A question of authority in Easton

Yea, Sal, he sure does have alot of experence behind City Hall walls, to bad not all of the experence worked for the people of this City. This experence man knows how to sue the city and win!
The old addage "A new broom sweeps clean" works well in keeping the halls of City Hall clean!

Expierience, yeah. Raising taxes. Our taxes doubled on his watch. I thought we were going to get something new. That is what we voted for. Right?

The arrogance of Sal shines through. Surprise, Am I the onl one who saw this one coming.

Panto did nothing good for the city before and yet he`s baaack. Wife on council and he`s the Mayor.
No wonder people are leaving the city faster than lunch leaves a super model.

Sal Panto is one of the board member of St. Anthony's Youth Cente that fired its it Executive Director Sandra Riley so that the board could replace her with a woman who had previously served on the Easton Parking Authority.

After the board sacked her, it then tried to deny her unemmployement compensation, a decision - a follow-on wrongful act to her wronglful firing - reversed on appeal.

The board had Sandy "investigated," implying that she had somehow "cooked the Books.

United Way conducted an audit and cleared Sandy of any wrong-doing.

Hasn't the public gotten it yet?

Sal IS city council!

Panto belongs in jail ... typical for easton though ..

Normally, when a new administration takes power of the government, the chief executive fires his cabinet and brings his own people on board.

Sal's met that norm and upheld the tradition: He's essentially retained Phil Mitman's cabinet, and that would have included Barbara Kowitz, Easton's Director of Planning and the Easton Redevelopment Authority's Executive Director, if Mitman hadn' already fired her.

Now I understand why Easton, the county's seat, was the only local government in Northampton's jurisdiction to cast their April 22nd Democrtic primary vote for Barack Obama.

Like Obama, Panto, who garnered such an overwhelming vote in last November's general election, promised the voters "change."

Sal also had the support of departing Mayor Phil Mitman, who threw his backing behind Sal rather than to Republican nominee Gary Bertsch.

This explains why Sal put his wife Pam on city council - to ensure a smooth transition from Phil's administration to his.

The Board of Directors of St. Anthony's Youth Center, which includes Sal Panto, sold the parcel of land it bought for soccer field for its young charges to Northampton County for a parking lot.

So, again, in the lyrics of the Joni Mitchell tune, "They paved over paradise for a parking lot."

Some of us in Easton organized a rally in support of Sandra Riley to protest her firing.

The rally was held on the sidewalks of the St. Anthony Youth Center at Washington and 9th streets.

The rally was joined by Allen Jennings of the LVCAC Executive Director Allen Jennings, State Representative Bob Freeman, Northampton County Councilman Ron Angle, Golden Age Club Public Relations Officer John Todaro, and many others, including myself.

On member of the St. Anthony Youth Center attended, including Sal Panto and Leonard Buscemi, and, in fact, the board was releasing daily press reports to the public defending during the controversy defending its dismissal of Ms. Riley without cause.

When will the buffoonery in Easton end??? When you have something like Panto as mayor, his room temperature wife on Council, plus the likes of Brown and Vulcano on Council with her, you have the makings of, well, not much intellectually or scholastically. And then you have Vulcano's husband as head of the local school board. Goodness, Easton would be better off with the Three Stooges running the show. At least then we'd have a legit laugh now and then. Right now, no one in their right mind can find humor in the horror show that is Easton and it's "leadership." It is a horrific show of incompetence, lack of proper training, and absolutely no coherent vision for the future. WAKE UP EASTON VOTERS!!!!! STOP ELECTING BUMS!!!!!!!!!!

I meant "room temperature IQ wife." Oops.

Panto appointed himself acting city administrator in January, giving himself the sole power to hire and fire city employees.

Under the charter, the city administrator has the power to hire and fire, but the mayor must approve all decisions.

''We have a city administrator in place, and his name is Sal Panto,'' the mayor said Friday.''They better get used to that.''

Wow, "Mayor", "City Administrator", "President of City Council". Is this scumbag trying to collect 3 paychecks also?

I haven't seen this much power in one person since Stalin, Idi Amin, or Saddam Hussein.

How does Easton contiunally make the same mistakes over and over? That is the definition of insanity!

This brings me to my own ejection from the Acopian Room of the State Theatre and Mayor Phil Mtman's "State of the City" address for warning the audience about the dangers of Riverwalk and Bushkill Village developments, both in the Delaware River and Bushkill Creek flood plains, intervened, said, "you've done a good job," and, under the pretence of being my friend, persuaded me - with others - to leave the meeting.

From the next morning's newspaper stories, which lionized Sal as a hero, it was clear that he had intervened to boost his candidacy for Mayor.

And the MSM represented by The Mornng Call, The ExPress-Times, and WFMZ-39 TV all obliged.

The evening of April 17, 2007, following my ejection from the Acopian Room of the State Theatre the evening before, I attended the Easton Mayoral Candidates' Night, took a seat with Sal Panto, Mike Fleck, and Gary Bertsch, and announced my candidacy for Easton Mayor as an Independent.

The sponsors of the event refused me the right to speak, a denial that only further steeled my determination to seek public office.

The Morning Call is aborting my comments again, but I have zeroxed them and saved them in my computer.

My most recent aborted comment ridiculed Easton's City Charter with a scenario of its expansion of the city's council from five to seven members:

Assuming members Pam Panto's and Roger Ruggles's support for the re-creation of a charter-abolished business administrator position and pre-selected former Mayor Phil Mitman's chief-of-staff Stu Gallaher to fill it, but with members Brown, Waner, and Warren opposing, mugwump member sandra "Ms. Cabbage Patch Doll" Vulcano sitting on the fence, and member Mayor Panto Jr. having had to recluse hiself as a council member because of the inherent conflict of interest, Sandy would fly off the fence like a messenger pigeon to deliver a 3-3 tie vote.

The tie would force the question back into the hands of Mayor Panto for a tie-breaking vote.

Riverwalk and Bushkill Village, though lying in the Delaware River and Bushkill Creek flood plains, can't be allowed to fall: The Sands BethWorks LLC and the Commerce Center in Bethlehem, both in the flood plain of the Lehigh River flood plain would fall with them.

Ditto the Waterfront development in Allentown, the project of Bethlehem Planning Commission Chairman Andrew Twiggar.

The SugarHouse and Foxwoods casino projects in Philadelphia's Delaware River flood plain would fall as well.