Thursday, October 22, 2009

The other row offices

I've been concentrating on the race for Luzerne County Controller because that is where most of the action has been lately. We have two other spots up for election on November 3rd and I hope this will be the last time we ever have to vote for candidates for these positions. But that is up to the Government Study Commission and then the voters to ratify a new charter.


I've been saying for months that Republican Carolee Medico Olenginski will romp to victory in the Prothonotary contest even without the news that her opponent's husband is a crook. I've never met Nancy Bellas and I was surprised that she won the primary against Duryea politico Art Akulonis and the most qualified candidate Gerald Mullery. I hear that the local Dems have given up on her and Mullery has even been handing out Carolee signs.

TL: Allan Bellas has resigned his post as President of Wyoming Valley West School Board President...Bellas has agreed to plead guilty to corruption charges related to his former post as Luzerne County Redevelopment Authority Executive Director. He previously accepted a bribe in exchange for helping a developer get a tax break deal.


Incumbent Democrat Register of Wills Dottie Stankovic is taking some flack over her work hours. The CV reviewed security records that show she never swiped her security card more than a third of the time over the last 21 months. But that does not mean she was a no-show at the Penn Place office on North Pennsylvania Avenue in Wilkes-Barre, Stankovic explained.
"I was in the office, and somebody else used their pass to open up the door. One opens it up, and five or six go in," Stankovic said.


Gina Nevenglosky, her Republican opponent, has claimed she has been to the Register of Wills Office "20-some times" this year and, she said, Stankovic was never there.

The suspicion that not all row officers put in a full day's is not new. Remember that Bob Reilly was selling used cars during business hours and a few years before that he was working in a beer store on weekdays.

This dust up just may be the answer to Gina's prayers of being elected.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Gina is full of it right up to her ears. The one sure fact in County government is that Stanky is always at work. The stone they threw at her is typical yellow journalism. It is a common practice that as people arrive for work and several hit the entrance at the same time, the first one at the door uses their swipe card to get in and the others simply walk in. Do the idiots expect each person to walk in close the door and the next person in line would wait for the door to be closed so they could swipe their card, etc? Shame on Gina. It seems that that Republican candidates are so full of themselves that they believe they can say anyting, regardless of how absurd it is and the people will believe it. Shit, I think their right! Stanky is known as the toughest task master in the county and her staff are held to a stiff work guidlines and she is under attack. Unbelievable.

Anonymous said...

Hey 5:23
I understand that someone can "piggy-back" through a door, but on two occasions that were noted - Ms. Dotty had multiple "swipes" during those days.

Isn't it odd that it was necessary to gain access to secured areas multiple times on those two day and have 260+ occasions when it was not necessary to access another secure area once after she "piggy- backed in?

Where there is smoke------

Forrest Gump said...

Listen Anon 3:14pm and all other doubters:

I work for the federal government and we have swipe cards also; during the morning when everybody shows up for work (around 6:00a.m.) the first one to swipe their card opens the doors and everybody else piles in behind him or her. There is nothing wrong with this as security is at the door and checks to make sure everybody has a badge and they even check everyone's bags. There are some 1,500 people at our building and if each of us had to swipe our cards, wait for the doors to open, enter, and let the doors close before the next employee entered it would take an hour or two to get everybody in the building.

I don't want to call it Republican dirty politics but it does seem that Gina Nevenglosky is grasping at straws.

In this case there is no fire where there is smoke.

I was going to vote for all Republicans this time around in the hopes that a change will help our local government, but I believe I will make an exception in this race and vote to keep Dotty Stankovic as Register of Wills just because of this issue.

If you listened to WILK earlier this week Gina's husband called in to defend her and he sounded like a real "tool".

Anonymous said...

Forrest, You have got to be kidding me. Carrolee was there and the first thing the Conservative did was to cost the taxpayers a nice little bundle just because she didn't like the color of her carpet. Then she purchased a filing system that was totally incompatible with existing files so another pile of taxpayer money had to go for new filing cabinets. And just like holding onto her first husbands name, she will continue to be impossible to exist with. We need more chaos under the dome.

Ok so let's continue on down to the Controller's office. I watched the interviews posted on the Times Leader web site and if you can vote for Griffith, your brain is out to lunch. Morgan was so afraid to make a mistakes that I lost track of his ah's and da's. Morgan keeps talking about his big finance resume but in fact was nothing but an insurance salesman for Prudential and was a failure at that. He thinks posting things on a web site is a big thing but what about being a part of the Petrilla's gang? She gave his campaign $300 and one of her solicitors (Neil O'Donnell) gave him $500 and brother Brian O'Donnell gave him $500 so that cancels out Morgan as being the independent he claims to be. The only interview that had any substance was Toole's and I was impressed. Personally, I have no doubt that of the three Controller candidates, it isn't the Democrat and absolutely not the Republican, it will be the Independent Toole that gets my family votes. But for Forrest Gump to even consider straight Republican votes makes my head hurt. Isn't anyone thinking?

Anonymous said...

Anon 1:58 I watched the interviews but I have to be honest, I didn't watch all of Griffith's or all of Morgan's. Watching just a portion of them was enough for me. Poor Griffith has no idea how far over his head he is. He said that the Controller "can't" actually do audits so there is no need for him to know how to do them and the hardcore Republican TL endorsed him as the best bet out of the three. I agree that Morgan seemed terrified to answer the questions and wanted only to give the impression of being the big finance guru of the county. Watch the Toole interview. I've never seen anyone give such an important interview and be so at home answering the questions. He nerver faltered, hesitated or had to ah and da his way through the answers. He responded to every questions just as if he were simply stating his name and address. I found him to be believable and well informed. What really impressed me was his attitude about doing the job and resolving the current problems. I can only speak for me and my wife but I have no problem recommending Toole to my friends. Do yourself a favor and watch the videos. Then you decide who should have gotten the endorsement and who will get your vote.

Anonymous said...

Anon 5:23, Access to secured areas does not mean the top secret vault where the county Democrats have the next election's results, it is the back door. Just so you know, employees who use the front of the undercover parking area use the front door and never need to swipe thier cards. They walk right past the security guards and they have their county ID cards hanging from their necks. Geez you people make things hard. Wake up!