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I'll be live tweeting the Lancaster County Board of Commissioners meeting this morning. A lot on today's Agenda. Follow along in a few minutes.
318 viewers. That is definitely a record.
Here is the link for anyone else interested in watching: https://live.lifesizecloud.com/extension/1428173?token=d5548e95-91e3-4345-84d3-cf20c4c82d12&name=Carter+LNP&meeting=BoC+Public+Livestream&locale=en
Commissioner Craig Lehman said it is completely unacceptable that today's agenda wasn't ready until 7 p.m. last night. Normally they are online the Friday before. He said he hold Parsons and D'Agostino directly responsible "and it better never, ever happen again."
Lehman said that the only reason the agenda is so crowded today was to "hide the illegal action" that the other commissioner took over the weekend. Calling them hypocrites for calling for transparency and then pulling this move.
Meeting is already off to a contentious start. "You owe the public an apology for your lack of transparency," Lehman said.
Commissioner Parson said it's sad to see the collaborative nature of the board breaking down.
Moving onto regular agenda items. First up is D'Agostino's plan to spend $95 in CARES Act funding. Here is that story: https://lancasteronline.com/news/local/heres-how-lancaster-county-is-going-to-spend-95-million-in-emergency-covid-19-money/article_b19d5b8c-8fbb-11ea-b2e8-a3efdc6e779a.html
496 viewers now, by the way.
Slight change to the figures from last week on how the $95 million will be spent. it's now 50 million for economy, 35 for protecting health of county, and 10.2 for maintaining county services. Keep an eye out for stories from @ChadUmbleLNP and @HStaufferLNP on spending.
Lehman is currently asking some questions on how the budget structure that D'Agostino set works.
Parsons said if Lehman wants to postpone the vote because he is uncomfortable with the structure, they can do that. But Parsons said he thinks the money needs to start moving soon
Lehman has pointed out, and D'Agostino agrees, that it's not really a specific budget. It is more of a frame work of how the funds will be spent and a budget will be developed after.
"This is the problem when you present something that looks like a budget, but isn't a budget," Lehman said. "This is what's called rushing things through when they're not ready. D'Agostino refuted the accusation.
"This is a statement to the community on what the money will be spent on," D'Agostino said.
Lehman said he wants to make the public understand that this isn't a budget and there isn't anything underlying the numbers because there hasn't been any underlying documents provided to justify how the money will be spent.
"Commissioner this is unbecoming of you I know you better than this," D'Agositino said. Said Lehman is just trying to score political points.
Lehman said he is going to avoid personal attacks and just point out the flaws in D'Agostino's plan.
"All i'm saying is that once you put this structure in place, there's going to be an expectation that the funds will be spend in those categories," Lehman said, but there isn't documentation to show exactly how funds will be spend to add up to those numbers (50, 32, 10.2)
That is the crux of Lehman's argument.
Lehman said he supports a framework for the funds, but not this one.
Parsons suggests giving Lehman control of the budget work group for the next week. Lehman suggests scheduling series of public budget work sessions to discuss the funds. D'Agostino said Lehman's idea doesn't preclude passing the framework today and doing work sessions for budget.
It has been almost an hour and the meeting is on the first of 13 items. 655 views watching, who I assume will have questions. This meeting will likely be a record length. Possibly even include an intermission.
Parsons asks if after all Lehman has said can he ever get to a place where he can agree on how the money will be spend. Lehman said it will depend of the specifics.
Lehman and D'Agostino seem increasingly frustrated with each other.
I understand someone may be commenting in the Commissioner's livestream under my name. It's not me, obviously. I have been tweeting during the meeting and don't have the chat open.
Parsons is trying to take on the role of mediator.
After an hour, not vote on the item. It appears they will hold budget hearing on the money, then move to a vote after.
