Brad Osborne unanimously was elected chairman of the Lehigh County commissioners Monday night.
Vic Mazziotti unanimously was elected vice chairman.
No other commissioners were considered for either position during the brief 2015 reorganizational meeting.
And both men were approved with no pre-vote discussion by the other commissioners.
Osborne will take the seat of Lisa Scheller, who has served two years as chairwoman of the nine-member board.
The votes put Republicans, who hold a 7-2 majority on the board, into both leadership positions.
David Jones, the previous vice chairman, is a Democrat.
Both Osborne and Mazziotti will have to win re-election later this year if they intend to remain on the board beyond 2015.
So will fellow Republicans Scheller and Amanda Holt.
Holt was appointed commissioner in July to complete the unexpired term of Commissioner Scott Ott, who resigned last spring to move to Texas.
This will be Osborne’s second stint as chairman of the county commissioners. He held the position in 2012, his first year as a commissioner.
"The board's selections come as no surprise,” said Lehigh County Executive Thomas Muller, after the meeting.
Muller, a Democrat, said he had emailed his congratulations to both Osborne and Mazziotti.
Scheller made the initial nomination of Osborne to succeed her as chair. But Commissioner Percy Dougherty reminded her that, under Robert’s Rules of Order, the chair cannot nominate or make a motion.
Holt then made the motion for Osborne to become chairman and Dougherty seconded it.
After the vote, Osborne thanked his colleagues, saying the position as chairman “requires a lot of trust and entrust.”
He also thanked Scheller for leading the commissioners for the last two years, including through “many difficult discussions.”
He told her: “You’ve helped us come to solutions that serve not only the county but also the taxpayers.”
The commissioners applauded Scheller.
She later thanked them for allowing her to serve as chairwoman, calling it a privilege and an honor.
Scheller said she looks forward to Osborne and Mazziotti leading the board in 2015, adding: “I’m absolutely confident they will do a fantastic job.”
Commissioner Michael Schware nominated Mazziotti to be vice chairman. That was seconded by Jones, who was vice chairman.
After the vote, Mazziotti thanked his colleagues, promised to do his best and commended Jones for the “excellent job” he did as vice-chair.
“I look for his assistance, guidance and support,” said Mazziotti.
One reporter was the only person in the audience at the short public organizational meeting in the county government center in center-city Allentown.
When Scheller adjourned the meeting, Jones declared: “That’s a record.”
“Nine minutes,” said Commissioner Geoff Brace.
“I wanted to have the longest meeting and the shortest meeting,” joked Scheller.
An early October commissioners meeting, on amendments to the 2015 county budget, lasted nearly six hours.
After Monday night’s meeting, Scheller said she decided not to seek the chairmanship again because “I really thought it was time for some new leadership on the board of commissioners.”
New leaders’ goals
At the commissioners' next meeting on Jan. 14, Osborne said he will speak in detail about the direction he would like to lead them in 2015.
But after Monday’s meeting, Osborne said one of his top priority goals will be “to review, shape and — where missing —initiate policy that directly affects the finances of the county, as carried out by the administration.”
He said doing that is a core responsibility of the commissioners. “If we get on it quickly and do our job well, we’re not going to be making what I would call systemic changes when we get to the budget season.”
Osborne said another priority goal will be to reconstitute commissioners’ committee meetings, which usually are held in rapid succession beginning at 5:30 p.m. on the same nights when their semi-monthly full board meetings begin at 7:30 p.m.
“I want to make them more productive,” he said of the committee meetings. “At times in these meetings, we end up asking questions about missing information rather than considering the merits of the legislation.”
Osborne would like to get questions answered before a committee meets. He added: “A natural consequence of that is we’re not meeting for the first time and talking about legislation that we’re going to end up voting on later that night.”
Mazziotti previously voiced his objection to issues going before the full board for action on the same night they go before commissioners’ committees for the first time.
Asked about his 2015 priorities as vice-chairman after the meeting, Mazziotti said commissioners need to be more proactive about developing policy.
He said one top policy goal for this year will be determining the future of the county-owned Cedarbrook nursing homes.
“For too long, the commissioners kicked that can down the road,” said Mazziotti. “Even in years when the county actually made a profit at Cedarbrook, there was real reluctance to put serious money into refurbishing the facility.”
He said Cedarbrook’s staff provides very good care, but the place has too much of an institutional feel —“it doesn’t feel like a home.”
Mazziotti said Cedarbrook has four residents sharing rooms and they have to go down a hall to go to the bathroom.
“We need to find a solution,” he said. “And we need to do it in such a way that we can keep the subsidy under control at the same time.”
Mazziotti noted commissioners will appoint a task force of industry experts to help them address what should be done about Cedarbrook.
“But bottom line, it becomes the responsibility of the commissioners to determine how we’re going to proceed,” he said.
Mazziotti said another core issue for commissioners in 2015 will be to continue looking at the county’s finances. “I think we’re on a pretty good path, but we need to make sure we stay on that path.”
Like Osborne, Mazziotti has been a county commissioner since 2012. This will be his first term as vice chairman of the board.
The 59-year-old Osborne is plant manager at GEO Specialty Chemicals in South Whitehall Township.
Before being elected a county commissioner, Osborne was on the South Whitehall board of commissioners from 2005 to 2012, including serving more than three years as president of that board
Before retiring, the 68-year-old Mazziotti was director of fiscal affairs for Northampton County for five years.
Before that, he said, he worked in the private sector for 20 years, mostly with software companies.
Meeting schedule approved
The commissioners also approved their 2015 meeting schedule during Monday’s organizational meeting.
They meet twice a month, usually at 7:30 p.m. on the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month.
But Dougherty noted there will be some exceptions in 2015.
They will meet on Sept. 24, a Thursday; they will meet on Nov. 10 and 24, both Tuesdays, and their second December meeting will be on Dec. 16.
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