I just updated my links and the vehicle by which to deliver them so as to more accurately reflect what is going on in the Northeastern Pennsylvania blogging community.
We’re only a few weeks away from the official beginning of the 2010 midterm election season, and I think reading every link on this list as we march on towards the primaries would give an unfamiliar outsider a fairly good sampling of the many diverse and disparate opinions on the same candidates and races.
After a bit of introspection, I don’t think linking to a few sites that interest me on most days and then linking to all of the rest by way of NEPA Blogs really cuts it anymore. Good or bad, the local blogging community has changed, with many eager newcomers on board. And the NEPA Blogs link is more of a look back at what this local internet scrum used to be. I’m not being critical, just realistic. Getting with the times, I suppose.
I would like to apologize to a local blogger--one Stephen Albert--for publicly ripping into one of his most recent posts. I had no qualms with him, not really. And my intent was not to demean his body of work. My reaction to his comments was merely a gross overreaction to this oft-repeated claptrap that we, as the electorate, must be somehow less than up to snuff simply because our local elected and appointed officials are being led off to the hoosegow in record numbers.
No matter who suggests it, I wholeheartedly reject this faulty premise. No matter what influences one encounters, and no matter their environment, people choose to be scofflaws all on their own. I did not cause any of this rampant corruption, and neither did any of you.
There are literally tens of thousands of voting districts that are dominated by one party, but only one voting district, Luzerne County, is home to a veritable Who’s Who of inept political scumbags. One! This one.
Anyway, Steve...it wasn’t personal.
I’ve been following this textual fistfight on Gort’s site, the reader’s comments that have been going toe-to-toe on the subject of Lou Barletta’s candidacy and his acid-tongued primary challenger. And it occurred to me that the one undeniable thing Lou Barletta did for Hazleton was to put it on the map. And I’m not referring to Lou Dobbs or any of this illegal immigration back-and-forth.
What I mean is, when the subject of politics in Luzerne County came up in the past, the points of interest were always Wilkes-Barre, Pittston and occasionally Nanticoke only because it is home to a long-time congressman despite fast resembling a hell hole. Now, thanks to Lou Barletta’s very high profile, people are actually arguing about Hazleton politics and the issues that matter most to the Hazleton area. If nothing else, give him credit for that new push-pin on the local political map.
And I have to tell you, I spend two work days in the Hazleton area almost every week. And I’m here to tell you that Barletta’s stance on all things immigration has not cased an exodus out of Hazleton, nor has it caused any businesses to be boarded up.
The people repeating that nonsensical gibberish are obviously ill-informed, or simply repeating the latest well-worn talking points because it fits in with their destructive partisan agenda, or both.
Speaking of local blogs, boy, did this one make me want to lash out in anger, something Mike McNarney rightfully taught me never to do.
From Lu Lac:
Q: You sound mad at the Commissioners do you feel they are primarily at fault?
A: Hell no, not these people. They’re trying to fix what their predecessors screwed up.
Whoa! Whoa! Whoa there!!!
Um, with no due respect to our mystery guest, didn’t the Petrilla campaign spend, like, a quarter of a million dollars to unseat former controller Steve Flood, who, it turns out, was at one time hot on the heels of the easily corruptible jackasses under the rotunda dome?
Please, do not feed me too much hollow jive about Maryanne Petrilla being an incident bystander in all of this. Her mission was to unseat the watchdog, the then whistleblower. And after succeeding him, it’s obvious she played the “see no evil” game as embezzlement, theft of services, fraud and wrongful imprisonment went on right under her nose.
As for Steve Urban, I know he’s not exactly in the loop when the Sunshine Laws are being violated with willful intent and malice of forethought, but his usual act, professing to knowing absolutely nothing until the bad news breaks on Page 1 above the fold is really, really, really getting old.
Q: You sound mad at the Commissioners do you feel they are primarily at fault?
I’ll answer that question with a question of my own…
The buck stops where?
In the past week I’ve read that I’m somehow culpable, and now I’m reading a suggestion that the county commissioners were not culpable? Boy oh boy, that’s a record-setting stretch of the imagination.
