PureBunkum

It’s right there in the “Law & Order For Dummies” book.  If you help create documents so corrupt judges can hide the source of  questionable income, that’s obstruction of justice, right?

Why then was the area’s KOZ king, Robert Mericle, only charged with failure to report a crime, if he did do that as prosecutors claim?

In the “Judge Judy For Dummies” handbook, doesn’t it also say that if you did create such documents, you’re complicit in the commission of a crime, if one was indeed committed?  We need to be careful here.

And although the average Joe thinks it is, the “L.A. Law For Dummies” book isn’t clear on whether it’s even a crime for two judges to use their offices to help out two business associates, who then pay them more than $2 million for their trouble.  Maybe that’s nothing more than ethical misconduct. 

At least that’s what Ciavarella’s legal team may try to argue.  Some may argue that that’s a stretch.

Anyway, Ciavarella’s trial, finally, is about to begin.  It would have been double the fun had his alleged partner in crime or, if you will, alleged partner in ethical misconduct, Michael Conahan, been joining him.  But Conahan took his chances on a plea agreement.

Oh, this promises to be one riveting trial, especially if Conahan and Mericle testify for the prosecution as expected.

We just can’t wait for Defense Attorney Al Flora Jr.  to rip those two to shreds.  And he will.  Flora is a skilled defense attorney.  Think George Banks and the 100 years, give or take a few, he has kept him on death row.

Oh, to be a fly on the wall in Flora and co-defense attorney William Ruzzo’s law offices.  Or to be in that courtroom when Ciavarella and Conahan, aka Bonnie and Clyde, come face to face.  Scowl to Scowl.

Will crafty Conahan testify that this scheme was all Ciavarella’s idea, and he went along reluctantly because Ciavarella scared him to death just like he did those kids?  Will Ciavarella counter that it was Conahan who closed a perfectly habitable county-owned juvenile detention center and dangled irresistible millons of dollars in front of him for picking it up from there? 

And speaking of a million dollar question, will former Luzerne County commissioners Todd Vonderheid and the imprisoned Greg Skrepenak be called to testify.  After all, they played an integral role by locking the county into a 20-year, $58-million lease for the privately-owned juvenile detention center that Mericle built and which enriched the judges.

We’ll have something to say about Mericle’s new plea agreement in the next day or two.  This case gets more interesting with each new development, wouldn’t you agree?

- Betty Roccograndi

Unfortunately, the West Side Career and Technical Center in Pringle has long been perceived as a dumping ground for students kind of academically challenged.  The school should be known as one in which students opt instead to learn a trade, which can then materialize into a lucrative career.

Everyone needs auto mechanics, plumbers and electricians.  Who isn’t willing to pay top dollar if your furnace breaks down in the dead of winner or if your vehicle dies on the Cross Valley Expressway and you can’t get home?

Which brings us to this.  Why did two Northwest Area School District board members,  Michael Pegarella and Gerald Conger, who also sit on the career center’s joint operating committee,  just vote to name Nancy Tkatch its new administrative director when a few days earlier they deemed her unworthy of an extended contract at Northwest?  The third member of the Northwest Area contingent, Peter Lanza Jr., abstained after Lake-Lehman representative Mark Kornoski pointed out the obvious hypocrisy. 

Kornoski has a point.  If she wasn’t good enough for Northwest, why is she worthy of the job at the career center?  Is it because that school is also a dumping ground for administrators?  Doesn’t this action perpetuate the perception that the career center is somewhat of a less prestigious school?

We have no idea what kind of an administrator she’ll be.  We heard she’s one tough lady, and maybe that is exactly what that school needs.  She had the votes even without the Northwest Area contingent.  It is strange, though, that two of that board’s members wanted her out of their own school district but found it okay to put her in charge of the career center.

Also that night, the joint operating committee welcomed back the Wyoming Valley West School District, which left  in 2008 after demanding unsuccessfully to have more of a say on the career center’s board when it was sending a majority of the students there.  WVW had a point but should have recognized a losing battle when it saw one instead of spending roughly $1 million more in tuition costs than was necessary.

Said Lake-Lehman’s Kornoski:  “If I was still a taxpayer there, I would have been at every meeting screaming about the mismanagement of taxpayer dollars.” 

So, the feud has ended.  But what was gained?  NOTHING.  Valley West is out about $1 million.  The career center is $1 million richer, but just forfeited a reported $345,000 by welcoming back WVW retroactively.  And Valley West has no more votes than it did when it left in a huff.

