2006 News
November 2 , 2006
Bucks County Commissioners Hold Bi-Monthly Meeting at Warminster's Ben Wilson Senior Center
Voter Education Successes and Preliminary 2007 Budget Issues Highlight Session
It was altogether fitting that the Bucks County Board of Commissioners conducted its last meeting prior to the Nov. 7 General Election at Warminster Twp.’s Ben Wilson Senior Center. During a recent BUCKS VOTES educational session held at the facility, more than 200 senior-center members experienced hands-on learning about the county’s Danaher ELECTronic 1242 voting machines.
“This was our largest senior center voter education site,” said Chief Operating Officer David M. Sanko, referring to more than 200 BUCKS VOTES sessions that have been conducted in all 54 county municipalities since the end of August, in conjunction with the Bucks County League of Women Voters. “It has been a great partnership with the League of Women Voters. Without the League (which has conducted 51 different training sessions), it would not have been possible. The citizens’ response has been extraordinary.”
Sanko and Commissioners James F. Cawley, Esq., Charles H. Martin and Sandra A. Miller urged all registered Bucks County voters to remain proactive by looking for special voter education inserts in the daily and weekly local newspapers, by accessing the county website (BUCKS VOTES Voter Education ), tuning in to Comcast’s ON DEMAND “Get Local” channel to view the BUCKS VOTES instructional video and, foremost, by showing up at the polls next Tuesday.
During his bi-weekly report, Sanko also lauded county division leaders’ “goals and objectives to control spending and increase efficiencies” in advance of the late-November release of the Preliminary fiscal year 2007 county budget.
“We have maintained a high quality of services to the consumers with a special appreciation to the impact on the taxpayers. There has been increased accountability and better management,” Sanko added, noting that the Bucks Employees Saving Taxes (BEST) Committee has played an integral role in cost-containment planning, which may help the projected county budget come in with no tax increase for 2007.
“We have been very austere in our spending habits over the last year and a half,” Cawley said. “The people of Bucks County can feel confident that their taxpayer money is being spent wisely and judiciously.”
Added Finance Director Brian Hessenthaler, CPA, “We have asked division leaders and department heads to do more with less, and they have done a good job. We want to focus on the bottom line goal, which is a zero-percent net county cost increase (from FY 2006).”
During the resolution portion of the meeting, the commissioners unanimously approved appropriations to 12 different departments.
Among those, Corrections received approval for a pair of technology upgrades, including a palm-printing system that will provide an interface with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
“This will allow us to connect back to the state and tell us about inmates’ criminal history,” explained Corrections Director Harris Gubernick.
The commissioners also issued a proclamation declaring November “Adoption Awareness Month.” Accepting the proclamation were Bucks County Department of Children and Youth representatives Marjorie McKeone and Karen Stuebing-Robos.
“We want to try to make our services to the adoption public a little bit better every year,” McKeone told the commissioners.