Oh, and since we’re stuck on bloggers and their contributions, I was remiss the other day in not mentioning Another Monkey and Things at Kings, two local blogs that have been around for quite some time now.
And I do recall seeing a blog before I knew what blogging was even called…Watermelon Punch. For those of you that go back quite a ways, remember that one? The girl who had Wilkes-Barre Online deleted by the host company right after the tragic events of 9-11?
Right after 3,000 innocent people were slaughtered, I wrote that if they--the Muslims--hated us that much, well, okay, then let’s hate ‘em right back, a clear call for some military payback. And then while I was at work, the plug was pulled on my site. So much for freedom of speech. So much for being tolerant of dissenting opinions.
And if you remember correctly, Wilkes-Barre Online had a new Web address inside of 45 minutes. Up and running again despite the liberal penchant for removing from the dialogue what does not fit their narrowly-defined template.
Ah, enough of all of this. I’m done here.
Time for some NFL football, i.e., sticking that overdue fork in the New York Football Giants.
Argh!!!
Bye
PS--Here's a look backward at the local blogosphere as it was captured by your hated author on November 23, 2006.
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Saturday, January 2, 2010
Happy New Year! (Shut up & pay your taxes)
Happy New Year!
Right. Like any of us are going to be truly happy anytime soon. Well, that is, I suppose we could be happy, perhaps as contented as ever if we’d just stop paying attention. No news. No radio. No internet. We could just sit in a circle, hold hands, smoke an awful lot of pot and think pure, happy thoughts. And with that, our conversion to the left side of the political divide would be almost complete.
As the ball was set to drop on 2009, our county commissioners approved a budget for 2010 that includes…
Let’s do that again.
As the ball was set to drop on 2009, our county commissioners approved an outline, a rough sketch, a kind of, sort of a budget framework that includes a 10 percent tax increase. For now. And it includes proposed cuts, proposed furloughs and other cost-cutting initiatives that are certain never to happen. So it’s a 10 percent tax increase until next they gather and raise it some more to more accurately reflect the true nature of their incompetence.
In a nutshell, with the drunken lawlessness that accompanies the yearly calendar switch about to explode, they passed this whatever-the-hell-it-was quasi budget so as to not have to shut down the county. Most importantly, it guarantees that the county can obtain a Tax Anticipation Note. Or, in common parlance, it guarantees that the county can waste some more money. Money you’ll never miss until next year’s tax increase.
From the Times Leader:
Employees were left in the dark because the $124.8 million spending plan also calls for $5.7 million in additional staff cuts and furloughs, with the salary portion of most department budgets reduced by 6.7 percent.
County Budget/Finance Chief Tom Pribula wouldn’t take ownership of the budget because there are no specifics on achieving the cuts, leading him to conclude that the spending plan “has a high probability of failure.”
Ah, yes, the definition of insanity is as follows: Doing the same red ink-stained budget over and over and expecting a different result.
This excerpt made me want to leap up and urinate on my keyboard:
Cooney criticized the county’s reliance on borrowing, saying the $466 million in outstanding debt will force taxpayers to shell out $60,000 per day next year in debt repayment. He said he is “open to suggestions” on ways to carry out the $5.7 million in budgeted cuts and possibly avoid a tax increase.
“Taxpayers and county employees must step forward and must come together,” Cooney said. “No one should walk away. No one should say ‘not me’ or ‘not us.’ ”
Oh, him. Thomas Cooney, our newly appointed county commissioner. Yeah, appointed in secret after a three-minute interview process. That Thomas Cooney.
Is he effing serious? Open to suggestions?
What kind of hog swill is that? Sorry, but after you’re put in charge, you don’t go and install a suggestion box. You don’t gravitate to the top, and then look down upon the beleaguered hoi polloi you leapfrogged for the answers.
I swear, there’s something in the water at these golf clubs we’ll never be invited to unless we‘re hired as caddies. Something that causes a swift and noticeable retrenchment from cognitive thought processes.
He did get one thing right. No one should say ‘not me’ or ‘not us,’ because everybody will now pay for the continuing incompetence and corruption from the invite-only play land of the related, the connected and those offering paper bags full of bribes--the courthouse.
