Thursday, October 15, 2009

Will Toole responds

In my last post I invited Wil Toole to respond to the TL story rehashing his overtime controversy when he was Pittston's city clerk/administrator. He responded with an email and left a comment on the post. Being a fair and balanced blogger I decided to put both on the front page.

From the inbox:


I was surprised to read it. When I appeared before the Editorial Board, it was discussed in detail and I thought they understood the situation.

The hours I worked were all documented and NEVER questioned by the administration I worked for. The dispute was brought to a resolve and the payback was a result of a settlement reached in a law suit I had with the city's new administration. It is a complicated two year story but basically, the judge held a conference with my attorney and me at which time he proposed a retirement figure which I accepted. I had been two years without income and with living expenses and legal expenses I had depleted all of my financial resources. I had to resolve my pension issue as quickly as possible. Therefore, I accepted the proposed settlement.

The city has a defined pension plan which is locked into the employee's final pay. For the settled upon figure to be obtained, my final payout had to be adjusted so that the pension amount conformed with the formula. I did not repay $19,000 in cash. The City's auditing firm did the calculations and after all possible deductions and credits, I was left with a total cash payback of $4,600. The payback number never had anything to do with the hours I worked, it was a settlement.

It is worth noting that before I worked at the city, there was absolutely no administrative record of employee time off. Each office or department had a record controlled and kept by that supervisor who was a member of that particular union. The first thing I did was to create time sheets that were submitted with each payroll period and was signed by the employee and his immediate supervisor and then kept in the City's payroll department. I also required myself to have a time sheet and it was approved by the council member who served as the Director of Accounts and Finance.

I would be happy to invite you to lunch at which time we can discuss this entire situation in detail. As I mentioned, it was complicated and it was political and I suffered terrible character assassination during the Walsh Administration's final election. Beginning with my military service, I spent my entire life working for and in my community. While in the Coast Guard, I was stationed aboard a ship that did patrols in the North Atlantic. When we were in port in Staten Island, I attended boy scout meetings and taught knot tying to the scouts. From that point right up to my retirement, I served my community in many ways. You can read my community efforts on my campaign web site, I am not a single issue community activist. All of my life, I did what I thought was the right thing.

Thanks for asking without first jumping on the bandwagon of character assassination.

Thanks,
Wil Toole


His comment on my last post:


Gort,

I have no problem stating who the judge was that dismissed the charges and I did discuss the entire situation during the TL interview.

The fact is that half of the charges were dismissed at the magistrate's level. Carmen Maffei was the magistrate and he said afterward that he had confusion on some of the charges but if he understood the entire situation at the time, he would have dismissed all of them. The original magistrate was Fred Pierantoni but he removed himself because of perceived conflict of interest by working in the same building with me.

The truth was that most of the judges excused themselves because they knew me personally. Judge Conahan did agree to take the case. The thing that Conahan knew and bothered me was that when he defeated Judge Musto in his election to the Bench, I was a strong supporter of Judge Musto and absolutely did not support Conahan. That's a fact! Now with that situation facing me, I thought I would be in real trouble with Conahan but there was nothing I could do about which judge was left to hear my case. He did dismiss the remainder of the charges and commented as to how could they have gotten that far? The charges were absurd.

As for the question of Conahan being a friend of mine when all this happened can be answered in the fact that it was Judge Conahan who worked out my pension law suit and the deciding factor in my accepting the proposed settlement was that my attorney and I thought that I was awarded health insurance for life. We thought it was designed the same as state pensions at the time. I mention this because it was also Judge Conahan who canceled my heath insurance coverage last year. Does that sound like he did me a favor?

Joe Valenti claims to be the only one questioning my background but the fact that I filed a defamation law suit against him may have something to do with his obsession to continue his character assassination of me.

The history of my work in my community is contained within my web site, www.BestControllerCandidate.com. At the age of 66, I wake every morning and I'm proud of the man in the mirror. I have made many efforts and spent countless hours doing what I could to improve the quality of life in my community. If voters take the time to read about my work history and my public works and then choose to base their opinion on character assassination and false charges over 10 years old then that's their right to do so. Apparently, it is the headlines that matter, not the ultimate disposition of those headlines.

This all boils down to comparing what I have done with my life, the work experience I have accumulated and the ability I have to be a good County Controller. By the way, my "Rodney King" point when interviewed was based on what I see as county officials spending more time looking to lay blame than working together to solve problems. If I'm wrong and working together is a bad objective then there are two other candidates to choose from. This is still America and as a veteran of 4 years of active duty, I will defend your right to choose. And, as a veteran I will exercise my right to defend myself when challenged.

27 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wil Toole says:

"I also required myself to have a time sheet and it was approved by the council member who served as the Director of Accounts and Finance."

