PureBunkum

If those passionate little kids are still carrying signs picketing the demolition of the Hotel Sterling, they’d be wise to steer clear.

In an alarming front-page story in Saturday’s Times Leader, we learned that, come September, the former city landmark will be uninsured.  So what happens if someone gets hurt?  No one seems to know.

Now this would seem to be CityVest’s problem since the non-profit group purchased the Sterling with $6 million of taxpayers’ money.  But that money is gone, and CityVest would like to walk away from the failed project and drop it back in the taxpayers’  laps.

It still boggles the mind that a handful of local citizens, as well-intentioned as they may have been, could borrow $6 million, spend $6 million and then decide the building doesn’t stand a chance of being developed after all, so see ya.

Luzerne County wants Wilkes-Barre officials to inspect the building.

How come, was the response from city operations director Butch Frati.  Frati told the TL that the city usually doesn’t initiate inspections unless there are exterior signs of safety hazards or that a building may collapse.

That makes sense.  Why inspect it now when we can wait until the aging awning falls down and smacks someone on the head.

It’s obvious that Mr. Frati did not read CityVest’s own report warning that heavy snow, high winds or movement of makeshift  support bracing could result in a “catastrophic failure of the building or integrity of the exterior facade.”

We can’t imagine why Tri-State General, of Maryland,  no longer wants to insure the Hotel Sterling.

At the very least, it seems that someone needs to take a look at that “makeshift support bracing,” which hopefully will remain in place until the wrecking ball arrives. 

This is really a serious situation considering that, under the terms of CityVest’s loan agreement with the county, insuring the building is mandatory,  county community development director Andrew Reilly told The Times Leader.

But how does CityVest pay for insurance when it is broke?  And what if no company is willing to insure the structure?  And who pays for the demolition of this building, which is estimated to cost at least $1 million?

And, lastly, who is going to be held accountable to taxpayers for this staggering debacle?

- Betty Roccograndi

We’re beginning to wonder whether LAG towing company owner Leo Glodzik works for the city of Wilkes-Barre or the other way around.

Once again, city Mayor Tom Leighton is going to bat for Glodzik.  He’s determined to sell the former Old River Road Bakery property to him for $38,000.  In order to do that, the Wilkes-Barre Area School Board must agree to forgive $440,000 in back taxes.

What do you say, taxpayers?  Are you okay with this as is Mayor Leighton?  Are you also okay with selling a property, any property, assessed at over $450,000, for $38,000?

Leighton, who is in the real estate business, maintains that political donations have nothing to do with city business transactions, so we’ll just have to take his word for it.  Glodzik has donated $10,400 to Leighton’s campaign committee since 2005, The Times Leader reports.  Glodzik also pays the city $50,000 for an exclusive city contract to tow vehicles.

Maybe Wikes-Barre just enjoys doing business with the affable Glodzik or maybe the tower just has this sixth sense in knowing when the city wants to dump a property for well below its assessed value – like the one on Carlisle Street, a sale which also was not advertised.  Glodzik was lucky stumbling on that one too.

In 2007, the city bought the double-block home at a tax sale for $8,500 and paid an additional $1,500 to close out a mortgage on the property, The Times Leader reported last month.

The city then sold the property last year to Glodzik for $7,500.  Somebody in City Hall needs to brush up on his or her math skills.  Leighton is the real estate broker, so maybe he knows something we don’t as to why the city would sell a property for $2,500 less than it paid for it and one reportedly assessed at $74,500 for $7,500.

The city had gotten an appraisal of $7,500 for that property.   Then we’d have to say it got snookered, spending $10,000 for it.

Leighton is optimistic that the school board will forgive the taxes on the Old River Road parcel even though it declined to do so last September.

“We’re working with the school district to rectify the problem and get the property back on the tax rolls,” the mayor told the TL.

Unfortunately for Leighton and Glodzik, the company which collects back taxes for the county isn’t so anxious to let this one go for a song without a fight.

Northeast Revenue Service LLC President John Rodgers filed paperwork to get the former bakery property back on the tax sale list.  It was removed previously after the city fought its inclusion.

Good for Northeast Revenue Service.  Even though it may be a long shot, who wouldn’t want to at least try to sell the property and collect back taxes totaling $446,825?

Oh , right, the mayor of Wilkes-Barre and the city’s tower.

- Betty Roccograndi

You can’t fight City Hall?  Think again.

Forty Fort resident Mark Robbins is not taking lightly the June 1 towing of his car in the city of Wilkes-Barre.

This is a guy who does not mess around and does not pull any punches.  He has taken on City Hall with the aggression of Conan the Barbarian.  If you’re curious, check out his website, www.gratefulhands.net where you can read his feature, ”Cars for Cash.”  To say the least, it is thought-provoking.