So, in summation, they passed something or other because they either don’t know what to do, or they do not possess the political courage to do what’s right. Oh, and because they want to borrow some more money.
Suggestions, anyone?
Happy New Year! (Shut up & pay your taxes)
The new year sure did come in with a bang…literally.
As is tradition in this modest adobe, we load up on foodstuffs and fermented weeds and then settle in close proximity to the police scanner for a night of good fun and great cheer at other people’s expense. And with the snow falling and falling fast an hour or so before zero hour, we knew this was going to be good. Well, good for us, but maybe not so good for our first responders.
We had us no shortage of domestic battery and the like. A couple that included the brandishing of knives. We had a foot chase in the Heights. A drunk girl who took a flying leap in front of a moving city vehicle. A drunk underage kid wearing no shoes or socks, despite being on probation. Can you say PA Child Care?
Some drunk guy on Public Square too drunk to, well, too drunk to function. Car accidents here, there and darn near everywhere. There had to be a dozen hit-and-run accidents within a two-hour period. And then the big one, the one that causes every scanner owner to reach for the volume knob…”shots fired!”
This one was hard to follow, due to the mass confusion that was both the Hardware Bar’s and Luna bar’s patrons spilling out into the street to see what all the fuss was about. The fire engines and the medic unit found it difficult to wade through the mass of drunken humanity.
It originally came in as “Shots fired at the Hardware Bar,” but quickly became a flurry of seemingly disconnected radio blurbs. “All available units…” “Black guy, white vest.” “Gunshot victims.” “Come in through the parking lot by the YMCA.” Stuff like that.
The disjointed kind of stuff you’d expect when police officers have to wade through a crowd of hundreds, into an unsecured scene with gunplay afoot. In my mind, not the place you’d want to be standing around whooping it up, if and when another gunshot rings out.
Then again, at 1:50 AM on this particular night, I doubt that most of the people in that crowd would have even known it had they been shot. Whatever. They wanted a party and they found one. And some of them even caught a bullet. Ah, a New Years Eve to remember.
If memory serves, that’s the second shooting associated with that first block of South Main Street since those two watering holes opened their doors. Hey, no “nuisance bar” issues going on there, heyna?
I mean to say, most of the patrons are white, so there’s no way the City of Wilkes-Barre or the Liquor Control Board are gonna come down on any of that. As we all know full well, at least in these “I’m not a racist, but…“ parts, to qualify as a full-blown nuisance bar, the great majority of your gun-toting clientele needs to be black or Latino.
When whites shoot up the neighborhood, those are isolated incidents. But when blacks shoot up the neighborhood, those are god damn nuisances that need to be dealt with. The initial police response aside, the full extent of the law is applicable only when minorities are involved. So, the Hardware Bar has got nothing to worry about.
Jiggle on, girlies.
Keep your mammalian protuberances up and your heads down.
Here’s one WILK’s Sue Henry threw out there a few days ago.
If you could have anything at all for Christmas, what would it be? Anything. You name it. What would it be?
Interesting. I’m sure you could chew on that one for quite some time, but this process took me all of 30 seconds. If I could have anything for Christmas, I’d choose to meet my father.
But, I might as well have asked for a time machine and a potent, synergist-laden aphrodisiac that Deborah Harry would have no defense against circa 1980.
From the e-mail inbox:
Markie---
Not sure if you saw this mention of your site at Yonki’s Lu Lac.
THE DECADE'S TOP 10
The top ten news stories of the decade were:1. 9/11.
2. The Election of President Obama.
3. The war in Iraq.
4. The War in Afghanistan.
5. The confused 2000 election.
6. Death of John Paul II; selection of Pope Benedict.
7. Hurricane Katrina.
8. Mapping of the human genome.
9. The rise of Google and new media including Gort 42, LuLac and Wilkes Barre On Line.
10. The ascension of China.
TXX SXXXX
Yeah, I did see that list. I’m not sure I agree with all of them, but I certainly didn’t put any time into compiling a list of my own. Hmmm, the genome. Doesn’t he work at Travelosity?
