Looking to the fall: State Rep 116th District

In 2010 Tarah Toohil scored one of the biggest upsets of the year by defeating state house Democratic Majority Leader Todd Eachus. Although I'm a Democrat I was glad to see the back of Eachus.

 He lost me when I got a piece of official mail touting the proposed Hazleton Cargo Airport and I didn't even live in his district. He teamed up with convicted criminals Greg Skrepnak and Robert Powell and others wanting to divert the slots money to a fantasy airport. He later backed off his support for the project.Then it came out that he was flying around on Powell's private jet and that was the end of him.

Tarah Toohil was a Democrat that wanted to run against Eachus in the primary but hit a brick wall so she filed as a Republican and won. Another example that challengers don't win races but incumbents lose them.


Her opponent is Ransom Young, a farmer who has been a member of the Butler Township Board of Supervisors for 28 years.

Reading their latest campaign finance reports we learn that Ransom hasn't raised any money so far but that will change. Toohil has about $6400 cash on hand. There are few things on Toohil's report that I found curious. Most of the contributors don't live in the district and she got some help from her friends.

BLUE CROSS VOICE PAC

FRIENDS OF KAREN BOBARK (typo on website)

BAKER FOR SENATE

COMM TO ELECT SANDRA J. MAJOR

Looking at the expenditures.

The usual expenses are listed for office supplies, postage, internet and phone service, etc. .There are some things that are different.. 20 charges to the campaign totaling over $700 for gasoline, small checks for lunch and a few meals in DC at The MATCH BOX and BELGA CAFE. What PA interest is she pushing in Washington?

4 bills for dry cleaning totaling. $68.10. Tarah always looks sharp.

Update: Those numbers were from the 2012 report. The 2011 filing lists more lunch tabs, $440 for gas, $57 for dry cleaning and $721 for formal wear from Wedding Bells on 11/21/11. I guess she wanted to look good for Pennsylvania Society get together in New York that her campaign picked up the tab for her hotel room. She looks fabulous in the last picture on the slideshow of this article.

 

Puttin' on the ritz at the Academy Ball

 

The Sharp Dressed Man sings

SCRANTON - Former Luzerne County official Bill Brace helped federal prosecutors with an investigation of county Clerk of Courts Robert F. Reilly, a government attorney told a federal judge at Brace's sentencing Wednesday.


Brace was sentenced to only 3 months in prison for accepting a$1500 suit from an unnamed contractor because he ratted out used car salesman and Big Ugly's investor Reilly in addition to former Commissioner Greg Skrepnak and former Jury Commissioner Jerry Bonner. Apparently there is no honor among thieves when your own ass is on the line. The feds are also questioning Reilly's involvement with LRW Solutions group that Controller Walter Griffith has stopped paying because of concerns about the company's contract with Luzerne County.

If that isn't enough Judge Munley dropped this bomb


Brace's criminal conduct went beyond the suit and his position in county government...
Munley, summarizing a confidential pre-sentence report, said Brace accepted $800 per month from another company over a two-year span after he led the firm's officials to believe he could secure them business with the City of Wilkes-Barre, his employer for 31 years before he joined Reilly's office in 2001.

More about that later.

Reassessment in Luzerne County going forward

Commissioner Greg Skrepenak has been playing to the crowd proposing the reassessment of properties in the county be stopped. Commissioners Chairwoman Maryanne Petrilla and Commissioner Stephen A. Urban want the process to play out and Skrep's motion to stop it was ignored.

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NANTICOKE -"Motion dies. Move on please," Petrilla said.

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I checked out the protest Monday at the courthouse led by Michelle Boice from Harveys Lake and I always enjoy being in the company of my fellows citizens that petition their government for the redress of grievances. There was a lot of sloganeering including chants of "One term Petrilla" and "Pack your bags Urban."

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My view is that you can't throw out a 2 year process that cost over $8 million. Fix the mistakes and move on.

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Some other locals have a similar view:

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Political Rants-Luzerne County Reassessment and a True Democrat

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Wilkes-Barre Online-Harveys Lake 1965

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The Lu Lac Political Letter

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I have more protest pics at my Facebook account.

