Thursday, February 19, 2009

Luzerne County Controller

I think this post is most important office in the county government. My friend Steve Flood was the best Controller in my memory. He questioned the PA Child Care lease right from the beginning and maybe if he had been reelected this mess with the Judges might have been exposed earlier.

Since our acting Controller pledged not to seek election to the office and had a wardrobe malfunction while he was shitfaced the field is wide open.

The big news in this race is former Luzerne County Democratic Commissioner Edd Brominski announced his intention Tuesday to run for Luzerne County controller in the primary as a Republican. After he lost the Commissioner's race in 1983 he landed a county job as chief assessor and was fired after he ran again for Commissioner. He sued the county for wrongful termination and got a settlement in federal court.

In his interview with Heidi Ruckno in the CV he claimed he was aware of corruption a long time ago. “I was aware of some of those things that happened, and when I tried to make them known, I was, frankly, fired for it.”

My question is why did you stop there Edd? If you were aware of corruption why didn't you go to the authorities at the time and if they didn't listen blab it to the press?

And what about this:

Brominski was first elected Luzerne County commissioner in 1979. He lost his 1983 re-election bid amid a voter fraud scandal, which he declined to discuss in federal court, according to The Citizens’ Voice archive.

I was in the Air Force in 1983 and stationed in England so I don't have any idea about a voter fraud scandal at that time. Give me some help in the comments. Our local polical historian, David Yonki, has some of Bromo's ups and downs and remembers that his father was a Judge.


Other candidates in the race are Democrats Russ Bigus and Tony Rostock who allegedly cut a deal with Pittston litigation specialist Wil Toole according to PittstonPolitics.com. Toole is now out of the race. On the Republican side Wilkes-Barre activist Walter Griffith is running for this post and the Study Commission. Attorney Nanda Palissery seems to be the early favorite of the Republican powers that be.

Other candidates mentioned are Alice B. Coffman, Bob Morgan and Bob Sypniewski.

4 comments:

Zen said...

great post esp. concerning Brominski admitting he knew of the corruption but did little or nothing to stop it. It is time for fresh faces in the courthouse. However you are wrong about Walter Griffith. He is not running for controller. A little bird told me he will seek Jill Moran's job as a Republican.

Anonymous said...
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Gort said...

Not the same person.

David Yonki said...

Gort, I think Judge Brominski was Edd's uncle, not dad. But he certainly traded on the family name to get elected.