Thursday, May 3, 2012
The commissioners meet today with a full agenda of contracts to award, agreements to authorize and other county business.
The Montgomery County Board of Commissioners meet again today, Thursday, May 3, at 10 a.m. in the Commissioners’ Board Room on the 8th floor of One Montgomery Plaza. There's a lot of interesting business on the agenda today including an authorization of the Department of Corrections to enter into an agreement with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to house Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility in Lower Providence. They're also approving a list of outside legal counsel the county can use apparently as a way to avoid a repeat of the over $2 million in legal fees the last administration racked up that were never voted on. They'll also awarding almost $200,000 in contracts towards…
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Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Robert D. Fox, chairman of the transition committee, said job descriptions were developed for all of the senior positions.
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Wednesday, December 28, 2011
According to a release on Montgomery County commissioners-elect Josh Shapiro and Leslie Richards' website today, the pair have announced a new organizational structure in the commissioners’ office and the senior staff that will fill the positions. The new structure and staff was endorsed by Commissioner Bruce L. Castor, Jr. and is the product of intense work by Shapiro, Richards and their transition team, led by Robert D. Fox. The organizational structure will be led by a Chief Clerk/Chief Operating Officer, who will be assisted by a Deputy COO for Policy and Planning and a Deputy COO for Operations. The rest of the senior staff includes a county solicitor, chief financial officer and a director of communications. "We wanted a structure …
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Montgomery County Board of Commissioners approve final, $417.4 million budget for 2012.
The Montgomery County Commissioners approved a 2012 operating budget Wednesday that will increase the county's average property tax bill by about $80 per year. The $417.4 million budget preserves 2011 funding levels for Montgomery County Community College, the Montgomery County-Norristown Public Library, and the Elmwood Park Zoo. Each of those institutions had been threatened with severe reductions in county funding in a preliminary budget posted last month. "There's a certain threshold we must maintain in order to provide the services our citizens expect," Commissioner Bruce Castor said. "I'm loathe to vote for a tax increase, but I simply don't see how we can continue to provide the services the county is expected to provide without one…
Thursday, December 15, 2011
The Montgomery County Commissioners intend to take out a short-term loan to fund the first quarter of 2012.
For the first time in a decade, the Montgomery County Commissioners plan to take out a tax anticipation note to fund expenses through the first quarter of 2012, officials said during Thursday’s meeting. Although the amount is yet to be finalized, county CFO Randy Schaible told the board he estimated that $25 million would be needed. “Every year we have a major dip in cash,” Schaible said. “We had $40 million at the beginning of this year and we just squeaked through.” Commissioner Chairman Joseph Hoeffel said the county is projected to have $20 million in its coffers come January. Since tax revenues don’t start trickling in until March, the short-term loan – which would be repaid by the end of 2012 – is necessary, he said. Schaible, …
Monday, December 12, 2011
Hoeffel said commissioners will meet on weeknights and weekends if necessary.
The clock is ticking for Montgomery County to finalize its 2012 operating budget and the county government will be holding a series of public meetings over the next two weeks to achieve that goal, County Commissioner Joseph Hoeffel said this morning. Hoeffel indicated that a county tax increase was likely to figure prominently in the discussions after commissioners received more than 4,000 public comments objecting to massive program cuts in the preliminary budget announced Nov. 30. "We had 300 people in a public meeting who stood up and asked us to raise their taxes," Hoeffel said, referring to last week's public hearing on the budget. Matthews Expected to Participate Public meetings will be held in the 8th floor boardroom at One …
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Montgomery County Commissioners are meeting now to discuss the proposed 2012 budget.
The Montgomery County Commissioners are meeting right now at One Montgomery Plaza in Norristown, discussing the proposed county budget for 2012 – which includes a $44.4 million shortfall. We'll be filing a story on today's meeting later in the day, but we have some preliminary numbers the commissioners are discussing that we thought folks might like to see. Shortfall – $44,424,664 1. No Pay Increase – $4.2 million 2. Reduce or Eliminate Appropriation Funding: * The appropriation changes to Norristown, the library and Elmwood Park Zoo represent total eliminations. 3. Reduce Department Budgets to 2011 Levels with Exceptions – $7.9 million 4. Reduce Department Budgets 15 percent from 2011 Levels with Exceptions – $16.5 million 5. Eliminate or…
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Saturday, November 19, 2011
Tax hike looms as axe hangs over county health department, community college funding
"We're not talking about cutting dessert here. We're talking about cutting meals." Those were the words of Montgomery County Financial Director James Maza, as he briefed the county commissioners on what would need to occur in order to overcome a $44 million budget shortfall going into next year. Joined by county CFO Randy Schaible and other finance department leaders, Maza presented the commissioners with ten possible options to help balance next year's budget, including the elimination of appropriation funding to the library, community college and mass transit, as well as the elimination of certain county departments including the parks and recreation deparment, the planning commission, the health department and courthouse security. "We …
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Castor, Brown concede in Blue Bell; uncertainty over whether Castor will resume commish seat in January
The Montgomery County Board of Commissioners is headed for Democratic control. Incumbent commissioner Bruce Castor, Jr. and his running mate Jenny Brown conceded the election shortly after 11 p.m. Tuesday to Democrats Josh Shapiro and Leslie Richards, who are now Commissioners-elect. "Obviously, I'm disappointed," said Brown at the Montgomery County Republican Committee's election night party in Blue Bell. She expressed gratitude for the work done by the people who supported the Republican campaign. Brown said she will continue to serve as Lower Merion Commissioner, where she has two years left on her term. "I'm looking forward to getting back to my law practice," Brown said. Castor, who led all candidates in votes in his 2007 election to …
Thursday, November 3, 2011
The second article in a series that briefly profiles each of the county-level candidates in the Nov. 8 election.
Here's part two of our series looking at candidates for county offices. This time we'll look at the four Commissioner candidates and the two candidates for Sheriff. Stay tuned for our piece on the two candidates for Register of Wills and the two candidates for county Coroner. County Commissioner: Bruce L. Castor, Jr. (R) Republican Bruce Castor is almost certainly the most well-known candidate on the county ballot this November, but he also has the unusual distinction of being the only member of the current Board of Commissioners running for re-election. His colleagues on the board, Democrat Joe Hoeffel and Republican Jim Matthews, withdrew from consideration for their respective parties’ nominations early this year after their unofficial …
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Parts from the manufacturer are no longer available for an aging system as potentially 'catastrophic' component failures loom.
The county's emergency radio system is now in a state of emergency. With many of the county's chiefs of police crowding its Norristown meeting chamber, the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners passed a resolution Wednesday declaring that an "actual emergency exists" in the county's aging public safety telecommunications infrastructure. Commissioner Jim Matthews described the measure as a "Band-Aid" that gives the county "the ability to immediately respond to any shortcomings in the system." Those shortcomings are reportedly multiplying. Lower Gwynedd Chief of Police John Scholly called the increasing difficulty of obtaining replacement parts for the system a "major concern." "There are parts of the county radio system that are as old …
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1 Montgomery Plz, Norristown, PA
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10:48 am on Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Bob Your assessment that Asher does not control PA GOP is correct the Bucks GOP controls PA Politics www.bucksgop.org They have Corbett-Cawley as PA Gov/Lt Gov, they had Rendell in their pockets, Gov Mark Schweiker and Tom Ridge Also. Yes Herb Barmess died in 2000. However he split the power giving the control PA GOP to Asher and Fawkes at the local Bucks County Level. Asher is a GOP power broker… more ›