I’ve mentioned this before, but I started Wilkes-Barre Online on December 2, 2000. The interesting thing was, I once ran across and read a story about blogs--Web logs--only because I was totally unfamiliar with the word “blog.”
Anyway, as I was a ways into that piece, it occurred to me that what they were describing was what I had been doing for some time. I blogged. I was a blogger. Good, bad or obscene...that’s what I was doing.
I later read that the earliest blogs date back to 1998, but I don’t know that I had ever seen one. All I knew was that I was totally unhappy with the condition of this city way back then, I wanted to write about it, post pictures of it and get to the bottom of why it had to be that way. And what a wild and informative ride it was.
During it’s heyday, in it’s varying forms and hosts, Wilkes-Barre Online generated upwards of 1,000,000 hits. And that was with no promotion and no blog rolls. The fun part was, since no one in this area had ever written about such localized, such up close and personal subjects as I had, it produced far more people who despised it than liked it. Or should I say, people who despised me.
But once some enterprising internet outfits made it possible to blog without knowing HTML coding and the like, the Wilkes-Barre area suddenly had no shortage of people giving it a go. Most of those ill-fated sites lasted about as long as a smoke bomb typically does, with the notable exeptions being Gort's Gort 42 site and David Yonki's Lu Lac oasis.
And new political blogs of the local variety usually appear during the run-up to every election cycle. And then after those elections play out, most of those decidedly partisan blogs are quickly abandoned or deleted. Like grass sprouting in the Spring, blogs appear when we've got an election to decide.
As for the oft-repeated term “new media,” I’m not sure that I would call anything dominated by the anonymous as media, but that’s for the folks much smarter than I to decide upon.
With that in mind, just a few days ago, I think I invented a new word destined to be enshrined in a dictionary one day. Rather than type “anonymous asshole” in response to some wildly off base anonymous asshole, I typed anon-hole. And for the most part, the internet is the ambient domain of the ever-circling anon-holes.
Sez me.
Later
Right. Like any of us are going to be truly happy anytime soon. Well, that is, I suppose we could be happy, perhaps as contented as ever if we’d just stop paying attention. No news. No radio. No internet. We could just sit in a circle, hold hands, smoke an awful lot of pot and think pure, happy thoughts. And with that, our conversion to the left side of the political divide would be almost complete.
As the ball was set to drop on 2009, our county commissioners approved a budget for 2010 that includes…
Let’s do that again.
As the ball was set to drop on 2009, our county commissioners approved an outline, a rough sketch, a kind of, sort of a budget framework that includes a 10 percent tax increase. For now. And it includes proposed cuts, proposed furloughs and other cost-cutting initiatives that are certain never to happen. So it’s a 10 percent tax increase until next they gather and raise it some more to more accurately reflect the true nature of their incompetence.
In a nutshell, with the drunken lawlessness that accompanies the yearly calendar switch about to explode, they passed this whatever-the-hell-it-was quasi budget so as to not have to shut down the county. Most importantly, it guarantees that the county can obtain a Tax Anticipation Note. Or, in common parlance, it guarantees that the county can waste some more money. Money you’ll never miss until next year’s tax increase.
From the Times Leader:
Employees were left in the dark because the $124.8 million spending plan also calls for $5.7 million in additional staff cuts and furloughs, with the salary portion of most department budgets reduced by 6.7 percent.
County Budget/Finance Chief Tom Pribula wouldn’t take ownership of the budget because there are no specifics on achieving the cuts, leading him to conclude that the spending plan “has a high probability of failure.”
Ah, yes, the definition of insanity is as follows: Doing the same red ink-stained budget over and over and expecting a different result.
This excerpt made me want to leap up and urinate on my keyboard:
Cooney criticized the county’s reliance on borrowing, saying the $466 million in outstanding debt will force taxpayers to shell out $60,000 per day next year in debt repayment. He said he is “open to suggestions” on ways to carry out the $5.7 million in budgeted cuts and possibly avoid a tax increase.
“Taxpayers and county employees must step forward and must come together,” Cooney said. “No one should walk away. No one should say ‘not me’ or ‘not us.’ ”
Oh, him. Thomas Cooney, our newly appointed county commissioner. Yeah, appointed in secret after a three-minute interview process. That Thomas Cooney.
