PureBunkum

Excuses. Excuses.  Excuses.

Former Luzerne County judge, Michael Toole, straightened out his life since being charged with directly influencing a court case and then accepting freebies from the lawyer he helped, so he deserves a reduced prison sentence, his lawyer is arguing.

Why don’t we just give him  a merit badge and put him on work release?

Turn to page three of  Saturday’s Times Leader.  A juvenile was charged with robbing a Turkey Hill and assaulting a clerk, but he doesn’t remember because he blacked out after he took pills.

He was swiftly jailed for lack of $10,000 bail.

No, Mr. Toole, you’re not much better than this punk.  You may actually be worse because you were a judge, yet another one from our county who polluted our judicial system and contributed to our lack of faith in it, where everyone is expected to be treated fairly, where judges are supposed to be blind, not dumb – or impaired.

On Friday, Toole’s lawyer, Frank Nocito, put on quite a show trying to convince U.S. District Judge Richard Conaboy that Toole deserves less than the  27 to 33 months in prison he faces.

Although he used suspended attorney Harry Cardoni’s oceanfront beach house in New Jersey three times, only one free vacation should count because he never stayed an entire week, thus reducing the value of the gratuity.  Stop laughing.  There’s more.

Cardoni testified that he annually gave Toole and other judges lobster tails and kielbasa.  Probably because a judge accepting lobsters from anyone doesn’t sound so kosher, Nocito was quick to call the gifts ”crustaceans and kielbasa,” the TL reported.  The jokes are already flying that those goodies are Wyoming Valley’s version of surf and turf.  And what’s the big deal anyway?  Nocito said they were probably worth less that the $250 threshhold for reporting gifts.

The big deal; however,  is that judges shouldn’t accept even a ring of bologna from lawyers appearing before them in court, and a good judge would reprimand an attorney for trying to curry favor with him.

And the lamest excuse of all that Nocito offered?

Toole wasn’t stalking Cardoni, a witness against him, on New Year’s Day last year.  He was returning from an AA meeting at 8:15 a.m. and his vehicle just happened to be behind Cardoni’s for more than a mile.

Nocito told Judge Conaboy that Toole was a heavy drinker and was addicted to gambling.  He said he consumed about 30 beers a night but sought help after he was convicted of a felony.

Just like with ”Kids for Cash,” where everyone seemed to turn a blind eye to Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan’s illegal activities at the courthouse, did not one attorney or fellow judge notice that then Judge Toole should not have been serving on the bench?  How does one function after drinking a case of beer the night before?  Someone at that busy courthouse had to notice that there was a tipsy judge onboard.

And just like Ciavarella and Conahan snuck around in weird places, like the parking lot of the Crestwood High School, to plot how they would cover up their crimes, Toole met Cardoni in a parking lot to give him a bogus rental payment for the beach house.  Cardoni testified that he suggested the cover-up in light of the county corruption investigations and that Toole agreed.

This trio of criminal judges deserves no mercy.

And we bet that  kid charged in the Turkey Hill robbery and thrown in jail a short time later would agree.

- Betty Roccograndi

Is everyone okay with picking up the tab to cover damages caused by area vandals?

This is the latest chapter in the Taxpayers for Cash saga.

The state Legislature last year set up a half-million dollar fund to compensate victims for the wreckage juvenile delinquents caused to their properties.  That’s right, the little brats are off the hook because all of their convictions were vacated because they appeared before demon judge, Mark Ciavarella.

Now the rest of us are forced to pick up the pieces because under the state Supreme Court’s ruling, those victimized by these ‘Kids” had no recourse for reimbursement.  That is until the state Legislature stepped up and established a special fund to pay them  – with our money.

“Throughout this process we were always thinking about the people we call the “original victims,” said Luzerne County District Attorney Jacqueline Musto-Carroll.

That’s nice, but who’s thinking about the other “original victims,” namely county taxpayers.  We paid to have these delinquents tried, then for a special master to review their cases only to have them all tossed and now to reimburse their victims.

We  totally agree that those victims deserve full reimbursement.  We’re less than pleased, though, that those who did the damage are home free.

Here’s what we think should be done.  The kids in the so-called “Kids For Cash” scandal have civil suits pending.  They expect to be compensated for their pain and suffering.  They’re arguing that their constitutional rights were violated because they were not represented by legal counsel when they appeared before the judge, even though some of them waived their rights.

