Bob Sypniewski for Controller-the interview

I met with Luzerne County GOP Controller candidate Bob Sypniewski last Sunday. Bob was born and raised in Wilkes-Barre. He graduated fron GAR High School and attended LCCC. He's another Yankees fan which now seems to be a requirement for the position. He likes the Eagles in the NFL and defying the logic of my world he somehow roots for the Miami Hurricanes in college football.

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Why should you be the next Luzerne County Controller?

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I believe the background that I come from being the 15th of 16 kids and my dad being a Wilkes-Barre police officer for 40 years taught me that hard work and honesty will get you somewhere in life. Today with the corruption going on in Luzerne County I have no ties to anyone and everything I have in life I’ve gotten because of hard work. I believe the qualities I possess and the leadership I possess will change and help the foundation of Luzerne County to head in the right direction. My financial background is 10 plus years running my own business on my own. I believe what I’ve done to help people to buy homes will help to fix the county. The biggest thing is sitting on the county board and seeing the corruption that I saw with this assessment. I fought hard to get on this board to help people lower their taxes, not because I felt sorry for them but it was the right thing to do. One thing I want to talk about is a property being assessed at $125,000 that is right next to the Susquehanna River and our county hired a company that assessed it at $125,000 and we knocked it down to $7,000 because that was were it belonged because the property flooded six months out of the year. I believe my time on the board showed what I can do. I can also bring it to the county as the Controller.

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You mentioned that the last time I heard you speak. Why didn’t you go public with it sooner?

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The reason why I didn’t go public was this. I knew the corruption that was going on in the courthouse and if I went there and said listen, this is what I’m seeing, I know that would have done to me. They would have got me off the board and replaced me with somebody else. You saw when the formal appeals first started, the cries in the newspaper of foul, there weren’t a lot of people on that board that I believe that were really out there helping the people. They made some changes and I sat there quietly and made reductions where I could. And I knew this, if I went to Skrep or Petrilla they would have got me out of there.

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Will you be a full time Controller?

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I will be a full time Controller. Just like when I ran the assessment board, I ran that full time. I put my businesses to the side. I am the only candidate that can say that I took 2 of my business and shut them off from 8 o’clock to 6:30 at night for 4 months. I did that with my business. The proof is in the pudding and my will tell you that, I was gone. What I did for the assessment board in 4 months I can do better as a full time Controller in 4 years.

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I have a couple of questions from some of my helpers. Will you commit to serving no more than 2 terms?

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It’s going to take at least 4 years to get the county courthouse headed in the right direction. I believe 2 terms after that will be enough were I can sit back and ask do I want to further my life as a politician or do I want to sit back. That’s a tough question to answer. I learned in politics very early that you never say never. Right now I’m committed to getting elected for 4 years with the understanding that this is going to take longer than 4 years to clean up. It’s been going on for how many years? So we’re going to put 4 years into this and look into this every time you’re up for reelection.

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The Controller doesn’t have a lot of policy input. Who would you partner with in the county government to help clean things up?

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When I come to office I understand that are positions that I can change immediately. My assistant Controller is going to change immediately, my Solicitor is going to change immediately. I have a list of people from both sides of the aisle that we are going to bring in. I really respect Steve Urban for what he has done in the past, I respect Steve Flood and what he’s done. I don’t believe I’m going to partner with any of our elected officials right this second because I do not know who to trust in there. We need new faces, we need fresh faces. We need people who never worked there before to come in and clean house. At this very moment I’m not willing not commit to working with anyone in that courthouse other than the team of people we’re going to come in with to clean house there.

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So you’re saying that you won’t be a rubber stamp for what has been going on

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Most definitely, it makes sense that when that when a contract is handed to you and not a single Commissioners signature is on it that you don’t make payment on it.

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The Republican Party endorsement went to Nanda Pallisery. How do you feel about that?