Is he effing serious? Open to suggestions?
What kind of hog swill is that? Sorry, but after you’re put in charge, you don’t go and install a suggestion box. You don’t gravitate to the top, and then look down upon the beleaguered hoi polloi you leapfrogged for the answers.
I swear, there’s something in the water at these golf clubs we’ll never be invited to unless we‘re hired as caddies. Something that causes a swift and noticeable retrenchment from cognitive thought processes.
He did get one thing right. No one should say ‘not me’ or ‘not us,’ because everybody will now pay for the continuing incompetence and corruption from the invite-only play land of the related, the connected and those offering paper bags full of bribes--the courthouse.
So, in summation, they passed something or other because they either don’t know what to do, or they do not possess the political courage to do what’s right. Oh, and because they want to borrow some more money.
Suggestions, anyone?
Happy New Year! (Shut up & pay your taxes)
The new year sure did come in with a bang…literally.
As is tradition in this modest adobe, we load up on foodstuffs and fermented weeds and then settle in close proximity to the police scanner for a night of good fun and great cheer at other people’s expense. And with the snow falling and falling fast an hour or so before zero hour, we knew this was going to be good. Well, good for us, but maybe not so good for our first responders.
We had us no shortage of domestic battery and the like. A couple that included the brandishing of knives. We had a foot chase in the Heights. A drunk girl who took a flying leap in front of a moving city vehicle. A drunk underage kid wearing no shoes or socks, despite being on probation. Can you say PA Child Care?
Some drunk guy on Public Square too drunk to, well, too drunk to function. Car accidents here, there and darn near everywhere. There had to be a dozen hit-and-run accidents within a two-hour period. And then the big one, the one that causes every scanner owner to reach for the volume knob…”shots fired!”
This one was hard to follow, due to the mass confusion that was both the Hardware Bar’s and Luna bar’s patrons spilling out into the street to see what all the fuss was about. The fire engines and the medic unit found it difficult to wade through the mass of drunken humanity.
It originally came in as “Shots fired at the Hardware Bar,” but quickly became a flurry of seemingly disconnected radio blurbs. “All available units…” “Black guy, white vest.” “Gunshot victims.” “Come in through the parking lot by the YMCA.” Stuff like that.
The disjointed kind of stuff you’d expect when police officers have to wade through a crowd of hundreds, into an unsecured scene with gunplay afoot. In my mind, not the place you’d want to be standing around whooping it up, if and when another gunshot rings out.
Then again, at 1:50 AM on this particular night, I doubt that most of the people in that crowd would have even known it had they been shot. Whatever. They wanted a party and they found one. And some of them even caught a bullet. Ah, a New Years Eve to remember.
If memory serves, that’s the second shooting associated with that first block of South Main Street since those two watering holes opened their doors. Hey, no “nuisance bar” issues going on there, heyna?
I mean to say, most of the patrons are white, so there’s no way the City of Wilkes-Barre or the Liquor Control Board are gonna come down on any of that. As we all know full well, at least in these “I’m not a racist, but…“ parts, to qualify as a full-blown nuisance bar, the great majority of your gun-toting clientele needs to be black or Latino.
When whites shoot up the neighborhood, those are isolated incidents. But when blacks shoot up the neighborhood, those are god damn nuisances that need to be dealt with. The initial police response aside, the full extent of the law is applicable only when minorities are involved. So, the Hardware Bar has got nothing to worry about.
Jiggle on, girlies.
Keep your mammalian protuberances up and your heads down.
Here’s one WILK’s Sue Henry threw out there a few days ago.
If you could have anything at all for Christmas, what would it be? Anything. You name it. What would it be?
Interesting. I’m sure you could chew on that one for quite some time, but this process took me all of 30 seconds. If I could have anything for Christmas, I’d choose to meet my father.
But, I might as well have asked for a time machine and a potent, synergist-laden aphrodisiac that Deborah Harry would have no defense against circa 1980.
From the e-mail inbox:
Markie---
Not sure if you saw this mention of your site at Yonki’s Lu Lac.
