Meg Holland, Bethlehem Controller, Releases First Year's Agenda

Meg Holland held a press conference today to release her first year's agenda as the newly elected City of Bethlehem Controller. Reporters from the Morning Call, the Express Times, the Bethlehem Press and the Channel 69 News attended the press conference. Holland provided a detailed listing of her agenda, which included the following:

1. Hire a Deputy Controller
2. Attend monthly pension board meetings and review reports
3. Establish fraud deterrence and prevention practices
4. Establish purchase order procedures and authorization controls
5. Enact record retention policies for the Accounting and Controller’s Department
6. Enhance the existing database of municipal contracts with the Law department
7. Review and monitor the budget process
8. Meet with all departments as to policies and procedures
9. Review of medical insurance and catastrophic insurance processing
10. Operational and performance audits of departments and other entities (including the entities that are part of the Bethlehem Authority)
11. Review purchase policies and procedures as they relate to pricing negotiations
12. Meet with Sands-BethWorks representatives to review the casino host fee contract
13. Meet with various other local government controllers to coordinate any efforts with respect to related areas

DiGiacinto is a Poor Loser

David DiGiacinto, the unsuccessful democratic City of Bethlehem Controller candidate, is a poor loser. According to Bernie O'Hare on his Lehigh Valley Ramblings Blog, DiGiacinto "ducked" out of a debate proposed by the successful candidate, Meg Holland, during campaigning in October 2007.

Now, Mr. DiGiacinto files not one, but two, erroneous complaints with District Attorney Morganelli against Meg Holland and her campaign.

The first complaint was filed regarding a donation not reported timely, based on the 24 hour reporting regulations. However, Mr. DiGiacinto neglected to research the 24 hour reporting regulations, because the donation was received after the 24 hour reporting requirement had already expired, therefore, Meg Holland's campaign committee correctly reported the donation on the post-election Campaign Finance Report. In addition, Mr. DiGiacinto claims to have visited the Northampton County Office of Voter Registration several times in December 2007 to verify that the aforementioned donation was reported correctly. My question is... why didn't he have time to debate during the campaign, if he seems to have a lot of free time on his hands to take leisurely visits to the Northampton County Office of Voter Registration to verify Meg Holland's donations?

The second complaint was filed regarding Meg Holland not filing her nominating petitions accurately by listing her name as "Meg Holland" and not her legal name "Margaret Mary Holland". Again, Mr. DiGiacinto did not do his research! The nominating petitions state that the candidate's name should be listed "as they want it to appear on the ballot" and that "nicknames are allowed as long as they are a derivation of the legal name" (Meg is obviously a nickname for Margaret).

Mr. DiGiacinto wasted the time of District Attorney Morganelli by not doing research. There is a rumor that Mr. DiGiacinto is in "hot water" with the Democratic party over his wastefulness and disregard for the District Attorney's time and the taxpayers' money.

(Photograph of David DiGiacinto downloaded from www.digiacintoforcontroller.com)