Today’s edition of The Excess-Times (kisses officialdom’s ass to excess at all times) performs that service again for Pennsylvania’s Northampton County Council members (excepting District 4 Councilman Ron Angle).

Reporter Sarah Cassi, through no fault of her own but based apparently on faulty information provided by County Council Clerk Frank Flisser, wrote:

“The race for Northampton County Council is a game of political poker with voters wondering why who’s in and who’s out.”

The Billy Bytes publications’s editor-founder and County Council District 2 candidate in this year’s elections, Billy Givens, a College Hill neighborhood outcast, not of the Brahmin class, wondered “who’s in and who’s out” as soon as he read Sarah’s article.

As reported, “Five seats are open this year” [on county council] year.”  However, four, not “three” of these are “district seats held by council members Ron Angle (District 4); J. Michael Dowd, District 2, including the county seat of Easton, a city of the so-called “second class” ; Ann McHale, District 1, which includes the county’s other second-class city and Hellertown Borough, and one, not “two at-large seats held by Tony Branco.

The Excess-Times‘ report that Councilman Lamont McClure holds an at-large position is inaccurate; he represents District 3, which includes Bethlehem Township, replacing Councilman Mike Corriere whom County Executive John Stoffa appointed to his executive branch as head of the Public Defender’s Office, replacing Judge Leonard Zito whom county council appointed as its solicitor.

So see, reader, why you may not know “who’s in and who’s out”?

As for the inaccurate candidate information Frank Flissher imparted to The Excess-Times, his confusion may arise from the severe stroke he suffered immediately following the request by Givens of the official paperwork submitted to the county by Allentown-whitehall Township assisted-living facilities’ developer Abraham Atiyeh  seeking a Keystone Opportunity Zone (KOZ) tax exemption for his Cinema Paradiso movie theater building on S. 3rd St. and proposed federal General Services Administration/Social Security Administration building on S. 4th St.

Givens’ request led to an altercation in county council chambers, involving Department of Community and Economic  Development employee and Industrial Development Authority Coordinator John Kingsley, who always attends council meetings with and lobbying for developers like Easton Ventures and Arcadia Properties seeking tax abatements.

The brouhaha prompted Council President Mike Dowd to adjourn the meeting, which then spilled out of council chambers,  across the 4th floor Government Center corridor, and into the Community and Economic/Industrial Development Authority - where requests by developers for KOZ-type and TIF (Tax Incremental Financing) requests are on file.

Before Givens could located the file, he was accosted by two deputy sheriffs who said he would be the subject of an “incident report” and then escorted him from the Government Center premises.

Later, when Givens returned to the center to request a copy of the report, deputies told him no such report existed, and when he then visited Easton City Council to request a copy of the letter County District Attorney John M. Morganelli had written that body urging it to approve Atiyeh’s KOZ request, the city clerk complained to Easton Police Chief Stephen Mazzeo and District Justice (Judge) Gay Elwell that Givens had harassed him

Whereupon the officials formally charged Givens and ordered him to appear in District Court for a hearing and disposition of the charge.  Disposition of the charge was “dismissal.”

On May 15, 2007, Republican primary, Givens has announced that he will seek the County Council District 2 seat, challening incumbent Mike Dowd, not personally since Givens and Dowd are friends, but on the issues.

Givens hopes he will be joined by other candidates seeking the removal of incumbents Lamont McClure, Ann McHale, Tony Branco, DA Morganelli, and County Controller John Schimmel, the last of these for reasons not revealed here but that will be in the various Billy Bytes publications as the campaign progresses.