PureBunkum

First of all, we’d like to congratulate Gort and his team on their latest Blogfest success last Friday night at Rooney’s.  I dropped by to say hello and wasn’t surprised at all to see the place packed with local politicians, office holders and those hoping to head to Washington come January.  When Gort beckons, people show up, especially those looking for votes.

It was worth the trip just to see Gene Stilp’s 40-foot pink pig mobile hogging the road in front of the place.

I had a chance to meet and chat with the affable Mr. Stilp, who vowed, if elected, to break the stranglehold lobbyists for the insurance and pharmaceutical companies have on Congress.  That will take some doing, but someone has to do it.  Pittston isn’t in the 11th District, where he hopes to beat incumbent Rep. Lou Barletta on Nov. 6, but Stilp said he appreciates the influence of bloggers, which is why he rolled into town and made a splash.

Then I went inside while Stilp oversaw the assembly of his giant wheelchair, his newest attention-getting prop.  Hopefully that wheelchair won’t be used to push Grandma off the cliff which his fellow Democrats say Republican vice-presidential hopeful Paul Ryan would do if we elect him and Mitt Romney.  I’d love to see Stilp get elected just to see if he’d be allowed to park his pig mobile in front of the U.S. Capitol to draw attention to wasteful spending.  He’d need a 24-hour parking permit.

Blogfest is a super  idea.  Where else can the area’s politicians, bloggers and the public come together to have a good time and talk politics?  I am proud to be a member of the local blogging community.  Bloggers care.  They pay attention to what’s going on, share their thoughts, ruffle a few feathers when it’s deserved, and, hopefully, inspire others to become engaged in their communities and country or at the very least to give a hoot.

Now for the that.  Not far down the road from Blogfest, a 10-foot fat rat crawled onto Main Street because non-union workers are building a credit union.  You do know that you’re not allowed to work unless you belong to a union, don’t you?  Is it any wonder people are getting disgusted with some labor unions.

The International Union of Painters and Allied Trades members picketed the job site because these are supposed to be union jobs.  ”They’re rats.  We brought a rat to symbolize that,” said union business representative Bob Griffiths, obviously pretty proud of his giant inflatable rodent.

Local contactor Sam Marranca, Boss Rat, whose company is building the credit union told The Times Leader that no union contractors approached him about the job.  Not good enough, Sam.  You’re supposed to approach the union bosses.  That’s the way it’s done if you don’t want to be harassed.

As for the other thing, thing sure fits this news item from Saturday’s Times Leader ” – “Couple allegedly had sex with dog.”

A Sugarloaf couple was put on probation for 30 months after being charged with sexually abusing a teenage boy.  The terms included staying away from children.  It probably never occurred to Judge David Lupas to say that the same goes for dogs.  A county probation officer said Jennie Marie Moore, 48, admitted she and her spouse, James Antonelli, 68, were having sex with their golden retriever.

A probation violation report said this, the TL reported.  He and his wife “put themselves in danger by having sex with a dog who was not vaccinated.”  Okay, wait a minute.  Would it have been okay had the dog got its shots?  The probation office is worried about these deviants putting themselves in danger?

What about Rover?  This poor pooch is likely suffering from post tramautic stress.  Hopefully the dog is now in the protective custody of the SPCA – as well as the two who abused the animal.

- Betty Roccograndi

Did anyone else not know that Wilkes-Barre City employees get Flag Day off with pay?

This little nugget came to light in a Friday Times Leader article about the city asking its unionized employees to make concessions because it has not yet received its earned income tax money.

Before we get to that, we’re just wondering if the employees also get off Arbor Day or Grandparents’ Day or International Day of Peace day?

Flag Day is really a holiday on the city calendar? Really?

So because the cash-strapped city needs to increase its cash flow, it’s asking its unionized employees to take off Flag Day, if they wish, but without pay.  Please, please, please do it, unions, for the sake of the city’s balance sheet, which, frankly, seems to be a big mystery.

Come to think of it, does city Mayor Tom Leighton get National Boss Day off next month with pay?  If he does, it’s only right that he pay for his own celebration if he expects the unions to celebrate that most festive of holidays, Flag Day, without pay.

We’re hoping the unions cooperate with the mayor because if they don’t, the city will have no choice but to take the easy way out, and you know what that means - raise taxes.

“”I’m  not saying there will be a tax increase.  In fact, I hope there won’t be, but when funds are tight, raising taxes is always the easiest way to make it up,” city council Chairman Mike Merritt told the TL.

Easy for whom, Mr. Merritt?  Struggling city businesses?  City residents on fixed incomes?  All the drug dealers in town?  Or is raising taxes just an easier alternative to cutting the council’s pay and benefits or paying closer attention to how city tax money is already being spent?

Yes, it’s easy to raise taxes, isn’t it, as opposed to asking the mayor to take a pay cut or to reimburse the city for his home alarm system or thinking twice before buying the public works director a 2013 Jeep, which he can drive to and from work?  Or for city officials to completely cut out the junkets to vacation spots under the guise of city business?

Okay, back to the earned income tax delay. The city wants the union employees to give up Flag Day and Columbus Day (another ridiculous “holiday” we have to finance for public sector employees) and to make other painful concessions, because it didn’t yet receive its expected $1.1 million EIT bounty.  But it’s going to eventually, so why should the employees have to give up Flag Day?  Doesn’t the city realize what it’s asking?  Workers, we’re guessing, wait all year to celebrate Flag Day.

