At an Oct. 2 meeting, Northampton County Council President Peg Ferraro asked Executive John Brown to compromise on his health plan cuts for the County workforce. He declined. A majority of council adopted a resolution calling on Brown to give a little. He said No.

Union agent Justus James asked Brown to sit down and just talk to him. Brown demurred, according to James. In three crowded Council meetings, workers have alternatively criticized and begged Brown for help. At their Oct. 16 meeting, he declined to answer their concerns or even provide an Executive Report.

So Lamont McClure urged fellow council members to do something that workers have not - strike.

He has proposed refusing to conduct any business beyond what is absolutely necessary until Brown finally agrees to sit down and talk. Thanks to an absent Republican Seth Vaughn, McClure got his way, for at least one night.

For the third time in three meetings, council met in Courtroom #1 to accommodate the 100-plus crowd of county employees who came to protest cuts in their medical benefits.

But before hearing from them, council approved some pathology services for Coroner Zach Lysek and some changes in the emergency generator project at Gracedale. Those were both noncontroversial and passed with little discussion.

Then, after listening to the complaints of the county's frustrated workforce, council returned to its agenda.

The first item of business was a Geissinger-inspired ordinance that would give all council members a $1,000 pay cut so they could all share in the pain already being inflicted on the workforce. Almost as soon as the ordinance was introduced, McClure moved to table it. Ferraro, no fan of pay cuts, quickly joined all Democrats to provide the fifth vote.

Then McClure explained what he was doing. Noting that Brown has refused to compromise or even discuss rolling back his health plan cuts, he suggested council should just stop conducting business. "We ought to table anything that isn't essential to the government of Northampton County," he said.

And that's pretty much exactly what happened.

What wasn't tabled, failed.

The three Democrats quickly followed McClure's lead. Republicans, and Ferraro in particular, seemed completely shocked by what had just happened.

What particularly upset Ferraro was a noncontroversial $30 million loan arrangement with St. Luke's Hospital in Bethlehem Township, through the county's General Purpose Authority. These kinds of loans, involving hospitals and colleges, are common. It's a form of tax exempt financing in which the county is never on the hook for a dollar. It actually benefits the county because it can use the administration fees to fund other projects of its own in the county.

"Motion to table," stated McClure. That stalled in a 4-4 vote with Democrats and Republicans deadlocked.

As Council Clerk Fran Flisser called out the names, an exasperated Ferraro asked McClure, "Do you realize what you're doing to St. Luke's Hospital?"

Though the motion to table failed, the resolution was rejected. By a 6 to 2 vote, with only Ferraro and fellow Republican Hayden Phillips voting yes, Northampton County Council dealt a setback to St. Luke's and any other hospital or college interested in arranging financing through the county.

"You have just rejected hundreds of thousands of dollars to Northampton County," an astonished Ferraro said to the no votes.

This is a first. At no time has Northampton Council ever voted to reject this kind of financing arrangement, which involves no risk to the county and results in administration fees.

But McClure had only just begun.

The next item on the agenda was a resolution to approve the reclassification of a position in Human Services. A budget analyst would now be called an accountant, with no extra pay to show for it.

"Motion to table," said McClure again. This time, Geissinger joined the Democrats, and in a 5-3 vote, the reclassification was halted.

After the meeting, Brown accused Democrats of "pandering to the employee base," while McClure told Express Times reporter Tom Shortell that he only wants Brown to sit down and negotiate these health plan cuts.