Asa Hughes of Lowhill Township was voted off the board of Lehigh County Authority Wednesday night.
The 76-year-old Hughes has served 10 years on the board, including at least five years as its chairman.
He was seeking to be reappointed to a third five-year term by Lehigh County commissioners Wednesday night.
They voted 6-3 against reappointing him.
“There had to be a sacrificial lamb,” said Hughes after the vote.
He believes commissioners voted against him because he voted for the 2013 water/sewer lease between LCA and Allentown.
Most commissioners opposed that lease deal.
A few commissioners who voted against Hughes said they did so because he previously told them he might not be interested in serving his full five-year term if reappointed.
Commissioner Amanda Holt, for example, said she wants someone who will be committed to serving the full five years.
The vote on Hughes was one of four taken on reappointing LCA board members.
Commissioners also rejected reappointing Brian Nagle of Macungie by a 6-3 vote.
But they proposed working out a deal with county Executive Thomas Muller that would keep Nagle on LCA’s board.
They suggested Muller could recommend they appoint Nagle to fill the five-year vacancy created by Hughes being voted off the board.
In exchange for Nagle getting back on the board, the commissioners want to pick their own LCA board member to complete Nagle’s four-year term.
Brad Osborne, chairman of the nine commissioners, said he will make that proposal to the county executive Thursday.
Some commissioners said they want change and “new blood” on LCA’s nine-member board. But if they would reappoint Nagle, they will only create one vacancy.
Two other LCA board members were reappointed: Scott Bieber of Upper Milford Township and Norma Cusick of Salisbury Township.
The commissioners’ votes proved they were not determined to clean house at LCA by removing any members of its board who voted in favor of the 2013 water/sewer lease with Allentown.
Although Bieber voted for that lease, the commissioners voted for him unanimously.
Cusick, the only LCA board member who voted against the $211 million lease with the city, also unanimously was reappointed.
Many of the nine county commissioners were unhappy with the 2013 Allentown water/lease with LCA, especially because they unsuccessfully tried to stop it.
At that time, they were told their only recourse would be to dissolve LCA or not reappoint those LCA board members who voted for the lease.
Commissioner Lisa Scheller noted nearly half the LCA board — four of its nine members — was up for reappointment at the meeting.
Said Scheller: “Do I think that half the board needs to turn over? I don’t necessarily feel that everyone on the board needs to be replaced.”
Commissioner David Jones told LCA officials in the audience that appointing its board members is the only authority the county commissioners have to hold LCA’s board accountable.
Jones warned them not to be surprised “if that accountability gets exercised.”
He continued: “You’re not entitled to those positions. Those positions are granted to you by the good graces and trust of this board.”
Jones also said the commissioners were not exercising their authority only because of the Allentown water lease.
“This isn’t a board run amuck,” Jones told LCA.“This is a board operating within the scope of authority that the [county] charter has given it.”
Voting Hughes out
The only commissioners who voted for Hughes were Jones, Percy Dougherty and Geoff Brace.
Commissioner Vic Mazziotti announced he would be voting no on reappointing Hughes, but added it was not a vote of no-confidence. He thanked Hughes for his service and said his vote is not a criticism of his work on the LCA board.
Although he also voted no, Osborne told Hughes: “I can’t believe your credentials. They are just amazing.”
When Hughes stood to briefly address commissioners just before they voted, he said he appreciated the kind words.
He even thanked them, saying he thoroughly enjoyed being on LCA’s board. “I appreciate the opportunity that I’ve had.”
Hughes maintained LCA is a transparent organization and declared: “I’m very proud of what LCA has done.”
Immediately after Hughes’ reappointment was rejected, Osborne thanked him for his service to the community.
Nagle could take Hughes seat?
The only commissioners who voted to reappoint Nagle were Holt, Brace and Jones.
Jones voted for Nagle because he does not believe the commissioners will succeed in making their proposed “compromise negotiation” with the county executive.
Despite voting against keeping Nagle on LCA’s board, Osborne said the sense of the commissioners is that if the county nominates Nagle to fill Hughes’ seat, “this board would look upon it favorably.”
Commissioner Michael Schware said if Muller would recommend reappointing Nagle, “I would gladly consider that and would probably vote positively for it.”
But Schware later added he could support that only if Muller allows the commissioners to appoint someone to serve the rest of Nagle’s term.
“There has to be some give and take,” said Schware.
Dougherty wants to see Nagle reappointed and said he could go along Schware’s proposal. Scheller also liked it.
Brace said Nagle would be at the top of his list “if I had to rank the candidates and choose my favorite.”
Bieber spoke up for Nagle, who was not at the meeting.
He said Nagle has impeccable environmental credentials and is not reluctant to present “contrarian points of view, which is healthy for our board.
“However you work this out, I hope Mr. Nagle remains on our board,” Bieber told commissioners.
If Nagle had been reappointed, he would only have served on LCA’s board for four years, because action on his reappointment had been delayed for a year.
