Eyewitness: Matthews and Hoeffel talk county business on the sly
By JENNY DeHUFF
Times Herald Staff
NORRISTOWN – The `Breakfast Club,’ as they’ve been dubbed, usually meet Tuesday mornings before the regular 10 a.m. county commissioners meeting, a Times Herald reporter recently observed.
The Jem Restaurant, located in the Hillcrest Plaza Shopping Center at Swede Street and Germantown Pike, is a myriad of hustle and bustle at 8:45 a.m.
As coffee cups swing in waitresses’ hands, the buzz of morning chatter often drowns out the diner doo wop, but every so often the nature of things allows for a break in the babble, and a sampling of conversations can be heard.
Some regular faces can be seen during that time, namely those of Montgomery County Commissioners’ Chairman Jim Matthews and Vice Chairman Joe Hoeffel.
A Times Herald reporter was at the Jem on Oct. 19 and again on Nov. 9, where she spotted Matthews and Hoeffel having their Tuesday breakfast rendezvous with two other mover-shakers in the county, Solicitor Barry Miller and Deputy Chief Operating Officer Jim Maza.
The reporter overheard them talking about appointments, land acquisitions, expenditures, operating budgets and winning bonds. But each time, one major figure was left of the equation – the third commissioner, Bruce Castor, which edges dangerously close to violations of Pennsylvania’s Sunshine Act.
When the Times Herald reporter presented Castor with the findings of the Breakfast Club engagements, he said almost all the material was exactly what was marked for the subsequent 10 a.m. commissioner’s meeting agenda.
Times Herald Staff
NORRISTOWN – The `Breakfast Club,’ as they’ve been dubbed, usually meet Tuesday mornings before the regular 10 a.m. county commissioners meeting, a Times Herald reporter recently observed.
The Jem Restaurant, located in the Hillcrest Plaza Shopping Center at Swede Street and Germantown Pike, is a myriad of hustle and bustle at 8:45 a.m.
As coffee cups swing in waitresses’ hands, the buzz of morning chatter often drowns out the diner doo wop, but every so often the nature of things allows for a break in the babble, and a sampling of conversations can be heard.
Some regular faces can be seen during that time, namely those of Montgomery County Commissioners’ Chairman Jim Matthews and Vice Chairman Joe Hoeffel.
A Times Herald reporter was at the Jem on Oct. 19 and again on Nov. 9, where she spotted Matthews and Hoeffel having their Tuesday breakfast rendezvous with two other mover-shakers in the county, Solicitor Barry Miller and Deputy Chief Operating Officer Jim Maza.
The reporter overheard them talking about appointments, land acquisitions, expenditures, operating budgets and winning bonds. But each time, one major figure was left of the equation – the third commissioner, Bruce Castor, which edges dangerously close to violations of Pennsylvania’s Sunshine Act.
When the Times Herald reporter presented Castor with the findings of the Breakfast Club engagements, he said almost all the material was exactly what was marked for the subsequent 10 a.m. commissioner’s meeting agenda.
