New software and an end to a tradition

 “The tradition is gone. It ended the minute computers came out,” board solicitor Mike Butera said of the courthouse gatherings.


Jennifer tells in the TL that Luzerne County will no longer have the traditional gathering in the courthouse rotunda on election night awaiting the results. County Election Director Marisa Crispell-Barber will be switching election night tallying from the courthouse to the county’s Penn Place building...Crispell-Barber told the board it makes more sense to keep her staff and equipment at Penn Place where the election office is housed.

Yes it does cost a few bucks to do it at the courthouse but former Director Leonard Piazza not only pulled it off without a hitch but actually wowed people with the setup he put together.  And he didn't make careless mistakes like not talking to the other county that had an overlapping school board race that resulted in a expensive do over. I like former Controller Walter Griffith but the pissing contest that he got into with Lenny that resulted in Piazza getting fired did a great disservice to us all.

In the May primary election the county website crashed and Though he was sorry to learn about the website issues, county Election Board solicitor Mike Butera savored the action from a seat in the rotunda. “This is great, just like the old days,” Butera said. So what is it Butters? In May he liked the rotunda gathering and today he doesn't.

The website had never crashed in the previous elections including the 2012 Prez contest when many more people were looking for results.

Now those problems should be over because the county bought some off the shelf software. 

 

County Election Director Marisa Crispell-Barber said she originally ruled out purchasing the “Clarity Election Night Reporting” program from Florida-based SOE Software Corp. because the company gave a prior election director (shot) a quote of $54,000. She negotiated the price down to $7,000 annually for three years.

“I think the public will be happy, and the implementation of this software should resolve any issues experienced with website traffic.”


The program allows the public to search for results by candidate, precinct or race. Maps, charts and graphs are available to put results in perspective, and reports can be downloaded in various formats — all options not available on the county website, Crispell-Barber said.

We will see if it works.

Tom Pizano to retire

Luzerne County interim Election Director and Clerk of Courts Tom Pizano will retire on Monday.

This is a big surprise especially since the election is just over 6 weeks away and he was picked to run the Elections Bureau after Leonard Piazza got canned in April. Pizano is a former controller and county commissioner who was brought back into the county government by convicted criminal Bob Reilly.


I don't want to jump to conclusions like some of the people that comment on the TL and CV websites. I don't have a formal comment policy but I would delete many of those comments if they appeared on this blog because they are accusing him of crimes without any evidence. His friends say he is dealing with health issues.


This may have nothing to do with his decision to go back to his farm to grow pumpkins and azaleas but the Voice filed an open-records request asking for copies of his emails. The county is stonewalling saying he is a judicial employee and "Mr. Pizano email can contain DNA and RNA records" and a "Pizano email can contain a record identifying the location of an archeological site or an endangered or threatened plant or animal species if not already known to the general public."


I'm not sure what to make of that last sentence.


The county had no problem providing the CV with former elections chief Leonard Piazza's emails . They document the pissing contest he had with Controller Walter Griffith over time clocks and a turf battle with new county manager Robert Lawton which led to Lawton giving him the boot. I like this reference to Griffith "He can be a real pain!" I've been calling Walter a pain in the ass for years. shttp://gort42.blogspot.com/search?q=pain+in+the+ass


A nationwide search has been underway for the next director of elections but only received 6 responses.

Luzerne County finances

I started off blogging about Luzerne County government and politics but haven't written much about it lately. The Yonk  reminded me that I was a unrelenting critic of the games that the Bond Brothers played with numbers that put our county into the hole that it is in. Thankfully convicted criminal Greg Skrepnak and Todd Vonderheid are no longer Commissioners.

As a result of the Juvie Brothers and other scandals the people decided it was time to change the form of government and passed Home Rule. The new county council hired a professional manager after a nationwide search. This new form of government is not perfect but it is a big improvement over the old system of 3 Commissioners and a myriad of elected row officers.

Luzerne County Manager Bob Lawton is getting high marks from the people I have spoke to in county government. He is trying to clean up the mess. I don't agree with all his decisions on some non budget issues such as firing Leonard Piazza as Director of the Election Bureau.

Some of the dead enders will still try to hang on.

Deputy runs office, prothonotary gripes

 

4 seats on the new county council will be up in 2013. I urge all interested candidates to attend Blogfest on September 21st to give your pitch.  The Controller's spot is also up and the only name I've heard on the Dem side is Bob Morgan. Incumbent Walter Griffith is definitely running for reelection.

Radio Daze

I don't listen to a lot of local talk radio anymore and missed much of the the latest manufactured controversy about Luzerne County Bureau of Elections Director Leonard Piazza posting a flippant remark on his Facebook page during office hours that may have taken a minute or two out his day. The afternoon shock jock of WILK decided to make this into a big deal after convicting Judge Chet Muroski of DUI a few weeks ago despite a lack of evidence. Sometimes he does a good job of exposing problems in the Luzerne County Government like Clerk of Courts Bob Reilly selling used cars when he should be in the office but jumping down Piazza's throat was stupid and unfair.

