Basically, you told us things we already know and didn't say a word about your back door events that led to you making decisions for our township that you should not have done.....again, no answers.....Can't wait for tomorrows election

Mr. Brown, Jaindl bought that land knowing it was zoned agricultural. You and your fellow commissioners CHOSE to rezone the land. The quarry threat was garbage. The State would have been unlikely to approve such a large quarry. If anything, a vastly scaled down quarry may hae been approved which is much better than what Jaindl will do with this land. In addition, The lehigh County court system has ordered you and the others to go back and restart this process with more public imput. You and your fellow commissioners CHOSE TO APPEAL THIS DECISION USING OUR TAX MONEY!!! Why? Afraid of public imput? Furthermore, why do you chose to ignore the tax increases when new schools have to be built due to this unwise zoning change along with all of the other infrastructure spending that will surely raise taxes down the road?

Making the Jaindl issue about landowner rights is fundamentally misleading. Mr. Jaindl bought the majority of the land in question knowing of Agricultural protection ordinance in place that has stood for 23 years. This only requires looking at public records to find out this public information. Surely a seated township commissioner can find these documents. This is NOT a landowner rights issue. LMT residents are smart enough to tell the difference between a landowner rights issue (rights I absoultely support) and a bungled zoning amendment.

Throwing around the word slander is an interesting little political trick. Mr. Sharpe has been quite clear to cite newspaper articles, meeting minutes ect. when outlining Mr. Brown's track record. The interesting thing about being an incumbent is you can't escape your record. Mr. Brown supported the original clandestine negotiations with Mr. Jaindl and when given a golden opportunity to right a wrong and restart the process from scratch in the sunshine.... AGAIN voted to support a land developer over the community at large.

The BOC has attempted to politicize this issue in the past week by attacking citizens, and those who volunteer on the zoning board. But from our perspective it's very simple, do not let politics cloud the essential issues... Drive the roads, do you think traffic is an issue? Drive over the river even after a typical rain event and see with your eyes the Little Lehigh bulging out it's banks. Think about your pocketbook and the paying the millage tax that will be inevitable if this Jaindl debacle is allowed to proceed.

Speaking directly to the voters: Mr. Brown is counting on a lot of straight ticket voting by Republicans tomorrow which will guarantee his reelection. Republicans that know about the Jaindl land deal will tell you that this is not about party. This is not about R and D. It's about smart development, transparency and governing on behalf of the citizens of Lower Macungie Twsp.
Vote Lancsek (R) and Sharpe (D) tomorrow

When considering Doug Brown - focus on the matter of ethics and what he and his Board cohorts (Brown, Eichenberg & Conrad) did in appointing a new Solicitor after accepting a second bid (only company allowed to do so) that was motivated by private discussions between Eichenberg and Tallman, Hudders & Sorrentino - AND supported by Brown. See Morning Call article at: http://articles.mcall.com/2010-11-20/news/mc-lower-macungie-solicitor-20101120_1_hour-for-paralegal-work-president-roger-reis-bethlehem-firm

Here is a brief portion of the article: Commissioners Reis made clear his displeasure that Tallman, Hudders & Sorrentino changed its proposed rates after its initial proposal, one of 13 received by the township. He suggested the hourly rate was changed after a representative of the firm spoke to one of the commissioners. The initial rate proposed was $195 per hour. "After they applied, they had a conversation and changed the rate to make it lower," Reis said. "I don't really think that's right. I think when you make a bid and then find out that the bid is high, you don't get a chance to go back and re-bid." Commissioner Ron Eichenberg said he had been approached by one of the firm's attorneys at a social function and was asked "how things went" with the proposal.

"I said, 'Not so good,'" Eichenberg said. "He said, 'Was it the fee?' I said, 'Yes.'"

Mr. Brown - you voted with Eichenberg and Conrad. Is this what you call Ethical Behavior? I don't think so!!

Mr. Brown, No one disputes that Mr. Jaindl has the right to develop his land, but it is a right contrained by zoning. The previous zoning allowed houses and a quarry. The commissioners secretly agreed to change the zoning to allow warehouses, commercial sprawl and 700-900 high density housing units, all at the request of Mr. Jaindl. Residents object to this zoning change because it will have major negative impacts on the quality of township life and it was done with no public involvement. Why can't you and your fellow commissioners admit your mistake and renegotiate the rezoning with public involvement ?? Either you are too arrogant, too stupid or too corrupt.

Lower Macungie has a long history now of ignoring downstream property rights. The Little Lehigh Creek is the township jewel, and it is being attacked by LCA and LMT commissioners by illegally high creekside pumping and tremendous overdevelopment of the land. LCA aggressiveness in pushing for forced public water systems for all has played right into a LMT brain dead approach to intelligent zoning. I'll vote for the new guys, for sure. Jim Lansek would be a formidable ally in the protection of precious natural resources due to his incredible township knowledge.

