In a strongly worded resolution that reads more like an indictment, Northampton County Council issued a harsh rebuke to the county’s embattled General Purpose Authority (GPA) at its June 21 meeting. By an 8-0 vote, with Peg Ferraro abstaining, members are asking for the resignations of GPA Chair Shawn Langen and GPA solicitor John Lushis. They have also requested this independent body to refrain from marketing public private partnerships, also known as P3s, to other entities.

Earlier that day, Peg Ferraro resigned from the GPA, followed by J. Michael Dowd. Both are former county council presidents.

Northampton County’s seven-member GPA, first established in 1999, has traditionally acted as a conduit for both taxable and tax exempt bonds to help finance public and private projects, mostly with hospitals and universities. It also provides loans and grants. All this changed in 2016, it became the lead agency in a public private partnership plan (P3) to refurbish or replace 33 county-owned bridges at a cost of $38 million, with the work being done by Kriger Construction. Although the bridge project itself appears to be on track, the problems began when former Executive John Brown decided to employ John Lushis - already solicitor for the GPA - to research an expansion of P3 to other projects without approval from county council.

Lushis and his law firm (Norris, McLaughlin and Marcus) have received $813,039 from their affiliation with the GPA in 2016 and 2017. This includes $153,343 for “special legal services” in 2017. This arrangement was contrary to the County’s Administrative Code. There was no competitive negotiation, no written contract, and nothing is on file in Procurement. Though Brown paid over $100,000, he never sought Council approval. No final report was filed.

When Lamont McClure took office as County Executive, he stopped paying Lushis’s bills, as well as another set of bills from GPA Chair Shawn Langen. The GPA responded by hiring yet another set of lawyers from Philadelphia in April who billed $30,000 for 20 days of work, and are seeking permission to sue the County.

In the meantime, former Executive Brown and Lushis have been marketing P3 projects to other entities. uctantly

Calling the GPA a “rogue authority,” Executive McClure asked County Council to review what is going on, and Finance Committee Chair conducted a meeting on June 20. GPA Chair Shawn Langen had complained that the meeting would be nothing more than a “dog and pony show,” but at a special meeting convened on June 18, he reluctantly agreed to attend.

When it was established during that meeting that former Executive Brown was paying Lushis in contravention of the Administrative Code, and from a fund that was supposed to be used for a jail study, Council President Ken Kraft called it a “misappropriation of county funds. This is spending something we never approved, he declared. “What we approved was an update to a decade or so old jail study that was done under the John Stoffa administration,” added John Cusick. “At no point was it ever brought to Council that this would be done as part of a P3 project.”

Throughout the meeting, GPA Chair Langen kept suggesting that County Council lacks the understanding that he and his board has of high finance. But when Lori Vargo Heffner asked Langen to tell Council what he does that makes him so qualified, he refused.

“I’ll answer questions as they relate to the finance of this project,” he told Heffner. “I have about 12 more minutes before I have dinner for 10 people. You gave me less than a week’s notice during working hours”

Heckman then reminded Langen that he got plenty of notice but said he wanted a formal letter. “You were aware that we wanted to have this, so please, let’s stick with the facts,” he admonished him.

Bob Werner , who proposed and was a strong advocate for a bridge bundling project in 2013, supported the P3 for bridges. But he now is leery of P3, and who is benefiting. He mentioned that Lushis went to Columbus Ohio to pitch the mechanism “This thing has been abducted and kidnapped by a couple of people for profit,” he asserted.

In recent months, Executive McClure has appointed two new members - Frank Pintabone and Paul Anthony - to the GPA. The sudden resignation of Peg Ferraro and J Michael Dowd means that McClure is now in position to appoint two new members. Having made four appointments to a seven-member board, McClure appears to be in a position to stop P3 marketing and excessive legal bills.