Go figure.

One last note.  It still is amazing that The Times Leader allows a reporter to cover a school board meeting and then on another page offer a personal take on said meeting as an opinion columnist.

Whatever happened to “Just the facts, ma’am.”  Or Journalism 101:  Who, what, when, where and why?

- Betty Roccograndi

“We don’t want anything extra,” Wyoming Valley West School Board President Joe Mazur declared Wednesday night.

That’s a good one.

Almost three years ago, WVW did demand something extra, but it backfired and, in the process, cost its taxpayers almost $1 million more in tuition costs, an insider told us.

Valley West had argued that since it sent the most students to the school, it deserved more than three votes on the board, the number afforded the four other members of the joint operating committee – Northwest Area, Wyoming Area, Dallas, and Lake-Lehman.

It was a nice try but not unexpected when the other members told WVW, that’s what you think.

So Valley  West left and, as a non-member, ended up paying more per student.

So now in an embarrassing turnaround, WVW is at the mercy of the Career and Technical Center, which is expected to decide Monday night whether to take its prodigal school district back.

Of course WVW doesn’t want anything extra in return.  It took the district over two years to determine that it wasn’t going to get anything extra.  The only one who did get something extra was the Career Center, in the form of increased tuition, thanks to Valley West.

What a waste!

It sure is a good thing that we’re a two newspaper town.  The Times Leader had no coverage of the WVW board meeting, but The Citizens’ Voice did. (Update:  the TL reported on the meeting a day later.)

In another article, the CV reported that the Northwest Area School Board voted to not renew the contract of its superintendent, Nancy Tkatch.  The board wants to seek other candidates.  Hey, not everyone is as fortunate as Wilkes-Barre Area’s Jeff Namey.  That board saw no reason to see who else was out there.

But PureBunkum has learned that Tkatch is being considered to replace the West Side Career Center’s retiring Administrative Director  Betsy Ellis.

Will the Northwest Area contingent on that board vote for her?  Enquiring minds want to know, considering they just shot her down in their own district.

- Betty Roccograndi

Several years ago, the Wyoming Valley West School Board took its marbles and went home.

Angered that it sent a majority of students to the West Side Voc-Tech School but had no more representation than the other four member school districts, it seceded.

Now, WVW reportedly wants back in, most likely because its departure has been costing the district a small fortune and because it stood to lose state subsidies if it didn’t pay an outstanding bill to the voc-tech school.

According to one insider, Valley West has spent approximately $920,000 more on tuition costs because of its non-member status.  That’s $920,000 more with zero representation on the board.

The issue is expected to arise at Wednesday’s board meeting.  Although it’s not on the agenda as of yet, the board is expected to vote on rejoining the Voc-Tech’s joint operating committee, which takes Valley West back to square one.  It still will have no more voting power than the rest of the member districts, but at least its tuition costs would decrease.

So what did Wyoming Valley West gain for taking a stand, a rightful one some may argue?  Absolutely nothing.  What it lost, though, was almost $1 million if our source’s figures are correct.

One may ask what took this school board so long to realize that not only did it lose the battle, but it also needlessly continued to spend far more money to send students there?

Maybe we’ll find out Wednesday when the board meets at the Middle School .

There is supposedly a deal on the table that in order to get back in, Valley West will have to pay $345,000 in extra tuition costs it incurred so far as a non-member for the 2010-2011 school year plus another $185,000 it still owes to Voc-Tech.

One has to conclude that WVW was the big loser here.

We’d like to know which board members stubbornly held out for a better deal that apparently was never going to materialize in the first place.

- Betty Roccograndi

All we can say is thank goodness that the state Auditor General’s Office stepped in and blew the whistle on the self-proclaimed whistleblower at Luzerne County Community College.

Three years ago, former LCCC associate dean, Peter Paul Moses, was caught with his hands in the cookie jar, that being the school’s cafeteria cash register.  It took awhile, but the school eventually fired Moses, who then played the whistleblower card and filed his own lawsuit.  He is claiming he lost his $73,000 job because he threatened to expose wasteful spending.

To date, we’re not aware of any incidents of wasteful spending that Moses exposed, aside from exposing taxpayers to the costs of investigating him.

Moses was originally accused of stealing around $17,500 and two laptop computers, as if that weren’t bad enough.  Auditor General Jack Wagner announced Thursday that Moses actually helped himself to $104,000 of the school cafeteria’s proceeds.

