Clones Take Over Northampton County Government
Billy Givens

Northampton County Councilman Greg Zebrowski cloned himself onto the county’s General Purpose Authority (GPA). The GPA is one of County Executive Glenn Reibman’s corrupt “shadow governments”, the kind Reibman pledged to abolish when he first sought the exec’s job in 1997. In that 1997 election, Zebrowski was Reibman’s campaign manager, or co-campaign manager, since the indicted Michael Solomon also managed Reibman’s campaign that year. The co-management team of Zebrowski and Solomon was cozy because the two were already business partners in Bethlehem before joining Reibman’s campaign. Not until Councilman Ron Angle and unsuccessful candidate this year for Reibman’s executive seat exposed Solomon’s official misconduct as a dual county - Raymond James megabond underwriter did the business partnership between Solomon and Zebrowski end. The latter accused the former of forging Zebrowski’s signature to business documents.

Cloned with Zebrowski onto the GPA were Councilwoman Marilyn Lieberman and Reibman himself. The three were all artificially inseminated in the Petrie dishes and test tubes of assistants Jim Hickey, Vince Dominach, bond counsel Jeff Blumenfeld, and Wayne Grube. These Government Center laboratory technicians also cloned Lieberman onto another “shadow government”, the Industrial Development Authority (IDA). There, as chairwoman and assisted by co-chairman Bruce Davis, the IDA brought “bipartisan” effort to bear on reviving a wounded Williams Township BallYard, as contractors and their crews gunned pickups, wheels spinning, leaving the field of dreams in a cloud of red dust, red ink, and uncompensated work. Wallets bulged not with pay, but with the politicians’ broken promises and the departing pickups’ rearview mirrors filled with the BallYard’s half-erected shell building, commonly known as a thimblerig.

Such is the work of the clones. Those on the IDA also gave Easton Mayor Thomas Goldsmith and New York impresario Theodore Kheel $2.35 million toward the construction of a parking garage next to the former Hotel Easton, now owned by Kheel’s tax-exempt organization Earth Pledge. Kheel needs a publicly financed garage for the stretch limos transporting his organized labor pals like former Teamster Union President Ron Carey from the Big Apple to Kheel’s re-opened hotel. The limo drivers, of course, are Teamster Union members. Kheel sold his Alliance credit card to Carey’s million-plus members, turning Kheel a handsome profit. As payback, Kheel gave Carey a $20,000 illegal campaign contribution. Carey, Kheel and other labor biggies are currently under federal investigation.

Sound familiar? Of course it does. It’s the kind of criminal activity that led to the indictment of Reibman political guru Michael Solomon, architect of the $125 million megabond the GPA currently attempts to float on the New York Stock Exchange.

It’s the kind of activity that ties Reibman in with Browning-Ferris Industries and Waste Management Inc., both headquartered in Houston, Texas, the trash haulers-disposers that have multi-million dollar contracts to haul debris from Staten Island’s Freshkill Landfill to Northampton County’s three landfills. Reibman keeps the county’s Solid Waste Advisory Committee dormant, the tipping fees charged the landfill owner-operators low (50 cents a ton as opposed to $6.00 a ton in neighboring Monroe County) and receives generous campaign contributions as payment for these services.

Reibman also receives campaign contributions from the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corporation (LVEDC), yet another Reibman “shadow government”, also under investigation with Michael Solomon, and from former LVEDC officer Elmer Gates, a prominent Republican fund-raiser.

And when Solomon violates the terms of his probation, and Northampton County Judge issues a bench warrant for the indictee’s arrest, Northampton County’s District Attorney John Morganelli quashes the warrant.

There are many unanswered questions here. Though megabond underwriter Raymond James has already sold these securities (the Northampton County bond issue) on the NYSE, Northampton County must not be allowed to close the sale. THE SALE MUST NOT BE CONSUMMATED, although Bethlehem Mayor Don Cunningham and Bethlehem Steel President and CEO Robert S. Miller are already locked in a major butt-kicking contest over how to spend $13 million of the megabond on BethWorks infrastructure.

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