Giving Kids A Helping Hand in PA

David Martin: This is the good government show.

Christian Leinbach: But we’re doing something that hasn’t been done before. And that’s three counties coming together to solve a problem that no one county can solve themselves. The reality of life is we all make mistakes. Every one of us and every one of us have been given second chances, third chances.

It was a relief to be able to simply look and say, what is the right answer for my community? Good government is doing the right thing without considering the political benefits or the political risks. Thank you to the Good Government show because in this day and age, we really need to hear the good work the government does on almost a daily basis.

David Martin: I always like talking to Berks County Commissioner Christian line back. Usually I get to meet a government leader. We talk a little bit. We do the show. And if I’m lucky, we catch up at conferences. But that’s more of a hey, Mr. Mayor, how are you doing? But Commissioner Linebacker has allowed the show to get sort of involved with Berks County.

We catch up on programs we’ve talked about, and we see how government, at least in Berks County, grows and adapts. Welcome to the good government show. I’m Dave Martin. First, help us share the message of good government by liking us and showing us where we are. We’re on Facebook, we’re on X, we’re on YouTube, Instagram and Blue Sky.

Whichever is your favorite. Please share our show with your friends and or us where you’re listening, and join our good government show community. Check out our website for the link. On this show, we talk at length about a new Berks County youth shelter. The program is year old. Here is set up to help At-Risk youths. Many have no home to go to.

Commissioner Line Back will tell you that by helping these kids, not only are the kids getting help to turn their lives around, but it’s also a cost effective effective both today and in the future. This, as you will hear, is a program that aims to steer kids who may be headed for jail away from jail. That’s good. Government as Christian line back will explain.

Some like tossing someone in jail, especially nonviolent offenders. Well, that isn’t a solution. And here’s a key takeaway that I hope other elected officials pick up on Christian’s position on this has changed. He’s evolved, he said. Changing your mind, seeing a new path that’s good government to. And you’re going to hear about how three counties in central Pennsylvania got together to work on a regional solution to a specific crime problem.

It’s a work in progress, but it’s a good example of how governments come together on a solution and share the expense. I also got to catch up on one of the first programs we talked about on the show, the R3 program. It’s a prison intervention program, and it’s still working and still a government success story. So coming up, my ongoing conversation with our friend, Berks County Commissioner Christian Linda.

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Welcome to the Good Government show the voice of public service. I am very happy to have with me our friend, Christian, line back the, commissioner for Berks County, Pennsylvania. Welcome back.

Christian Leinbach: Very good to be back on the good government show. David, I, I can’t remember. It’s three plus years ago that we did our first show. We did. We’re going to talk about that a little bit later. But it is great to be back with you on The Good Government Show.

David Martin: It is great to have and.

Christian Leinbach: I love the new tagline, The Voice of Public Service, because that’s from the beginning. That’s really what you were celebrating.

David Martin: Well, we like to think so, and what we’re doing now is we’re giving a voice to a lot of the people who work in public service to explain what it is public service is all about. And and I just want to point out that with this episode, you are our number one guest. You have been a guest more than anyone else on the Good Government Show.

We’re always happy to have you back and we’re always happy to catch you.

Christian Leinbach: Count. That is an honor.

David Martin: Yes. Please do. If we had a hall of Fame, you did it. And, as I’ve said many times, and if this is the first time you’re listening to Christian, we would not be here were it not for Christian, because you met our partner, Jim Ludlow, who said, what is it county commissioners do? And a year later we were at a NATO conference.

And here we are at the National Association of Counties in Washington, all because of you. So thanks for giving us the idea and thanks for coming back.

Christian Leinbach: Thank you. It isn’t all just because of me. Jim Ludlow. And yourself, I mean, you’ve done a great job. You’re the one constant you’ve been at almost every single Naco conference since then, interviewing people, getting stories, and finding the great stories to tell about the good things government, especially local government. I’m partial local government, but the good work the government does, when we live in a world where there’s a lot of focus on what’s wrong with government, we’re talking about the good work that government does do every day.

