County Council Approves Union Agreement

After in April and May, Northampton County Council has approved a contract for 62 court-appointed county employees.

The contract -- which gives the employees 2.25 percent raises this year and next year --  was arrived at earlier this year through arbitration, but council needed to approve it for it to be funded.

The workers -- employed in a variety of county departments, including juvenile and adult probation, DUI probation, pre-trial, and domestic relations -- applauded the 6-2 vote, which came after some heated debate by council.

"“I’m sure the taxpayers are home clapping for you too,” grumbled Councilman Ron Angle, who had voted against the agreement.

He had invoked the senior citizen residents of his district, many of whom he said are just "existing" on a Social Security income that's gone unchanged for the last two years.

"I don’t give a damn what the arbitration board says," Angle said "They’re a bunch of bureaucratic hacks and union flunkies."

But Councilman Lamont McClure said council legally had no choice to approve the contract, and noted that there's enough unallocated funds in the county budget to cover the contract. 

"It’s fashionable to attack the public employee these days," he said. "But tonight…it's time to abide by the law."

Also Thursday, council said it will meet with the county's state legislators and get them to work on getting what Councilman Mike Dowd called "parity" between state funding for private nursing homes and public ones. 

"We've been stiffed for about 3 million dollars a year," Dowd said. The county, of course, in Upper Nazareth. 

Council members would like to meet with the state representatives and senators who cover the county sometime next month. Council President John Cusick noted that state Sen. Bob Mensch's district covers parts of four counties, all of which have county nursing homes.

"If he's not going to step up and do this, I don’t know…" Cusick said.