The Oct. 22 meeting of the Lehigh County Board of Commissioners began with an approval of the Oct. 8 meeting minutes. As the “ayes” were tallied, Chair Geoff Brace spotted a virtual hand raised by a participant in the Zoom call.

Brace reiterated to the audience the virtual participation rule is in effect and in order to yield the floor to a non-registered participant, a two-thirds vote by the commissioners would be required to suspend the rule. A motion was made, passing with a two-thirds majority vote receiving support from most except Commissioner Jeffrey Dutt and Commissioner Antonio Pineda.

As such, Ed Angelo was given the opportunity to speak. Angelo took the opportunity to once again note his objection to having to preregister a desire to comment. He questioned how anyone could comply with such an ordinance as it may pertain to a non-agenda item or perhaps to an event that occurs earlier in the day of a regularly scheduled Lehigh County Board of Commissioners meeting.

Brace countered with an explanation of the board having the opportunity to suspend the rule and make a motion in future occurrences as they just had done. In addition, Brace said the law bounds the meeting agenda to be set 24 hours in advance; thus, further explaining why the ordinance also links to the 24 hour window for registration to comment as well.

Chief Fiscal Officer Tim Reeves took to the podium for a second time this month to provide updates regarding the current financial situation as it relates to an unresolved state budget. He explained that after a conversation with County Executive Phillips Armstrong, the agreed approach will be to “manage finances very tightly” through the remainder of the year. This option won over taking out a loan to cover the remaining costs for 2025, knowing there would be the need for another loan required at the beginning of 2026.

Reeves explained somewhere in the neighborhood of $40-$60 million will be borrowed in early 2026 in order to replace the reserves and give a few months of additional cash flow.

Brace questioned Reeves’s opinion on how other counties have chosen to make a statement by withholding certain fees to the state. “I never like to resolve a problem with three other problems,” Reeves answered, expressing he doesn’t recommend it despite the statement such an action would make.

Senior Legal Counsel for Lehigh County Catharine Roseberry further provided an example as to the ramifications of withholding payments toward identified human services; payments would incur a $1,000/day penalty. This penalty is confirmed as Lehigh County has been subject to paying this penalty in the past for accidental delinquency.

Reeves also outlined his thoughts on a solution to the financial stresses which have accompanied this budget impasse which could be applied should another similar situation occur in the future. His plan elicited support from many of the commissioners and they will look to further develop these ideas into a resolution which will be discussed in the November meetings.

Continuing on with the regularly scheduled agenda items for the evening, a couple of bills received their second reading and in fact were both unanimously approved. These included the adoption of the 2026 Lehigh County budget, as well as the approval of disbursal of affordable housing trust funds to four different organizations.

Despite the unanimous approval, there were some conflicting opinions shared between Commissioner Jon Irons and Commissioner Ron Beitler when discussing the 2026 budget. In previous commissioner meetings, Dutt explained the 2026 budget proposed another year with no increase to real estate taxes. While Irons explained his lack of excitement on this point still wouldn’t prompt him to vote against the approval of the budget, he wanted to voice the cut to a revenue stream without an increases to taxes.

On the other side, Beitler voiced he is celebrating a budget that doesn’t include a property tax as he thinks it speaks to how “surgical” they were with the budget in other areas.

From yet another temporary discretionary overtime bonus program within the department of corrections and 911 communication centers to the approval of four male bison being donated from the Lehigh Valley Zoo to the Wildlife Restoration Foundation for transfer to a member of the Intertribal Buffalo Council, a total of five new business items received their first read and will be reviewed once more during the Nov. 12 regularly scheduled board of commissioners meeting.

In anticipation of the upcoming general election Nov. 4, Brace reminded citizens of the ballot drop off box accessible 24/7 at the Lehigh County Government Center. He indicated there may be some difficulty accessing the box due to upcoming construction impediments as well as the Nov. 1 Halloween Walking Parade; however, there are four other ballot drop-off boxes county-wide.

The next Lehigh County Board of Commissioners meeting will take place 7:30 p.m. Nov. 12, both in-person at the Lehigh County Government Center and virtual via a Zoom link on the county commissioners website.