THE DECADE'S TOP 10
The top ten news stories of the decade were:1. 9/11.
2. The Election of President Obama.
3. The war in Iraq.
4. The War in Afghanistan.
5. The confused 2000 election.
6. Death of John Paul II; selection of Pope Benedict.
7. Hurricane Katrina.
8. Mapping of the human genome.
9. The rise of Google and new media including Gort 42, LuLac and Wilkes Barre On Line.
10. The ascension of China.
TXX SXXXX
Yeah, I did see that list. I’m not sure I agree with all of them, but I certainly didn’t put any time into compiling a list of my own. Hmmm, the genome. Doesn’t he work at Travelosity?
I’ve mentioned this before, but I started Wilkes-Barre Online on December 2, 2000. The interesting thing was, I once ran across and read a story about blogs--Web logs--only because I was totally unfamiliar with the word “blog.”
Anyway, as I was a ways into that piece, it occurred to me that what they were describing was what I had been doing for some time. I blogged. I was a blogger. Good, bad or obscene...that’s what I was doing.
I later read that the earliest blogs date back to 1998, but I don’t know that I had ever seen one. All I knew was that I was totally unhappy with the condition of this city way back then, I wanted to write about it, post pictures of it and get to the bottom of why it had to be that way. And what a wild and informative ride it was.
During it’s heyday, in it’s varying forms and hosts, Wilkes-Barre Online generated upwards of 1,000,000 hits. And that was with no promotion and no blog rolls. The fun part was, since no one in this area had ever written about such localized, such up close and personal subjects as I had, it produced far more people who despised it than liked it. Or should I say, people who despised me.
But once some enterprising internet outfits made it possible to blog without knowing HTML coding and the like, the Wilkes-Barre area suddenly had no shortage of people giving it a go. Most of those ill-fated sites lasted about as long as a smoke bomb typically does, with the notable exeptions being Gort's Gort 42 site and David Yonki's Lu Lac oasis.
And new political blogs of the local variety usually appear during the run-up to every election cycle. And then after those elections play out, most of those decidedly partisan blogs are quickly abandoned or deleted. Like grass sprouting in the Spring, blogs appear when we've got an election to decide.
As for the oft-repeated term “new media,” I’m not sure that I would call anything dominated by the anonymous as media, but that’s for the folks much smarter than I to decide upon.
With that in mind, just a few days ago, I think I invented a new word destined to be enshrined in a dictionary one day. Rather than type “anonymous asshole” in response to some wildly off base anonymous asshole, I typed anon-hole. And for the most part, the internet is the ambient domain of the ever-circling anon-holes.
Sez me.
Later
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Chapter 9? It can't happen here, can it?
I noticed that in a recent letter to the editor concerning our county government, a local brought up Chapter 9...municipal bankruptcy. That’s the first mention made of that that I’ve seen.
Although, I have read about it in some detail, and I doubt that would ever happen here. Going that route requires political courage and an inherent need to do the right thing. Therein, this county does not qualify.
From today’s Citizens’ Voice story “Urban: Projected spending exceeds $130 million”
Since the preliminary budget was introduced, officials learned they may have to add $2.5 million to the budget because the county cannot force all employees to take 12 furlough days without pay in 2010. County employee unions have objected to the furlough plan.
Union contracts include a requirement that layoffs and furloughs of union employees be based on seniority, and those contracts prevent across-the-board layoffs and furloughs. About 1,344 of the county's 1,685 employees are union members.
The preliminary budget also doesn't include expected additional expenses from a ruling by an arbitration panel on a new union contract for employees at the Luzerne County Correctional Facility. Local 1300 of the Laborers' International Union of North America, the prison union, represents 319 employees, and they have been working without a collective bargaining agreement this year.
Yeah, and I received hate mail when I suggested that unionized government employees care not for the plight of heavily overburdened taxpayers. Yeah, meaningful concessions are a possibility. And then you wake up on the wet side of the bed.
20 sick days per year, yes?
Now we segue into an excerpt from another Citizens’ Voice story…”Controller-elect Griffith wants county salary board disputes resolved”
Griffith said he hopes to resolve disputes over the salary board at a meeting today with DeLuca and Maryanne Petrilla, chairwoman of the county commissioners and the salary board. Another dispute involves who can be a fifth member on the board.