So if they are awarded a windfall, before they collect one dime, they should be forced to reimburse the state Treasury $500,000.

We taxpayers should not be forced to pay for their crimes.

- Betty Roccograndi

It took $7 million to learn that the Hotel Sterling has “multiple difficulties and deficiencies as a candidate for re-use today.”  But it was money well spent, said the executive director of the non-profit group which aspired to “re-use” it.

“The funds we received from the county ($6 million) were spent to achieve important pre-construction milestones” said Alex Rogers.

Talk about spin!  Talk about PureBunkum!

As it turns out, $6 million was spent to achieve important pre-demolition milestones, but Rogers doesn’t want to talk about that just yet, until he releases a report, supposedly detailing why it is not cost effective to preserve the 103-year old Wilkes-Barre City landmark after all.

Someone apparently tipped off  The Times Leader, which verified that the dilapidated Hotel Sterling, like London Bridge, will be falling down.

And now CityVest, the non-profit owner, wants another $1 million in taxpayers’ money to tear it down.  We’re very interested in knowing who the CityVest principals are.

Before this group gets another dime, there hopefully will be a full accounting of where and to whom $7  million in county and federal dollars have already gone, in addition to any state monies.

“I think we’ve also learned a lesson in trying to maintain our history a little bit:  that it is extremely expensive to do so,” said Jim Brozena, director of Luzerne County’s flood protection authority.  You could say that.  It’s a pity someone didn’t think of that before more than $7 million was spent, because now we can all watch that money go up in smoke as soon as the demolition crew arrives.

It’s interesting that CityVest’s Rogers won’t discuss the demolition plans, which became public, apparently much to his dismay.  In 2009, he told The Times Leader that,  ”Potential developers don’t want any publicity, so the public doesn’t see what’s going on behind the scenes.”

Well, maybe it’s high time we learned.

Wilkes-Barre Mayor Tom Leighton said he personally led more than 25 tours of the building with developers.  Leighton, who’s in the real estate business, wasn’t a bit curious why there were no takers?  What did the developers who walked away know that he didn’t, we wonder?

Now Leighton says, in Thursday’s TL, that, “Most of the feedback the city received was that the property was not functional for development.  Was this feedback received before or after millions were spent trying to restore it?

In 2008, the state Auditor General released a “special investigation of CityVest” and revealed some disturbing findings, including that:

1.  CityVest spent $84,016.03, which was not authorized under the grant contract.

2.  The non-profit organization did not deposit grant funds into a separate account as required.

3.  It failed to submit a final audit of the contract within the required time.

Some of the project expenses listed in the AG’s report include $5,000 to $10,000 a month to the executive director for “professional services.”   We’re not sure who, in addition to Rogers, has held that cushy post over the years.  What we are sure of is that $10,000 a month for professional services is not chump change.

As with most non-profits, someone usually does profit, and it’s not the taxpayer.  It’s the consultants, lawyers, architects, executive directors.

We’ll agree that some of the money may have been well-spent to demolish an adjacent building and clear away asbestos.  But millions apparently were also wasted at no risk to CityVest, since it was not spending its own money.

It was a nice thought, but this aging wreck should have been torn down from the get-go.

Sometimes you simply cannot hang onto the past, and we’re a little sick and tired of a handful of people getting their hands on millions and millions of taxpayers’ dollars who suffer no personal risk whatsoever if their vision gets blindsided. 

Luzerne County is also stuck with a train wreck at the corner of Market Street in Wilkes-Barre.  Did taxpayers benefit from that $5.7-million exenditure?  One did,  Thom Greco, the previous owner, who probably laughed all the way to the bank.

The next time elected officials decide to spend millions, maybe they should ask taxpayers if they would like to restore an aging monstrosity to its former grandeur or pave some of the county’s pothole-riddled streets.

- Betty  Roccograndi

No one can ever accuse Wilkes-Barre Area Superintendent Jeff Namey of discrimination.  Reverse discrimination, maybe, but not discrimination.

Kowtowing to NAACP  president Ron Felton, Namey told him Wednesday night that if he knows of an African-American interested in a teaching job, he or she would be a shoe-in for an interview and better yet, if qualified, an instant  hire.