Face facts....the Director of Accounts and Finance in Pittston City was Wil's best friend, Ken Scaz. To say that his time sheets were legit because Ken approved them is like saying Nixon did nothing wrong because Agnew and Liddy said so.

Anyone in Pittston at the time knew that Wil ran the city and Kenny pulled the strings from the barber shop. Mayor Walsh was a wonderful man who never piped up while Wil and Ken ran the show.

I'll give Wil this....compared to the City's condition today, he was a phenomenal Clerk.

Anonymous said...

Wil Toole is nothing more than a political hack that has been a power broker in Pittston for years and used his office of City Clerk to advance his retirement and his own wallet..His ability to tie knots should come in handy someday but not as a County Controller and his ability to work in his community is great but he still has a personal agenda by allowing 4 people, Terry Best, Wil Toole,John Bushko,Pat Toole to circulate his petition and not sign the certificate of circulator and also having all the powerful democrats like Bob Reilly and Tom Pizano and Terry Best along with a whole list of others,sign the petition and then say he is running as an Independent. This guy is just more of the same and should be shown that the people of Luzerne County are not stupid and certainly not gullable enough to believe the stories that Will Toole is selling.

PoorRichard said...

For the well informed Anonymous 9:49 and 9:59 posters, it doesn't take inside information to know that whichever elected official signed my time sheets that official would have been my friend. Yes, I was a political leader so should I apologize that I had the ability to organize and lead? Should I apologize because people chose to elect me to the various chairmanships I held? You people have got to get a life or at the very least, seek professional help to get past this Wil Toole obsession. Oh, I just thought I might ask, considering that Gort posted my comments at 8:30 and no one posted a comment till 9:49 followed by another poisonous post just 10 minutes later should it be believed that two people took the time to throw stones and just ten minutes apart or might it have been the same obsessed unemployed/underemployed individual authoring both posts? There are obviously some very intelligent people posting on Gort42 so how many of them do you think you can fool? Take two aspirins and call me in the morning.

PoorRichard said...

Sorry, I meant to say, "Take two aspirins and call a DOCTOR in the morning".

Joe Valenti said...

Gort,
Mr. Toole will always have an answer. And, he actually believes his own spin. He claims he never reads my blog, so here is something I wrote a few weeks back. Pittston City residents deserve to have an answer to this along with the many more I have outlined over the weeks:

TOOLE SERIES: It's a miracle, he's cured and able to run for controller
By: Joe Valenti
Posted: Saturday, August 22, 2009 8:07 pm
TOOLE SERIES: It's a miracle, he's cured and able to run for controller

County Controller Candidate Wil Toole
It’s a miracle!
Wil Toole has been cured.
You see, over a decade ago, Wil Toole claimed he was disabled and finagled a $30,000 annual disability pension because of it.
Guess who the Doctor was who went in on this?
Dr. Harry Alexanderian.
Yup, the same Dr. Harry Alexanderian from West Pittston who was arrested back in 2003 for passing out prescription pain killers.
Alexanderian was sentenced to two years’ probation in July 2005 on charges of illegally dispensing prescription narcotics and defrauding Medicaid.
Wow! Not another convicted felon siding with Mr. Toole?
(I’ll get to the other convicted felon who sided with Mr. Toole in weeks’ to come.)
You see, there has been a glaring question that has been lingering - how can Wil Toole run for Luzerne County Controller and collect a disability pension?
Then “Politico” (one of my bloggers) answered my question stating, “I believe that he is over 65 which would mean that he is coming out of retirement not disability.”
Cured.
Wil Toole is no longer collecting a disability pension, just an annual $30,000 pension.
So, in my opinion one of two things happened.
One, Mr. Toole miraculously was cured (maybe Dr. Harry Alexanderian gave him some of his special pills).
Or two, Toole was never disabled to begin with.
If that is the case, then it sure sounds like he may have committed fraud.
With that said, city officials along with District Attorney Jackie Musto-Carroll should launch an investigation.
And, if Mr. Toole was miraculously cured, let’s call the New England Journal Medicine.

Joe Valenti said...

Gort
PS. The Musto family is NO FAN of Wil Toole. It was Toole who lead the charge against Ray Musto back in the 90's when Musto had two challengers - Trinisweski and O'Donnell. Toole and company supported Neil O'Donnell.

Anonymous said...

Wil Toole better go to his doctor friends and see what they can give him to grow some thicker skin. If he wants to run for office, he better learn to take some criticism.

Anonymous said...

Wil Toole,
You still have not admitted that Terry Best and other Political Power Brokers are the people that circulated your petition and then didnt sign the petition. This is exactly what Terry Best was challanged on in his petition for Pittston City Council, and now you used him to do the same thing. This is the type of political "Spin" and deception that the taxpayers dont need in Luzerne County. The reason you want to run for Controller is evident and thats to hire your friends and get free health care.

