Compare meeting of January 3, 2005, of Northampton County Council meeting in Easton’s historic Jacob Bachmann Tavern and the FOS (Friends of Steel) report dated February 7, 2005.

At the January 3, 2005, county council meeting, I asked that body to conduct public hearings on the proposed Sands BethWorks Gaming LLC in the South Side neighborhood of Bethlehem on the site of the defunct Bethlehem Steel Corporation.

Council agreed and its president, J. Michael Dowd, who represents the county’s District 2, directed council member Ann McHale, who represents District 1 (the city of Bethlehem and Hellertown Borough) to schedule the time and the place of the first public hearing.

McHale, who officially and on the public record dragged her feet and managed to delay the first public hearing until June 28, 2005, in Foy Hall of Moravian College in the city of Bethlehem’s historic center.

Meanwhile, McHale and her co-conspirators on county council, city of Bethlehem officials like its Mayor John Callahan, Las Vegas Sands Casino executives and principals including Phillipsburg, New Jersey, native and developer Michael Perrucci, were holding ex parte meetings on the proposed Sands BethWorks Gaming LLC project.

These meetings also included Bethlehem City Council President J. Michael Schweder and Pennsylvnia Legislative District 144 representative T. J. Rooney, as well as former state Senator and later Harrisburg lobbyist Joe Uliana.

Schweder and Rooney traveled frequently to the City of Industry, California, where they met with executives of Majestic Realty, which purchased approximately 500 acres of the former Bethlehem Steel Corporation tract known as Bethlehem Center Commons, adjacent to the 126 acres purchased by Sands BethWorks Gaming LLC.

The first expenditure from the illegal $111 million megabond that Northampton County’s equally illegal General Purpose Authority was $13.1 million for the construction of Commerce Center Boulevard between Pennsylvania State Route 412 and the Majestic Realty-owned property.

Schweder, the president of New Jersey and Pennsylvania AT&T is a registered lobbyist in New Jersey, as required by that state’s law, but not in Pennsylvania, which has no law requiring the registration of lobbyists.

Schweder thus occupies conflict-of-interest positions that enable him to influence the installation of AT&T equipment in the entire 1600- to 1800-acre Bethlehem Commons Center/Sands BethWorks Gaming LLC complex.

The FOS Report concludes by telling “[Michael] Perrucci we have faith he will choose the right developer,” meaning the Las Vegas Sands Casino.

Bethlehem City Councilman Robert Donchez, that body’s swing vote approving the zoning changes needed for the Sands casino, signed a “Memorandum of Understanding” with Perrucci that the Pennsylvania Gaming Control board will self-police the casino obviating any need for independent, outside oversight by the Northampton County District Attorney’s office, the Pennsylvania Attorney General, the Pennsylvania State Police, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, or the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

This despite the fact of overwhelming evidence of egregious violations of the federal Racketeering Influenced Corrupt Organizations (RICO) statute.