Update on the Ballad of CBIZ...

There's a buzz going on around 1 Montgomery...not one of those good, "We're finally getting raises!", or, "Yay, they're not messing with our health care anymore!", type, but a really dark and sinister buzz.

"Indictments?", you may ask? No, the good citizens of Montgomery County couldn't be so lucky.

No, the buzz is that Jimbo became incensed that Republican Commissioner, Bruce L. Castor, Jr., Esq. was being charged for the CBIZ documents. The actual "buzz" went something like this: That King James threw a temper tantrum when he heard...a tantrum! Solicitor Barry Miller's name came up quite a bit during said tantrum.

Best yet? Rumor has it that the papers (all $265.00+ worth) "magically" appeared on Commissioner Castor's desk, with no restrictions of any kind attached to them.

Woo-hoo, Barry, (to quote the late, great Desi Arnez) "chu gots some 'splainin' to do?"

Actually, this is nothing new for solicitor Miller. He's mucked the works and cost the taxpayers tons of money in legal fees for stuff that a first year law student (or, better yet, an accomplished trial attorney like Republican Commissioner, Bruce L. Castor, Jr., Esq.) could and did advise the county on before said money was ever wasted...the fated "Ethics Policy" debacle of last year. Even when Castor insisted, on record at a public meeting, that the ethics policy was , in fact, illegal, Commissioner Joe Houffel reminded Castor "YOU'RE NOT the Solicitor!".

How'd that work out for you Joe? All those papers and sheepskins hanging on Republican Commissioner, Bruce L. Castor, Jr., Esq.'s wall and his countless years as a trial attorney must disqualify him from making a valid legal point that may just save taxpayer money from being wasted on an unwinnable lawsuit (or two)?

The really egregious part? Solicitor Miller, who penned this flawed piece of county pablum called the "Ethics Policy" has been quoted in the Intelligencer as saying that the County will enforce the policy for those employees directly under county control...including the office of solicitor, right, Barry?

Wrong.

Barry Miller, Solicitor of The County of Montgomery, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the richest county in the entire Commonwealth, the man who makes policy like the "Ethics Policy" and tries to enforce it is the treasurer of "Friends of Jim Matthews", the political fundraising committee that supplies Jimbo with the money he uses to run for office like, hmmmm...County Commissioner? Barry is in charge of collecting cash and checks so Jimbo can continue to run for public office...an office that awards contracts to vendors...an office that (apparently) makes decisions on who gets a cut of the county health care pie, that our county employees now have to pay for. Companies like CBIZ...

The proof is in the pudding, with Miller's signature on Jimbo's finance report (a document that is available, by request, from the Montgomery County office of Voter's Services by anybody who asks) dated 12/31/2009:



Barry Miller violates his own flawed ethics policy and hey, that's alright. Why? Because he wrote the policy, that's why, and probably buried a provision in there excluding himself, of course.

Rumor has it that Eleonor Schneider, HR Manager for the County of Montgomery (who, by the way, is also covered under the commissioners ethics policy) signed some of the "Friends of Jim Matthews" checks as well. If you're keeping score, that's a second violation of the ethics policy from a friend of Jim Matthews.

Reminder: Castor wasn't against Jim Matthews being Chairman of the County Commissioners, Republican Commissioner, Bruce L. Castor, Jr., Esq., was against one Barry Miller becoming Solicitor of The County of Montgomery, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the richest county in the entire Commonwealth...Looks like Jimbo's grudge is going to come back and bite him on the...

You saw it here first, folks...you'll read more about it in tomorrow's Times Herald, I'm sure.

B.