David Martin: That’s what we’re trying to do. That’s what we’re trying to do. And thanks to people like you, it’s getting done. Now, the reason why you’re here, the reason why we’re checking in again with you on all things in Berks County is you have created a new youth shelter. So one of the things we’re talking about is how are people in government spending our money?

Because it’s our money. Tell me why you thought it was important to, spend money on a youth shelter for, you know, kids who should be in jail.

Christian Leinbach: Well, there’s two groups of, youth here that we’re talking about. One on the youth shelter are at risk. Youth? They are youth that are very difficult. If not almost impossible to place. Foster families won’t take them. They normally are dealing with, legitimate mental health, issues or some other type of behavioral issue. The you shelter side is not dealing with adjudicated youth.

In other words, youth that have been convicted of a very serious crime. That’s youth detention. And we’re also working on that. But the youth shelter.

David Martin: So this is kids who have a rough life.

Christian Leinbach: Rough life, serious problems, and in many cases, no home. They’ve either been kicked out of their home because of a crisis, or they were hospitalized in mental health, and no one will take them back. No. No foster care will take them. And in some cases, these youth have ended up in a hotel.

David Martin: Yeah.

Christian Leinbach: Where the county has paid 4 to $5000 a day for security, no programing, a horrible set up. So the youth shelter is something we started to work on.

David Martin: So these are kids who already have a problem.

Christian Leinbach: Ready have a problem and.

David Martin: They send them to a youth shelter. They send them to a hotel.

Christian Leinbach: With a guard with security guards.

David Martin: So they’re probably not getting better. In fact, they’re not.

Christian Leinbach: Getting better, getting worse, and a very expensive cost at getting worse. So in 2023, Berks County said, look, we need to do something about this. We had a facility that was available. We got together with our children, youth services and juvenile probation, again, not the convicted serious crime youth, but others that are fit this risk model. You can’t place them.

And in July of 2024, we opened the facility on two floors at our north campus, fully staffed. We’ve been averaging between 8 and 12 minors on any given day, and it is working very well. We work to get them into either a stable homes or stable programs, right beyond just the temporary program that we provide at the youth shelter.

We’re now in the process of working with a number of counties that have come to us and said, we need this as well. Can we?

David Martin: Well, before we go there, I’m going to I’m going to be the guy sitting in the back of the county commissioner room who doesn’t want to spend any money, right? Why are we spending all this money to renovate a building for 12 kids who, yeah, you know, probably should be somewhere else. Why do we have to.

Christian Leinbach: Pay for two answers? Number one, we’re really paying a tremendous amount of money for a system that doesn’t work when you’re paying 4 or $5000 a day to put a kid in a, a hotel room. That doesn’t work.

David Martin: What is this costing a day?

Christian Leinbach: This is significantly less. Number one. The second and third floor, that we’re utilizing, we’re virtually ready to go because of the prior usage of those facilities. It we had to do almost nothing. Oh, and so from a cost standpoint, we received a grant from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to launch the program, $6 million, that will cover the program over a relatively long period of time.

David Martin: And so it’s a lot of money.

Christian Leinbach: It’s a lot of money, but it will cover the program for the foreseeable future.

David Martin: Is this a good use of public dollars?

Christian Leinbach: It is a good use of public dollars, because if we’re not able to help these youth now and they the range of age is 11 to 18, that’s the age level. They’re going to end up in many cases, either in our jail system or in some cases, they’re going to end up if they’re not having the mental health issue addressed, they’re going to end up in some other type of long care facility or more likely, when it comes to mental health, they’re going to end up on our streets.

They’re going to end up, and increasing the homeless population. And we’ve seen that I had a case, two years ago.

David Martin: Yeah.

Christian Leinbach: Two young people, 114 years old, 115 years old that were in this category that ended up in the local E.R., one of them from October of one year to the end of January, because there was no place to put them. And that’s that’s unconscionable in this day and age. That doesn’t happen now because of this program is in place and includes education.

It includes programing to help get these youth back into society where they’re able to give back, to society because they got help versus just simply being put in some room.

David Martin: Do you feel like it’s the it’s the job of government to intervene, to help these kids to do this? I mean, I mean, what do you do? You have to.

