The Lehigh County Board of Commissioners met April 8 for the first bimonthly meeting of the month.

Commissioner Zach Cole-Borghi was absent from the meeting and the eight commissioners in attendance approved the meeting minutes from the March 25 board meeting without comment or question.

One citizen took to the podium with the request for a focused evaluation of property taxes and affordability within the county to accompany Bill 2026-12. The aforementioned bill was approved during the March 25 meeting and establishes an annual conversation and report regarding the potential for reassessment.

Moving into the regularly scheduled items on the agenda for the evening, Briana M. Gaumer was successfully appointed to the Aging and Adult Services Advisory Council with a term expiring Dec. 31, 2029. Ara Barlieb was also reappointed to serve on the same council for another term.

Vicky Kistler received a positive recommendation and her appointment to the Lehigh and Northampton Transportation Authority was confirmed with no opposition.

Lastly, Vijay Singh’s appointment to the Lehigh County Authority was resoundingly confirmed by all commissioners in attendance.

Joshua A. Bridges received a positive recommendation and was unanimously appointed to serve as the director of human services. Widely recognized for his time and dedication to serving in local government for more than 30 years, Commissioner Geoff Brace stated his appointment is indeed “right for the moment.” Additionally, Jeffrey R. Smith was successfully appointed to the position of Warden II, Department of Corrections. Praised for his attention and commitment to this position, several of the commissioners as well as Lehigh County Executive Josh Siegel acknowledged an appreciation and excitement for his strategic plan to address the issues facing the Lehigh County Jail.

In old business, Bill 2026-13 was adopted to continue the lease with Let Farms, LLC for an additional five years regarding approximately 10 acres of agricultural land located in Lynn Township.

In new business, a motion was made and approved for the Lehigh County Executive to authorize six remnant defendants with a combined subdivision participation and release form to hold them accountable for their contribution to the opioid epidemic. This motion will execute settlements to folks who were previously not yet held accountable with the goal for the resources generated to be funneled back into Lehigh County to combat and support those affected by the opioid crisis.

Resolution 2026-16 approved an agreement with Shepherd Hills Family Practice to provide services to residents in Cedarbrook Senior Care and Rehabilitation at the Allentown and Fountain Hill facilities.

Next on the agenda, Bill 2026-14 received its first read and brought about quite a discussion as the legislation looks to approve a regional youth detention center intergovernmental cooperation agreement between Berks, Dauphin, Lackawanna, and Lehigh counties. This bill would establish the Southeast Youth Detention Agency and serve as both a treatment and detention center.

Sponsoring this bill, Commissioner Antonio Pineda introduced the bill as a partnership and regional effort to generate a known, safe location for temporarily detaining troubled youths who require detention for their own safety and the safety of the public. While this is not a conversation many want to have, multiple individuals throughout the evening reiterated that there inevitably is a need for detention.

Commissioner Ron Beitler stated, “450 youth are in the system roughly at any given time and five per day require detention, that’s 1.3% ... and these are not minor cases, this is where detention is truly the last resort.”

Lehigh County’s current approach to juvenile detention forces the county to buy beds from various facilities, many of which are far away from Lehigh County and one in particular — Abraxas Academy — has multiple lawsuits against it for mistreatment of youths.

Kevin Miller, chief juvenile probation officer for Lehigh County, President Judge Doug Reichley, as well as members from the Berks County Government were in attendance to convey years of hard work at finding the next solution for juvenile detention in Lehigh County since the previous detention center closed 12 years ago.

Miller emphasized the county is currently putting kids into secure environments that are unsafe. “Inaction at this particular point is just going to continue to facilitate putting kids in facilities that don’t have the license. Which is wrong. But I don’t have a choice,” Miller expressed.

In the absence of any other solutions being brought forward, he is confident that this regional youth detention center agreement aligns with the oath he took to protect the youth of Lehigh County.

Despite the voices in support of the bill, several commissioners and citizens noted their hesitations. Commissioners Jon Irons and Sarah Fevig vocalized their concern over the 20-year commitment, foreshadowing inevitable changes and improvements to both medicine and technology which could impact how we view incarceration in 20 years.

Concerned citizens Ed Angelo, Sharon Finnegan, Tinku Khanwalkar, and others spoke of their respective uncertainties, but ultimately requested a slow down on this bill and pleaded with the board to consider other options.

Brace leveled the discussion by reminding all that Lehigh County currently spends $7.7 million for treatment of youths under the Juvenile Probation and Parole Office. While this is multiple factors above the funds spent on detention, Brace wanted to clarify that the commitment to treatment will not change as this bill is not an “either-or proposition.”

Several bills followed and also received their first read for the evening. Of the three bills read, Bill 2026-16 generated a discussion as it proposed to add a paid parental leave policy to the Lehigh County Personnel Policies and Procedures Manual for up to eight weeks of paid parental leave to eligible employees. Ensuing conversations clarified that this leave extends to parents adopting and fostering children, as well as to fathers. In response to several questions posed by a community member, Siegel assured all this policy “will not have an additional cost on taxpayers because it’s not an extraneous cost”; rather, each county employee’s salary is already budgeted for the full 52 weeks of the year.

The Lehigh County Board of Commissioners will next meet 7:30 p.m. April 22 to discuss further the four bills, as well as the regular agenda items for the evening which can be found online before the meeting.