Bad eyesight

”We don’t pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes.” - Leona Hemsley

She would fit right in at the the Luzerne County Courthouse. Newly elected Recorder of Deeds James “Red” O'Brien has been getting a free pass on unpaid taxes dating back to 2003. He owes $17,855 in property taxes for his bar in Avoca which he is trying to sell. Last year's Sheriffs sale of properties that owed back taxes included many homes with unpaid taxes from 2005 and earlier but Red's business wasn't included. Why not? Commissioner Chairwoman Maryanne Petrilla asked Sam Diaz who "said it was an oversight."

Wow, how did we ever get so many people working in the courthouse who can't see what is right in front of their nose? Sam Hyder claimed he used his county debit card at a strip club in Las Vegas because it looked just his own credit card and Commissioner Greg Skrepnak offered a similar excuse when it was revealed that he used his county card to pay for his family's extra hotel rooms at a conference. The lack of competitive bidding at the prison was explained as an oversight or misunderstanding of the law or regulation. And on and on.

With all these officials with eye problems I think that the county should look at hiring an Optometrist to make sure everyone has proper reading glasses and maybe a reading teacher to help them brush up on their comprehension.

I'm sure somebody in the Courthouse has a brother-in-law that is an Optometrist that could provide corrective lenses, just ask Judge Conahan or Ciavarella. No need to advertise the job.

Some bigwigs eventually do pay their taxes. Sam "the untouchable" Guesto, the former county manager and the director of specialty courts , paid off delinquent taxes he owed the county tax claim office last week, he owed $832.84 from unpaid 2007 taxes and fees.

Petrilla: Fire Guesto

I never thought I would see this. Good for Petrilla.

WILKES-BARRE — “In my opinion, he was unauthorized to change policy and was reckless,” Commissioner Maryanne Petrilla said. “His actions violated state law and cost taxpayers money. He has damaged the credibility of Luzerne County government. I have asked President Judge Mark Ciavarella to terminate him immediately. … Sam Guesto should be terminated for many reasons, mainly he overstepped his boundaries.”...Ciavarella said he wouldn’t fire Guesto unless some legal authority concluded Guesto violated the law. District Attorney Jackie Musto Carroll has asked an outside agency to investigate.

So what Secret Police organization is investigating? If any. The county did it's own investigation of the prison purchasing practices and it alleges that Guesto instructed the prison kitchen manager to ignore bidding rules.

TL: Former Luzerne County chief clerk/manager Sam Guesto told county prison officials not to bid out items that were previously bid, telling the kitchen manager during a March 2006 meeting, “…do it or it’s your ass,” according to an internal report on illegal prison piecemealing released Monday. Guesto also directed that no-bid purchases be made from Commonwealth Foods Inc., kitchen manager Jack Rentko said in the report.

Guesto also directed the company designing the new prison to plan a bigger facility without getting the Commissioners to authorize the increased cost.

My opinion is that he should have been fired after the debit card scandal broke. We all await the results of the Secret Service investigation into that violation of the public trust.

Pennsylvania 10th CD air war

Chris Hackett fired the first salvo with a TV ad attacking Dan Meuser for donating to Democrats. I would post it but he ad is not on YouTube yet despite my urging.

Which brought this response.


Chris Hackett's Hypocrisy





Now Meuser is attacking Hackett about his donations to Luzerne County Commissioners Skrepnak and Vonderheid then receiving a contract from the county. Meuser also donated to the Bond Brothers.


Dan Meuser Want You to Know the Facts






A press release from the Hackett camp addresses the first ad.

Dallas, PA - Yesterday, Dan Meuser began running an ad that clearly is meant to deceive the voters about his past support for Hillary Clinton. Facing increasingly long odds after pouring in $1.1 million dollars of his own money, Meuser’s campaign has decided to quit even pretending to tell the truth.

Claim: “Chris Hackett is simply not telling the truth about Dan Meuser, Dan never gave a dime to Hillary Clinton.”

Truth: The Chris Hackett campaign ad says, “Meuser even had his company give money to Hillary Clinton.” Pride Mobility PAC gave $1,000 to Hillary Clinton on 12/2/2005. (Source attached from Federal Elections Commission)

“Dan Meuser’s denial of donating to Hillary Clinton after his company’s PAC donated $1,000 to her campaign is a true Clintonian move,” said campaign spokesman Mark Harris, “Dan’s campaign is growing increasingly desperate as voters reject his liberal positions on earmarks and spending. After claiming to have been so involved in Pride’s government relations work and making it a centerpiece of the campaign, now he takes no responsibility for the donations made by his company’s PAC. It is unfortunate that Dan won’t explain why he has repeatedly supported liberal Democrats with thousands of dollars.”