Christian Leinbach: Take care of that. Here’s here’s the issue. Children, youth services, juvenile probation. These youth have been coming through our system for decades.

David Martin: Right.

Christian Leinbach: And so the question is, what do you do with them? What we’ve learned not just for youth, even adults, if all you do is put them in a room, incarcerate them, whatever you want to call it, and you don’t do something to address. How do we help them return to society and become a valuable member of society in some way, shape or form?

They’re stuck in the government. Don’t.

David Martin: Yeah. And they just so what’s.

Christian Leinbach: Good for anybody.

David Martin: To break this down? What you’re saying is, yeah, we spent $6 million. Yeah. We put together a program that spent $6 million renovating the building. We move people in, we pay staff, they’re on the the county payroll. But ultimately, the savings are multiplied because we’re spending more money on them down the road.

Christian Leinbach: And you’re. Yes. And here’s the data. We have.

David Martin: Excuse me for saying this. This sounds a lot like good government.

Christian Leinbach: It is good government. We have seven months. So it’s very difficult to say here’s how this program is working. But what we can look back and say what was happening before was unconscionable and was not working. So we’re moving forward. The fact that we have other counties in Pennsylvania coming to Berks and saying, look, what is the per diem rate?

For us to send, troubled, at risk youth to your facility, we can handle up to 20 at risk youth and I think we’re doing the right thing.

David Martin: Yeah. I mean, is that really what it comes down to is doing the right thing.

Christian Leinbach: It’s doing the right thing.

David Martin: When you walk down the street in Berks and Redding, Pennsylvania, where you live and you see, you know, people on the street, homeless people, what goes through your mind?

Christian Leinbach: Well, the homeless issue is a whole different program, and I’m very involved in that.

David Martin: No, but what you see when you see somebody like.

Christian Leinbach: This, when.

David Martin: I tell what goes through your mind, when.

Christian Leinbach: I see somebody that’s homeless, I ask the question in at least in our county, I know all the programs that are available for them. Why are they here? Okay. Are they here by choice? And many of them in our county are there by choice because we have the beds, we have the programs that work. Not again, not to just give them a place to sleep or give them food to eat, but actually work to get them back into society if they’re dealing with mental health, if they’re dealing with addiction, whatever that issue is, there are programs opportunity House, Mary Shelter, the lighthouse, Hope rescue, Mission wide variety of groups that do more than just

put a person in a bed, put a person in a room. They give them the tools, the career skills. And we’ll talk about one of those groups in a little bit. Sure, in the R3 program, we’ll.

David Martin: Get to that.

Christian Leinbach: And what we’re trying to do is take young people. These are people that are going to end up in our jails. They’re going to end up on the streets. If we are not able to help them. So they’re getting similar programing, but it’s programing targeted to an 11 year old, to a 12 year old, to an 18 year old.

David Martin: And the solution just throw them in jail actually costs more.

Christian Leinbach: It costs more because it there’s no end in sight. If you throw somebody in jail, especially somebody who’s nonviolent, right? You’re not doing anything to help them. You’re we’re far better off if we and again, we’re kind of crossing over here if we let’s talk about youth, if we’re talking about youth, who the issue is not they assaulted somebody, they murdered an individual.

We have that. And that’s our our part two of youth detention. We’re working with a group that we are trying to rehabilitate, that we are trying to help, our local group, it’s called transformative Solutions. But it’s like a council of churches participates with us. They have a chaplain there, and they meet these kids where they are.

If, child, is a particular, faith that the, council pulls together someone of that faith to help them, we’re doing it. We’re we’re trying to work with the whole child so that they don’t become part of the adult, system, whether it’s a homeless mental health or, incarceration.

David Martin: You’ve just made a very strong case for why? Oh, just throw them in jail is a bad solution. It’s a very bad idea.

Christian Leinbach: And look, I was there in the 1980s.

David Martin: You’re in jail.

Christian Leinbach: I know the tough on crime guy. They’re tough on crime. Okay? You know, three strikes and you’re out. Yeah, you do the crime, you do the time. I don’t believe that.

