Meet the Candidate: David C. Najarian

During David Najarian’s tenure as Lynn Township supervisor, the township has cut taxes, cut costs and enacted a resolution that supervisors couldn’t work for the township in another capacity.

That last item especially raised some hackles in the township where it had been traditional that supervisors also held other township jobs.

“That caused quite a stir,” he said. “It wasn’t fun.”

But Najarian, 47, said he’d like to bring that same reform ethic to Lehigh County. He’s one of eight Republicans running in the GOP May 17 Primary for four at-large county commissioner seats. Najarian is part of a slate of four Republicans, including Scott Ott, Vic Mazziotti and Lisa Scheller, who announced their intention to unseat Republican Chairman Dean Browning. In October, despite lobbying by some Republicans, Browning voted against sending the county budget back to Executive Don Cunningham for deep cuts as a way to avoid a 16 percent tax increase.

“Scott [Ott] approached me and convinced me that we actually have the opportunity to change things,” Najarian said.

Asked what he would have cut from the county budget, Najarian said that’s the wrong approach. Rather than be faced with such choices at crunch time, the county commissioners need to be making more efforts at reductions all year long, he said. 

“The process of streamlining government is done as you govern,” Najarian said. “Ask the right questions, come up with alternatives. You have to be willing to do the due diligence.”

Browning argues that he’s been doing that, including  spearheading a pay freeze for 170 human services supervisors and Cedarbrook nurses in December that will save the county $370,000.

Najarian said the Lynn Township Supervisors cut legal and engineering costs and changed providers for expenses such as health care and propane to get better prices, he said.

“We ended this year with a surplus, we ended last year with a surplus,” Najarian said. “We cut property taxes by 24 percent and got rid of the per capital tax and amusement tax.”

When Najarian took office the millage rate was 1.3 mills and township supervisors cut that to 1 mill. That means a homeowner with a property assessed at $100,000 would pay $100 a year in property taxes rather than $130.

The county is negotiating contracts with four unions this year and some commissioner candidates have suggested they would favor a wage freeze for workers. Najarian said he’d have to see the contracts before he could say how he’d vote on them.

He opposes the creation of a bi-county health department, saying he doesn’t support making county government bigger. 

Political blogger Bernie O’Hare has criticized Najarian’s slate because three of the candidates signed statements on the back of their filing petition that say they didn’t intend to spend more than $250 on their campaign. According to the campaign finance report posted on the web site for My Lehigh Valley political action committee, Najarian has already contributed at least $2,000 to that PAC which seeks to elect Najarian and the rest of the slate.  

Asked about that, Najarian said that he has no control over the PAC and how the money is spent and no plans to form his own campaign committee. He said that the county Voter Registration office says if you spend more than $250 on your campaign you must simply file campaign finance reports reflecting that.

Born in Berks County, Najarian moved to a farm in Lynn Township when he was 7. He graduated from the private George School in Newtown before getting an associates degree from Lincoln Tech and going to work for AT&T. He later got his bachelor’s degree and a master’s of business administration from DeSales University and  a law degree from Widener University Law School.

Najarian served as a public defender in Lehigh County for almost three years and then worked for three law firms before going into practice for himself. He lives on a 120 acre farm in the township and has two grown daughters.

Return to Meet the GOP Candidates

Here are the candidate profiles:

Dean Browning

Norma Cusick

Vic Mazziotti

David C. Najarian

Brad Osborne

Scott Ott

Lisa Scheller

Mike Welsh