Claim: “Hackett took a $700,000 earmarked contract from a Luzerne County Democrat”

Truth: Chris Hackett’s company, OneSource, competitively bid on a county contract and was awarded the contract. There was no earmark.

“Several staffing agencies were faxed proposals and OneSource Staffing Solutions submitted the most cost advantageous bid for the county, said Chief Clerk Sam Guesto.” – Citizens Voice (1/12/2006)

In fact, it’s clear the Meuser campaign either doesn’t know what an earmark is or are willfully deceiving the voters yet again. According to the Government Accountability Office an earmark is “used to characterize directions included in congressional committee reports but not in the legislation itself.” As noted by Thomas Schatz of Council for Citizens Against Government Waste, a leading national anti-earmarking, “First, a contract award is not by definition an earmark, and second, since several staffing companies were given the opportunity to bid for a contract and OneSource Staffing Solutions won the bid, it cannot be considered a “no-bid” contract.”

“Again, the Meuser campaign is purposefully and willfully lying to voters to cover up Dan’s history of support for liberal politicians and policies. Dan says he didn’t donate to Hillary, but his company did. Dan says Chris received an earmark, but Chris did not. There is a continuing pattern of desperation as the Meuser campaign tries to cover up his donations to Ed Rendell and Hillary Clinton and his liberal position on federal spending,” said campaign spokesman Mark Harris.

No Bid

I'm beginning to wonder if any Luzerne County business has been bid out in the last few years.


The TL is reporting that the county Convention and Visitors Bureau violated a State law that requires bidding for purchases that exceed $10,000. The agency spent over $200,000 for advertisements with a company owned by a friend of county Commissioner Greg Skrepenak and former county chief clerk/manager Sam Guesto. They rented billboards and benches but the location of these benches remains a mystery. You can't locate a bench at a bus stop?

This follows the revelation that millions of dollars of business at the county prison was directed to other friends of Skrep without being bid. DA Jackie Musto Carroll has asked an outside law enforcement agency to investigate the prison shenanigans but won't say which one. Since it appears that a state law was violated I assume it's the PA Attorney General. What I don't understand is why she won't reveal what agency is investigating. It shouldn't be a state secret. Unlike other officials she doesn't have an email address on the Luzerne County website so I will have to wait until tomorrow to call her office to get a no comment.


From the CV: Some no-bid purchases involve friends of county Commissioner Greg Skrepenak, former County Manager Sam Guesto, county Purchasing Director Greg Hunsinger and prison kitchen supervisor Jack Rentko.

A report from the County Solicitor Jim Blaum is due today.


Commissioners Maryanne Petrilla and Stephen A. Urban say the failure to bid went against past practice and was not a mistake. Skrepenak maintains it was an unintentional oversight.

More Luzerne County news:

County billed twice for work at prison, Petrilla confirms


And the appointment of a new Controller is caught up in Harrisburg politics.

Filler’ named for controller post



What a mess.

Breaking up

She doesn’t want to be a partner. She wants to be a dictator. She wants to tell people what to do,” -Greg Skrepenak about Maryanne Petrilla

“If restoring confidence is perceived by Commissioner Skrepenak as ‘dictatorial,’ then so be it, but it is an unfair characterization and below him,” -Petrilla said.

I was very skeptical about Petrilla when she became the new Luzerne County Commissioner because I thought she would be more of the same. The jury is still out but she is making some good noises.


Political divorce finalized


Skrep calls Petrilla a ‘dictator’

Skrep asks if law was broken

There is a first for everything. Please stop laughing before you read the rest of this post.

TL: Luzerne County Commissioner Greg Skrepenak is questioning the legality of an e-mail from board Chairwoman Maryanne Petrilla, saying he believes it meets the definition of deliberation that should have taken place at a public meeting..."Is that a violation of the Sunshine Act? Are we able to use the computer to make decisions? I’m very curious about that issue,” Skrepenak said Thursday.

He raises a valid point but where was he when every other legally questionable thing that has happened in the last few years. He usually made excuses like it was a mistake because they all (debit cards) look alike or the policy or law was not understood by the people involved. Although they were supposed to be hired because of their expertize and knowledge of the law. I'm glad that Greg spoke up about this incident because almost every other "bad news" story about the county would end with "Luzerne County Commissioner Greg Skrepenak was unavailable for comment."

Shall I list Luzerne County's greatest hits? It's hard to do because it is endless.

