Editorial “Dissent a form of patriotism” relates:

“The Fayette County school district had been enforcing a rule that all students must stand for the pledge. Those who didn’t were subject to disciplinary action….

“But dissent is a form of patriotism — some say the highest form of patriotism.

“By supporting a rule that stifles dissent, the school board is unwittingly disrespecting the American flag.
“And it likely will end up costing Brownsville Area taxpayers even more of their hard-earned money.”

WATCHDOG: Three wags of the tail!    It was only several decades that the words “Under God” were inserted in The Pledge of Allegiance. We ommit those words when ever we stand to give the Pledge, not out of a lack of religion but in recognition of the principle that there should be a separation of state and church.

Article “Convention center paradox: doing well, but deep in debt” reports:

Lancaster County, [J. Mark Tobin] noted, has guaranteed $20 million on the authority’s debt. “It is possible that if the current guarantee could be substantially increased, by the county or some investment grade entity yet to be determined, that the opportunity to refinance the debt may be improved, thereby likely reducing interest expense,” Tobin wrote.

Tobin suggested several possibilities:

• A business improvement district tax, levied on businesses in the vicinity of the convention center. Lancaster already has two such levies, the Downtown Investment District and James Street Improvement District.

• Increasing the excise tax.

• A prepared food and beverage tax.

• An increased sales tax.

• An increased property tax.

• And improved hotel room rental tax collections.

WATCHDOG: Tobin and the reporter fail to mention the most obvious and popular solution to the problem:  The sponsors who so disingenuously misled the public and bludgeoned the then county commissioners should make up any deficit.    Both S. Dale High and The Lancaster Newspapers need to take responsibility for their disservice to the community.

Also, the sponsors promised that the Convention Center would attract offices and stores to downtown, which has not occurred.

So is the Convention Center really “Doing well” as the headline states?  Rather it has robbed public funding that could have gone to far more valuable public investments, just one of many would have been the renovation and expansion of the Lancaster Public Library which serves around 1400 people a day.

Article “Library program helps children buy books at sale” reports:

“As schools come to a close for the year, some city children will find themselves with an armful of books to curl up with over the summer.

“The children will receive these books at no cost, courtesy of a new fundraising project by the Friends of the Lancaster Public Library…

”According to Lancaster Public Library Treasurer Karen Haley Field, part of the purpose of ‘Books for Kids’ is to counter the decrease in library services that many schools have faced due to recent budget cuts.”

WATCHDOG: A wag of the tail for this comprehensive and well written article.

Full disclosure:   The aforementioned Karen Haley Field is the long suffering wife of the Watchdog, whose views and excesses should not be attributed to or held against her.

Columnist Carol Petersen writes in “America’s obesity epidemic”:

“One of Michelle Obama’s projects as first lady has been to spread the message of healthy eating and the fun of exercise, especially among children and schools, and she has done an admirable job, yet taken a lot of heat for it…

“Before you look at me and respond, ‘That’s easy for you to say,’ you should know that, in 1995, I weighed 217 pounds..

“My diabetes diagnosis was the best thing that ever happened to me.  It scared the day lights out of me, and it motivated me to clean up my act.

“Please, if I can do it, yiou can do it.  It takes time and commitment and maybe a little vision of what your life can be, what you can look lie, how good you can feel, the kind of activities you can enjoy again and a vision of what a gift your health and wellness can be to those who love you.”

WATCHDOG.  This is the rare occasion when we agree with Ms Petersen on a subject.   Two wags of the tail!

Editorial “Dry town keeps Snooki away” relates: “[Ocean City, New Jersey] residents flocked to the polls on May 8 and soundly defeated a ballot question that would allow customers to bring their own beer or wine to restaurants… BYOB supporters sell short Ocean City’s appeal to families whovacation there precisely because they want to steer clear of the Snookis and The Situations who frequent other communities along the shore.”

WATCHDOG:   A wag of the tail.  We admit to not knowing “Snookis” and “The Situations”, whoever they may be, but we do know that not only are the beaches clean and safe at Ocean City, NJ but one need not worry about youngsters going out on the boardwalk on their own during the day and in the evenings.  Not only are the authorities omni-observant, but there are scores of parental eyes watching the kids at every moment. 

Ocean City is a shore resort spots where teenagers are not binge drinking, with potential dire consequences to them and others. 

As the natives like to say about Ocean City:  “Dry streets, wet porches.”

An editorial “Clerical gaffe isn’t the same” relates:

“Going back in time, President Gerald Ford said during a nationally televised debate with Jimmy carter in 1976 that P(land was not under Soviet domination.  (It was.)”

WATCHDOG: President Ford was aware of the tensions building between Poland and the USSR at the time and was a victim of knowing too much.

When criticized for his statement, he could not protect himself because releasing the information would have jeopardized national security and the prospects of Poland freeing itself from domination, as it eventually did a dozen years later.

That was the type of patriot that Gerald Ford was.  He kept quiet and  it may have cost him the presidency.

Editorial “Ex-presidents’ generous perks” points out:

“In 2010 alone, taxpayers forked over more than $3 million to cover the expenses of the four ex-presidents.

“’Presidents should get a compensation package. They should get a retirement, and they should get some expenses,’ says Chaffetz. ‘But … if they’re going to give speeches, write books and make money, then there comes a point where you say, OK, the taxpayer shouldn’t be responsible for also footing the bill for the office expenses and the telephone and paper and the personnel to man those offices.’”

