PureBunkum

Is anyone in this county honest?

In Wilkes-Barre, some officials, including Mayor Tom Leighton, weren’t reporting how much gasoline and diesel fuel they were dispensing from city tanks into their personal vehicles.  Maybe the mayor doesn’t believe he has to answer to city taxpayers, but let him try thumbing his nose at the Internal Revenue Service.

Now we learn that the Luzerne County Transportation Authority may be inflating its ridership numbers.  We heard of ghostbusters before.  Now it seems “ghost riders” are taking up seats on county buses.  At least that’s what authority board member Patrick Conway heard.

But fear not, county residents, county councilman Edward Brominski is on the case, and answers may be forthcoming when the council meets on Tuesday.

This gets even more interesting.  Another board member, Sal Licata, claims that during labor disputes, senior ridership seems to drop.  Maybe the ghosts, like taxpayers, run for cover during contract negotiations?

“It seemed every time there was some type of disagreement (between management and union drivers) senior ridership would go down, Licata told The Citizens’ Voice.  “Then when the problem was rectified, it would go back”

All I know is I saw a LCTA bus at Wegman’s over the weekend, and it looked pretty empty to me.  Maybe the ghosts had already done their grocery shopping at Price Chopper.

Board Chairman Paul Maher told the CV he was surprised to hear about the allegations.  “I know nothing about ghost riders.”

Is this the same Paul Maher, who heads the Wilkes-Barre City Parking Authority?  Wasn’t that board also surprised when consultants’ fees, tagged at $75,000, soared to $150,000?

We just serve on the board.  Cut us a break, public  Geeezz!

And as if this wasn’t enough bad publicity for the LCTA, board member Conway also said he was told that an authority supervisor last year groped a female bus driver.  ”It was not groping,” board member Licata told the CV.  He didn’t say what it was that resulted in the supervisor being suspended for a reported two days and then one week.

Let’s forget for a moment about the authority inflating and/or deflating its number of riders to suit various purposes and possibly sweeping a sexual harassment incident under the carpet.  Maybe it’s time someone delves into the authority itself, including its operating expenses.

This authority received a state allocation of $5 million this fiscal year.  The county council last week voted to provide another $559,632 while $2.9 million is expected from the federal government, the CV reported.  That’s a lot of money, by anyone’s standards.

What’s authority Executive Director Stanley Strelish’s salary, we wonder?  What’s in his contract?  What does the authority pay its solicitor Joseph  Blazosek?  A woman at Blazosek’s home told a TL reporter that it “really isn’t any of your business, ” when he attempted to get some information about the alleged groping of a bus driver.

Is it your business, ma’am?  Who are you to tell a reporter that a serious charge levelled at the authority is none of a reporter’s business and that you doubt the authority’s attorney will provide any information?

As for Executive Director Strelish, board member Conway says “he wants to keep everything in-house.”

Does he now? Last we checked, an authority, which has the luxury of operating out of the public’s view for the most part, is still a public authority.

Come on, Times Leader and Citizens’ Voice, get down to the Luzerne County Transportation and do some digging.

If this authority is padding ridership numbers and likes to keep its business operations ”in-house,” it’s time someone pays a little visit and asks to see its books and the bills it has paid.  You may be surprised at what you find.

- Betty Roccograndi

That’s their story, and they’re stickin’ to it.

“A clerical error” is responsible for the disappearance of 18,000 gallons of diesel fuel and gasoline from Wilkes-Barre City tanks.

Now we have to wait and see what a state criminal investigative body has to say about that.

City Mayor Tom Leighton and his council cronies may think Bob Kadluboski is a clown, but it’s good to know that the state Department of Revenue isn’t laughing.

“The issues you raise, if proven, are serious,” David R. Kraus, the department’s chief counsel, wrote to Kadluboski, who filed a complaint after The Times Leader exposed the missing fuel, which forced Leighton to admit that he  helps himself to free gas because he’s on the job 24/7.

Now, THAT’S funny!

The mayor was also forced to admit that he doesn’t sign any logs to document how much gas he dispenses.  But, then again, records don’t seem to be a big deal for Mayor Leighton, who has no problem with the city’s towing contractor Leo Glodzik not keeping any.

The department’s Bureau of Criminal Tax Investigations is looking into possible fraud and/or  other illegal activity associated with Fuelgate, or as city officials would like everyone to believe, sloppy bookkeeping.

