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.

Carolee will not go quietly into the night

To the surprise of no one former Prothonotary Carolee Medico Olenginski is threatening to sue Luzerne County because she was fired by county manager Bob Lawton for obstructing the transition of her office to the new records division mandated by the home rule charter. She got into a turf war with deputy Art Bobbouine and called Lawton a "dictator." That wasn't the only insult she hurled at Lawton.

Now she is threatening to sue claiming age discrimination and her lawyer claimed that Bobbouine stabbed her in the back. She opposed the charter and sued to try to keep her job. In the past she a problem with the carpeting in her office and took legal action about filing cabinets in her first stint as Prothonotary. I actually voted for Carolee in 2009 after Jill Moran proved to be such a disaster and the Dems nominated the wife of a corrupt WVW School Board member.

Betty has the play by play at Pure Bunkum

He Said. She Said

 The papers have the story

 Ex-official fighting dismissal

Axed prothonotary says ageism behind ouster

 

There is a legal question about whether or not the County Manager can dismiss an elected official even if she continues to be paid. Does the the new charter trump the 3rd class county code? Carolee will probably take this to the Supreme Court.