Debit Cards

Sam Hyder

Luzerne County Prison

Bonds

No Bid Contracts

The Latest Outrage in Luzerne County


As one of Dana's favorite actors would say ...excertera...excertera.

Skrep's ethics

State Ethics Commission pointed to two sections of the ethics law that could apply to Commissioner Greg Skrepenak

Sports tickets, beach houses and much more.

Another State of Emergency

The Luzerne County prison board plans to declare a state of emergency to buy food. It has come to light that the prison has bought more than $856,000 worth of groceries through a no-bid contract since 2006. I was shocked to read that Commonwealth Foods, the company that sold the supplies to the jail, is owned by a friend of Commissioner Greg Skrepenak.

And Perugino’s Market of Kingston also sold the prison more than $535,000 of produce since 2004.

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A county policy calls for sealed bidding of purchases expected to exceed $7,500 annually, and state law requires sealed bidding for purchases that exceed $10,000. The prison board say they need time to implement a system for bidding the items and the inmates still have to eat.

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A few months ago there was another flap over commissary goods being bought from another friend of Skep's. Anybody see a pattern?

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Commissioners Maryanne Petrilla and Stephen Urban have questioned whether that contract was piecemealed – the illegal practice of breaking large contracts into smaller ones to avoid bidding regulations.

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On top of this a company has double billed the county for the 2nd time in 3 years for work done at the prison

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I listened to Commissioner Maryanne Petrilla yesterday on WILK say she wasn't aware of the situation because she's only been in office for 3 months but all the bills had to be approved by the county controller when she held that position.

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In October the prison board declared a "state of emergency" to build a fence and we all know about the Adventures of the well travelled Deputy Warden Sam Hyder.

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In more good news the Secret Service investigation of the debit card abuse has been delayed and authorities are investigating the possible theft of several thousands of dollars from the Luzerne County Treasurer’s office.

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Unbelievable.

The Dam is done

Kayak Dude is happy.

County deflates inflatable dam

The 20-year-old plan for an inflatable dam across the Susquehanna River from Wilkes-Barre to Larksville is officially dead in the water.
The Luzerne County Flood Protection Authority deflated the dam plan Tuesday by voting 4-1 to accept the Feb. 14 rejection of the county’s application for a federal permit. The authority could have appealed the decision by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that the dam would not comply with the Clean Water Act...“It’s time to move on,” said County Commissioner Greg Skrepenak...County Commissioner Maryanne Petrilla was the only authority member who supported an appeal of the Corps decision. “I’m not ready to throw in the towel,” Petrilla said.


STATEMENT FROM CONGRESSMAN KANJORSKI :


“I can certainly understand the decision of the Luzerne County Flood Protection Authority not to appeal the permit rejection by the Army Corps of Engineers. It could be a lengthy and expensive process with an uncertain outcome. As I told the County Commissioners, I support their decision.



“While it is personally disappointing to me that it now appears the inflatable dam will not be constructed, I am looking forward to the completion of the other aspects of the riverfront development this fall. I am proud of the work we have done with the Luzerne County Commissioners over many years to ensure the successful completion of the Wyoming Valley Levee Raising Project which provides flood protection for more than 150,000 people.”

Tim Grier drops bond challenge

From a press release:

As of this morning, I have contacted Attorney Cowger and asked that he file the appropriate paperwork to withdraw my appeal of the DCED's decision.

My reasoning is as follows:

First and foremost, the efforts by Commissioner Skrepenak, Mr. Moses and others to discredit or defame me with their disparaging remarks is more than I and my family should have to endure. While they have clearly shown a penchant for abusing the system we entrusted them to protect, I have only attempted to hold them accountable, something they obviously are unused to and unwilling to accept. Their comments about me and my actions have only served to confuse the community and damage my reputation - an interesting tactic considering the recent notorious behavior of Commissioner Skrepenak and his associates at the courthouse.

Second, other than my attorney, I have absolutely no faith in the Pennsylvania courts or its officers. Pennsylvania courts, from Luzerne County to Harrisburg, have a history of making political decisions on behalf of those in power rather than just decisions on behalf of those whose grievances are legitimate.

Additionally, this effort to right some egregious wrongs has taken away from my time to study and also be with my family. While I can't get back the time that I have spent on this effort to stop the wanton and wasteful spending, I can certainly budget my time better in the future to ensure future success.

