Corrupt Northampton

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TAXES IN NORTHAMPTON WENT UP AGAIN.

In a very sneaky way the township Czars, (Supervi-CZARS) TRIPLED some of the fees for new construction. This makes it more expensive for people to move to Northampton. The so-called “Impact Fees” are supposed to pay for some of the infrastructure expenses that the current residents paid for but the Czars don’t return the money to the residents. No resident benefits from Impact Fees but the Czars have more money to spend and do they spend it. Tripling the fees makes new construction more expensive and the fees are passed onto the new residents.  

The October 2010 paving of Almshouse Road was a very sneaky $85,000.00 TAX INCREASE covered up by the Water and Sewer Authority as well as an additional $85,000.00 secret, unbudgeted spending increase by the township, all “reported” by the Courier under the guise of Repaving Almshouse Road. It’s a new tax increase of $170,000.00 each year from now on.

 “NORTHAMPTON DAYS” is not put on by Northampton Township but it’s sure made to look that way. The cost of Northampton Days to the taxpayers is not accounted for in any meaningful way.

NORTHAMPTON OUTLAWED SOLAR POWER unless you pay-to-play with expensive, time consuming and un-necessary building permits and zoning changes. They will give you permission to avoid the ordinance if you pay to get a permission slip from some politically connected official who knows nothing or very little about solar power. Most people need to hire a lawyer to go before the Zoning Department, a big cash cow for the township for permission. You need to waste your time and efforts and grovel before them even if you have a system certified by Professional Engineers and Registered Architects. All five supervisors voted for the ban without permission so both parties are involved. The supervisors are Power-Mad and Money Hungry. They get away with it because it’s cheaper and easier to pay them some tribute instead of defending your right to build on your own property. Power Mad; Money Hungry; Corrupt and probably laughing out loud at the lack of oversight.

 Here’s why I called Northampton “Ground Zero” for political Corruption in Bucks County:

Northampton is hostile to business. The township controls businesses indirectly by refusing to approve projects unless businesses go along with the wishes and desires of the township officials. That’s corrupt. Why should a few elected officials, three to be precise, control business?

Private job creation is restricted by subtle, effective means, Advertising is forbidden without permission. Doing business is forbidden – unless the supervisors allow it; which they do for their contributors and friends or they make it foolishly expensive. Home business is forbidden unless, one has a friend in government or is willing to pay and to let government tell you what you should do even though they are not experts. They are politicians who like to collect some dough-re-me from as many people as possible.

Northampton is one of the most restrictive, job exporting and job-destroying townships in America.

Northampton has long been regarded as a pay-to-play township.

Corruption means broken. Northampton has had almost dysfunctional government for decades. Every election cycle causes new, wasteful issues to surface. Plus, old issues are not settled but disappear until the next election.

Northampton  Twp has been in the vice-grip of the leaders of one political party, Republican,  since time out of mind. That leads to Corruption which has the smell of sewage and the “Appearance of Corruption”.

The previous Township Manager stole $$125,999.00 from under the noses of the Supervisors who never audited the spending. Nothing effective has changed except the name of the Manager. There is no effective accounting. There is no effective oversight. There is not even effective concern from the opposition who seem to just mutter some opposition and go along. This is serious because in 2010 the spending by the Township and the Water ans Sewer authority is $54.5 Million Dollars. There’s not even a basic Purchase Order system to track who orders what. There are credit cards and charge accounts that are not reviewed except by those politically connected. A forensic audit would be one of the first reviews I’d do if elected. Any supervisor could do it but they have to follow the orders of their party.

The Three Republican Supervisors awarded the video contracts to the relative of a Republican Committeeman and refused to consider bids from other companies.

The township overpaid for Bond Re-Financing as reported by Frank Rothermel then failed to explain the overcharges. They defended dealiing with the company owned and controlled by the head of their party without putting the refinancing out for a bid. This is manipulated government and who knows what the quid-pro-quo was. Hiding Finances. The Appearance of Corruption.

LEGAL CORRUPTION – NORTHAMPTON STYLE. The Three Musketeers of Corruption and the members of the various boards and the Water and Sewer Authority awarded all of the legal work of the township, and it’s hundreds of thousands a year, without putting any of the many legal contracts our for bids. Supervisor Rothermel, a lawyer himself, has been beating the drums of anti-corruption by refusing to endorse the monthly overpayments to the township solicitor who charges other townships less than they charge Northampton. The Three Republicans scratch all the backs of the lawyers and vice versa. Sickening. Disgusting pay-to-play? What do you think? 

The VIDEO PLAYBACKS of various meetings have been manipulated. Some of my addresses to the board have been interrupted during playback.

Supervisor Rothermel has repeatedly explained how neighboring townbships pay less for video service and legal services from the same companies who are hired by Northampton and less from other companies. Neighboring townships put their video and legal contracts up for open bids. The Republican supervisors have not changed their tactics. They refuse to deal with companies other than their politically connected cronies. 

