'We were kept in the dark': Northampton County Council, executive clash over Gracedale bonus audit

EASTON, Pa. — Several members of Northampton County Council tore into county Executive Lamont McClure on Thursday after an audit showed money it approved for bonuses for Gracedale staff instead funded the home’s operation.

“We all voted in good faith to give Gracedale a good amount of ARPA money for certain things to occur," council President Lori Vargo Heffner said.

"Moving that money without coming back to council, not being transparent with council over all these years and just shifting federal money without discussing it — I'm very concerned.

“I think it's interesting that this was presented tonight, but I don't believe you. I just don't believe it.”

In 2022, County Council authorized $5 million for recruitment and retention bonuses for staff at Gracedale nursing home, which the county owns and operates.

However, an audit released this week showed that $2.3 million of the allocation paid for bonuses; the rest covered some of the home’s operating costs.

'Kept in the dark'

McClure told the council Thursday that neither he nor his director-level deputies knew the money had been spent on operating costs until May of 2024.

He laid blame squarely at the feet of Gracedale’s former administrator and other top-level staff at the home who have since been replaced.

Informing the county council would have meant a public fight that would itself harm recruiting and retention at Gracedale, McClure argued.

Several members hit back, accusing McClure of hiding how the money was spent and misleading the council.

“I'm a little angry because we were kept in the dark," Commissioner John P. Goffredo said.

"I'm even more angry because I don't know if I believe you, that you didn't know about any of this. There’s not too many things that go on in this building that get by you.”

Not knowing about the redirected funds, Commissioner John Brown said, amounts to “incompetence.”

“You like to use the term ‘moral obligation to keep Gracedale,’" Brown said. "Well, I think ‘moral obligation’ becomes a cover for ‘we don't know what the hell is going on.’”

'Politically motivated'

Council members Kelly Keegan and Jeff Warren defended McClure, saying the audit was an attempt to gain political advantage ahead of a municipal primary election.

“You're seriously trying to tell me and everybody here that asking for an audit 20 days prior to a primary election when we have an individual on this dais who's running for county executive this year, and a county controller who is also running for county executive isn't politically motivated?” Commissioner Jeff Warren said.

“Let's not say that certain things happening here are not politically motivated when they most certainly are.”

By Fall 2023, all $5 million approved for bonuses had been deposited in Gracedale’s fund. Because it mixed with money from other sources, officials could no longer distinguish the $5 million from any other funds.

Gracedale administrators had spent their entire fund balance by the end of 2023 — and the remaining money earmarked for bonuses with it.

As a result, according to a report released Wednesday, auditors with the Northampton County Controller’s Office can confidently say that none of the $5 million allocation remains, but cannot determine exactly what that money bought.

McClure said that, because Gracedale administrators kept staffing levels higher than he instructed, the home exhausted its fund balance largely through unexpected spending on agency nurses and overtime pay.

As a result, he argues, the $2.6 million of bonus funding used for operating costs effectively went to covering overtime.

However, because officials did not track the money after it entered Gracedale’s fund balance, it is impossible to say exactly what each dollar funded.

More fireworks are likely still to come. County Controller Tara Zrinski will appear at a county council finance committee meeting on June 17 to discuss her office’s audit.