David Martin: You’ve evolved.

Christian Leinbach: And I’ve evolved in this sense. I believe if someone commits a nonviolent crime, putting them in jail is the worst thing you can do. The best thing you can do in a truly nonviolent crime, community service, keep them in whatever job they’re already in. Make sure they’re earning money so that they can pay their fines. They can pay their restitution and show them the pathway back again.

We’re not talking about violent criminals, right? Nonviolent.

David Martin: You also have a, according Berks County, which is reading, Pennsylvania, central Pennsylvania, I guess you declared, an emergency youth detention and you’re making some strides in that area?

Christian Leinbach: Yes, we are doing so. You shelter at risk, nonviolent youth, mental health issues, etc.. Right? That already is up and running. Youth detention is specifically about violent youth, violent youth that have committed violent crimes and the crisis is such that last February 2024, we declared an emergency at the request of our president, judge, our district attorney, the head of APO and JPL, and what was shared with us is we the crisis that we have right now is the youth aren’t afraid because they know they can commit violent crimes and they’ll end up with an ankle monitor.

Or worse yet, our Da has made this very clear and quite public. The gangs know that. And so you have adults running a number of these gangs, and they specifically send out kids that are minors to commit these violent crimes because they know that there’s no place to put them. So the youth detention facility, we have an old, older youth detention facility is going to require about $17 million in renovations to get it ready.

And we realize that’s too much. We can’t afford that in our county.

David Martin: That sounds like a lot of money.

Christian Leinbach: We partnered with Dauphin County and central Pennsylvania, Lehigh County, and you’re familiar. One of your other guests before has been Phil Armstrong.

David Martin: Yes.

Christian Leinbach: Phil is very supportive of this. Okay. Lehigh County and Berks and last year, all three counties publicly, supported resolutions to begin a joint venture. So each of us are going to run this together, whether it’ll be an authority or rejoinder.

David Martin: Three. Cuz all three counties in central Pennsylvania are teaming up to.

Christian Leinbach: Giving up.

David Martin: On a facility. Say this to you again, this sounds like more good governance.

Christian Leinbach: It does sound like work for good government. And right now we’re working with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Secretary Val Arkush, Secretary of Human Services, also a former county commissioner in Montgomery County, individual I know. Well.

David Martin: So you go back to.

Christian Leinbach: Work on, work with us and helping to fund this. The challenge with it is time and money, and we are probably still a year and a half away from being able to open that facility. But we’re doing something that hasn’t been done before, and that’s three counties coming together to solve a problem that no one county can solve themselves.

David Martin: All right. Well, that’s that’s good government. That’s that’s sharing best practices on another level. Because not only you’re sharing the idea, you’re working together on the air and it’s saving money.

Christian Leinbach: Sure. You know, could we go ahead and do it ourselves? Yeah. But we’d have we’d have to have a significant tax increase because of the cost of running an operation like this is so expensive. Much more so than a you shelter.

David Martin: One of the first stories we ever did on the Good Government Show back four years ago, where you came travel to Berks County, and we checked in on the R3 program, and I’ll just, feel free to eject if I did get it badly. The R3 program was two women, who worked in, the county, corrections division, Peggy Kershaw.

Christian Leinbach: Yeah, Nikki Schnabel and actually, they’re, another nonprofit that works with us partners. At the time, it was Berks connection broke free trial services. Right. And they are still co-executive directors. I think it may be the only organization I work with that have co-executive directors. And it actually works for these two ladies.

David Martin: But they.

Christian Leinbach: Do like.

David Martin: Right. But they sat down and they said, we’re running people through a program that takes them out of jail, right. And tries to teach them a skill to teach them a better, better way. And it wasn’t working. Correct. And they sat down and they said, what are we doing wrong? And they came up with the solution. It’s the R3 program, and I think it started in 2017, if I’m not mistaken.

Christian Leinbach: That is correct.

David Martin: They’ve had almost 500 people enrolled. And this is what’s impressed me the most about this program. And I want to see if this is still true. They have 68%, almost 70% of the people who have gone through the system have graduated graduate.