Thanks to the TL, taxpayers learned that Leighton and city Department of Public Works head, Ken Pahler, have been helping themselves to the city-owned gasoline.  But considering that the paper’s investigation only covered seven months, it’s a pretty good guess that Leighton hasn’t filled up his vehicle at Turkey Hill for some time.

And here the rest of us were cringing everytime gas inched up 10-, 20- and 30-cents a gallon.

What we don’t know is who else in the city believed they were entitled to free gas because they can’t go to Price Chopper without bumping into Mr. Smith or to church without some other taxpayer infringing on their time.

Maybe the city’s surveillance cameras will blow their covers?

Now, THAT’S funny too.

So good, old Kobby, we’ll nickname him Deep Throat for now, has caught the attention of state investigators who are concerned the city may have stiffed the state in tax revenue of 31.2 cents per gallon for gasoline and 38.1 cents per gallon for diesel, the TL reported.

Don’t be silly, state sleuths.  Get a grip.  City administrative coordinator Drew Mc -Laugh – lin says, “We are confident this is merely a clerical error that we admit we have to get a grip on.”

Who made this “clerical error,” Drew?  With 18,000 gallons of fuel unaccounted for, is the bookkeeper responsible still on the job?

In other news, the Luzerne County District Attorney’s office is launching a criminal investigation into the city’s “clerical error.”  Watch this probe closely.  Let’s give DA Stephanie Salavantis some credit for doing this, but we’re a bit wary.  The chief of detectives in her office is Mike Dessoye, brother of city Police Chief Gerard Dessoye.

But Salavantis said it’s impossible to avoid personal connections in this county.  “There is always going to be (some),” she told the TL in explaining why she wants her office to handle this one.

And the TL proved her right in an article on Page 3.

When a county senior judge inexplicably downgraded criminal charges against a local lawyer’s daughter from a third-degree felony to a first-degree misdemeanor, the county couldn’t handle the appeal because Salavantis once worked for attorney Robert Panowicz, whose daughter was allegedly involved in a fatal hit-and-run accident.

So we’ll have to take her word for it that there is no conflict with her chief detective’s brother being the city’s police chief.  Let’s just hope that brother Gerry wasn’t also helping himself to any free gas because that would be a game changer.

Anyway, let’s hear it for Bob Kadluboski, who dispelled the notion that you can’t fight City Hall, because the funny thing is you can.

Hell hath no fury like a taxpayer scorned.

- Betty Roccograndi.

Wilkes-Barre City Mayor Tom Leighton has lost the battle, but he has no intention of losing the war.

Now that his plan to lease the city’s parking assets was crushed, Mayor Leighton’s new mission is to create a new, powerful, accountable to practically no one, municipal authority to oversee the city’s parking garages, surface lots, meters and its crown jewel, the $28 million intermodal transportation center.

First he’d have to arrange for the city Parking Authority to disband.  Since their terms have expired, we’re quite sure he plans to give the boot to members Paul Maher and, especially, to Ed Katarsky, who had the gumption to question the over the top consulting fees for pursuing the lease plan.

Ed Katarsky is a certified financial planner.  Tom Leighton is a real estate broker and a political animal.  Who would you want overseeing the operation of the city’s valuable parking assets?

But poor Ed dared to fire Leighton’s bud, J.J. Murphy, who latched onto this lease plan like hot asphalt to a city pothole.  So for now, anyway, his gravy train – $300 per hour consulting fees – has dried up.

But there’s still hope for J.J. or another Leighton crony.  If a new municipal authority becomes a reality, it will need an executive director.  Or maybe, like the Wyoming Valley Sanitary Authority, it will hire a $75,000 human resources director.  You must have one of those.

Just think of all the patronage jobs that could be up for grabs if Dr. Frankenstein is successful in creating such a monster.

And as far as authorities go, some of the ones around here have been total flops, like the former West Side Landfill Authority, which imported so much New Jersey and New York trash, the local landfill prematurely filled to capacity, effectively ending free trash pick-ups for everyone on the West Side.

Its members may have meant well, but they were no match for those pulling the strings,including  landfill authority engineer Mike Pasonick and solicitor Phil Medico, who wined and dined them during the Christmas holidays and urged them to accept the out-of-state trash, a quick financial fix, which proved disastrous.  I know this because I covered this authority for The Times Leader.

Then there are the authorites who refuse to die like the Wilkes-Barre and Luzerne County redevelopment authorities, both of which are broke.

The county redevelopment authority borrowed more than $5 million from the county to purchase the Market Street Square train wreck, then let the decaying, rusted eyesore sit because it  had no money to develop it.

