The Lehigh County Board of Commissioners met 7:30 p.m. Dec. 10 for the first bimonthly meeting in December. The meeting minutes from the Nov. 25 meeting were deferred and an executive session was held before the meeting to discuss labor negotiations specific to a proposed bill which had its first read that evening.

Current Allentown resident and former Lehigh County commissioner Joseph Maher took to the podium to clarify the ordinance regarding preregistration to comment virtually, as well as some additional questions he had from reading a Lehigh Valley News article published Dec. 8. The article mentions the Lehigh County Housing Authority would be spending $100 million to build roughly 150 houses. Given the 25 years which have passed since Maher served, he had “a real question about the county spending that kind of money and seeing where the authority comes from.”

Maher explains the article also highlighted how Lehigh County Executive incumbent Josh Siegel composed a large “transition team subcommittee for local resistance and response team to [the] Trump administration.” Maher expressed his concern Commissioner Chair Jon Irons “might have a conflict leading a committee, a subcommittee, that seems to be in conflict with Trump, who happens to be the President of the United States right now.”

Bob Walden virtually questioned why the county would want to continue to put money into the Berks County Juvenile Detention Center given Lehigh County has done well diverting youth from detention over the years. Walden cited the success of a rigorous group treatment model currently in place in the state of Missouri and strongly asked the board to do their “homework and come up with a proposal that brings us into the 21st century with ways to reclaim troubled youths.”

Citizens Susan Jordhamo and Sharon Finnegan also spoke of their own topics, but ultimately echoed Walden’s position and strongly favor the approach of smaller institutions and therapeutic homes.

Moving on to the other resly-scheduled agenda items for the evening, Bill 2025-72 was approved and renews the lease with MCI Communications LLC, doing business as Verizon Business Services.

Bill 2025-73 was approved and addresses critical labor issues and the distribution of responsibilities within the 911 Communications Center by amending the job classification and pay plan.

Commissioner Sheila Alvarado spoke to the benefits of recruitment and retention this restructuring and reclassification will provide. Alvarado also highlighted she would like to see a higher pay grade for a bilingual operator as that is not currently cemented in place, although there is a stipend available to be used for this purpose.

Additionally, several resolutions were read and approved. These included an agreement to provide appraisal services to the Lehigh County Farmland Preservation Program, as well as an intergovernmental transfer agreement with the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services Office of Long-Term Living to better financially support Cedarbrook Senior Care and Rehabilitation.

Lastly, a resolution moved to accept a donation from the Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor of four memorial benches and funds to assist with the installation costs to be placed along the DNL Trail.

The board will host its reorganization meeting Jan. 5, 2026, where it will swear in the new commissioner along with other reorganization tasks as is customary.