Where were city officials when the city Parking Authority was doling out $300 an hour to former city administrator, J.J. Murphy, for consulting services to lease the city’s parking assets, a project which went nowhere?  Where were city officials when city fuel reserves evaporated into thin air?  Oh, yeah, they were at the pump, helping themselves to free gas.

Taxpayer watchdogs Frank Sorick and Karen Ceppa-Hirko believe the city’s financial problems go a lot deeper than anyone knows.  While Mayor Leighton, he of the rose-colored glasses, would have everyone “believe” that the city of Wilkes-Barre is recovering just nicely, the truth is it’s $74.9 million and counting in debt.  Ceppa-Hirko told the Times Leader she believes that long-term debt is approaching $100 million.

City punching bag, administrative coordinator Drew Mc – Laugh -lin, declined to answer questions about the city’s finances but reassured the TL that Mayor Leighton will “lay out next year’s spending plan in detail for the city council and the public.”

So considering all of this bleak economic news, it’s incumbent on the city unions to forgo Flag Day without pay.  Every penny counts here, folks.

Maybe City Hall employees could also hold a bake sale this Fall.

- Betty Roccograndi

Well, she is gone because he said she’s an impediment to our new Home Rule form of government.

She said he’s a dictator.

We say, quoting none other than Shakespeare, that hell hath no fury like a woman told to hit the road by day’s end, especially when she is former Luzerne County Prothonotary Carolee Medico-Olenginski.

It’s no secret that our new county Manager Robert Lawton and Carolee have clashed.  Lawton has been staking his ground as the county’s new boss, to whom Home Rule has given tremendous powers.  Carolee has been fighting tooth and nail to hang onto her old turf, the prothonotary’s office, which under Home Rule is a thing of the past.  She sued the county, arguing it had no jurisdiction to abolish her office because it was part of the court system.  She lost.

Now we taxpayers are the losers.

Apparently fed up, Lawton informed her in a letter addressed to the “Hon.” Carolee, ”At this time, your sole function and entitlement is to receive your salary and benefits through the remainder of your elected term, ending December 31, 2013.”

Nice work if you can get it.  Medico-Olenginski’s annual salary is $36,562.  Now all she has to do is enjoy her 15-month paid vacation.

Two points here.  No boss has to put up with someone constantly challenging his authority and who didn’t hide her disdain for Home Rule or for him.  Now she’s publicly called him a dictator, which certainly didn’t help to earn her any brownie points.

On the other hand, as far as we can tell, no one ever accused Carolee Medico-Olenginski  of being a slouch or of not giving her all to her job or of selling used cars on company time.  And there’s that little question of whether a county manager can  fire someone whom taxpayers chose to serve them at the courthouse until the end of 2013.  We certainly didn’t elect her to serve for less than three years and then to take a paid vacation - at our expense - for the last 15 months of her term.  Methinks we’re getting shortchanged here.

So on this count, taxpayers have reason to be upset with Mr. Lawton’s move.

Then again, how does one work with someone who calls you a dictator and one who, according to Mr. Lawton, insisted it was her way or the highway?

Not so fast, said Carolee, who wasted no time informing the media and the county council and the county president judge and Steve Corbett that she was unceremoniously told to pack her bags despite ”cooperating with his every demand.”  Maybe she could have toned that down a bit by saying his every request.

Anyway, even though Lawton has the freedom to hire and to fire, it will be interesting to hear from the council on whether taxpayers should pay someone for no services rendered, not to mention the lawsuit that’s likely to follow.

Carolee said Lawton promoted her deputy, Art Bobbouine, without her knowledge.  Maybe he had no obligation to tell her, but considering she was elected by the people, it would have been nice if he had. 

And Art no sooner told staff members, “As you may have seen, Manager Lawton has appointed me to oversee the Clerk of Courts office along wth the duties of our office,” before he offered them up to 6.5 hours of overtime a week.

The overtime is probably needed because Carolee will be on a forced paid vacation.  Talk about a waste of money the county doesn’t have.

Carolee, not known for keeping things to herself, blasted Lawton for usurping her elected position.

Lawton declined comment for the story that ran in Friday’s Times Leader, citing “pending personnel issues.”

What was pending, unbeknownst to Carolee, was the letter he was drafting telling her, “I hereby relieve you of all responsibilities relative to both the former Prothonotary’s office and to the business process/imaging project” and to ”please make arrangements with Human Resources to return by close of  business day today all county property assigned to you or in your possession.”

Then in typical Carolee fashion she told him off, accusing him of a “mean-spirited scheme” and firing off the “county dictator’s letter” to the media.

The Times Leader reported on Saturday that some at the courthouse cried after she was fired; others celebrated.  Some probably did celebrate because Olenginski was no push-over as a boss.  If it weren’t for her and Controller Walter Griffith, the Little Red Wagon, an Erie company, would probably still be collecting $1,000 a day for filing court records in an ill-suited building.

Well if anyone expects Carolee Medico-Olenginski to go quietly, you’re likely mistaken.  We’re guessing Robert Lawton may have won the battle, but that the war is just about to begin.

- Betty Roccograndi