Mean Old Man said...

Though I am not from Pittston myself, from what I have read I find Mr. Toole to be a fine young man. Luzerne County should be happy to have a public servant of his stature; despite the fact that certain bloggers are trying to assassinate his character. To Hell with all of them!!!

Anonymous said...

The truth was that most of the judges excused themselves because they knew me personally. Judge Conahan did agree to take the case. The thing that Conahan knew and bothered me was that when he defeated Judge Musto in his election to the Bench, I was a strong supporter of Judge Musto and absolutely did not support Conahan. That's a fact! Now with that situation facing me, I thought I would be in real trouble with Conahan but there was nothing I could do about which judge was left to hear my case.

The comment by Wil Toole that all the judges knew him and therefore he had a hard time getting a impartial hearing is proof that Wil Toole is a political hack that was put up to run for Controller by the same powerful political machine that we are trying to get rid of in this County. Wil Toole is political and is all about himself and cant be trusted

PoorRichard said...

"Wil Toole is political." What a revelation that is. I'm a candidate Anon 8:55, that makes me political. The Musto family is a large family and I feel I have a good relationship with Judge Musto as I do with Gerard and John. If your name isn't Musto I don't think you should be speaking for them. And yes, I do believe that Judge Musto is a quality individual and a very capable judge and I'm not about to apologize for that. Yes I did support Neil O'Donnell. I counseled him against running but his mind was made up and I have never tuned my back on a friend. A character trait some people just can't latch onto. For many, Loyalty is a forgotten way of life. By the way, the first financial report is due out next week so you can then examine mine (as I'm sure you will) and then report on all my old political friends who donated to my campaign. As I write this reply, I am 75% self financed, I am an Independent and regardless of your wild claims, I will have NO IOU's waiting for me in the Controller's office. Deal with it! That having been said, I want to make it clear that I have not refused any donations from the "not in crowd" but the problem with that is that for the most part, political people make political contributions, not John Q. Public. If John Q. would like to help my campaign financially, I would be more than happy to accept a no strings attached campaign donation.

Anon 8:20AM, I have made a perfectly clear explanation of "petitions" in previous postings. An Independent candidate DOES NOT file a petition. An Independent files a NOMINATING FORM and what you would refer to as individual petitions are referred to as PAGES in a NOMINATING FORM and requires that only one person sign it. If my forms were filed wrong, I can assure you that Leonard Piazza is a very capable Director of the Voter's Bureau and I can further say that my opponents would have challenged me off the ballot if I had filed improperly. But, when all is said and done, I certainly wouldn't expect you or Valenti to allow facts to get in the way of personal attacks. And I'm still looking to see all these jobs that are available, maybe I can hire you as a consultant or maybe a seeing eye dog to help me find all these hidden jobs?

Joe Valenti continues his character assassination crusade but he hollers "wolf" so often that few expect anything different from him. His obsession with me would be amusing if it weren't so sad. It's strange that Valenti has so many "facts" at his finger tips that he forgets that his friends did challenge my retirement and lost. I'm a candidate with my Doctor's approval but I guess my doctor forgot to consult Dr Valenti. It's a shame Valenti can't find something useful to do with his time. Visiting a nursing home and being nice to people is something he cold probably train for.

Mean Old Man, Thank you.

Joe Valenti said...

So I guess he was cured!!!
Call the New England Journal of Medicine.
Funny though, he never sought his Dr's permission to go back to work when he was collecting his annual $30K DISABILITY pension.
Hmmm...

Anonymous said...

Anon 8:20AM, I have made a perfectly clear explanation of "petitions" in previous postings. An Independent candidate DOES NOT file a petition. An Independent files a NOMINATING FORM and what you would refer to as individual petitions are referred to as PAGES in a NOMINATING FORM and requires that only one person sign it. If my forms were filed wrong, I can assure you that Leonard Piazza is a very capable Director of the Voter's Bureau and I can further say that my opponents would have challenged me off the ballot if I had filed improperly. But, when all is said and done, I certainly wouldn't expect you or Valenti to allow facts to get in the way of personal attacks. And I'm still looking to see all these jobs that are available, maybe I can hire you as a consultant or maybe a seeing eye dog to help me find all these hidden jobs?

Wil Toole,
You really do have a "Spin" for everything and the Nominating Papers to file as an Independent that have been circulated were indeed circulated by others beside your cousin Patrick Toole right??? but you fail to admit that the people that are supporting you are your "Political Friends" that have been there to advise you about how to collect a pension that was inflated by your own documents at City Hall in Pittston and also what was the disability that you "Claim" you had in order to collect the pension??? The people that are your supporters are the people that are going to go to jail, thanks to the FBI and you still havent said why you changed your registration to Independent after being a 45 year Democrat and switching as early as March 2009 beside..is that because your own Democratic party has a fix in for you to be elected as an Independent ??? C Mon Wil Toole dont insult the electorate of Luzerne County. Admit that you are one on the "Politician" and stop trying to spin everything.

