Friday, December 19, 2008

Luzerne County Judge sues himself

The Luzerne County budget battle has taken a weird turn.

CV: Luzerne County President Judge Mark A. Ciavarella Jr. escalated his fight against county commissioners, filing a lawsuit Wednesday to block judicial branch layoffs outlined in the 2009 county budget....Ciavarella named himself as a defendant for his role as a member of the Luzerne County Salary Board, and as the plaintiff, as president judge.


Clerk of Courts Bob Reilly is also threatening to sue over staff reductions.

For the longest time the county payroll has been looked at as some sort of jobs program for the relatives and friends of the well connected and now the gravy train has come to end of the line. Luzerne County has been so mismanaged that they can't even get a normal tax anticipation loan so the axe has to fall somewhere.

I have to give credit to Commissioners Maryanne Petrilla and Steve Urban for trying to clean up the mess that they have inherited although I think that they are partially responsible for it. The past budgets proposed by Greg Skrepnak, Todd Vonderheid, Tom Makowski, Tom Pizano, Rose Tucker, Frank Crossin, and an almost endless list of past commissioners, were works of fiction.


Apologies to McGruff for stealing his headline and the Yonk suggests some possible solutions to the impasse.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ciavarella top of the line a-hole

Anonymous said...

Wait until the next county election. These democrat assholes will elect more people like him. Meanwhile the Republicans have nothing to offer except a GOP executive committee that looks out for their own business and personal needs.

Luzerne County folks a just plain stupid and will never change.

Haina ur no?

Anonymous said...

Fire everybody and start with fresh faces and new last names. Everybody from the janitors, the security guard (who also works a second job while getting paid by the county and working a second job on county time), all the way up to the judges (who really dont judge well at all).. espeicailly if your not a friend of a frend with them.

Anonymous said...

Its really not a comment but a question for the people. Can anybody tell me how many people were arrested in the Luzerne County House and their names and what they were arrested for and there sentence.
thank you
LouAnn Horsfield