Showing posts sorted by relevance for query Ray Arellano. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query Ray Arellano. Sort by date Show all posts

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Defending Tony George

A couple of tidbits I ran across on the intertubes.


TL:

It would appear that the opponents of Tony George becoming mayor of Wilkes-Barre will resort to any means of preventing it!
The present administration knows that when George becomes mayor, many of the activities of the outgoing administration will come out for public scrutiny. There must be a lot of things that the present administration does not want known, or needs more time to bury.
I am confident that our district attorney will not find any willful intent in the accusations leveled at Mr. George.
I’m pretty sure that between now and the General Election more attempts will be made in an effort to muffle the voice and choice of the people.
Ray Arellano




 CV Picture


This was on Facebook:



STEALING OF THE WILKES BARRE MAYORAL ELECTION!


Attention all Democrats, Republicans and Independents: The upcoming election is being attacked, no not by outside foreign terrorists but from within our city boundaries. A small group of people are using all means at their disposal to highjack the upcoming mayoral election in the city of Wilkes Barre. They are attempting to erase the candidate which you chose through your constitutional exercise of voting with their hand picked choice, they want to erase your choice and APPOINT a person to head this city. They are using the courts, the DA's office and the democratic committee to take away your right to choose the person you feel is best suited to become the next mayor of this city. DON"T LET THEM!

Don't be fooled by the charade of certain people who claim to be doing this out of a sense of fairness and justice, these very people campaigned, canvased, attended fund raisers, and for some contributed money to the person they are trying to appoint to the position of Mayor of WB through any means possible. They may have erased their pictures which clearly showed who they supported during the primary and erased all connection to that candidate but some of us are not so dumb as they would like to believe we are. A husband and wife standing together at a campaign fundraiser wearing that candidates campaign button is not so easily forgotten, or a woman who is friends with a relative of the person they wish to appoint as your Mayor. They claim they are doing this because of this outrageous all encompassing disastrous what they call a crime and I call and most people I know call a mistake that was corrected and unlike current office holders admitted to. I wonder were these very people hid when tens of thousands of gallons of taxpayer funded gasoline went missing? Oh could they have been at a council meeting praising the man who some felt should have been charged with something for that missing gas, of course that was "JUST A MISTAKE OF PAPERWORK" it was taxpayers money so we can all overlook that, right? Well the DA said yes we can overlook that, so we move on. I may not agree with the DA on that but it was and is her decision to interpret the law as she feels fit, so I moved on even though the missing gas cost me my tax money. The problem these certain people are so up in arms about is not about yours mine or anyone's tax money being squandered or used in a way that seems wrong, it is about a private persons donation, yes donation to a candidate for mayor, it is not public money it was private money donated to a campaign, it cost me not one blessed penny! I really wish these people got so engaged when it was their money and our money being wasted and squandered, things may have turned out differently.

Now you may say they have the right to do what they are doing, and I guess they do, but let's be honest with ourselves do we really think they are doing this for us? Or for that matter for themselves? I doubt it, I mean after all I would like to think that if the person I wanted to win the election lost I would be disappointed but I can say without a doubt I would not stomp my feet and pound the table like a little kid and I would move on and accept the choice of the majority, after all for the last 12 years I have had to endure the choice of the majority even though I still can not understand how they voted for him 3 times, but I went forward with him as not only the mayor of my city, but as my mayor and I hoped he did well for us, which some things he did, so I accepted the choice of the voters. If I only knew I could have tried to turn a mistake into a crime back then maybe I would have sued to try and steal the election from him.

I want to be clear, I voiced my concern to Tony George about the mistake and like the honest upstanding man he is, he apologized , The character of a man is not how loud he screams his accomplishments but in how honest he is about his mistakes. To try and make anything criminal out of this more common than you know mistake, is nothing but a political stunt. I truly believe this to be the case, just as a truly believe that certain individuals who hold office currently and some who sit on election committees are doing all they can to remove Tony George from the ballot and appoint their chosen one to office of the mayor.

I beg you to not let this happen, we as a society can not have a future if we allow the elected to choose who will follow them into office, we must hold our vote close to our hearts and minds or this tactic being used right now locally will become precedent and you will no longer have a say in even your own vote.

We have two candidates chosen by their peers, Tony George on the democratic ticket, and Frank Sorick on the republican ticket. You have a choice in the general election to elect as your next mayor either one of these fine men, but I beg you to not allow a member of a committee or a disgruntled campaign supporter or even the DA or Courts to take away your choice of who will represent you in this city. If you do you will have in my opinion dishonored the millions of Americans who before you fought for the right and the privilege to have their vote count!

You have the choice in front of you, either man would be a good choice, an honest choice and most of all your choice!
 