A few weeks ago, Robbins, who’s highly educated and an author, stunned the city council when he accused Mayor Tom Leighton, city police Chief Gerald Dessoye and city tower, Leo Glodzik of a kickback scheme.   He was furious when his car, which had an expired registration, was towed.  He claims he was charged $200, which exceeded the contracted rate and that his car was damaged in the process.

Leighton wasn’t at that council meeting, and it’s a good thing he wasn’t.  When former city tower Bob Kadluboski allegedly called him a thief prior to being escorted -again- from a recent council meeting, Leighton responded, “Goodnight, Cupcake.”  God only knows what the mayor would have called Robbins after he accused him of a felony in a public forum.

And as if things weren’t already bad enough, now the city council has attracted the attention of the ACLU after announcing it may change the rules regarding citizen input.  Chairwoman Kathy Kane said the council should not have to tolerate unruly citizens time and time again.  She said the council is not targeting Cupcake.  LOL!!!!!

But back to Mark.  His charges are no laughing matter.  He firmly believes that the city is guilty of predatory practices in giving Glodzik a monopoly to tow illegally-parked vehicles and to then charge whatever he wants.

Robbins said he not only paid $650 to take a polygraph test to verify what happened when he confronted Glodzik and city police about his towed car, but that he also has plans to contact almost every agency out there to investigate what he believes is collusion between Leighton, the cops and L.A.G.

These are pretty serious allegations.  If Robbins is concerned about being sued for slander or libel, there is no hint of that in his website postings.   It’s simply amazing how much research he has done.

His accusations also include fraud and police prejudice.  He said a city police sergeant told him he was lucky that L.A.G. gave him his car back because normally Glodzik would tow it to his house.  At his own expense, we presume.  Lucky to be able to drive his own car home?  If that is true, that is outrageous. 

“Profits are being made off the backs of the poorest, most vulnerable and most defenseless citizens, ” Robbins said.

Don’t count Robbins, though, as among the defenseless, because he’s fighting back.  His ministry, Grateful Hands, represents the poor and vulnerable.

It’s uncertain, so far, whether he is tottering on a very perilous tightrope accusing the mayor and police chief of Wilkes-Barre and others of serious crimes or whether he may actually be onto something.

Either way, it appears that city officials have messed with the wrong guy.

- Betty Roccograndi

On Thursday, former Luzerne County controller Steve Flood was laid to rest, and Mark Ciavarella’s sentencing date on racketeering charges was scheduled.

Call it poetic justice.

Steve Flood was onto corrupt judges Ciavarella and Michael Conahan even before federal investigators were.  In its coverage of Flood’s funeral, The Times Leader recounted how Flood had hired a private detective out of his own pocket to investigate their association with a privately-owned juvenile detention center built by Robert Mericle and co-owned by Robert Powell.

We’re left to wonder whether Flood realized then that he was opening up a Pandora’s box of criminal activity that infested Luzerne County and brought down Conahan, Ciavarella and Powell and exposed the high stakes wheelings and dealings of Robert Mericle.

So, at long last, Mark Ciavarella will learn just how long he will remain in prison.  Surely it will surpass the original 84 months outlined in his original plea agreement, which a federal judge rejected.

He faces a maximum of 157 years for his 12 convictions on racketeering, money laundering, tax evasion and other charges.  Under real sentencing guidelines, he faces 12 years and 7 months to 15 years and 8 months, the newspaper reported.

Everyone whom this racketeering former judge has harmed, and let’s not forget they include  taxpayers, awaits this day.  We will learn just how fair our justice system is.

Now, the question everyone is asking is when will the kingpin of this so-called “Kids for Cash” scandal face U.S. District Judge Edwin Kosik for his sentencing.  Conahan decided against going to trial and, instead, plead guilty to one count of racketeering.  That was one year ago, one year that a racketeer was allowed to roam free.

Justice will truly be served if  Conahan isn’t cut any breaks for his plea agreement.  Officially he may be guilty of a single charge, but we all know better.

- Betty Roccograndi

There aren’t very many elected officials who pass away and are then pictured on the front page of their local newspapers with the caption “County Watchdog.”

Then again, there aren’t very many public servants of the caliber of the late Steve Flood.

Maybe the Luzerne County corruption scandal would eventually have exploded without Flood’s initial investigations.  But,  maybe not.

This dedicated controller guarded taxpayers’ money as if  it were his own.  It was Flood who became suspicious and demanded answers to the county’s interest in leasing a privately-owned juvenile detention center when it already owned one.  Flood was a forceful opponent when some county officials, including Greg Skrepenak, wanted to involve the county in  a  potentially disastrous financial venture, a $1.6-billion cargo airport near Hazleton.