Joe Valenti said...

Will must be getting dizzy with all this spin:-o

PoorRichard said...

Children, play nice.

Anonymous said...

YYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWNNNNNNNNNN

Anonymous said...

Keep after them (him) Wil. Don't let the creep get one up on you. If he throws a stone, pick it up and throw it back. I agree, he does need a life or at the very least, rehab.

Joe Valenti said...

Ah rehab...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-_ZywDWRK8

Anonymous said...

I knew Joe Valenti would like rehab, he needs one with his drunk blogging, and his child like antics. Hey Joe, borrow a clue and buy an idea cause your a moron. Maybe the DA should look at you, didn't you have Oliveri at your home? Did you pay him?

Anonymous said...

A post i tried to make to Valenti's site and he will not post it. I am not sure why, unlike most of his nonsense and lies, this is actually true. It was a post to be put under a pic of Toole in 97 so i thought it only fair play he should show all facts on candidates, not just his fiction. here is the post he won't approve.

"Hey Joe, great pic, I was wondering if you had any of Griffith when he was arrested for soliciting a prostitute in 93? In which he plea bargained and pled guilty to a loitering charge. Seems the difference between Griffith and Toole is that Wil was found not guilty and Griffith plead to a lesser charge. If he was innocent why plead guilty to anything? Hmmmmm thats fishy. Pick your battles Joe V

Anonymous said...

Anon 9:59 The difference is bigger than that. According to Toole, he was not found guilty because it never went to court. There were no charges to plea to and when the DA moved out of his office, the new DA refused to re file charges. Whole different world if you ask me and just for the record, I asked Wil Toole personally to explain the guilty-not guilty thing so this explanation came directly from him. I do agree that Valenti (I also know him) is completely obsessed with Wil and not trying to funny or light about it, Joe does need to talk to a professional so he can get past this thing. Toole is credible, he has a big support system and Joe is going to have to deal with it.

Anonymous said...

The case never went to court because Wil Toole and Court Administrator Paul McGarry and Judge Conahan are all friends and decided to let Wil off the hook. Wil Toole was caught red handed with falsifying documents in order to receive his sick pay and it was covered up,plan and simple. Wil Toole has still not explained why he was on Disability and what that Disability was that was cured so that he can now run for County Controller. Toole is anything but credible, the proper term is incredible.

Anonymous said...

Actually, I don't think McGarry was even working for the courts at that time. He was either editor of the Dispatch or the Administrator of Hanover Twp. I'm leaning more toward Hanover Twp. but then again, here we have a Valenti type comment dragging others into his obsessive ranting's. As Wil said to me on more than one occasion when I urged him to respond to Valenti, he offered the old saying, "For your friends no explanation is necessary and for your enemies, none is good enough". I now agree with his ignoring Valenti and his ranting's. Wil should buy him a fruit basket for driving so many people into his corner. It is just a crazy thing how people tend to go for the underdog and Valenti is treating Toole like Valenti is a mad dog! Screw him Wil, You have made your position perfectly clear on the front page and Gort deserves an attaboy for being fair with you.

Anonymous said...

What is it Valenti doesn't understand about Conahan sticking it to Toole and killing his health insurance? The more you talk, the more credibility you lose. I read the responses by Toole twice and I think I have a pretty good understanding of it. But the one thing I never thought of until a previous poster mentioned it is if Toole did something wrong and the Magistrate and Conahan dismissed the charges, Lupus was the new DA and he could have re filed the charges and didn't. Seems pretty clear to me that the charges shouldn't have been filed to begin with. I guess I should thank Joe Valenti for dragging this on because the more he says, the more Wil Toole seems to be the man for the Controller's job. I went to his web page and read every single link including the ideas he has given to the county. Hands down, he is the best candidate. He has the best background which equates to experience and personally, I've had enough of new do gooders who don't know where the wash room is. I might even go to the LuLac debate and if I do, it will be my first local political debate I ever saw. I just might get addicted to this thing called politics.

Joe Valenti said...

Two comments
1. I'd like to thank the posters here because my hit have gone up.
2. I'll be at the debate with my power point presentation.
Joe V

Anonymous said...

"For your friends no explanation is necessary and for your enemies, none is good enough".
But for the voters it is a necessity.
BTW the period should have gone within the quotations, but WTF this is NEPA where the trees are found the twos and the fours.
I don't like any of the candidates for Controller. It is a difficult decision.

Anonymous said...

Hey Valenti, I am looking forward to you getting squashed like a bug, you will be out classed by the bar tender let alone the candidates, don't forget the point you had in school, you know on your hat the dunce cap that is. Do you worst idiot.