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It disappoints me not about the endorsement. It disappoints me that there is 275 committee people and less than 130 even cast a vote. I believe that 29 cast it do not endorse which I believe I take credit for. I was the only candidate out there crying do not endorse, let us all run on our own merits. So if you look at it, Nanda walked away with 40 votes. I don’t know if that is a Republican endorsement or if that is the same old politics endorsement. It doesn’t affect me, what I want is the people’s endorsement. I want their vote to represent them not as a Republican, not as a Democrat Controller but as an independent voice that’s going to bring change.

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You want to add to your earlier comments about reassessment.

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I want to touch base this about this assessment. I didn’t understand as much as I thought I knew until I sat down and realized by helping people through the appeals process and adjust them adjust their home values and saw the hurt that our political people did to our people. It caused me to contact Derrick Williams from Tioga County. People may remember that Tioga County kicked out this same assessment company, Century 21 Appraisals. They got kicked out because of a breach of contract. I spoke to Derrick Williams twice and there is a new report coming out on the 28th that I believe is going to back Tioga County and this is why I stayed private with this because silently I want to put together a majority of people to one day see that we can take what Tioga County did and bring it here to Luzerne County. I believe we need to start all over with this with our own people. In the next coming days you are going to see a press release from the independent arbitrator that was assigned to Tioga’s County dealings. And I believe if you elect me as Controller I will have a bigger say when you look at that actual contract and I think that will be a big key to my race as well. There is only so much you can do as a taxpayer crying foul but there is more you can do as an elected official.

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As Controller you are going to oversee the county’s finances. What experience do you have with government accounting?

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I was a business major in high school. It’s pretty easy, when your debits outweigh your credits you have a problem. When you have a Controller that’s not monitoring statements showing all these debit card purchases coming out and not saying anything that’s a big issue. A lot of it is commonsense thinking first of all. Second of all we are going to bring a good team of people into this. You take the last 10 years of my business and I’m looking at people’s finances. Could they afford this house? Not just based on what is on their credit reports. We are looking at their grocery bills, their utility bills… and in 10 years of helping people buy a home I never had a bank call me back and say you misquoted their budget and now we’re taking this house back and we want our money back that we paid you. So I believe the common sense thinking I bring to it plus the 10 years of helping people with their finances is going to be a huge benefit to the county. But understand this too. I can’t do it on my own, I know I can’t. That’s why the team of people that I bring there is going to be an effort as a team of people that are going to come together to put this in order. It’s not humanly possible to do it alone nor could any other candidate say that. If they did, they are lying to you. I will have a CPA as my assistant Controller and I will have a Solicitor that has the minds, thoughts and interests of the taxpayers in mind. The three of us are going to look at this and get this done right.

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A little nuts and bolts about campaigning. How are you doing on money?

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We just sent out our first fundraising letter about 2 weeks ago. I actually funded most of my campaign right now. I don’t look at it as money today; I’m going door to door. I’m doing the old style politics where I go out and meet the people so they know who I am. We are going to raise some money but not a whole heck of a lot. People are asking me where is your website, where is your signs? I understand that websites and signs don’t get you elected. If people don’t know who I am they are not going to vote for me so I am making more of my efforts in getting out there. But like I said we just put together our first fundraiser and we probably raise about 10 to 20 thousands dollars. That is our expectation on that.

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Do you plan to do any media? Print, radio or TV

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Right now we’re taking advantage of the free press. We sent in a lot of letters to the editor and I will be a frequent caller into the Steve Corbett show as well as Sue Henry and Nancy and Kevin in the Morning. I plan on trying to put together a commercial. Humanly possibly there is no way I can get to the four corners of the county. Maybe a couple of commercials.

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What do you think about Home Rule?

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I’m big supporter of open government. Take Steve Flood for example. When this Juvenile Detention Center was being built wanted a public forum on this and he was chastised for it and then his own party took him out. I don’t know all the policies of Home Rule but from what I understand about it, it’s going to be more of an open government which I stand firm with.

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As far as streamlining the county do you have any ideas? I have been an advocate of getting rid of elections for things like Prothonotary, Jury Commissioner and possibly even Controller if you can up with a different way of doing it.

