Springtime Follies
Billy Givens
4/13/2004
Like Roman centurions on Calvary, rolling dice for the possession of Jesus'
robe, the Council members of Northampton County gamble over its tattered finances.
This Thursday, April 15, 2004, Council is scheduled once again to refinance
the county's illegal $111 million bond, after tabling this dangerously risky
venture in each of its last two meetings - ignoring the pleadings of Blank,
Rome, Comisky, and McCauley bond counsel Jeff Blumenfeld, and responding instead
to the warnings of opponent of the refinancing scheme.
If interest rates are high by the time of the 2012 call date (remember the
17% interest rates during the Iranian oil crisis of the late 1970's?), Blank
Rome will make a killing on the bond refinancing scheme while bankrupting Northampton
County. Similar financial risk-taking bankrupted Orange County, California,
during the 1990's.
The refinancing coincides with this spring's 2004 Easter/Passover season, on
the second anniversary of Northampton County Councilman Ron Angle's crucifixion
in the County's Courtroom 1 for alleged anti-Semitic comments made on his Saturday
morning WAEB-FM talk/call-in radio show.
Angle's crucifixion was the pretext for removing him as chair of Council's
finance committee. He was seen by his fellow County officials, including his
five Republican cohorts, as a threat to the $111 million bond. Its issuer, the
County's General Purpose Authority (GPA), had already been exposed as violative
of Pennsylvania's Municipality Authorities Act of 1945 as amended and of the
County's Home Rule Charter - violations that invalidated the bond.
From January 10, 2002, with formal written evidence submitted by the writer
of this article to County Council exposing as unlawful the GPA and its bond,
until March 7, 2002, immediately following its sacrifice of Angle, Council,
on the recommendation of its solicitor Brian Monahan, approved spurious amendments
to the 1998 articles incorporating the GPA. Though Angle's Judas Iscariots on
Council failed to remove him from that body, they did succeed in stripping him
of his positions as finance committee chair and Council vice-president.
These specious amendments came in the form of an ordinance, drafted by County
Council member Tim Merwarth, who succeeded Angle as finance committee chairman,
and Nick Sabatine, Council's newly appointed chairman of its economic development
committee. Merwarth and Sabatine introduced their ordinance, at the behest of
Council president J. Michael Dowd at Council's meeting of February 21, 2002.
This was two days prior to Angle's February 23rd radio broadcast, chosen by
his enemies including The Morning Call and The Express-Times as
the Gethsemane Garden of his betrayal. Every day thereafter, for 12 days, up
to the crucifixion date of March 7, 2002, the presses rolled relentlessly, finally
sealing Angle's tomb.
Fortunately for Northampton County's taxpayers, however, Angle has been resurrected
on Jolly Joe Timmer's WGPA-AM talk/call-in radio show (8 -10 AM, Mon. - Thurs.,
1100 on the radio dial), on which he and callers like Ken Nagy of Forks Township
have exposed the fiscal dangers of the $111 million bond's refinancing.
The diabolical purpose of this refinancing scheme is a desperate need for immediate
cash flow (the purpose of all derivative or "swaption" refinancing schemes)
to fund the County's proposed $40 million bond for purported Open Space, but
in reality another Open Wallet bond issue for Northampton County taxpayers -
and a $100,000 refinancing fee for the County's resident bond counsel - Blank
Rome.
Blank Rome's Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and managing partner is David F.
Girard-diCarlo, a George W. Bush "Ranger" committed to raising $200,000 personally
for the President's re-selection, and together with Pennsylvania's 5 other Rangers,
of raising in excess of $200 million for Bush's campaign war chest. The other
Rangers are: