The ground shook in Upper Mount Bethel Township when hundreds of write-in ballots were canvassed in an off-year election. There were two Democrats and two Republicans on the ballot, running for two seats on the Board of Supervisors.
In a Republican stronghold, Democrat David Friedman received 330 write-in votes, cast by Republicans on their ballot. Incumbent candidate and former Chairman John Bermingham received 660 votes, and loser incumbent candidate Anthony DeFranco received 253 votes to round out the Republican primary results. Thus, DeFranco is now a lame duck on the Board, and during his remaining meetings he will have to suffer the embarrassment of looking at write-in winner Friedman sitting in the audience, waiting to take his seat. Republican Bermingham also performed a coup, by receiving 213 write-in votes on the Democratic ballot, besting the 104 vote tally of candidate Stavros Barbounis.
DeFranco spearheaded the effort to allow developer Lou Pektor and his River Pointe Logistics development (now renamed "RPL" to thinly conceal the reputation of River Pointe) to escape many of the zoning and development regulations that apply to everyone else. DeFranco and BOS member Robert Teel worked feverishly to allow Pektor to circumvent numerous zoning variances and special exception approvals that were scheduled to be addressed at an advertised Zoning Hearing Board hearing on March 24, 2020. Instead, this hearing was cancelled, and Pektor drafted an amendment (the "text amendment") which was rushed through a hasty approval despite objections of the Township Engineer, the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission, and many citizens who were aware of how amendments are supposed to be drafted and reviewed. This amendment exempts Pektor's kind of developments in the township's I-2 and I-3 zoning districts from many regulations. The piss-poor excuse for haste by DeFranco and Teel was there was an alleged single business anxious to locate in Pektor's development. This business' interest evaporated like a fart in the wind by the time the amendment was approved by a majority of supervisors through a corrupt process. Barbounis in an interview failed to state objection to the corrupted process by which the amendment was passed, so voters passed over him. If you aren't with us, you are against us - thanks for participating.
Thanks to DeFranco and Teel and the two other supervisors who supported their effort to roll out the red carpet to a vulture, UMBT citizens are left with the township's pants down around its ankles, waiting for a telephone pole to be shoved by Pektor into its ass. Pektor has since shifted into 3rd gear, proposing an Neighborhood Improvement Zone - which if approved would make his projects eligible for grants and funding. A NIZ would also give him a seat at the table to control matters outside his development, but within UMBT.
Now Pektor has unveiled yet another bold move in this chess game in UMBT - he is putting pressure on the Bangor Area Commercial and Industrial Development Authority (BACAIDA) to rapidly approve an agreement by which the BACIDA will take ownership in name only of the Met Ed property in UMBT, which is also in a zoning district that his developments are exempted from regulations. Phase II of an EPA remediation would take place, after which Pektor would take ownership and he has announced plans to place a 900,000 sq ft warehouse on that property. The BACAIDA is playing ball with Pektor, having agreed at its May 11 meeting to complete a draft agreement, which may be approved at a planned "emergency" meeting in June. This agreement would assist Pektor in obtaining funding and grants. Look for this to be advertised on short notice (2 day requirement for an alleged emergency meeting) - this should be an in-person meeting.
Pektor's urgency to achieve check and mate may be to get all the pieces of his plan in place before a return to the transparency and regular order of public meetings, the imminent departure of DeFranco from power, or a combination of the two. He's ready to shift into 4th gear, and 5th won't be far behind.
It's a shame that DeFranco and Teel have put the citizens of UMBT in such an unenviable position of fighting the Goliath of Pektor. The pummeling of DeFranco and Barbounis in an off-year election by cross-party write-in votes is reflective of the corruption that pervades the current Board of Supervisors.
The UMBT citizens nightmare with Pektor is a word salad of acronyms. The LERTA will screw the township out of tax dollars; the BACAIDA is said to be a "conduit" for funding of Pektor's project on Met-Ed property using OPM; the LVPC has given a thumbs down to the text amendment, the amendment proposed only a few weeks later to correct some of the screwups in the text amendment, and Pektor's projects; Pektor is proposing an NIZ to gain funding and grants (more OPM) as well as a seat at the table in decisions affecting his projects and surrounding properties. In short, this is FUBAR, and SSDD.