 The Board of Supervisors has 3 Republican; 2 Democrat Supervisors and no effective oversight.

Simple Majority Rule: Three supervisors, the “Troika”, control the Board. That makes it easy to sweep things under the rug, like the township Manager who paid for motel rooms and expensive dinners for two and made off with $125,000. He was caught because someone dropped a dime to the District Attorney, not because of Northampton’s “Phoney Financial Control; not because the auditors or the accounting practices noticed anything wrong.  In fact a kid’s lemonade stand has better control of the money than Northampton Township. DISGUSTING.

The Troika refuses to appoint even one “outsider” to any position in Northampton. I know. I’ve applied since 1995. the issue is oversight. There is no effective oversight of the $54.5 million the Twp and the Water & Sewer people are spending in 2010. The auditors are insiders.

The township attorney is a major contributor to the Republican party. Supervisor Rothermel has constantly complained that the contract is not put up for bid and that the rate paid for legal service is higher than nearby townships pay the same law firm. The three republican supervisors have constantly denied the charges but the rates were published in The Courier.

The Water and Sewer Authority over-charges for water and for sewer service and hides the true cost.

The township is Money-Mad and Power-Crazy.

They collect a fee from people who want building permits even though the permit people are paid with tax money. There is no new expense to review plans and issue permits. None. The Twp budget, meaning the taxes you pay, pays for all the equipmant and supplies, even copy paper. The facts show the money-mad township  collects twice for a building permit. Once from the taxpayers who pay to maintain all the government services and again when they “issue” a permit, which is just a paper form signed by a bureaucrat,  not some gold engraved document issued by Caesar.

The Supervisors bu a 5 to 0 vote approved a fee due from anyone who wants to erect a solar panel. Then they want an anual fee to inspect it. Money-Mad. If the supers want to encourage people to erect solar panels, don’t charge a fee. 

Same for in-home sprinkler systems, a very dubious issue. the Supers change lots of money to issue a building permit to install  sprinklers. then they want more money to inspect them each year, even though the Fire Inspectors are paid by the normal taxes so there are no new  people needed to inspect anything. Money-Mad; Power Humgry. 

The Troika refused to put the 2009 Supervisor Candidate Debates on the local government TV channel. they knew how bad they did and didn’t want people to see it.

Even though they approved televising the debates, they didn’t do it. Telling fibs is not a good thing.

Northampton has forbidden Solar Panels on homes. Here’s more info on the way they operate. They forbid something and will give permission to do the forbidden thing if some money is paid. Solar panels are effectively forbidden. They will try to penalize you if you install them but, and this is a big but because even though solar panels are forbidden they will give you permission to disobey the ordinance if you pay them. If you pay they issue a building permit. Now you can violate the ordinance. So it they say it’s not about the money, ask them if they will give you permission without the money.

Zoning is run by average people with no special knowledge about construction, planning or engineering. Even if they were certified experts in Zoning, and they are not because there is no such certification, they review plans and documents prepared by Architects and Engineers who are experts. Zoning is a disgraceful political tool that is used by politicians who have taken over government to shakedown property owners.  There is nothing Zoning does that is not able to be done better by property owners without the un-necessary interference of the power-mad, interfering township.  

The township officials and/or, certain workers, have stolen thousands of opposition Election Signs including mine, before elections. One supervisor told me: “if your signs are missing, we took ’em”. So I took ’em to Federal Court and won.

Twice they passed an Unconstitutional Sign Ordinance after I warned them twice against it. Twice I took them to Federal Court and twice they changed their unconstitutional ordinances.

They passed an Ordinance mandating “In-Home Sprinklers” because of politics but they do not guarantee anything to people who are forced to obey the Ordinance. No guarantee that a fire will not start, spread or be extinguished. The World Trade Center had sprinklers. So did lots of other buildings that burned to the ground.

Sprinkler owners must get a building permit for a fee, just to install them and agree to more fees for annual inspections. Sprinklers are a new revenue stream for Northampton.

The Troika and the Water/Sewer people will spend $54.5 Million in 2010. They say it’s $12 million.

I developed a plan to eliminate the Township real Estate tax. I gave them a copy of the plan. they didn’t even read it.

They charged residents who opposed their expensive sewer designs $10,000 to connect.

They charged innocent neighbors who did not protest the $10,000 too. More money for the Money Mad Troika and the politicians who have captured the township.

What was the $10,000 connection fee based on?  —>  Meanness. Plain Meanness. They wanted to punish those who questioned the township’s 537 plan. When the sewer plans were discovered, (they were not taling about them) some of the affected residents learned they had installed special expensive septic systems and now they would have to install sewers. They spoke against the Troika and when everything was settled the Troika charged them a $10,000 connecting fee when the normal fee was $2.500. Even the $2,500 is too high. It’s supposed to compensate the long-time residents who built a lot of the sewer system but the residents don’t get the money. The Water & Sewer Authority simply keeps it and some of it goes to overpay the managers.

I offered to manage the Water and Sewer Authority for half, $53,000 a year and was turned down. My resume includes Management and Innovation far in excess of that needed to manage the small water and sewer system.