Christian Leinbach: Yeah. It’s not it’s not a rubber stamp. No sign up for automatic. Not everyone graduates.

David Martin: 65% of those people are still working one year later full time. And I think you’ve got the recidivism rate down to over under 4%, under 4%, that of the 500 people who’ve gone through that, some 500, they’ve gone through the program. Only 4% of those people have ever got arrested again, which is astronomically high numbers.

Christian Leinbach: It’s phenomenal. And here’s what’s interesting.

David Martin: Is nationwide, it’s like 60%.

Christian Leinbach: Oh, absolutely.

David Martin: Like back to jail.

Christian Leinbach: Right. And a lot of that happens because there is they need to people need to be shown another way. Right. And Peggy and Nikki in 2010 launched career fairs for people coming out of our jail and coming out of our what we call a treatment courts, drug court, veterans court, mental health court. And those career fairs were great.

And they a lot of people got hired, but they saw a lot of people still cycling back. And they said, what is missing? And there’s two things. One, they said, let’s give them some trades training. And so they worked with groups like Redding, Muhlenberg, Vo Tech.

David Martin: And Habitat for humanity.

Christian Leinbach: Habitat for humanity and a group called Associated Builders and Contractors. And they get limited but training nonetheless. Masonry work, electrical work, plumbing work, carpentry work.

David Martin: But as I recall, the most important component here is show up to work on time cognitive skills.

Christian Leinbach: The other side, for your good decisions. Yes. And showing up, having your lunch ready, recognizing you can’t go back to the same friends that you had before. The environment matters.

David Martin: Have a bank.

Christian Leinbach: Account? Absolutely. Something. So they talk about, and they don’t only talk about it. Most of the testing is around that cognitive side, okay. That they are able to show I really learned something.

David Martin: How’s the program going?

Christian Leinbach: The program is going very, very well.

David Martin: Still, the success is.

Christian Leinbach: Still a success. We just had a graduating class on Friday. Did you speak at 10:00? I did not, I was on the radio at the same time. Both of my commissioned colleagues commission Rivera, Commissioner Santoni, both spoke.

David Martin: But you spoke about it.

Christian Leinbach: I speak at almost every single one, and I could. Here’s my message. To the men and women. And we have both men and women that go through. It’s overwhelmingly male, right, because of the population. But I tell them, look, the reality of life is we all make mistakes. Every one of us and every one of us have been given second chances, third chances.

And you have made the first major decision when you said, I want to be part of this program and now you’ve gone through the program, you graduated. Don’t let anybody tell you that you can’t make it. You’ve already made the first change and keep going forward. And I’ve watched many of these young people come back, I should say young people, many of them, I they’re 20, 30, 40, 50.

I’ve seen even folks in their 60s, but I see many of them come back and give testimony to the graduating class, how it changed their life and what they’re doing today because of this program. It absolutely.

David Martin: Works. I remember one of the guys I talked to, graduated from the program but went to work at a restaurant. And I think the last time I checked in with him, he was he had graduated from being a dishwasher to something else. I don’t suppose you follow any of that.

Christian Leinbach: I do, I do.

David Martin: That kid. How’s he doing?

Christian Leinbach: Well, I don’t know about that one, Kayla. I just saw her last week at the Wyomissing Restaurant and Bakery, and she’s a young lady that came through the program. She’s doing great, I said. And when I see her, I hadn’t seen her for a while. She came up, she waited on me, and I said, Kayla, right? She said yes.

And how are you doing? She said, I’m doing great.

David Martin: Good.

Christian Leinbach: And that happens because, again, not just the skill set, but learning how to make good decisions.

David Martin: All right. We’re going to hear we’re going to hear more about your thoughts on government. But we’re going to come right back after this. Once you wrap up this episode of The Good Government Show, give a listen to our friends over at Good News for lefties. This daily podcast highlights news stories that show there’s more good news out there.

Other people in government are really trying to do the right thing. That’s good news for lefties. Listen, we’re listening now.