“Under Chavetz’s proposal, ex-presidents would receive from taxpayers a $200,000 annual pension and $200,000 in annual expenses, and that’s it.”…  (more)

WATCHDOG: A wag of the tail.

Syndicated columnist Thomas Friedman notes in “Selling our birthright” quotes Michael Sandel’s new book “What Money Can’t Buy” as follows:

“…when we have separate, shorter lines for airport security for those whocan afford them, the result is that the affluent and those of modest means live increasingly separate lives, and the class-mixing institutions and public spaces that forge a sense of common experience and shared citizenship get eroded….

”Democracy does not require perfect equality but it does require that citizens share in a common life… For this is how we learn to negotiate and abide our differences, and how we come to care for the common good.”

WATCHDOG: Right on!   We have criticized special lines for airline frequent travelers at airports, not understanding why a public agency should be discriminating on behalf of private businesses.

Also, due to their equalitarian nature,  our favorite places are public  parks, especially Central Park in New York City and Margaret Park on a Danube Island between Buda and Pest in Hungary .

As we have observed in the past, in Central Park one cannot discern street people from billionaires, thanks to the recycling of clothing and the tendency of many wealthy people to wear clothes for many years.  (Careful about how you hold your coffee cup while sitting on a bench.   A passerby may drop in a quarter!)

Columnist Jeff Hawkes in “A missed opportunity for the local economy” writes that David Rusk, a Washington-based urban policy consultant and former mayor of Albuquerque, N.M. who had visited Lancaster about 30 times in 2009 and 2010 as an adviser to the county planning department was a guest speaker at a recent Rotary Club luncheon.

According to Hawkes:  “Rusk doesn’t advocate municipal consolidation, recognizing it’s a political non-starter. But he thinks decentralization can be countered by formal regional agreements among municipalities. Unless municipalities row as a team, we’re sunk.

“Rusk also made a plug for the county to act like ‘a big box,’ one with the wherewithal to invest in infrastructure and spur private investment. After all, Rusk pointed out, Lancaster County, population 520,000, is larger than such big-league cities as New Orleans, Cleveland and Miami…”

WATCHDOG: A wag of the tail. Hawkes also mentions the report by David Rusk  ordered by the County Commissioners and then suppressed and ignored by them to which he provides a link.

Lancaster General Health has  published its annual 990 federal financial report and the results are described in an unbiased first page article of the Sunday News.  Below are excerpts with comments:

“Lancaster General Hospital’s yearly surplus fell last year for the fourth year in a row, due in large part to a growing number of patients relying on government programs like Medicare and Medicaid — and reimbursement rates that haven’t kept up with the cost of care…”

“[Spokesman John] Lines said 60 percent of LGH patients are enrolled in Medicare or Medicaid. “The other 40 percent is commercial insurance, people who are insured by their employer. That’s where we make our money.”

WATCHDOG: The main reason that LGH is able to earn extraordinarily high profits as compared to almost every other hospital in the state is its monopolistic control of hospital and other health care services which enables it to extract high reimbursements from insurance companies who in turn charge businesses and individuals more than would otherwise be the case.  This is not necessarily a bad thing if the profits earned by this Public Charity were properly expended.

“We’ve moved staff from services that are either no longer in demand, or where demand is decreasing to areas where demand has been on the rise,” he said. “There’s an increased focus on wellness to make patients healthier before they need costly care. Going forward, LGH may rely more on philanthropy for new ventures.”

WATCHDOG: We cannot reconcile LGH’s unwillingness to provide funding to the Urban League when it offered to sponsor a syringe exchange with a “focus on wellness to make patients healther before they need costly care.”

“Hospital CEO Thomas Beeman — a captain in the U.S. Naval Reserves who was on a military leave of absence from the hospital for eight months of the 12-month reporting period. Beeman was paid while on leave — in fact, he got a raise, though one lower than the LGH average.  Beeman’s compensation totaled $1.35 million last year, up from $1.32 million the year before — a 2.1 percent increase.”

“Lancaster General Hospital’s yearly surplus fell last year for the fourth year in a row, due in large part to a growing number of patients relying on government programs like Medicare and Medicaid — and reimbursement rates that haven’t kept up with the cost of care.”

WATCHDOG: At least half of the drop can be attributed to the $1,350,000 gift to Beeman and the extraordinary increase of compensation to Executive Vice President Jan Bergen, “$1.1 million in compensation last year — up from $733,145 the year before.”  Bergen’s husband is partner in the law firm that LGH’s chairman heads.

“Lancaster General disbursed grants and other payments to local governments and other organizations totaling $4.3 million last year, up from $3.97 million the year before. The City of Lancaster received $1.38 million; the School District of Lancaster got $1.34 million.

WATCHDOG: This is still tiny considering LGH is a public charity that generates mammoth profits and operates in a totally opaque manner.  It has a self-selected board of trustees made up of white leaders of the medical profession and business establishment.  As such, it lacks a smidgeon of diversity.  Moreover,  LGH refuses to allow public comment even at the single public annual meeting mandated by regulations.

We applaud the quality of care, competence and dedication of the medical staff and workers, but we do resent certain physicians and executives  profiting excessively (and there is much we cannot see due to lack of transparency) while LGH’s mission, “To advance the health and well-being of the communities we serve,” is in many ways neglected.

It is time to return this captive Public Charity to a board of trustees that truly represents all aspects of the Lancaster community.