More acrimony in Plymouth

Over the weekend it was announced that the DA won't pursue the removal of  Plymouth Councilman Bill Dixon. That came as bad news to Borough Coordinator Joe Mazur after he got the council to hire a $200/hr. lawyer to get rid of him because of state charges that have been pardoned by the Governor but there is a  federal conviction that has not been pardoned,  yet. Jim Haggerty is working on that.

Now Councilman Cliff Madrack wants a copy of the proposed budget that Mazur drafted but he can't get it. TL: “They said they can’t give me one because it’s a proposed budget,” Madrack said. “Why would we not want to give a copy of the proposed budget to anyone?”
Mazur said he is required to draw up a budget proposal and make it available for public review for 10 days before council votes on it, but not to provide copies.
“He’s not deprived of it,” Mazur said. “He’s a councilman; he can sit there and look at it all day."

This is so petty that it makes me laugh. It would infuriate me if I was a resident of Plymouth.  How hard is it to make some copies?  Madrack told me that Mazur is living in the 1950's. Mazur said "But to put it out on the street, we would run into so many problems that you can never get a budget done.”I don't think he has heard of the internet or a Xerox machine.

There seems to be some bad blood between Madrack and Mazur that I picked up from this story in CV by Michael Sisak last month: Mazur blamed Madrack for the divisiveness on the council, but scoffed when asked whether the borough should be investigating Madrack instead.
"Who the hell cares about him?" Mazur said.

A job in the street department has come open and Madrack want's it advertised in the local papers but  Mazur said he already had a stack of applications.

People tell me  that Joe Mazur is an expert on job applications. He has recommended many applicants for positions as a member of the Wyoming Valley West School Board.

Plymouth residents support Bill Dixon

Plymouth Councilman Bill Dixon is taking fire because he committed some crimes many years ago and his neighbors are planning a show of support.

Love Bill Dixon Benefit

Dixon backers plan buffet fundraiser

 The question is can someone convicted of a felony or "other infamous crime"  hold office. The thing that muddies this is that Governor Tom Corbett granted him a pardon on the state charges but he  also had a Federal conviction that has not been pardoned.  The people of Plymouth can ask the President to pardon him by starting a petition at WhiteHouse.gov 

 This is a clear example of our punitive laws being so destructive. From all the accounts Dixon went to Vietnam in the service of his country and had a hard time when he came home and did some stupid things for which he was punished. Since then he has been a model citizen CV: Dixon and his wife, Janet, raised two children in the borough. He has worked in substation maintenance for UGI, the regional electric utility, for the last 25 years. He has coached youth sports in the community for more than two decades.

A year after he was  elected as top vote getter in 2011 the Plymouth Borough Coordinator Joe Mazur decided to make an issue of his past. 

  We all remember Mazur for his eloquence when he was the Luzerne County Democratic Chairman and said Register of Wills Dotty Stankovic was "a cancer within the organization. " He was also gleeful" when Petrilla defeated incumbent Controller Steve Flood in the 2005 primary.

 That worked out well.

 The DA or Attorney General could remove him from office but it  looks like they will pass on getting into the weeds of Plymouth politics. 

 The Examiner is all over this story.

 

  

Where are the local Democrats?

The Luzerne County Republican Party and Row office nominees have had a bunch of high profile get togethers, media events and fund raisers since the the May Primary but I've hardly heard a peep out of the Democratic row officer candidates.

Democratic Judge candidate Bill Amesbury has been on the hustings and Tina Gartley has a slew of events listed on her website. Republican Dick Hughes is also working hard. I have bumped into Judge Thomas Burke (R), who is up for retention, in a few places and I have yet to hear anyone say a bad thing about him. As far as I know he is not even raising money. The other judge up for retention, Peter Paul Olszewski Jr., knows that he is in trouble and has an event this week. Via PittstonPolitics.com PPO-2 will host a retention rally this Thursday, Oct 1 at 7PM. It will be held at the Red Mil Tavern in Pittston.

It looks like the Judicial candidates are running their campaigns independently of the county Democratic Party. That is probably a good stratergy.

Back to the row officer races.

Long time Register of Wills Dottie Stankovic is up against Republican Gina Nevenglosky. I always liked Dottie because she wouldn't always play ball with the powers that be. Her best endorsement came from former county Democratic Chairman Joe Mazur who was "gleeful" that Steve Flood lost the Controller nomination to Maryanne Petrilla in 2005. He said that "She and certain other people have been a cancer within the organization."
I haven't been to any Polka festivals lately so I haven't seen Dottie. Gina has scheduled an event at the courthouse on Saturday October 10, 2009 at 1:00PM.

Republican Carolee Medico Olenginski is looking to return to the office of Prothonotary after being defeated twice by the disgraced Jill Moran. Carolee has been everywhere since the primary and I still predict that she will win in a walk. Nurse Nancy Bellas won the Democratic nomination in May and hasn't been heard from since.


In the Controllers race Bob Morgan surfaced today to complain about a math error on Walter Griffith' s campaign finance report. Morgan was the only Democratic candidate for Controller in the primary which I thought was kind of weird for an open seat. Take a look at Morgan's report and you will see some familiar names. This is the first times in months that I have read Morgan's name in the papers or anywhere else. Griffith has been everywhere asking people for their vote.

Regular commenter Will Toole, the Independent candidate, has been pressing the flesh, working the blogs and writing letters to the editor. His latest missive in the CV asks the same question I have been asking the last few years.

Why hasn't casino gambling reduced property taxes?

I'm sure (hope) that our Democratic candidates will be more visible in the next few weeks before the election. If they think that they can rely on the registration edge to carry them to victory they are in for a big surprise. You still have to ask people for their vote and in this toxic atmosphere that may not be enough.