After you get done with this episode, hear more good government stories with our friends at How to Really Run a City for mayors Kassim Reed of Atlanta and Michael Nutter of Philadelphia, and their co-host, journalist and author Larry Platt talked with guests and other mayors about how to really get stuff done in cities around the nation. Check them out where you’re listening now or through their nonprofit news site, The Philadelphia Citizen.

Dot org slash podcasts. All right. We are back. We are talking with Christian Line back and we are about to get into the questions here. But before I do that, I know you would let me not talk about this. You’ve been trying to get train service in Redding. How’s it coming?

Christian Leinbach: It is moving forward. We’re working with the Federal Rail Administration. We are one of 26 or 27 programs around the country that are in the quarter ID program. We’re finishing up step one, getting ready to move into step two. Amtrak will be our operator. We’re working on the service agreement. And, very shortly, we should be sitting down with Norfolk Southern, who has the main, track system that we need to utilize and beginning negotiating with them.

David Martin: But I’ll be able to take a train from New York to Redding soon.

Christian Leinbach: Five to 5 to 6 years away. Yeah, it’ll be a while.

David Martin: Well, let’s get into it. We’ve we’ve had change. This is the last time we spoke. We have our questionnaire that we ask everyone once again, what is your definition of good government?

Christian Leinbach: My definition of good government, might be a little bit different than some. I believe it comes down to leaders that are willing to pull away the politics, including our own, for me, I believe I became, well, I became when I was thinking about running for a higher office, no matter what I would tell myself, it affects the way you make decisions because you’re thinking about the next race.

When I stopped doing that, probably 8 or 9 years ago, it was a relief to be able to simply look and say, what is the right answer for my community? And you get that answer by working with a team. So when we look at the R3 program, that’s really not about me. That is about the team that’s in place and the work that they do and simply listening and understanding.

Here’s an answer. This can work. Good government is doing the right thing without considering the political benefits or the political risks.

David Martin: Take politics out of it.

Christian Leinbach: Take it out.

David Martin: Just deliver a good government.

Christian Leinbach: Take it out.

David Martin: All right. If people are frustrated with government, if they don’t like what they’re doing, if they look at you and they go, this slide back guy doesn’t have it, what should they do?

Christian Leinbach: They should speak up. But I think also we have a responsibility. And one of the things that I do, I return phone calls, I called someone this week. Yeah. We do town halls in our community every month of the year except June, July and August and December, where we all three commissioners go out, meet in our local library.

We advertise it and take questions. Any question. We don’t have staff there to cover for us, no filters.

David Martin: So come talk to you.

Christian Leinbach: Yeah. So it’s, very easy to get Ahold of. And I’m willing to listen and willing to give you an answer.

David Martin: This is the good government show. We are the voice of public service. What made you decide to get into public service.

Christian Leinbach: At the time? Back in 2006, we had a dysfunctional county government in part due to a commissioner that was in the newspaper on a regular basis. I decided I can do better than that.

David Martin: All right.

Christian Leinbach: Got involved and actually tell people I thought I knew what county government was when I ran. I did my research. I had a good message. But when I got involved in county government as an elected official starting in 2008, I found out it was much, much more that it touched people’s lives on a daily basis in a way that I hadn’t ever realized and made a fundamental difference.

And is an opportunity to really make a difference in my community. And I think I’ve done that.

David Martin: And for how long? How many years? You mean?

Christian Leinbach: I’m in my 18th year, 18 years, county commissioner.

David Martin: All right. That’s that’s not nothing. That’s that’s a long.

Christian Leinbach: It and it’s it’s, says a lot about my, job interview that occurs every four years. Yeah. People don’t like what you do. You’re out. You’re gone.

David Martin: Who inspires you? Who continues to inspire you?

Christian Leinbach: There’s two things. My hero in government. No comparison. Actually. Anybody else is. Is Abraham Lincoln, a man that when you look at what he came from, I had every reason to fail. And yet he himself was committed to learning and committed to a country and committed to doing whatever it took. If you read a lot of, Lincoln’s material, I read he was a huge what?

David Martin: I finish it, I read I read half of Sandburg’s, like, the.