And in addition to the two laptop computers, Wagner said a desktop computer, which held records of cash deposits, also disappeared.  Although Wagner did not say whether Moses took it, he said he was the only one who had access to it.  One might conclude that two plus two equals four.

“I am deeply concerned by the findings of our special investigation,”  Wagner said.  Not as much as we taxpayers in Luzerne County are.

Last year, a jury found Moses guilty of stealing more than $17,500 in cash and the two laptop computers.  He was sentenced to four to 23 months in jail and to repay $19,122 to the college.

He’s appealing and remains free.

What’s amazing is that when Moses was confronted about a missing $1,228 deposit from December 2007, he then returned it to the college.

Despite that neon red flag and and suspicions of other missing deposits, he was later put on paid leave from February 2008 until September 2008, receiving almost $49,000 in salary, The Times Leader had reported.  Granted, it’s just about impossible to fire a school employee, unlike one from a private business who if confronted with taking $1,228 from his employer’s cash register would only then put it back and go his merry way.

Wagner’s report concluded that internal control weaknesses contributed to the thefts going unnoticed.  With all due respect, that is an understatement.  LCCC President Thomas Leary told the TL that as a result of the investigation, the taxpayer-funded community college has “implemented measures necessary to make sure we are in compliance with and that also we are safeguarding the public’s trust.”  Why those safeguards weren’t already in place is anyone’s guess.

AG Wagner’s 42-page report said Moses stole the  money on an astounding 79 separate occasions.  That’s quite a long trail of thefts that went unnoticed.

Like we said, that goodness for the state Auditor General’s office.  If left to LCCC, Moses still might be on paid administrative leave.

- Betty Roccograndi

What a tease that federal Judge Richard P. Conaboy is.

At Monday’s sentencing hearing for insurance executive Thomas P. Gaughan, Conaboy revealed the charge against him, lying to an FBI agent,  involved Gaughan’s chat with a Luzerne County commissioner regarding a possible $2,500 payment to ensure his niece got a job with the county.

Guess who got a job?

But Conaboy left everyone hanging.   He didn’t say whether any money actually did exchange hands, who would have received it if it did or who would have paid it.

Let’s dissect this.  Gaughan had a conversation with a Luzerne County commissioner.  Any takers on whom that might have  been?  Who would have paid the $2,500?  Hmmm.  Didn’t the judge just say that the charge against Gaughan had something to do with a possible payment to get his niece a job?  Who do you think would have paid it, the mailman?

So now we’re left to wonder which county commissioner or former county commissioner it was not beneath to suggest a gratuity of, say, $2,500 or $5,000 or some TVs,  a tailor-made silk suit, for going out of his or her way to help someone’s relative get a job, obtain a tax break or nab a no-bid county contract.

We may never know.

The other big unanswered question arising from Monday’s sentencing hearing is pray tell, how does Judge Conaboy know that Katie Gaughan didn’t need any pull to get a county job because she was highly qualified?  Conaboy found it sickening that there was any suggestion of a payment, saying the woman would have gotten the job on her own merit.  And he knows this, HOW?

We kind of  find it a little sickening ourselves that a judge, who’s supposed to be blind to everything but the facts, drew such an unsubstantiated conclusion in open court.

Then, the judge went on to say , according to The Times Leader, that he understood where Gaughan was coming from, wanting to play with the big boys.  He cited information contained in a report that indicated that the insurance exec “likes to be a big shot and to hang around with big shots.”  That’s not so bad, Conaboy stressed, but expressed that some people think “they can buy their way to that access.”  GET OUT!!!!!  Why would he think that?

In addition to Gaughan, a few months earlier, Conaboy also sympathized with two others caught up in the Luzerne County corruption probe.  He scolded former Clerk of Courts Bob Reilly for getting tricked into accepting a payment for helping out a contractor.  “It’s confounding to me how you allowed yourself to get involved,”  he told Reilly.  If you say so, Your Honor.

Then there’s man about town, Thom Greco, who really did get duped when former county commissioner Greg Skrepenak told him to take a hike when he asked him for the $14,000 he spent on TVs for his father’s sports bar.

Skrepenak reportedly said something like, “You owe me.” 

Poor Greco.  Poor Reilly.  Poor Gaughan.  They were all sentenced to probation and community service at local soup kitchens. They were lucky to have gotten a judge, though, who understood their proclivity to be big shots.  But sometimes big shots get burned and unwittingly commit a crime.  Judge Conaboy gets that.

