He claims he tried to do the reports himself and screwed it up. TL: “What was I trying to hide? My problem was I kept poor records,” George said Friday. He has brought in professional accounting firm to fix the problem and file an amended report. He also said he he would have help running the city "The mayor has a controller and finance office. I’m not going to run the whole city myself. That’s why they have all the department heads,” George said. OOKAY.
The reports are so screwed up that county election board is referring the matter to the District Attorney . Solicitor Mike Butera said The District Attorney’s Office will be asked to determine if the mistakes were an intentional attempt to deceive the public, which would be criminal. " Not that Stephanie Salavantis will find time to deal with this before the election.
Bob Caruso, who has been involved in elections for decades, told the board George’s campaign reports are “the most irregular election reports I’ve ever seen.”
Amended reports should be permitted in cases where something must be added — not to redo and replace a significant portion of the information, Caruso said.
Republican candidate for Mayor Frank Sorick and writer of local bog Wake Up Wilkes-Barre
was surprisingly restrained.
Sorick accepted George’s explanation. “This was a multitude of honest mistakes,” he said.
Still Sorick said voters should be concerned and ask themselves which candidate is most capable of running the city.
“Voters should look closely at who has the best opportunity to serve the city residents, who has been doing the best job and doing it without asking for a dime in return,” he said.
He contrasted his campaign to George’s saying it’s more of grassroots effort with less focus on raising funds because with school district, county and city taxes people in the don’t have the money give.
This is coming from a guy who refers to present Mayor as Tom Lie-A-Ton
Sources:
Either way he is severely tainted come November. Someone who ran on law and order did not follow the election laws and does not know how to pay attention to order. I am worried that someone who also ran on being a former cop does not know how to fill out campaign finance reports. It is not his first election and when a police officer fills out their reports the i's must be dotted and the t's must be crossed. I do not have a dog in the fight but he is trying to hide something with these reports. Amended financial reports should not be filled with as many errors as his were.
ReplyDeleteI was leaning heavily Tony George until I got a look at his much-discussed financial paperwork. They really were much worse than you would think from the reports in the media. I'm no expert on this sort of thing but if I were a candidate I would have known enough to delegate the paperwork or at least ask for some help from an accountant. They're not even SIGNED in the right place. Not a good sign for someone eyeing a position that's 90% paperwork and bureaucracy.
ReplyDeleteBut God help us if we get stuck with Frank Sorrick.