PureBunkum

Now we know how Wilkes-Barre City Mayor Tom Leighton solves serious problems.  He creates new ones.

Leighton, hiding behind a press release, fired 11 firefighters, effective this week, to help solve an expected $2 million year-end shortfall.

The other group he has targeted is city taxpayers.  The mayor has threatened to impose a 31-percent tax hike on businesses already struggling to stay afloat and on a group which includes many elderly citizens on fixed incomes.

To date, there has been no talk of any cuts in City Hall, Leighton’s kingdom.

What doesn’t make sense is that the firefighters appear to be the only city union which tried – although not enough – to cooperate with the mayor’s call for help.  Five union members retired, and, according to local firefighters  union President Mike Bilski, gave up a $1,500 training bonus, according to The Citizens’ Voice.  Although why city taxpayers have to pay employees a bonus for training to do their jobs is absurd.

It’s public knowledge that there has been no love lost between Leighton and the firefighters, unlike his cozy relationship with the police officers, who cost the city a bundle when they whined about losing their cherished jobs of counting money in the parking meters.  That unnecessary battle cost city taxpayers a bundle in back pay, which also had to be paid to the firefighters, who had a parity clause in their contracts.

These public employee union contracts, like those throughout the country, with their generous pensions and health care packages, are in large measure responsible for the financial woes cities, counties and states face.  And who’s always left holding the bag?  Taxpayers.

The unions in Wilkes-Barre needed to, but refused, to make any concessions.  Leighton asked them to give up three non-federal holidays, which, frankly, should never have been doled out in the first place.  Flag Day takes the cake.  They were also asked to give up their negotiated 3-percent pay hikes but would not.

Maybe had Leighton agreed to cut his own salary, which would have been a grand gesture, and cut staff in City Hall, the unions may have followed suit.

Instead, for starters, his honor slashes the fire department, which worries union chief Bilski, and with good reason.  ”We can’t operate with just one engine on per shift,” he said.  Did Leighton think this through?  Hopefully, he did.  But, this is a guy who wants to demolish the Hotel Sterling, which is owned by CityVest, and worry about the legal ramifications later.  Geeeezz! (More on the CityVest debacle soon .)

Leighton said more layoffs are coming.  Meanwhile, he and his sidekick, Drew Mc-laugh-lin, are in hiding.

“The city will not have any official comments beyond the press release,” Drew said.  Leighton refused to discuss the layoffs beyond his safety net press release.

Frank Sorick, who ran for mayor and is now the head of a new taxpayers’ group, asked, “Why aren’t we cutting some of the folks at City Hall who are not part of the public safety.”  Well, we don’t know the answer to that good question because after slashing the fire department, Mayor Tom Leighton ran for the hills.

Councilman Tony George is upset too.  “I believe this creates a high risk of danger for our citizens.  I have said before that public safety should be our number one priority and that I would not agree with any cuts, let alone a quarter of the department,” George said in an e-mail response to The Times Leader.  “There are other cuts that could have been made.”

Surely he’s not talking about the St. Patrick Day’s parade?

- Betty Roccograndi

Loyal PureBunkum reader Richard Holodick has asked to address this website’s readers on a subject near and dear to his heart.  So without further ado, please allow Dr. Holodick to explain why he believes it is crucial to attend the Wilkes-Barre Area School Board’s Dec. 3 meeting.

The Children, the Children, and the Children!

Without question, a Times Leader editorial cartoon depicting a school bus  heading off a cliff dramatically illustrated the damage being done to our children.  The poisonous mushroom portrayed the perilous effects of nepotism.

Admittedly, four board members at least attempted to do the right thing by contacting the PA School Boards Association to conduct a search for a new superintendent.  Then, in an in-your-face show of arrogance, the five majority board members threw that $10,000 investment out the window by prematurely ending the process.

They defied the will of four board members, taxpayers and, no doubt, the faculty and staff who must be completely embarrassed by the actions of these and past board members.