I have always said that I try to act not just in my own best interests, but also with the best interests of the community in mind as well. That is exactly how I approached this matter from the beginning, and it is how I approach it today. It is important though that I maintain a proper balance. Continuing this fight while so many in the community, through their silence, have made it clear they do not support it would not, in my opinion, be the right thing to do. Thousands have spoken up in support of my actions, but hundreds of thousands have said and done nothing. I interpret the silence of the majority to mean that they were fine with the current state of affairs. I have no doubt that by withdrawing this appeal Luzerne County will quickly return to such a state, and that a new PR consultant will let us all know what a fabulous state it is.

YouTube weekend

Mark of Wilkes-Barre Online is having some fun posting the greatest hits of some of our local notables. He calls it Video Flapdoodle. Last week's entry included one of my favs, Devo, performing a live and robotic version of Blockhead. He also has his own version of the video dedicated to Luzerne County Commissioner Greg Skrepnak. This week he leads off with The Dead Kennedys then shows us some fun from Scranton City Council and pays tribute to Voice of the People for their defense of the first amendment.


But he forgot this display of support for free speech and tolerance when the group gathered outside the Kirby Center to welcome former Mexican President Vicente Fox.







The woman yelling into the megaphone reminded me of this for some reason.

Luzerne County update

With Sam Guesto taking a newly created job out of the limelight thanks to Judge Ciavarella, the Luzerne County commissioners acted quickly to appoint a new chief clerk/manager. In a rare 3-0 vote they hired Doug Pape to be new day-to-day manager of the county. He has a solid resume and will be paid almost twice as much as his bosses but less than Guesto.

Many of you will shocked by this statement but I think the commissioners are underpaid. Luzerne County is a $200+ million operation with almost 2000 employees and they are paid around $40k a year. You get what you pay for. We really do need Homerule but that is another post.

Stepping on that Kumbaya moment Greg Skrepenak tried to move into Sam Guesto's old office in the basement of the courthouse until Maryanne Petrilla stopped him. Office space in the courthouse is a very touchy subject and any changes must be approved by all 3 commissioners.

Sounding like the cool kids are being mean to him and he wants to change his lunch seat Skrep said; “I ran to be in the majority, but all I hear is that we’re three equal, independent commissioners. So if that’s the case, the office space should help us obtain our goal.”

Will Skrep and Maryanne exchange Christmas cards next year?

On the road again

“I think (Hyder) abused his privileges on other trips.” - Luzerne County Commissioner Maryanne Petrilla


WILKES-BARRE – The Luzerne County Prison Board voted 3-2 Monday to approve sending Deputy Warden Sam Hyder and two other employees to a three-day seminar on gang investigations.

The trip is the first to be approved by the board since controversy erupted over the use of Hyder’s county debit card at various training functions in 2006 and 2007.

Board members Wister Yuhas, Robert Payne and Commissioner Greg Skrepenak approved the trip. Commissioners Stephen Urban and Maryanne Petrilla voted against it.


Hyder has to be the most travelled and best trained county employee we have ever had.

Sam Hyder’s debit-card purchases

Bonds, Luzerne County bonds

The Luzerne County Commissioners voted the other day to spend some left over bond money on things it wasn't originally borrowed for. I've been complaining about this sort of shell game as long as I have been blogging.


The bond money came from $32.5 million borrowed in November 2003 to fund Susquehanna River recreation improvements. The bond document did not earmark funding for particular projects, which means commissioners are free to spend the money as they see fit.

Tim (take your hat off) Grier has made the same objection and points out that that bonds are supposed to be used for long term capitol improvements not everyday operating expenses. County Budget/Finance Chief Sam Diaz, and noted debit card abuser, said there is no legal requirement to use the money on projects that will last as long as repayment. I think he is wrong on that point. Even if he isn't the county government shouldn't be borrowing money for one thing and spend it on another. A few years ago they borrowed $9 million to build a new juvi prison then gave a sweetheart lease to a Pittston facility that the state objected to and had to terminate the lease. Then last December they used that money as Christmas presents for all sorts of projects that had nothing to do with the reason for borrowing the money in the first place.

Diaz also detailed the shortfalls of the last piece of fiction that was passed off as the county budget.

In other business Thursday, Diaz released a report explaining how the county ended 2007 with a $13 million deficit.
The report blames the deficit on a $16.8 million revenue shortfall, predominantly due to the county’s failure to meet projections in the following areas: current-year tax collections, $5.3 million; prior-year tax collection, $4 million; sale of county-owned land, $4.5 million; securing of state probation grants, $637,700; and federal transportation grants, $503,000.

