New County Council President Outlines Goals

Minutes after losing his seat as Northampton County Council president, Ron Angle had some words for the man .

"He's got the horse and the reins. Let's see if he can drive it."

John Cusick, a high school teacher,  five-year veteran of county council and former Williams Township supervisor, is about to find out.

Tomorrow night, he'll preside over his first official meeting as council president, having won a 5-4 vote over fellow Republican Angle at Monday's reorganization meeting. On Tuesday, Cusick sat down with Patch to talk about his goals for 2011, his predecessor, and how being a high school teacher might prepare him for his new role.

Goals for 2011 

, the county-owned nursing home in Upper Nazareth, is key, Cusick said.

Right now, there's two competing interests at work, Cusick said: the county, which wants to sell the home, and the group circulating a petition to have that sale put on an election ballot.

"I've always thought Gracedale should be operated with little or no property tax dollars," Cusick said. 

If voters were to choose not to sell the home, Cusick said he'd like to see it operated by a private contractor, which he argues would run Gracedale more efficiently.

Cusick said he'd also like to see the county finally find a home for its archives -- most of which are temporarily being housed in Allentown. Only in this case, "temporary" means "six years."

He also hopes the county can finish its treatment center project in West Easton, which would ease overcrowding in the county prison by housing lower-level offenders.

Ron Angle

Angle, a veteran councilman and arguably council's most colorful and outspoken member, had served  as president for one year. He won praise from his colleagues during his tenure, but his year in office was also had its share of controversy.

"There were concerns about Mr. Angle's approach," Cusick said.

Asked what those concerns were, Cusick pointed to two legal battles Angle was involved in during 2010.

He tried to hold both his council seat and a position on the Bangor Area School Board, which prompted a lawsuit by the county district attorney. Angle was also in court this year in a fight over his late father's will.

"There were members of the public and my party that were not comfortable with Mr. Angle as council president," Cusick said. However, he declined to identify the people in question.

He praised Angle's handling of the 2010 county budget, which was passed in early November. At the same time, Cusick said he would take a different approach, and spend more time reviewing the budget.

"To me, your budget is your blueprint to what you're going to do in the following year," he said.

Teaching

Cusick is part of an unofficial tradition on county council: teachers turned council presidents. Rich Grucela, Glenn Reibman and Wayne Grube -- who had retired by the time he was council president -- were all teachers.

Cusick said the fact that Reibman and Grucela were able to teach and serve as president gives him confidence that he can handle both jobs.

And how has his teaching career prepared him for his presidency?

"One of the things you learn is that a classroom has 27 different personality types," Cusick said. With county council, he added, there's only nine.