not vote because of his conflict of interest. For years no appointments could be made. In late 2011 the supervisor decided to stop selling insurance to the Water Board. He could have stopped years before but by waiting until the old republicans were a lame duck majority the old republicans could appoint four members to the board and hold onto the power. The Chairman of the Water Board and his bully tactics would go on for four more years even though the Democrats now run the township government. even though the Democrats are in charge the four political appointments are being carried along. I call that a rogue board. The sequence of appointments should be brought back to the blocked appointments. When that’s done the Democrats will be able to appoint at least two new members and get rid of the bullies. 

Atrocious behavior causes judgments and consequences. When a friend turns into an enemy and works against you, there is no obligation to treat them in a friendly manner. Enemies are different than friends and different rules of etiquette come into play. If an enemy telephones one of their ex-friends and leaves a message to return their call, there is no obligation to call them back. That recently happened to me when Jay Russell called and I refused to return his call. He told a mutual acquaintance: “Bill didn’t have the courtesy to return my call”. Why would someone who actively worked against me on numerous occasions over many years expect me to be courteous to them? Maybe it’s because he’s still an enemy looking for reasons to call me names. So for now, we remain enemies.

The new Northampton Republican Water and Sewer Board still has five Republicans. One old Republican left and one new Republican was appointed. But Chairman Albano is one of Supervisor Komelasky’s appointments and  the other three old Republicans are  cronies of Albano and Komelasky. So expect the old lack of dignity to continue with even more disrespect and hostility towards the citizens who speak out against the constant erosion of the trust given to this rogue Authority. Proof? The $1.8 Million Dollar force main being paid for by the ratepayers to benefit a Toll Brothers developement of 40 homes at Hatboro road. It’s billed as a solution to Sanitary Sewer Outflows, SSO’s but unless it’s built the DEP will not approve Toll’s plan so Toll would  not be able to build the 40 homes. When is the last time you remember being forced to pay $45,000 per home to get a developer’s sewer plan approved? (Hint: It never happened before.) Then there is the special Tapping Fee of $0.00 being charged to Toll for each new home when the Authority just charged each West End home $10,000 per home. This is indeed a Rogue Authority that continues to act crazy. It should be closed.