College Park had current Representative Scott Petri who was the attorney, not the State rep at the time, hired by the residents of College Park to negotiate a 75% reduction in sewer connection fees and to bill the citizens for the  75% savings to his clients. This was done by charging the rest of the community the 75% by adding it to their water and sewer bills. Thanks to some excellent investigation by Supervisor Rothermel the cozy arrangement was discovered. Unfortunately the Troika and the Water and Sewer authority refused to try to lower the costs to the Traymore, West End Project homeowners who were then charged even more, as punishment including an outrageous $10,000 each to connect.

** I know of no better way to predict the future than to use examples from the past and the selling of official influence has been a problem in Northampton long before Rod Blagoyevich tried to sell the Illinois Senate seat.

+ The Water and Sewer Authority is a particularly risible example of the stealth control that marks a broken system. The constant un-necessary tax increases to pay-off political debts show why the Chairman of the Water and Sewer Authority should resign, the building should be torn-down, the bricks crushed to powder and the dust blown over the earth, …… it’s that corrupt.  

The township constantly double dips on taxes. For example it collects taxes and hires people who are paid with the taxes. Then the Twp charges fees for reviewing building permits. A neighbor paid $1,144 for a permit to build a garage.

The Supervisors refused for 20 years, hundreds of requests and offers from me and other non-aligned citizens for appointment to various Boards, Commissions, Historical Commission, Zoning Board, Supervisor, Water and Sewer Authority, Zoning Appeal Board, Planning Commission; Township Manager and numerous Study Groups. Why?  No good answer but no bad answer either. No answer at all. That’s bad manners.

I have voluntarily developed and presented power point presentations on  complicated topics yet no public recognition has ever been made that they even attended the seminars.  

When I tried to get on the ballot for state representative Supervisor James Kinney and Gretel Bliesh filed a petition challenge in Commonwealth Court in Harrisburg. The Judge refused to allow my signature. Joeseph Pizzo was the attorney for Kinney and Bleish, although I think the Republican party paid the bill.  I learned a lot about how the politicians operate to keep people from the ballot and how they purposely keep needed information out of the hands of the public.

Northampton is hostile to business.

Northampton is opposed to business in the home with few exceptions like doctors and dentists.

Northampton demanded so many expensive additions to an existing  dentist office that a new dentist told me she ran to a more expensive location in Newtown rather than agree to what she believed is a corrupt system that shakes down people as often as possible.

Northampton is hostile to change, with some exceptions that seem very political.

A supervisor, prior to becomming Supervisor, and perhaps, probably and possibly but with no evidence, of anything illicet, along with some friends bought the Old Richboro School and sold it for a million more in a few years. Good business? Coincidence? What do you think? .

The same Supervisor sent the Republican committee people all over Bucks an e-mail reminding them to remind the contractors who deal with the local governments how good they do under the Republicans. 

 The same Supervisor was involved with sending a $10,000 letter paid for by the township  but with no authority from any other Supervisor, sent said letter to every home in the township. The letter was about his views on the proposed Giant supermarket. Even if the views were valid, the $10,00 was not supervised very well, really, it was not supervised at all.

Anatomy of Political Salary Increases:

Politicians do not increase salaries by increasing taxes. They are devious. They increase salaries after they pay off a bond issue. They pass bond issues then increase taxes to allegedly pay off the bonds but the tax increase goes on after the bonds are repaid.

Pennsylvania, for example borrowed bond money to construct the Turnpike in 1935. Taxes were increased to pay off the bonds. The bonds were paid off but the taxes remained including tools to allegedly maintain the road. Horse-hockey. Politicians never remove a tax unless they replace it with a higher one.

Where Do the Taxes Go Once The Bonds Are Paid Off?

Everywhere devious. They pay for the so called jobs in the state or the townships. Those jobs are awarded to capture votes for the politico’s. Their families are expected to register Republican and vote republican, fund-faise for Republicans and help republicans with political activity. The money goes into the General Fund which has no effective accounting. Politicians spend all the General Funds then borrow more money with no intention of paying it back to the victimized taxpayers.

It will be different when I’m elected. I will:

First, look at the Home page. There are the reasons I cannot engage in behaviors like those who do the things covered on these pages.

Second, I understand, agree, support and follow the Constitutions of PA and America:

Legislators should protect the Liberty of each citizen; Write Legislation and Work to get “Legacy Legislators to go home.”

I believe legislators should oppose to the limits of their endurance the System wide Corruption in Government

PA legislators should Eliminate Township Real Estate Taxes. I intend to do that.

I’ll work to cut the Budget by selling unused, obsolete and unnecessary property and equipment.

In Northampton, I’ll work to Lease and maybe sell the Bocce Ball Court. It’s a monument to the broken politics and broken management of the township. Like the ugliest cell tower in Buckc County, it’s a visible symbol of the failures of government to protect the people.

I intend to work to cut the budget

I’ll go home myself after two terms.