- Betty Roccograndi

The good news for Wilkes-Barre City firefighters is that the windfall each just received for NOT manning meter collections since 2002 does not stop there.

The bad news for city taxpayers is that the windfall each firefighter just received for NOT manning meter collections since 2002 does not stop there.

Just like the police, the city must continue paying the firefighters around $1,500 a year for NOT manning meter collections.

And, in addition, the city lost a second arbitration ruling to the union – surprise, surprise – and was forced to pay six assistant chiefs between $40,248 to $49,152 in back pay, which includes their pay for NOT manning meter collections, The Times Leader reported.

This double whammy is utterly obscene, considering, in part, it was intended to be a cost-savings measure.  Please, city officials, don’t take any other trivial chores off the police or firefighters to save money.  We can’t afford it.

The city thought it was wasteful  for a police officer to use his valuable time collecting money from meters when a trained monkey could do that job.  But the police union took umbrage at the notion of being replaced by civilians, even though it freed them up to actually fight crime.  You want civilians to do that, they said, then we want a raise.  Okay, said former Mayor Tom McGroarty, who apparently didn’t have much of a choice.

Is it any wonder that after lawyers, union bosses are at the bottom rung of the average taxpayers’ most admired list?  Not to mention weak-kneed elected officials who will not stand up to the unions and their unreasonable demands.

From the beginning, we questioned fighting this arbitration ruling.  The firefighters have a parity clause in their contract (big mistake, Wilkes-Barre), which entitles them to whatever goodies the police union gets.  So on top of the more than $1 million the city must now pay the firefighters, we await the final tally for two years’ worth of  legal fees.

Mayor Tom Leighton took one big gamble fighting this thing and lost big time.

He was quoted in the local paper as saying, “They do not deserve it.”  Well, no kidding.  The police also should not have been rewarded for giving up meter collections.  Isn’t the city and its strapped taxpayers allowed to save money where they can.

NO THEY’RE NOT! say the unions.

Leighton and the city’s human resourses director, Christine Jensen, said even with paying the ridiculous stipends to both unions at a cost of $243,000 a year for NOT manning the meters, and paying the meter attendants $223,827, which includes benefits, FOR manning them, the city will still make about $163,173 from meter collections, the TL reports.  That’s sure looking on the bright side.

Leighton is negotiating with the police to give up their stipend so he won’t have to pay it to the firefighters.  Is he for real?

His other plan is to have the police resume meter collections.  That’s something he should have done when the firefighters came knocking, and it became clear that the savings to the city, maybe, weren’t all that great after all.

The police will probably jump at this since they made such a fuss when the chore was taken away from them.  But they’ll probably want a raise.

-  Betty Roccograndi

Think of all the ways the city of Wilkes-Barre could have spent $1 million.

Now think about throwing $1 million over the Market Street bridge because either way, it’s money down the drain.

The city’s firefighters are in line to get approximately $13,000 each in back pay for NOT collecting money from meters.  That’s what the police got, and some shortsighted city officials did not foresee the potential cost to taxpayers down the road when they agreed to give the firefighters whatever the police received.  Well, we’re down that road, and the city is out over $1 million.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the arbitration hearings.  There was a letter stashed away in the public works garage, which city Mayor Tom Leighton believes would have spared the city from this outlandish expense.

Unfortunately, the letter surfaced after the fact.  This crucial piece of evidence, Leighton believes, could have proven that the firefighters’ union filed a grievance too late. 

But in an incredible turn of events, former city administrator, J.J. Murphy, serving in Africa with the Air Force Reserves, mentioned the Feb. 23, 2004 letter in a trans-Atlantic phone call with Leighton – one day after he learned the city lost the arbitration battle, according to The Citizens Voice.

It’s unclear whether J.J. was the only one who knew about that letter or was simply reminding Leighton of it.  This is very strange indeed as Murphy was not serving in  Africa for the duration of the two-year court battle.  So why didn’t he dig it out of the public works garage while he was in town?

Leighton’s former right-hand man acknowledged that he’ll “end up being the bad guy here ” because he brought up the letter, he told the CV.  No, he’ll end up being the bad guy here for not bringing it up when it counted.

Now, even after fighting this losing battle, Leighton thinks the firefighters should not accept the money.  Daydream believer, this mayor.

Who in his right mind would give up $13,000 just because the mayor asked him to? Leighton is furious about how this all turned out.  Well, we have news for him – so is every resident and business person who pays taxes in the city of Wilkes-Barre, who just watched helplessly as $1 million went up in smoke.

- Betty Roccograndi