Petrilla: Fire Guesto

I never thought I would see this. Good for Petrilla.

WILKES-BARRE — “In my opinion, he was unauthorized to change policy and was reckless,” Commissioner Maryanne Petrilla said. “His actions violated state law and cost taxpayers money. He has damaged the credibility of Luzerne County government. I have asked President Judge Mark Ciavarella to terminate him immediately. … Sam Guesto should be terminated for many reasons, mainly he overstepped his boundaries.”...Ciavarella said he wouldn’t fire Guesto unless some legal authority concluded Guesto violated the law. District Attorney Jackie Musto Carroll has asked an outside agency to investigate.

So what Secret Police organization is investigating? If any. The county did it's own investigation of the prison purchasing practices and it alleges that Guesto instructed the prison kitchen manager to ignore bidding rules.

TL: Former Luzerne County chief clerk/manager Sam Guesto told county prison officials not to bid out items that were previously bid, telling the kitchen manager during a March 2006 meeting, “…do it or it’s your ass,” according to an internal report on illegal prison piecemealing released Monday. Guesto also directed that no-bid purchases be made from Commonwealth Foods Inc., kitchen manager Jack Rentko said in the report.

Guesto also directed the company designing the new prison to plan a bigger facility without getting the Commissioners to authorize the increased cost.

My opinion is that he should have been fired after the debit card scandal broke. We all await the results of the Secret Service investigation into that violation of the public trust.