The only thing standing in the way might be if a school board member’s relative needed a job.  Then there could be a little problem.

“If we have an African- American applicant, they are automatically interviewed.  And if they are properly certified, and if we believe they can get the job done, it’s an automatic hire, Ron,” Namey said, according to The Citizens’ Voice.

Sorry, all  you white folks out there with teaching degrees.  Get in line behind the relatives and the minorities.  Or increase your odds of getting a teaching  job by  moving out of the area.

And what did Namey mean by if “we believe they can get the job done?”  What exactly does he consider getting the job done?

So it has come to this.  Instead of hiring the best and the brightest, Wilkes-Barre Area just announced through its superintendent that it will hire someone based on the color of his or her skin.

Nice.

Felton offered that if we all agree it’s important for children to have role models they can relate to culturally, and that if we have qualified minority applicants, then what’s the problem?

We’d like to know if Felton can point to any situation in which qualified minority applicants have been rejected or faced discrimination. Would he be content with schools hiring minority applicants simply because they’re minorities, even if they’re not the most qualified?  Apparently, that’s okay with Namey, “as long as they can get the job done.”

What if it turns out that there are no African-American or Latin-American or any other  – American who is qualified for a teaching job or even applies for one?  What do we do then?  Lower our standards?

And since when are schools in the business of providing role models for students?  We always thought their job was to educate.  If they can do both, great.

If they can’t, we’d bet most parents would opt for educate, if the teachers can get the job done, of course.

- Betty Roccograndi

As Ronald Reagan might have put it, before long it will be morning again in Luzerne County.

So the very last thing we need is to wake up on Nov. 9 with an inaugural county council stacked with self-serving members.  Sadly, it’s beginning to shape up that way.

The Home Rule doomsayers were concerned that with an at-large election, one or two towns may very well monopolize the new county council.

Well, frankly, that’s nothing compared to a council dominated by members concerned primarily with their own self interests.

“Unions endorse 13 for county council” was the front-page headline in Saturday’s Times Leader.

Their ticket?  “Working Families for Better Government,” which is code for “Gotta protect those 18 paid sick days, fat pensions and generous health care plans.”

The unions must be getting nervous that a new county manager will not be a pushover, will see the severity of the county’s financial situation and begin making cuts – exactly what county residents voted for.

But what better way to nip that scenario in the bud than making sure there is ample union representation on the council?  That body will then fill this very critical manager’s position, and it only takes seven votes.

We are all counting on this first ever county manager to turn things around, to get the county out of its financial hole and to end politics as we know it.  A yes man for any special interest group will not be able to accomplish that.

 This may be shaping up to be a nightmare for, to borrow the union’s rallying cry, ”Working Families for Better Government,” who do not belong to a union but are forced to pay the tab for all the union’s goodies.

Wisconsin is scaring unions throughout the country, primarily because they know the general public is on the state’s side.  Fed up with unaffordable pension costs and health care, state Gov. Scott Walker is doing exactly what he was elected to do and that is to cut government spending.  He is being portrayed as Hitler (by the unions) for demanding they contribute more to their pensions and health care coverage.

Walker also wants to end collective bargaining, including forcing union members to pay dues, which then are deposited into the campaign coffers of Democratic politicians, who then support union causes.  Why do you think Barack Obama jumped into the fray and denounced Wisconsin as assaulting unions?

You’d never hear community organizer Obama say that the unions are assaulting taxpayers, who cannot afford to allow public service workers to retire at 50 with no worries about paying for their health care, when many private sector employees need to work longer than they expected JUST to pay their burgeoning health care costs.

And now Luzerne County, which was supposed to get a fresh start under Home Rule, may end up under union control.

You know who needs to run for these very important county council seats?  Business people.  Taxpayer advocates.  Civic-minded individuals interested in nothing more than the betterment of Luzerne County, certainly not a slate interested in nothing more than protecting its stronghold on Luzerne County.

It will not be a new morning here if we elect council members who ran primarily to protect their jobs and their benefits.  That is not what Luzerne County voters bargained for when they decided to topple their present system of government.

It will be same ole, sale ole.

To  quote Nancy Reagan, we need to “Just Say No.”

- Betty Roccograndi