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The Lu Lac Political Letter agrees that this is making a mountain out of a molehill and defame the character and work ethic of a good man.

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I have found Leonard Piazza to be one of the most responsive people in our county government. Whenever I have asked him a question he has always got back to me in a few hours. He has been a good leader and manager and the best measurement of that is he has hired very good people to do the job. They keep their cool even when some candidate wanders into the office at 5 minutes to 5PM demanding all sorts of documents and keep them there for hours after closing time. Many times I have emailed or called him after business hours and he has always answered.

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So I put this down to his usual bufoonery like backing Hillary for President then switching to McCain because Sarah Palin was on the ticket.

Straight party voting

Fewer people voted a straight party ticket than in the past in Luzerne County.

TL: Of all votes cast Tuesday, 15 percent, or 10,422, were straight-party.
County Election Bureau Director Leonard Piazza compared that to the last municipal election two years ago, when 23 percent of the votes, or 15,300, were straight-party...Nearly 6,000 Democrats voted straight party on Tuesday, versus 10,041 in 2007...Around 4,000 Republicans voted straight party on Tuesday, compared to 5,200 two years ago...Renita Fennick, executive director of the county Republican Committee, said she believes the party’s public opposition convinced people to avoid straight-party voting.
“It brought attention to the fact that we don’t think it’s a wise way to vote. People should base their selections on the person.”

I think that straight party voting is an anachronism that should be done away with but that would take an act of the Pennsylvania Legislature. Fat chance of that happening because Democratic legislators in Luzerne County, Philladelphia, Pittsburgh and other Democratic strongholds know it helps their party and Republicans in Lancaster, Wayne County and the T, etc. know it favors the local GOP candidates.

Another reform that should be enacted is a little tougher because it requires amending the state constitution. Gerrymandering has to end. The biggest problem with our legislature and the US House of Representatives is gerrymandering. A couple of states have taken redistricting out of the politicians hands but it will be a cold day in hell when that happens here but we can try. Why should districts be drawn to favor one person or one party over another? Congressional and state house/senate districts should be drawn to make geographic sense and be as competitive as possible. That would ensure term limits in many cases and make our representatives more responsive to the people.

Get well Leonard

Luzerne County Director of Elections Leonard Piazza had a health scare a few days ago but it looks like he will be okay. He is a workaholic who puts up puts up with cranks like me bugging him at all hours with questions about election law issues and he always responds. He is one of the good guys in county government.

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If you are on Facebook go wish him well.

Nancy, we hardly knew ya

15 down and hundreds to go.

The TL and CV are reporting that Wyoming Valley West School Board President and executive director of the Luzerne County Redevelopment Authority Allen Bellas has signed a plea agreement with federal prosecutors and is expected to be charged soon with accepting money for an official action. He also served on the LCCC Board of Trustees from 2003 to 2007 and the feds are also looking at that outfit. If you are keeping score at home that makes it 15 people that have now been charged with corruption in Luzerne County this year.

His wife, Nancy Bellas, is the Democratic nominee for Luzerne County Prothonotary. Not knowing her connections I was surprised that she won the primary against Duryea politico Art Akulonis and the most qualified candidate Gerald Mullery. Now it makes sense or should I say nonsense.

I have been predicting for months that Republican Carolee Medico Olenginski would win the election and fair or not this probably just sealed the deal.

I spent the afternoon browsing Bellas' campaign finance reports that ace Election Bureau honcho Leonard Piazza has posted on the county website and they have many familiar names. She accepted money from Bob Mericle after he was identified as being one of the two bribers of the Juvie Brothers. Other highlights are contributions from Maryanne Petrilla, Bob Reilly, Jim Blaum, Frank Crossin, Murry Uffberg, Bill Joyce, Mike Pasonick, AJ Lupas, Mike Butera and other cast members of the local Democratic establishment.

Toole in

It looks like The Lu Lac Politcal Letter has stopped swilling TAB and is now gulping Snapple. Between soft drinks David made it down to Penn Plaza to witness former Pittston city clerk/administrator Wil Toole file his petitions to get on the ballot as an independent candidate for Luzerne County Controller and snappled the picture on the right. Toole needed 982 signatures but filed more than 1500 on his nominating forms. The usual formula is to get at 3 times more signatures than what you need to withstand challenges and you can bet that there will be challenges to some of the signatures.