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Some results

Lupas won both nominations for Judge. Jackie-Mo will be the next DA. Skrep and Petrilla are the Democratic nominees for commissioner. Urban and Jones will be the Republican opponents. Savokinas beat Nipper in the Sheriffs race. The Coroners race is to close to call. The biggest surprise of the night is Sue Rossi beating Randy Tomasacci for the Republican nomination for Clerk of Courts.

WNEP has the totals.

Act 1 seems to have gone down all over the place. John Corcoran won the primary for coroner.

W-B council race totals are here :

CITY COUNCIL WILKES BARRE CITY COUNCIL DIST A
TIM GRIER . . . . . . . . . . 76
RICK CRONAUER . . . . . . . . .824
JOHN R. MADAY . . . . . . 60
SHIRLEY MORIO VITANOVEC. 521


DISTRICT B
RAY ARELLANO . . . . . . . . . 102 BRUCE J. REILLY . . . . . . . . 396 TONY THOMAS JR. . . . . . . . . 460


DISTRICT C
JUSTIN MCCARTHY . . . . . . . . 259
SAM TROY. . . . . . . . . . . 123
KATHY KANE . . . . . . . . . . 400


DISTRICT D
JOE DANIEL . . . . . . . . . . 323
TIMOTHY ANDERSON . . . . . . 98
BILL BARRETT . . . . . . . . . 439 SARAH MCCAFFREY . . . . . . . 60
MICHAEL J. MCGINLEY . . . . . 213
BRUCE SZCZECINSKI. . . . . . 175


DISTRICT E
VIRGIL ARGENTA. . . . . . . . . 104
FRANK MATELLO SR.. . . . . . . 92
MIKE MERRITT . . . . . . . . . 332
CHARLOTTE RAUP. . . . . . . . .166
RON SILKOSKY . . . . . . . . . 165

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Wilkes-Barre charter change

Wilkes-Barre city council want's to amend the the city charter to return electing council members at-large instead of by district. This is a guest post from Ray Arellano who ran for council in 2007.


How about the gall of the Council to propose an "end run" to hopefully get at least some of the mayors allies re-elected? They have not done anything in the last 4 years, but to "rubber stamp" the Mayor. By District representation, they are accountable to their constituents within the area they serve,(except for Tony Thomas who is a part time resident). Why not advertise this meeting, and set it at a time when more people are home from work, and can attend? Bill O'Boyle titled his article in the TL, "W-B wants an at-large council". That's not exactly so. What we need is a referendum to go back to the City Mgr. type of governance, and get away from the Mayor being the last word on everything? Council members should be elected based on their merit, not as a "team" which gives us the bad with the good. I don't care about partisan politics as much as I care about whats right for Wilkes-Barre...All the hard work that the citizens of Wilkes-Barre put in to reduce Council size, and have representation by district, should not be abolished by the whim of the present Council. If it ain't broke, don't fix it!!
It won't reduce our taxes, improve our services, nor make the council respond to the will of the majority. Turn out the lights, the party is OVER!
Lets get some good non-partisan folks to run for these council seats. Now that would be constructive!!! Enough is enough!




Walter Griffith is also opposed to this.


Longtime critic questions W-B’s at-large voting issue


Griffith criticizes at-large election proposal

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

The Yonk's council gaggle



I stopped by the Wilkes-Barre City Council forum at Gennetti's on Sunday organized by local blogger David Yonki of the LuLac Political Letter. I don't live in W-B and when I informed one of the candidates of that she just walked away from me. Oh well. From the press accounts I read I missed the highlights since I had to leave early and according to David, Tim Grier and Walter Griffith wowed the people in the audience.

My interest was District E since I grew up in the North End. The only Republican and long time neighbor, John Yencha, didn't show up. Nor did Frank Matello who I've known my whole life but haven't seen in years or Virgil Argenta, the leader in the sign wars. Charlotte Raup started off by saying W-B has to get rid of the drug dealers and crack down on the absentee slum lords. A sentiment repeated by almost every other candidate. Mike Merritt looked down at his speech and read it. And Ron Silkosky recited a long synopsis of the Robert Redford movie The Candidate but said something that caught my ear: "Hazleton's loss of illegal immigrants is Wilkes-Barre's gain." I'm not sure what he meant by that or even if he meant it to come out that way. I'm surprised nobody else picked up on it.

The one incumbent I heard defended the Mayor and council. Tony Thomas said the Governor has faith and gave an inventory of the streets that have paved. He then went on about the renovation of Coal Street Park and the widening of Coal St. We've been hearing about that for a long time.

My favorite of the event was District B candidate Ray Arellano. He told a love story. A long time resident of Arizona who married a local girl that brought him back to NEPA. He said he decided to retire here after numerous visits and fell in love with the place. He challenged people to get past nepotism, cronyism and do what's right.

The press write-ups were positive. I sat behind the CV reporter but didn't have a chance to chat and the TL guy was at the media table that David generously invited me to sit at but I digressed. I'm not a media guy, I'm a blogger.