Dunn is done

The local media are reporting that Wilkes-Barre Area School Director Brian Dunn has been arrested for selling jobs.

I'll have more later tonight.

Wilkes-Barre Area School Director Brian Dunn federally charged

School Director Charged with Taking Bribes

Wilkes-Barre Area school board member charged with accepting kickbacks

Read the criminal complaint

UPDATE

I never understood why someone would want a job like school director. You have to spend time at meetings and learn something about a myriad of subjects like building codes/construction, federal and state academic standards, finance and budgeting, etc. to make informed decisions when you have to cast a vote. Since the job doesn't pay an "official" salary our local school board members also have to hold down a daytime job to pay the bills. The one area that our local board members are all experts in is personnel. They vote to hire everyone from the superintendent to the janitors with a special focus on the teachers positions. It's long been an open secret that you can't get a teacher's job around here unless you are related to a school board member and if you're not the only way to land a job teaching is to grease the wheels. And we lament that our young people move out of the area. Paul Golias in the CV says the going price for a teacher's job is $4,000 in addition to what they get/demand on construction contracts (10%). I think that is a low number. The arrest of Brian Dunn confirms these suspicions and a few more might be next in line.


Dunn is an interesting character and his profile in the TL sometimes reads like a rap sheet. He drove his car onto the sidewalk after having a few cocktails in 2005 slamming into a building and running over a pedestrian. He was sentenced to the ARD Program by, who else, former Judge Michael Conahan and he lost his drivers license for only a month. These guys really take care of each other. Dunn also didn't bother to file campaign finance reports for his past races in 1995, 1997 and 2001. What is the point of having campaign finance laws if they are not enforced? His wife was the treasurer of his campaigns and I know it will shock you to learn that she is also an employee of the W-B Area School District. Dunn is also on the W-B Vo-Tech board which hired his wife for a part time gig that was worth $7,000. Of course he didn't vote on the hiring, just like the rest of them who don't show up when one of their relatives are up for a job. But they still get hired.

A few months ago a friend told me that Luzerne County needed a good enema. It looks like the US Attorney has delivered one and the shit is splattering everywhere.