The three county commissioners and controller are permanent members of the board. The state-mandated County Code says "the executive head" of an office or agency is the fifth member for votes involving that official's office or agency.
Griffith and DeLuca agree that elected row officers and the president judge can be the fifth vote. But Griffith disputes DeLuca's assertion that department heads supervised by county commissioners also can vote.
DeLuca said Griffith's goals is to "have control of causing gridlock" and thus eliminate county jobs with 2-2 votes. Griffith and Commissioner Stephen A. Urban, both Republicans, have both said they would like to eliminate some jobs and reduce some salaries through the salary board.
"I see right through it," DeLuca said.
Isn’t he clever? And wasn’t it his loose interpretation, his so-called “clarification” of the law that put department heads at salary board meetings for the first time starting in 2008, and all while under Maryanne Petrilla’s watch?
And that will help to balance the budget exactly how?
Okay, the commissioners and the controller are deadlocked 2-2 on whether or not to cut the Road & Bridge department’s budget by 10% for fiscal year 2010. What say you Road & Bridge department head?
The nays have it. The deficit-spending shall continue.
So, 25% of the 2010 budget will automatically go to pay the debt service on our $466 million in outstanding debts. The debt cannot be refinanced. We can no longer obtain bond insurance. We cannot secure new revenue sources, short of allowing drilling for natural gas on the courthouse lawn. And with that noted, the taxpayers are still facing a fleecing of epic proportions when the niggling issue of propping up flagging public sector pensions hits the fan.
So what’s a disingenuous commissioner to do?
Well, you could find a solicitor that will create a loophole by where you can then protect all of those union contracts you signed. Yeah, you can make it all but impossible for anyone to force cutbacks on any office or department. You could do that.
And you can continue to pretend that the exempt employees (non-union) are all dedicated to doing their jobs, and are all working at least the 40 hours we mistakenly believed they were working all along. Not at used car lots.
And you can also (wink, wink) pretend that the county commissioners themselves are working fulltime to resolve this budget crisis, even though we know these are mostly ghost jobs, and most of the duties of the commissioners are carried out by their 3 executive secretaries and their chief clerk at a cost in excess of $220,000 a year sans the benefits.
I find it hard to believe that a county commissioner is “conducting county business,” as he puts it when challenged, when he is continually seen leaving his residence as late as 10 in the morning, something I have witnessed with my own eyes on a very regular basis, but was reluctant to write about for fear of being accused of stalking or some other bit of official harassment.
Sure, we want to cut the salaries of the courts, but isn’t that just taking a final shot at all of Greg Skrepenak’s former allies? Tell us, will the 2010 budget be balanced after a bit of pay-back is delivered to the judiciary? Well, not after so many lines items were increased as part of the 2010 budgetary process. There are no cutbacks, only line item increases.
In my opinion, not one person currently employed by the county is working on cost-cutting solutions of any measurable magnitude. Rather, they are treating us to constant political spinning, and protecting their biggest, their most reliable voting block…the county employees.
Until Maryanne Petrilla starts making some serious noise about instituting draconian cuts across the board, nothing will be resolved and the taxpayers will take yet another big hit. And I would ask her if the huge budgetary outlays spent on county employees to attend seminars, conferences and the like are delivering anything of worth to the residents of this county. Because the way I see it, all of that supposed ongoing training hasn’t added up to a hill of beans. It hasn't put an end to the gross mismanagement which we've grown so painfully accustomed to.
If she’s our fiscal savior, as she’s been angling to appear to be, we are screwed all over again.
Chapter 9? Municipal bankruptcy? It can’t happen here, can it? We’re not nearly as bad off as Detroit, San Diego or Orange County, California, are we?
My question isn’t whether it can happen here, my question is, by all rights, should it happen here? Should the county's finances be taken over by outside entities?
Answer me that.
Later
Although, I have read about it in some detail, and I doubt that would ever happen here. Going that route requires political courage and an inherent need to do the right thing. Therein, this county does not qualify.