Christian Leinbach: Sandburg is rough.

David Martin: I.

Christian Leinbach: I didn’t even get that far, but. Half way. Team of rivals, an amazing book by Doris Kearns Goodwin. It really gets into his life. There’s a number of other people.

David Martin: He built a cabinet together.

Christian Leinbach: Put the cabinet, all.

David Martin: The people who opposed to his.

Christian Leinbach: Opponents. Right.

David Martin: And how we could talk history. Sure. Where we should go.

Christian Leinbach: But that that is, he is a factor. And one of the things I learned from him is read. Read all the time. I just finished a book, a week ago called, MacArthur by Arthur Herman, relatively recent book. Fabulous. But I’m always reading Freedom’s forge is another book I finished, probably two months ago about, free enterprise, World War two, FDR, and Bill Knudsen, who was the father of the modern assembly line.

He perfected the Henry Ford assembly line for Henry Ford. He, developed a the change, a model assembly line for Chevy and then was brought in to fundamentally change how the United States government and Department of Defense, prepared for World War II. Two.

David Martin: 18 years as a county commissioner. What would you like people to know about how government works from the inside?

Christian Leinbach: Number one, don’t assume that what you see in social media or read in the media is the whole story. 99% of the time, it’s not even close to the whole story. S questions. Contact your elected official.

David Martin: That goes back to what it.

Christian Leinbach: Does, okay? And try to ask questions. Try not to accuse. It’s it gets really tough sometimes when you have people yelling at you to back up and say, okay, I understand they don’t see what I see. The iceberg, the tip, everything underneath it.

David Martin: Well, 18 years you’ve you’ve probably had to take some abuse. Right. So what’s the best part of the job?

Christian Leinbach: The best part of the job is being able to see results that change people’s lives. I still give one of the greatest examples, was a grandparents that contacted my office that were having problems in children, in youth, being able to be the source and home for their granddaughter, their granddaughter, family had just blown apart. And nine times out of ten, when somebody calls and says, I’m having a problem with children, youth services, there’s a lot more to the story.

This one was different. We got involved and ultimately they not only got custody of their granddaughter, they adopted their granddaughter and invited me and my executive assistant to the adoption hearing that that’s something where we made a different that issue was so close to going off the rails that I know that if I hadn’t gotten involved, they would have not been able to get custody and would have never been able to adopt their granddaughter.

David Martin: What keeps you up at night?

Christian Leinbach: Extremism, extremism on the left and extremism on the right. It’s the thing I find so discouraging. We’re in an environment right now where the extremes can’t even talk to each other, and you can’t solve problems if you can’t sit down and work through the problem with the opposition.

David Martin: Do you feel like on a local level, at least in Berks County, you’ve you’ve addressed that and been successful on any level?

Christian Leinbach: We’ve been successful to this extent. I’ve been reelected multiple times while in the heat of those conflicts. Yeah, but I don’t think it’s solved.

David Martin: No by.

Christian Leinbach: Any stretch. I think people like myself and others need to stand up, be a voice of reason, not be afraid.

David Martin: But that’s heart.

Christian Leinbach: Of the attacks of the extreme. Yeah, but also not let the noise drowned out the majority, because that’s the hardest thing for me. I hear the noise and at times the noise seems to take over, and I begin to measure equate noise with quantity. And that’s rarely the case.

David Martin: Well, a good start. It is. Did you always I mean, I know your your background a little bit. You started off in advertising and marketing. Did you ever did you always envision a career in public service? Eventually.

Christian Leinbach: So always. No. There was a point in college where I visited two Iron Curtain countries where I relatives, Hungary and Czechoslovakia in 1979 for five weeks to my aunts took me and I lived with relatives. It changed my life and to to this extent, you as a kid, your parents tell you don’t know how blessed you are and how great you have it.

I came back from that experience and I said, oh my goodness, I really have it. Great. And I wanted I came out of college, I wanted to be president. I worked in the Reagan campaign in South Carolina as a volunteer in 1980. And, I ran for office right out of the gate, in 1982. Actually ran for an endorsement, lost the endorsement.