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I believe in what you just said there. The Controller is a position you need a leader in there and if that is changing hands because of political powers then there is a problem, same thing with Prothonotary. Down the road I believe, hopefully not right now because I’m running for it, those should be positions (not Union positions) that should be full time. Because if you are constantly doing this every 4 years you have to run for reelection so somewhere along the line in that year that you’re running for reelection you’re going to burn yourself out to the point of what’s going to come first and what are you going to walk away from? You are going to walk away from time on the job just so you can be elected again for another 4 year term. So I would agree that somewhere down the road to possibly rewriting the Controllers position, the Prothonotary and also the Jury Commissioner to make them not political seats. And make them full time position not political positions. I’m open to that.

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My observation that some people may not agree with in this economic climate is that the Row Officers and Commissioners are not paid enough.

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If you look at the size of our county and look at some smaller ones, they’re paid more. In my business I actually hired an ex-president of a bank. People say why would an ex-president of a bank work for a 28 year old broker? I paid him well. I realize this, if you pay people well they will be there full time. And you look at what the Commissioner get paid and there is a lot going on. Sometimes they have second jobs so they can actually maintain a life. I believe in time, once we get this in order there should be a pay raise for some of the county officials not because of political purposes. My philosophy is this, pay them right and the job will be done right. If you look at what has been going on in the county, look at the greed.

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Involving some very high paid people

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But the funny this is this, you had 2 Commissioners that had to allow that juvenile detention center to go. Those judges were corrupt but that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about those 2 Commissioners, Greg Skrepenak and Todd Vonderheid, they were the ones that brought this forth. If they had listened to Steve Urban and Steve Flood this would have been thrown out. So when you put people in the Commissioners area make that worth their while to make sure the county is run effectively. I believe a lot of theses deals probably would not have been made. I agree that there should be an increase but also there are some offices that shouldn’t have as much. There is too many chiefs and not enough Indians out there. There is too much manpower in some of the offices in the courthouse that could be let go, we don’t need it. I won’t harp too much on this but if the Assessor’s office had done the job that was required we wouldn’t had to need hire an outside company to reassess our county. I would take a look at the stories I hear about people going out in the field to measure properties, I want to see their work reports. I want to see where they have been. I tell you what, it doesn’t pass my test as far as getting the job done. With an increase to certain positions in the courthouse there could be a huge decrease in personnel. I know it’s not a popular statement and I know a lot of county officials won’t like that but a fact is a fact. There are too many people that work in these offices and there is not enough work to show for it..

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Closing statement

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As I worked hard on the assessment board I saw what the corruption of county politics can do to the hard working people. The people that are trying to make a living but yet our government constantly knocks us back. I worked 4 months for the county people and have been able to decrease thousands of household’s property taxes. I believe if I’m the Controller I can do even more. I could be the inside person for the people in the county courthouse. A lot of people have hammered me because I didn’t come public with this but they have to understand if I went public they would have taken me out and replaced with somebody else. I’m the 15th child out of 16 children grew up in the Wilkes-Barre Heights and I have no political ties and I have no strings attached. I’m going to run this job like I ran my own businesses, it will be full time. It will be with all my heart and soul to get this thing right. I have 3 boys that are counting on me to make this right. Here is a fact, if I don’t get this right my generation of people are moving out, they’re going. My biggest fear is getting a phone call from Harrisburg or Washington, DC saying Luzerne County we’re cutting you off until you get this right. We need to elect a fresh face, someone new with no political ties. There is a debate coming up on the 28th at Wilkes, I encourage people to get down there. I hope they broadcast it. I think this is going to be a great chance to see the differences. Who is going to run that office? Who is going to run it efficiently? Is it going to be an attorney that is running a law firm? Is it going to be the guy that runs the mechanic business? Is it going to be an accountant that already runs a business? I’m the only candidate that has shown that I can work for the county, work for the taxpayers and then do my life second. I’m done it before, give me 4 years so I can prove it.