Skrepenak exposed his naivete when he blathered that this planned cargo airport would keep all of America safe.  It’s hard to forget that one.  We dodged a bullet.

It was a shock when Flood was not re-elected to a second term.  Actually, it wasn’t.  This fearless public servant was feared, and he had to be removed, not unlike former county judge, Ann Lokuta, who seemed to also have the goods on then judges, Michael Conahan and Mark Ciavarella.

County power brokers ran Maryanne Petrilla against Flood, and she won.  Conahan and Ciavarella and PAChild Care developer Robert Powell used their influence with the tainted state Judicial Conduct Board to destroy Lokuta’s judicial career.

We know, we know,  Lokuta was a lousy judge, a judicial bully, her critics still argue.  If she was a judicial bully, then what did that make Ciavarella and especially Conahan, now two convicted racketeers?

It wa a sad day in Luzerne County when Steve Flood suffered a stroke in 2007.  Despite losing the election, he vowed to use his own resouces to get to the bottom of  the PA Child Care lease.

He had tipped off the press about a pending audit of that facility, an audit which Skrepenak and former majority county commissioner, Todd Vonderheid, ignored before entering into an unheard of 20-year, $58-million  lease with Powell’s company.  They didn’t even wait to see that audit.  They were on a mission.

Of course, there were other forces at play.  Ciavarella was personal friends with powerful developer Robert Mericle, who stood to make a killing building two juvenile detention centers.  Mericle rewarded the judge with an almost $1 million “finder’s fee.”  Mericle was also a personal friend of Vonderheid.

Ironically, it was Steve Flood’s successor, Maryanne Petrilla, who, after being elected county commissioner, got the county out of that lease, with the help of her new team.  If they hadn’t, and a lawsuit ensued, the county could have headed for bankruptcy.

This county owes Steve Flood an inestimable amount of gratitude.

He set the bar high as far as public servants go.

If only Luzerne County’s very first county council under Home Rule, come January, hires a Steve Flood clone as county manager, taxpayers will be in good hands, very good hands.

- Betty Roccograndi

WOW!  Forty Fort resident Mark Robbins sure made the most of his five minutes before the Wilkes-Barre City Council Tuesday.

And the council thought Bob Kadluboski’s appearances were cringe-inducing.

Robbins was irate not only because city tower Leo Glodzik charged him $200 to tow his car when the going rate is $125, but also because city police, he said, protected Glodzik “like a band of goons would protect a rogue dictator.”  Mr. Robbins, you’ll have to agree, is not one to pull punches.

“It felt like Rodney King without the clubs,” he also said.  Okay, okay, we get your point.

Robbins is mad alright.  He also alleged that Mayor Tom Leighton and the city are “profiting off the backs of the poorest, most vulnerable and most defenseless citizens.”  He offered no proof but plans to get some.  Robbins said he is going to contact the Luzerne County District Attorney’s office or the state Attorney General’s office.

Maybe Mr. Robbins should go to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.  If there is a kickback scheme going on as he alleges – again, without proof - those guys have vast experience in both Luzerne and Lackawanna counties.

Now either Robbins is onto something, or he is leveling outlandish, baseless charges.  For all of our sakes, we hope it’s the latter.

City police Chief Gerard Dessoye “scoffed at the suggestion of a kickback scheme involving his officers and the city administration,” The Times Leader also reported. “Mr. Robbins obviously wasn’t satisfied with the responses the officers gave him,” Dessoye said. 

Robbins said, “The cops yelled, swore and showed complete disdain for me.”  And he wasn’t satisfied?

Regarding Robbins’ charge that Glodzik is supposed to file a montly report with Dessoye, the police chief said he doesn’t need the report because his officers file reports on every vehicle towed, the TL reported.

Keep in mind this is a police chief who also said he doesn’t keep records regarding how the city’s 200-plus surveillance camera system  is reducing crime in the city.  It just is, and that’s all we need to know.

And what did Mayor Leighton have to say about Tuesday night’s brouhaha?   Nothing, because he wasn’t there and couldn’t be reached afterward.

Leighton, you may remember, backed selling the 1.14-acre former Old River Road Bakery to Glodzik for around $38,000, a property that is assessed at $478,300.  So, some could deduce that these two are chummy.

In an editorial published on September 16, 2010, The Times Leader called this a “questionable deal.” 

We anxiously await the mayor’s response to this latest controversy.

As for Mark Robbins, if he has any reason to travel to Wilkes-Barre, he better not coast through any yellow lights or be using his cell phone while driving.  If the cops treated him with disdain before, we’d hate to see the reception he’d get now that he compared them to goons.

- Betty Roccograndi