But I supported the gentleman that won a local farmer, our Hershey Brandt. My wife and I did his campaign, and he won in 82 and 84. He was in office til 2006. But, my political career as far as full time didn’t happen until 2008, when I became a Berks County commissioner. Prior to that, just virtually all in the private sector, first construction and then 92 on in the advertising industry.

David Martin: We’ve talked about Pennsylvania Dutch cuisine, but I want to know what you do for fun. What do you do for fun? What do I.

Christian Leinbach: The. And anyone that knows me as I love the outdoors. I love to hike. This past Sunday I was up at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in northern Berks County, hiking by myself even though, there was snow and ice on the ground and got the beauty of seeing for my first time in the wild, a porcupine at the end, climbing up a tree.

All right, so no, I love the outdoors, and I especially love to hike with my grandkids. My, three if you say oldest nine, seven and five love to go hiking where they.

David Martin: Are, they several steps ahead of you.

Christian Leinbach: Yes. And I have to tell them, slow down.

David Martin: Gravel will be right with you.

Christian Leinbach: I’ll be with you.

David Martin: This is the good government show. We always bring it back to good government. Tell me about any good government project you’re working on. Where you’re spending the people’s money wisely.

Christian Leinbach: The Redding Regional airport, we took a direct leadership role in that a little over two years ago. And for the first time in decades, the airport activity, aviation activity is growing. We signed at the end of last year, signed a 29 year extension with our largest aviation customer. We do not have commercial air service, but since late September, we’ve been talking to a commercial air carrier.

I met with them two weeks ago. Some really great things, on the horizon. We’re going to be building a brand new 24,000 square foot box hangar.

David Martin: Okay.

Christian Leinbach: And all of that with no county taxpayer money. The airport is an authority, and it’s been in the black and continues to grow.

David Martin: So I might be able to fly into Redding before I take the train into.

Christian Leinbach: You might be able to do that. I think that’s actually more likely.

David Martin: More likely? Well, we have been talking with our good friend, one of the best friends of, the Good Government show Christian line back County commissioner for Berks County, Pennsylvania. Christian, it is always a pleasure to talk to you. Thanks for catching up. It’s always good to hear about the good work you’re doing in Berks County.

And, your support for the Good Government show, has allowed us to to flourish, we hope. Well, thank you.

Christian Leinbach: Thank you, David, and thank you to the good Government show. Because in this day and age, we really need to hear the good work the government does on almost a daily basis.

David Martin: All right. Well, tell all your friends and keep listening. Thanks, Christian.

Christian Leinbach: Thank you.

David Martin: In the city of Faith, Texas, they don’t leave good government up to, well, fate. Join me in for another show I host. As fate would have it, my co-host is David Billings. The former mayor of fate who shares his opinions and thoughts on what good government is and fate. As you’ll hear, they don’t leave it up to fate.

So listen right here we are listening now to as fate would have it.

Talking about the youth shelter, it came down to this Commissioner Christian Line back in his staff in Berks County, Pennsylvania, took a look at what was going on and said, this isn’t working. And they made a change. Christian said, it comes down to what government is about. It’s simply doing the right thing, the right thing for both the people who are in the program and the right thing really, for all residents, they’re going to see benefits down the road.

With less people in jail and the county spending less money on criminal justice, that’s good government. Always a pleasure to talk to our friend Christian. Line back, and it’s great to be able to follow up on good government projects we’ve talked about already on the show. Well, that’s our show for today. Thanks for listening. Please like us and share this with your friends.

The interview is right here. We’re listening and check out our website. Good Government show.com for extras. Help us keep telling stories of good government in action everywhere. And join us again for another episode right here. I’m Dave Martin and this is the Good Government show.

The Good Government show is a Valley Park production. Jim Ludlow, Dave Martin, that’s me and David Snyder are the executive producers. Our show is edited and produced by Jason Stershic. Please subscribe then share and like us and reviews. That’s the best way to make sure we’re able to keep telling these stories of our government working for all of us.

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**This transcription was created using digital tools and has not been edited by a live person. We apologize for any discrepancies or errors.