Now they want to use $2.5 million of the proposed new bond issue to buy some land from Louis DeNaples when they can't sell the land they were counting on the help balance this year's budget. WTF?

Grier has offered to drop his challenge to the latest $93.5 million Bond issue if the Commissioners would just explain in detail what the money will be spent on. To me that's a reasonable request but they won't do it. And even if they did spell out how the money will be spent the way the thing is worded lets them spend the money on other things. Am I just becoming an old cynical bastard that doesn't trust the government?

Wilkes-Barre attorney Pete Moses, who is handling the county’s bond borrowing legal matters, on Friday declined to say if the county will accept Grier’s offer. Moses said he finds it "curious" that Grier wants to settle at this stage and is surprised Grier went public with his interest in settling.

It should be noted that Peter Moses looks to make a pretty penny on the bond issue and is billing the county for his work on this challenge. He has the best of both worlds. It makes you wonder why the county would bring in a hired gun who has a financial interest in seeing the bond succeed when they have so many other solicitors on the payroll.

And Commissioner Greg Skrepenak said the debit card abuse is "not criminal." It may not be but if I used a company card to buy drinks at a strip club or a $800 dinner tab with a $300 booze bill or pay for my kids hotel bill I'm sure I would be on the business end of a bread line

Hyder is still looking for receipts

WILKES-BARRE – Luzerne County Prison Deputy Warden Sam Hyder Thursday turned in receipts for $1,385.35 in expenses charged to his county debit card and paid another $1,377.73 to cover charges that were deemed unallowable by the controller’s office...He previously paid back $1,390.20, bringing his total reimbursement to the county to $2,767.93.

Hyder said he is still trying to obtain receipts for the $2,767.93 in expenses he cannot account for.

I can understand his dilemma because I'm having trouble finding copies of some tax documents from 2006. When you were never asked to produce a receipt for a few years to justify your expenses it's easy to get lazy about paperwork. When Hyder was issued the debit card he had to sign an agreement that stated he had to produce a receipt within 3 days whenever he charged something, it must of been in the fine print and he missed it. Controller Maryanne Petrilla was suppossed to review the charges and approve them but she claims she didn't know anything about the cards. So now Mr. Hyder has been reappointed to his job with a raise with the help of his sponsor Greg Skrepnak and the votes of 2 prison board members who had a nice meal and other fun while on a junket to Las Vegas with Hyder.

Regular commenter Zen who writes Political Rants asks what is the difference between the Luzerne County debit card abusers and the PSU-W-B maintenance director that was charged with theft for abusing his debit card. Good question.

What is the difference between this guy and Hyder?

Hyder keeps his job

Split saves Hyder's job

A divided prison board on Monday reappointed Sam Hyder as deputy warden, with the key swing votes coming from the two lay members of the board.
Commissioner Chairwoman Maryanne Petrilla, a Democrat, again allied herself with Republican minority Commissioner Stephen Urban in calling for Hyder’s ouster. But they were outvoted by Democratic Commissioner Greg Skrepenak, who garnered the support of board members Wister Yuhas and Robert Payne in reappointing Hyder.

Yuhas and Payne were also on that now infamous trip to Las Vegas when Hyder used his county debit card to buy a round of drinks at a strip club. So you have to ask who was he buying drinks for? Where these guys with him that night? And who was at that famous dinner at Paris Las Vegas La Rotisserie that cost $896.88 that the county solicitor James Blaum coughed up $300 to cover the booze bill?

The CV has a list of all of Sam Hyder's debit card purchases. If my math is right he had 81 charges to the card with 61 lacking receipts. On December 17th the Prison Board gave him 60 days to produce receipts or pay back the money but today they rehired him before the deadline expired. Only in Luzerne County.

His 3 day trip to check out a prison in the finger lakes region of NewYork also stinks to high heaven. The warden of the jail said the tour he does usually takes a couple of hours not 3 days. And I picked up on this tidbit, on his way there he spent $42.52 at Wellington’s Pub, Clarks Summit, for a meal. He couldn't make it past Scranton before he had to eat? Reading the list I was taken aback on how much he spent on food. He certainly likes Subway (no receipts). He's a big guy and I'm shure he needs 3 squares a day but some of these charges are nuts.