Former commissioner speaks for Hughes
“Asa Hughes is an engineer whose talents are extraordinary on the board,” said Emrich Stellar, an LCA board member who was not up for reappointment. “Asa Hughes is a wonderful leader.”
Stellar, a former county commissioner, said: “I don’t like where the conversation’s going because we really would have a dramatic loss without Asa — or any of my fellow board members.”
Stellar said all LCA board members have “climbed the hill” to acquire an extraordinary amount of knowledge needed to understand the complexity of issues handled by the regional water and sewer authority.
He said all four LCA directors up for reappointment would be difficult to replace because of their baseline knowledge “of what the heck they’re talking about when it comes to water and wastewater.”
Residents speak against Hughes and LCA
Resident David McGuire told commissioners he was representing the Little Lehigh Watershed Coalition, the Sierra Club and other environmental organizations and said: “I’ve been asked to recommend that you not vote for reappointment of Mr. Hughes.”
McGuire said those organizations have attended many meetings involving the quality of Little Lehigh Creek that were either run by or attended by LCA officials.
He said those organizations and the input offered by people in them should be respected but indicated they are not.
“We urge you not to reappoint a person who is too closely aligned with the negative face of LCA,” said McGuire.
“When it comes to the Little Lehigh Creek, it stinks,” declared McGuire. “It stinks because you can smell the sewage, time after time, in the creek.”
He said LCA has put “more Band-Aids on the Band-Aids” but “the creek still stinks. It’s not fit to let your children in.
“We’re sick of that kind of attitude toward this great community resource. The policies of an organization are set by its board.”
Resident Robert Hamill also encouraged commissioners to “at least” deny Hughes his board position “and force management turnover.”
Hamill, who lives along the Little Lehigh, said he has addressed LCA’s board a couple of times, even though it meets at noon on Mondays. But he maintained that, even before he said anything at those meetings, Hughes told him: “I am not going to listen to anything you say.”
Said Hamill: “A politically responsible organization would not act like a bully in a class.”
Said resident Joe Hilliard: “LCA has not been accountable to any entity. They act in a very arrogant fashion.”
Bieber’s pitch
Bieber told commissioners he wanted to be reappointed because he wants to continue overseeing three major projects that are unprecedented in the history of LCA.
They are the Allentown water/sewer lease, increasing sewage treatment capacity for future growth in the county and complying with a federal order to “tighten up” sewer lines to stop sewage overflows into Little Lehigh Creek.
Bieber explained his vote on the controversial water/sewer lease with Allentown before any of the commissioners asked him about it
He said Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski was dead set on leasing those systems “and I thought it was vitally important that we maintain local control of the city water system rather than having it leased out to a private company.”
“LCA is certainly the best party to run this thing, especially since we’re so integrated with the city already,” said Bieber. “We’re tied in with them with water and sewer.”
The water/sewer lease
Early in the long discussion about the reappointments, Jones suggested comments be limited to the qualifications of the four candidates being considered, “rather than re-litigating what we can’t put back in the box”: the water and sewer lease between Allentown and LCA.
“Even debating that question at this point is moot,” said Commissioner Vic Mazziotti. “It’s over; it’s done. There’s nothing we can do to change what’s been done.”
Mazziotti also said payback isn’t an appropriate reason for voting against somebody.
But Jones acknowledged that issue still might be relevant to some commissioners weighing the reappointments.
Schware said the lease is relevant to the debate on the reappointments “because it gives us an idea of how they voted on things.”
Schware’s position on LCA
Schware said LCA is an organization sorely in need of change, with a board of directors that is not taking care of things — including environmental and customer service issues.
He said when he asked Aurel Arndt, LCA’s chief executive officer, when the sewage overflow problem in Allentown’s Lehigh Parkway would be corrected, Arndt essentially told him: “We’ll get to it when we get to it.”
Said Schware: “That’s not acceptable to me.”
He said LCA was under a federal EPA administrative order to end that problem before the end of 2014, but waited until November to apply for an extension.
Arndt was in the audience at the meeting but did not stand to respond to the commissioner’s criticisms.
Schware also accused LCA of “hiding behind municipal immunity” when sewer line back-ups caused tens of thousands of dollars in damages to the homes of senior citizens living in west Allentown. “That issue still isn’t resolved.”
Noting that Muller serves on the LCA board to which he is recommending other appointees, Schware said that is an obvious conflict of interest. “It give him a power no other member on that board has.”
A legal opinion
Some commissioners hoped they would be able to select an LCA board member, because Nagle’s reappointment should have been reconsidered when his term on LCA’s board expired at the end of 2013.
Deputy county solicitor Catharine Roseberry said the county charter requires an appointment be made by the county executive within 90 days of a vacancy.
“However, the county executive does not lose his ability to appoint once the 90 days has passed,” she said.
She said if commissioners vote against Nagle, as they did, Muller still could appoint someone else before the commissioners would do so.
“Once the county executive has submitted a name, you do not have the ability to propose another name at the same time,” said Roseberry.
She indicated commissioners could put forth their own candidate only after rejecting the person recommended by the executive.
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