Surely, the execution of this vote to hire the in-house person violated the state’s Sunshine Act.

Some may feel that three back-to-back newspaper editorials sharply critical of this board borders on overkill.  Why single out the WBA School Board when there are other boards in our area guilty of nepotism, power plays and back-room deals?  Why?  Because those other boards pale in comparison to the corruption poisoning the WBA School District.  Despite the past indictments of a third of this board, the dysfunction continues.

I am perplexed by the inaction of so many parents.  What doesn’t surprise me is the number of parents pulling their children from the system and enrolling them in cyber and charter schools the first chance they get.

I got nowhere when I asked Wilkes-Barre City Mayor Tom Leighton and the city council for help.  I got nowhere when I approached our new county manager Robert Lawton, county council members and the Chamber of Commerce to get involved.  It’s discouraging to say the least.  Is the news media the only concerned organization out there?

So, why aren’t more people outraged?  Maybe they are but have simply accepted that this is par for the course.  First and foremost, we need to think about this district’s children, some of whom are being taught by teachers who offered bribes to get their jobs and are being led by an ethics-challenged school board.

What we have in the Wilkes-Barre Area School District are students failing to meet academic standards and buildings desperately in need of renovations, possibly consolidations or closings.  And you know who will pay for the failings of this board?  Of course you do - already overburdened taxpayers.

Taxpayers, community leaders and lawmakers need to get onboard here.  They must stress to this board that their destructive actions will no longer be tolerated.

This opportunity is right around the corner.  When the board meets on December 3 in the district’s administration building, located at 730 S. Main Street in Wilkes-Barre.

There are three reasons you need to be there: the children, the children and the children.  Not showing up only enables them to do whatever they want, whenever they want.  And we’ve seen where that has gotten us. 

If the charges against Mark W. Kandel prove true, including sending a 17-year old boy a picture of him in his underwear, he is one sick man.

Now we all know that this alleged pervert is married to WNEP-TV anchor Marisa Burke.

I don’t know Marisa Burke, but I sure feel sorry for her.  And I’m guessing that many in her viewing area also didn’t know that Kandel, who is accused of heinous crimes similar to those which brought down Jerry Sandusky, was her husband.

But some in the media, including The Citizens’ Voice, felt we needed to know that.  Next to Kandel’s picture in the CV’s account was a caption, “Husband of WNEP anchor Marisa Burke.  Low blow, CV.

The Times Leader article made no mention of Marisa Burke.  Maybe the TL didn’t know.  But I’m guessing that it intentionally left out that tantalizing tidbit because it wasn’t relevant and decided it was wrong to humiliate a high-profile news anchor when surely she if suffering enough.

Kandel, a former Scranton area school director, admitted he does “engage in sexual communications with teenage boys,”  the CV reported, and that he “acknowledged that he becomes overwhelmed with sexual feelings” when texting teenage boys.

The Citizens’ Voice said in its article Thursday that it doesn’t identify the victims of sexual abuse.  Doesn’t Marisa Burke deserve equal anonymity?  She wasn’t involved in any of this, yet she’s been cast in this humiliating spotlight because of something her husband may have done.

Of course, the public deserves to know that Mark Kandel was a former school director and former curriculum specialist with the Northeast Education Intermediate Unit 19.  But do we have the right to know that he’s married to a well-known news anchor?  I say no.

Put yourself in her shoes.  If a member of your family was charged with a despicable act, would you want to be identified in a newspaper article or television broadcast?  No one would.

What if you were a teacher or an executive, whose wife was just charged with prostitution, and your name appeared in that news account?  Imagine walking into your classroom or your business the next day, your co-workers trying to act normally when you walked by?

Now imagine Marisa Burke going on the air to report the news now that she has unfairly been thrust into this horrific news story.

Was it interesting information?  Yes, it was.  Did we need to know about it at her expense?  No, we didn’t.

- Betty Roccograndi