Oct. 1, 2006: MacGregors Grill & Tap Room, Canandaigua, N.Y., $86.18, meal, no receipt

Oct. 3, 2006: Dinosaur Bar B Que, Rochester, N.Y., $93.78, meal, no receipt.

Oct. 3, 2006: The Lodge, Canandaigua, N.Y., $102.85, meal, no receipt.

And so on. I wish I could eat this well.

Greg Skepnak and the other board members are willing to forgive him because he does such a great job at the prison. Steve Urban has been calling for his head since this all broke and Maryanne Petrilla seems to get it.

I believe that as a leader in the county, I have an obligation to the residents to chose leaders that will bring confidence in our government," she said. "We need leaders that will bring confidence that their hard earned tax dollars are not being frittered away. I don't need the Secret Service to tell me that a policy was grossly abused. I have not heard one legitimate excuse for actions that I consider inexcusable. Our taxpayers and residents have high standards for their elected and appointed public officials, and as a result I cannot support this action."

A friend comments:

By that logic, she should be asking for the resignations of Mr. Brace, Mr. Piazza, and the rest of the debit-card holders who abused the system. Commissioner Urban called for those folks to be fired in December. Can we expect that all of those involved, because of Petrilla's statements today, will be out of a job after the next commissioner's meeting?

Urban voted to oust them when he knew that he was going to be out-voted 2-1 at the December meeting, but he failed to make the motion to fire those involved at the January Commissioner's meeting. If Commissioner Petrilla is so adamant about making changes and HOLDING EVERYONE WHO HAD A DEBIT CARD ACCOUNTABLE, I guess we can expect that she and Mr. Urban will send the rest of them packing, FINALLY, next month when one of them makes the motion to fire the debit card holders and the other seconds that motion.

Or, maybe Commissioner Urban and Commissioner Petrilla will provide us with another excuse?
I guess we shall see.

The latest outrage in Luzerne County

Luzerne County has paid a New York company more than $670,000 since May for employment services through a no-bid contract not approved by county commissioners.

Under the contract, Continental hires workers chosen for county work and provides workers’ compensation and payroll services for those employees. The county is charged two fees — 1.19 percent of clerical employees’ hourly rates and 1.33 percent of field employees’ rates. The county paid OneSource Staffing Solutions more than $707,000 for similar employment services from January 2006 to May 2007. Both county employment contracts didn’t include expiration dates or maximum payment amounts.

Not even the Commissioners know what is going on let alone our clueless former Controller.

TL: Eight people who retired from Luzerne County’s 2005 special early-out incentive are still working as consultants for the county – prompting complaints from union workers...Initially, some county officials argued that retaining consultants was a cost-efficient way for retirees to train their replacements. The retirees received their prior hourly pay but no health benefits.
However, Urban said he has received complaints from workers and taxpayers that consultants continue to work when they have already received early-retirement bonuses of $20,000 plus $1,000 for each full year of service and payment of accrued vacation and sick time.

This is what I wrote about the golden parachute scheme 2 years ago:

Our two Luzerne County Commissioners, Greg Skrepnak and Todd Vonderheid, who along with their army of consultants who came up with the Orwellian sounding "Life Transition Plan" hired back a bunch of people who were supposed to be let go. But the kicker is they are not on the county payroll but work for a temp service. So in addition to paying them the same salary the county is paying a premium to the employment service.

And the audit of the lease the PA Child Care facility in Pittston paints county officials as inept negotiators who blindly entered into an agreement that allowed PA Child Care’s owners to reap “unreasonable” profits at the expense of county, state and federal taxpayers. Remember that the people who own PA Child Care also want to build a useless airport near Hazleton with the help of a boatload of taxpayer money.

Sam Guesto was one of the people who negotiated this contract and is now being considered for a newly created position of director of specialty courts and alternative sentencing. Guesto was the guy that was supposed to monitor/approve spending on the county debit cards. Now Steve Urban and many others are calling for his head but it looks like he will end up with a soft landing.

And the new Commissioner's Maryanne Petrilla's solution to all the bad press that the county lately has been getting was to fire Kathy Bozinski as Luzerne County public information officer. And she did this without the normal personnel executive session or giving Bozinski a chance to defend herself. Yeah, Petrilla is real breath of fresh air.

The people in charge have been failing us for a long time and maybe it's time to shake up the whole system. Home Rule may not be the solution to the problems of Luzerne County government but it's worth a try because this system is not working right.

HOME RULE