Browns rosy campaign style budget comments are very different then what realist Commissioner Conrad posted on his public FB page a few weeks ago about drastic cuts and the lack of tax....

"Commissioner Ryan Conrad
Very intense budget workshop meeting tonight. We face some serious financial hurdles as we continue to operate without a property tax. We're on the third draft of the budget and still at a $496M deficit despite drastic cuts already made"

sounds to me like both Brown and Conrad serve on different boards......lol

Unbelievable how much misinformation Ron Beitler, Scott Beiber, Bob Sharpe, Larry Schneider and gang are putting out there. Brown got elected last time despite their negative campaign tactics to get him out of office. Now they're going all in with a smear campaign. Schnieder's interest is clearly financial - he wants to make more money off the township (that's right, he has gotten paid to do their website and get's paid to sit on the zoning hearing board; oh yeah, he also got contracts with David Jaindls' attorney Joe Zator and the township engineer Bill Erdman). It's obvious Beitler has political aspirations and is taking advice from the Slattery Chicago-style playbook. He's got a lot to learn. As for Beiber, nobody can serious respect this guy. To top it all off, Bob Rust (zoning hearing board member suing the twp) is making robocalls to get Brown out of office. doesn't sound like he's too objective to me. PS,how come the friends group doesn't publish their membership and campaign finance reports? They say they're funding the appeal but won't let anyone know who's behind it. Same thing with theh citizens for change group - where's they're campaign reports online? Sounds like a lack of transparency to me and they're making decisions behind closed doors. The citizens for change group lost their credibility and continues to. Just look at the deals their board members have benefited from over the years. The friends group is on their way to losing credibility too.

Friends is not a political group. Our primary purpose is supporting smart growth awareness. Right now the marquee smart growth issue is the jaindl land. Politics the past few weeks has been in focus because an election is happening tomorrow. There are no campaign finance reports because less then 250 dollars (from donations secured specificallly for the purpose of flyers) was spent on "the election" for general printing of an information piece. Both Jim lanscek and Bob sharpe have accepted exactly 0 dollars in contributions from anyone. They have both 100% self funded campaigns. And as far as fundraising for the appeal well that is not a political campaign.

A few things:
The reserve fund Brown touts as a highlight was inherited by the current commissioners. In fact, it was and is larger than recommended best practices for township government. Not saying the previous board did a good job, because they didn't. The reserve was just the result of fees from the biggest residential building boom in the state.
RE 4 million square feet of warehouses, high-density residential, and strip mall commercial on the Jaindl land. Maybe a compromise was in order with the threat of a quarry. But giant warehouses? Are you kidding me? They are the bane of the county, and the commissioners somehow found a way to allow them to be plopped into the heart of our beautiful township. For that reason alone, it's Lancsek (R) and Sharpe (D) tomorrow.

Hey JT, you know who we are, We have names like Ron, Larry, Scott and Bob and you can see other names of our supporters on our facebook page and when we address the township commissioners . But who are you ?? Talking tough and calling people liars is easy when you hide in the bushes. If you don't have the guts to put your name behind your mouth, keep it shut. Otherwise, I would respect your right to speak against us.

Friends supporters are posts with real names. Actual faces putting it out there in the blogosphere talking about issues, not just vague personal accusations. I'm involved with this group and issue because I grew up on Willow Ln and have seen my township fundamentally change over the last few decades. I was happy when the wal-mart came/progress came ect. but have since seen the "corner being turned". We're on the verge of a fundamental change in tone where traffic concerns/environmental =and QOL issues are no longer on the peripheral but a negative fundamental fact of life. Other communities have long learned lessons this BOC refuses to acknowledge. There are smart growth solutions out there.

This is why I'm about to stand in the cold for 8 hours, took a day off work from my business and care enough to put my name out there to get attacked by faceless "handles" on the internet".

Supporters speak out with names and addresses at public meetings where they are literally cross examined. (my count over 30 individuals over the past few months speaking publicly at meetings, nearly 1000 on the petition and hundreds on facebook) The Facebook page is public. An email to get in touch with is public. The steering committee I'm sure would have no problem giving a "roster" if approached with an actual name of a person instead of an internet "handle" by a troll "Definition - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troll_(Internet)"; on a blog comment thread.

Typical Scott Beiber nasty response about keeping my mouth shut.

Let's stick to the issues I brought up: does your group care about Larry Schneider's financial interest in the elections and decisions in the township (his relationship with Jaindl's attorney, township engineer, etc)? Is it okay that Bob Rust is doing nasty robocalls? Why isn't the citizens for change group or the friends group posting their campaign money info online? You cleverly spent under $250 - is that because you want to hide what you're doing?

JT you have NOTHING! Please defend Mr. Brown if you dare. I want to hear this. Bob Rust has something you may not be aware of: FREEDOM OF SPEECH!