According to the TL article Toole was highly critical of past controller Steve Flood. I'm not sure what he is critical about. Steve Flood sounded the alarm bells about the 20 year lease of the PA Child Care facility in Pittston Township and Juvie Brother, Michael Conahan, made sure he was taken out when he ran for reelection. Maryanne Petrilla was recruited to make things right and she has yet to explain why she dropped all the investigations that he initiated.


Republican nominee Walter Griffith was measured in his response saying he was “kind of disappointed” that Toole switched parties to get on the ballot...“If he’s a Democrat all his life and just switches to run, that says a lot about his integrity,” Griffith said. “It’s just one more person that people will have to do their homework on.”


Bob Morgan won the Democratic nomination and has to be worried about a long time Democrat from Pittston being on the ballot even if he is calling himself an "Independent."


Morgan said he briefly reviewed Toole’s nominating petition Monday and said it was signed by many “old guard” political figures in county politics. “Clearly this is an attempt by the old guard of the county to take control of this election. Mr. Toole is being nominated by the old guard.”


My advice to Walter is to let it alone and let Morgan and Toole fight about signatures. If Toole is on the ballot in the fall he splits the Democratic vote and you win in a walk.

The Mother's Milk of Politics

The TL has a rundown of the money raised by the Row Officer candidates so far for the May Primary Election. The Luzerne County election website doesn't have the full reports available online yet but I'm sure Leonard will make sure that they are posted soon.

Relatively speaking the candidates have raised modest amounts of money with large chunks coming from the hopefuls themselves.

One of the fat wallets that is a little lighter that I spotted in the article is Dan Meuser, of West Pittston, Harveys Lake and other places. Meuser is the former president of Pride Mobility and lost the 2008 10th CD GOP Primary to Chris Hackett. He dropped a thousand bucks on Walter Mitchell and Nanda Palissery each.

In the Controller's race Luzerne County Republican Party endorsed candidate Nanda Palissery has the most bucks.

Total: $7,460
From the candidate: $4,255
Spent: $4,109
Cash on hand: $3,350
Big donors: Dan Meuser $1000

The other candidates

Edd Brominski

Total: $3,775
Candidate: $2500
Spent: $2,762
Cash on hand: $1,013
Big donors: ?


Alice Coffman

Total: $4,479
Candidate: ?
Spent: $3,550
Cash on hand: $928
Big donors: ?

Walter Griffith

Total: $1,680
Candidate: $1,145
Spent: $2,825
Cash: 0
Big donors: ?

Bob Sypniewski

No information available

There is only one Democratic candidate in the race for Controller which disappoints me. I hate unopposed elections.

Bob Morgan

Total: $6,840
Candidate: $263
Spent: $4,772
Cash: $2,067
Big donors: Arlene Pasonick $1,000, Robert Stella $900

The thing to remember is that money can flow into this race at the last minute and we will not know about it for months.

Luzerne County, the good guys

Sometimes we have to give credit when a public official does something in the public intererest. I made a suggestion a few months ago that Luzerne County should put campaign finance reports online. Now we have it, almost:

We are now well on our way to having the active campaign finance committee reports online. We are already better than 15% complete with the postings which are immediately available for public inspection and downloading.

This is the last goal that I set back in 2004 upon assuming the duties of Luzerne County Director of Elections, though I’m sure we’ll have our work cut out in the months that lay ahead this presidential-election year.

I trust you’ll find this newest addition of publically-accessible government documents on the Internet will eventually round out and complete the Bureau of Elections website, but please review what’s already been posted and feel free to offer your insight.

This is the first, I’m aware of, that a county in Pennsylvania will now join the ranks of open campaign finance disclosure on the Internet together with the federal and state governments, both of which have been doing so for a number of years.

We will be announcing it formally at the Board of Elections meeting later this month and hope to move the project from the development stage to final completion by the end of March 2008.

Here’s the direct link:

http://www.luzernecounty.org/county/departments_agencies/bureau_of_elections/online-access-to-campaign-finance-reports

Thanks…have a good evening.

Leonard

Buyer's remorse

"ES&S misleads its customers in the Commonwealth, and judging from conversations with other election directors at a recent election officials’ conference in Portland, Oregon — other jurisdictions as well”

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-Luzerne County Election Bureau Director Leonard Piazza

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After spending over $2 million for these things the company that sold them to us won't guarantee them for more than a year without buying an extended warranty plan. It's like they bought them at Best Buy. It was a rushed decision to buy theses machines in the first place because the county was afraid of losing the federal funding to pay for them. As with most hasty decisions the details come back to bite you in the ass. Now ESS wants another $300,000 to extend the warranty for just 3 years and will want more after that warranty period runs out.

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This whole electronic voting machine thing has always struck me as a complicated solution to a simple problem. As I've said before; Every level of society has become technology drunk. Why use a pencil and paper when you can use a $3000 machine to do the same thing?