Happy New Year from Saucon Shenanigans and congratulations to Chad Heimbecker and Hunter Gress, our two new Lower Saucon Township council members. Chad and Hunter were sworn in prior to the annual reorganizational meeting on Monday, January 5 after running excellent grass roots campaigns that connected with LST residents. Sometimes it doesn’t matter how much PAC money you have behind you or how many signs you put out if what you’re selling isn’t what voters want. Bravo, Chad and Hunter!
The first order of business for reorganization was the election of Council officers. Victoria Opthof-Cordaro was elected President and Priscilla deLeon was elected Vice President. The 28 reorganizational resolutions were adopted unanimously. This is standard practice since most of the resolutions cover appointments such as for authorities, boards and committees and policies such as agenda policy and code of conduct which are generally carryovers from the previous year or which have already been identified in the 2026 budget such as salaries for employees. The details on all of these resolutions can be found attached to the agenda for the January 5 meeting.
Of especial interest was the execution of two different contracts for in-depth assessment of the township’s organizational and financial structures. One is to be conducted by the Meyner Center for the Study of State and Local Governments at Lafayette College. It will consist of two phases. Phase 1 will provide a financial impact analysis regarding the potential closure of Bethlehem Landfill and Phase 2 will perform an organizational assessment to support revenue transition strategies. As the proposal points out “financial projections alone cannot account for the operational capacity, governance systems, and stakeholder engagement necessary to execute major revenue transitions—Phase 2 addresses these critical implementation factors.” The anticipated timeline is January through Fall 2026 at a cost of $18-22,000.
The second assessment will be conducted by the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission. The impact assessment will include “the area in and around the landfill, as well as, to review current planning tools and suggest processes and timelines for any updates to the zoning, subdivision and land development ordinances and the comprehensive plan.” As Becky Bradley correctly points out, “a clear, documented assessment of assets and constraints, prioritized and recommended actions is critical to quality decision-making by the Township.” The assessment will take up to a year at a cost of $10,000 to the Township with the LVPC absorbing an additional $10,000 in cost.
$32,000 is a very reasonable cost for two in-depth, third-party assessments of the township’s financial, organizational and planning capabilities and options. It is exactly this kind of neutral study that should have been undertaken before the previous Council leadership even entertained the expansion of the dump, rather than the slipshod, back-of-envelope numbers that were created to scare the Township into dump expansion. The new Council should be applauded for seeking out professional assessments to do long-range planning for the township.
In other Council business, the Council elected Ms. deLeon to be the voting delegate at the annual PSATS (PA State Association of Township Supervisors) Conference, passed a resolution supporting the Pennsylvania Commission for the United States Semiquincentennial, adopted an emergency notifications policy, adopted a confidentiality policy, and executed a vehicle use agreement with LSFR (Lower Saucon Fire Rescue).
Regarding the vehicle use agreement, Mr. Gress voluntarily recused himself from voting on the agreement as he is a member of LSFR. However, Solicitor Goudzousian explained that Mr. Gress was not required to recuse himself since there was no financial conflict related to the agreement but rather that it was Mr. Gress’ choice.
An executive session was held subsequent to the completion of the agenda and before Council adjourned. Upon return to the meeting room, Council voted 5-0 to condemn two properties – 2226 Nursery Lane and 2170 Johnston Ave.
The entire agenda for the initial reorganizational meeting, the general business meeting, and the executive session was completed by 8:30 PM – two hours – proving that when council members behave in a professional manner and work collegially that council meetings can be accomplished in an efficient and effective manner.
This comes as good news to those of us who had bypassed Council meetings over the past year because of the belligerent, insulting and childish behavior of the two men who are no longer on Council. You may be wondering if this will be an ongoing problem. Based on how Ms. Opthof-Cordaro handled the meeting on January 5, I would say “no” and we can all safely return to in-person attendance. Several of the previous disruptive community members were present at the January 5 meeting and did make uninformed comments during the public comment periods. However, Ms. Opthof-Cordaro and the remaining Council members treated the public comment period as just that, an opportunity for the public to make comments, restricted to 3 minutes, without engaging in dialogue or argument with the commenters, even when their comments were incorrect.
Just to be clear, Solicitor Goudzousian clarified that the confidentiality policy that the Council adopted was in no way in conflict with whistleblower laws as Ms. Slavick incorrectly claimed nor was it the equivalent of an NDA (non-disclosure agreement) as Mr. Boulin incorrectly identified it. From my own experience, most well-run companies and non-profit organizations have confidentiality policies. It’s certainly reasonable that a governmental organization would have one too that would cover its employees’ handling of confidential information.
Ms. Garber, lawyer for the dump, commented that if the two agreements for assessments of the Township include recommendations for future plans, that Ms. Opthof-Cordaro should be recused from voting on any such recommendations because her parents were litigants in one lawsuit at the beginning of the issues with the dump expansion. This is a subject that has been dealt with previously by the Solicitor and her claims of conflict-of-interest are bogus. But hey, if you have a dead horse, you might as well beat the heck out of it!
It looks like we’re off to a good start this year! We should all be grateful to those township residents who voted for Mr. Heimbecker and Mr. Gress and in favor of good governance. The next meeting is Wednesday, January 21 at 6:30 PM. See you all there.
Next Township Council Meeting Wednesday, January 21 – 6:30 PM