After hearing objections to extending the charter of the Lehigh County Authority, Lehigh County Board of Commissioners, on the advice of county Director of General Services Richard Molchany, passed a resolution March 28 to schedule an information-gathering hearing before the next regular meeting.

“There are some scary numbers here,” commissioners President Marty Nothstein said in support of Molchany’s suggestion.

“We need to take as long as necessary,” Commissioner Amy Zanelli said. “I’m not going to rush this kind of decision.”

To clarify LCA’s request, LCA CEO Liesel Gross told commissioners that, in reality, the so-called 50-year charter extension was really an extension of 19 years to the current charter.

Leading the objections was Joe Hilliard, who presented a litany of reasons why the extension should not be granted.

Among Hilliard’s impassioned allegations was the claim that LCA is “bankrupt.”

“Wait for the next audit,” Hilliard said. “If there is another $10 million loss, we’ll see a pattern. They are digging a financial hole. The solution is that LCA declare bankruptcy.”

Hilliard urged commissioners to dissolve the LCA and form a new one with “more oversight and control.” If commissioners fail to do this, Hilliard argued the county should bring the water and sewer authority in-house.

Suggesting future legal action, Hilliard said, “We’re going to be pointing the finger at anyone who backs this. Any of you who vote to extend [the LCA charter] will be added to that list of dishonor.”

As a minimum, Hilliard suggested commissioners ask the LCA’s board of directors to resign before the commissioners extend the LCA’s charter. He accused the LCA Board of Directors of “being incompetent or complicit in a fiscal crime.”

Gross, appearing a second time before commissioners during the March 28 meeting, countered allegations by Hilliard that LCA is bankrupt.

“We’re not bankrupt,” Gross said. “We’ve met all bond payments.”

In another contentious matter, Lehigh County administration’s attempt to, according to Director of Community and Economic Development Frank Kane, “please” the commissioners by reclassifying the job title and revising the pay sources of Lehigh County Public Information Officer Joshua Siegel led to a series of questions. Commissioner Brad Osborne asked why $25,000 might be moved from the rainy day fund to make up the balance of public information officer’s $67,725 salary for the year.

Kane, to whom Siegel reports, tried to respond to questions about the hiring procedures that were used to hire Siegel as the county’s public information officer.

“Was the position advertised?” Osborne asked. “Were any resumes reviewed? Have we ever treated another employee like this?”

Kane responded in the negative.

In the end, commissioners passed a motion to reconsider the bill titled “Creating a New Job Classification of Communications Manager and Reclassifying the Position of Public Information Officer” sponsored by Commissioner Amy Holt. It will be on the agenda again for the next regular meeting.

This will give the Lehigh County administration more time to prepare answers to questions about the position and how it was filled.

Lehigh County’s personnel policies and procedures rules require that “job vacancies open to the general public shall be filled through open competitive selection.”

In other business, commissioners reappointed fellow Commissioner Percy Dougherty, of Lower Macungie Township, and Christine Weaver, of Catasauqua, to Lehigh Valley Planning Commission. Commissioners also appointed Michael Gibson, of Emmaus, to the planning commission.