Needless to say, the county will likely never be repaid for that loan just as it won’t for the $6 million one made to CityVest.

The Wilkes-Barre Redevelopment Authority was forced to borrow money from the city to pay back bills.

Then there’s the Luzerne County Housing Authority, which like the others, pretty much goes unnoticed until someone finds out that some of its members and authority employees lived it up at the luxurious Sanibel Harbor Resort in Florida, basking in the sun and sipping pina coladas at the tiki bar while attending a conference on how to better serve the poor.

You might recall that former county commissioner Greg Skrepenak, doing the bidding  for one Robert Powell, almost created an airport authority because Powell and his gang had plans to build a multi-billion cargo airport near Hazleton to save the world.  Powell planned to pass the airport onto taxpayers.  That plan hit the skids when some diligent taxpayers raised holy hell over it.

So what can we expect if Tom Leighton is successful in forming a powerful, new Municipal Authority to oversee the city’s parking assets now that no one banged down the doors of City Hall with $20 million checks in tow?

Possibly all of the above.

- Betty Roccograndi

P.S.  Dear PureBunkum readers,  I’ll be off for a couple of days, but please feel free to comment if you wish.  I will catch up with you later.

Wilkes-Barre City Mayor Tom Leighton wasted no time warning city taxpayers that his defeat may cost them.

TML, as he’s known on J.J. Murphy’s former $300-per-hour time sheets, told The Times Leader last week that taxes may have to be raised now that he is not going to get the $20 million he hoped for by leasing the city’s parking assets.

“What we lost was future money we could use now,” he said shortly after four of the five city Parking Authority members struck down his lease plan.

They will pay too.

Some might argue that what we lost was $150,000 in “present money” to pay consultants to put out feelers to see who might be interested in leasing the city’s parking operations and paying off the debt on its Taj Mahal, aka the Intermodal Transportation Center, aka a $28-million grandiose, out-of-the way parking garage. Six firms auditioned, but four were rejected because they couldn’t even properly fill out the forms, according to news reports.

The lion’s share of those fees went to former city administrator and Leighton buddy J.J. Murphy and a Philly law firm, which Murphy recommended and, coincidentally, where his brother is a partner.

Monday morning, Mayor Leighton looked rather confident standing in front of the intermodal center.  In a Times Leader article, titled “Winning ticket,” he vowed to carry on in reaping  the benefits of the city’s valuable parking assets.

The day before, the TL featured Leighton in another article titled, “Who’s Fueling Who?”  It dealt with the mayor reaping the benefits at the city’s valuable gas pumps because, as he put it, he’s on the job 24/7, like when he goes grocery shopping and city residents approach him while he’s ordering lunch meat.  We’ll have to wait and see if the state Department of Revenue agrees with that twisted justification for helping himself to city-owned gas.

The lease plan hit the skids when the city Parking Authority voted to not move forward and to fire Fox Rothschild, whom member Ed Katarsky accused of  lying to the authority about its consulting fees.

“We were told it would cost us $75,000 to get through the RFQ process, and we have paid close to $150,000.”

It was nice knowing you, Mr. Katarsky.

We’d love to know why TML wasn’t as outraged as Ed Katarsky was by these doubled consultant fees.

Well it’s a good guess that Mayor Leighton will not take his defeat sitting down.  No, he’ll likely fill up his car with free city gas and take a drive somewhere to consider his options.

But, mark his veiled threat, someone WILL pay.

“Ultimately, city council will have to decide whether to raise taxes, reduce services or lay off employees,” he warned everyone.  That will teach you, you shortsighted residents who didn’t believe in your mayor’s vision of handing over the city’s parking assets for a quick fix of $20 million, which even a Chicago expert believed was out of reach.

That goes double for you, Ed Katarsky.  You will rue the day you axed J.J. and  his brother’s law firm and killed the mayor’s pipe dream.  Big deal, you’re a certified financial planner.  If the mayor believed that investing in J.J.’s new consulting business would reap big dividends, why wasn’t that good enough for you?

Now, the mayor will move on.  His mission is to form a new, powerful municipal  authority, which he can control, to oversee the city’s parking garages, etc.

“I don’t expect to be kept on the board,” Katarsky said.  Gee, what makes him think that, just because he’s not a yes man like the newest parking authority member, James Casey, who abstained on voting to kill the lease deal?

As for this new city authority.  More on Dr. Frankenstein’s plan later.

- Betty Roccograndi