An audit released recently week by the Northampton County Controller’s Office found that more than half of the $5 million in federal pandemic relief funds intended as retention bonuses for Gracedale Nursing Home employees cannot be specifically accounted for.

The funds, allocated under the American Rescue Plan Act, were designated by Northampton County Council in 2022 to address staffing shortages at the county-run facility in Upper Nazareth Township. The plan called for eligible Gracedale employees to receive bonuses annually through 2026.

The audit was authorized by county council in March after reports that some Gracedale employees had not received promised bonuses.

Northampton County Executive Lamont McClure told county council June 5 that because the ARPA money was not earmarked, it was spent on monthly operating expenses, including significant unbudgeted overtime pay to external nursing staff. He said $8 million of overtime was paid over the course of three years.

McClure said an investigation over several months found that the root causes were personnel scheduling mismanagement and failure of the facility’s previous administrative leadership to follow directives to limit agency nurse overtime and maintaining approximately 3.4 care hours per resident per day.

According to McClure, a new administrator, who was hired in March, “implemented many changes to improve efficiencies in finances … and staffing changes made as appropriate.”

Council Vice President John Goffredo said the overtime issue, which became pronounced in 2024, should have been addressed much sooner.

“If you would say, ‘Hey, we’re all done with the bonuses because they were paid all out’ – that’s a whole different conversation than ‘We’re done giving the bonuses, but we’re not going to give all the amount that [was] allotted.’ That’s where the deception comes in and that’s why I’m a little upset that you’re trying to walk this away as ‘no big deal’.”

Council Member John Brown had even stronger words. “You’ve had eight years of managing this facility, and if you’re telling me you didn’t know what was going on and the director of finance didn’t know what was going on, then that points to incompetence more than anything else. I don’t believe a thing you just said. I think it’s a cover-up,” he said.

McClure said he believed the audit was politically motivated with the aim to sell Gracedale.

Council Member Kelly Keegan said she reviewed video of the council meeting from June 6, 2024, when McClure said on the record that the bonus program was ending. She agreed that the audit was politically motivated. “For federal reporting purposes, the county was not required to report the specific non-retention bonus expenses paid by the ARPA,” she said.

Council president Lori Vargo Heffner said, “My concern is that we all voted in good faith to give Gracedale a good amount of the ARPA money for certain things to occur. Moving that money without coming back to council, not being transparent with council over all these years, and just shifting federal money without discussing it – I’m very concerned about the status of this county. The discussion of politics needs to stop.”

McClure replied, “You should stop using your gavel to undermine Gracedale.”