From today’s Citizens’ Voice story “Urban: Projected spending exceeds $130 million”
Since the preliminary budget was introduced, officials learned they may have to add $2.5 million to the budget because the county cannot force all employees to take 12 furlough days without pay in 2010. County employee unions have objected to the furlough plan.
Union contracts include a requirement that layoffs and furloughs of union employees be based on seniority, and those contracts prevent across-the-board layoffs and furloughs. About 1,344 of the county's 1,685 employees are union members.
The preliminary budget also doesn't include expected additional expenses from a ruling by an arbitration panel on a new union contract for employees at the Luzerne County Correctional Facility. Local 1300 of the Laborers' International Union of North America, the prison union, represents 319 employees, and they have been working without a collective bargaining agreement this year.
Yeah, and I received hate mail when I suggested that unionized government employees care not for the plight of heavily overburdened taxpayers. Yeah, meaningful concessions are a possibility. And then you wake up on the wet side of the bed.
20 sick days per year, yes?
Now we segue into an excerpt from another Citizens’ Voice story…”Controller-elect Griffith wants county salary board disputes resolved”
Griffith said he hopes to resolve disputes over the salary board at a meeting today with DeLuca and Maryanne Petrilla, chairwoman of the county commissioners and the salary board. Another dispute involves who can be a fifth member on the board.
The three county commissioners and controller are permanent members of the board. The state-mandated County Code says "the executive head" of an office or agency is the fifth member for votes involving that official's office or agency.
Griffith and DeLuca agree that elected row officers and the president judge can be the fifth vote. But Griffith disputes DeLuca's assertion that department heads supervised by county commissioners also can vote.
DeLuca said Griffith's goals is to "have control of causing gridlock" and thus eliminate county jobs with 2-2 votes. Griffith and Commissioner Stephen A. Urban, both Republicans, have both said they would like to eliminate some jobs and reduce some salaries through the salary board.
"I see right through it," DeLuca said.
Isn’t he clever? And wasn’t it his loose interpretation, his so-called “clarification” of the law that put department heads at salary board meetings for the first time starting in 2008, and all while under Maryanne Petrilla’s watch?
And that will help to balance the budget exactly how?
Okay, the commissioners and the controller are deadlocked 2-2 on whether or not to cut the Road & Bridge department’s budget by 10% for fiscal year 2010. What say you Road & Bridge department head?
The nays have it. The deficit-spending shall continue.
So, 25% of the 2010 budget will automatically go to pay the debt service on our $466 million in outstanding debts. The debt cannot be refinanced. We can no longer obtain bond insurance. We cannot secure new revenue sources, short of allowing drilling for natural gas on the courthouse lawn. And with that noted, the taxpayers are still facing a fleecing of epic proportions when the niggling issue of propping up flagging public sector pensions hits the fan.
So what’s a disingenuous commissioner to do?
Well, you could find a solicitor that will create a loophole by where you can then protect all of those union contracts you signed. Yeah, you can make it all but impossible for anyone to force cutbacks on any office or department. You could do that.
And you can continue to pretend that the exempt employees (non-union) are all dedicated to doing their jobs, and are all working at least the 40 hours we mistakenly believed they were working all along. Not at used car lots.
And you can also (wink, wink) pretend that the county commissioners themselves are working fulltime to resolve this budget crisis, even though we know these are mostly ghost jobs, and most of the duties of the commissioners are carried out by their 3 executive secretaries and their chief clerk at a cost in excess of $220,000 a year sans the benefits.
I find it hard to believe that a county commissioner is “conducting county business,” as he puts it when challenged, when he is continually seen leaving his residence as late as 10 in the morning, something I have witnessed with my own eyes on a very regular basis, but was reluctant to write about for fear of being accused of stalking or some other bit of official harassment.
Sure, we want to cut the salaries of the courts, but isn’t that just taking a final shot at all of Greg Skrepenak’s former allies? Tell us, will the 2010 budget be balanced after a bit of pay-back is delivered to the judiciary? Well, not after so many lines items were increased as part of the 2010 budgetary process. There are no cutbacks, only line item increases.
In my opinion, not one person currently employed by the county is working on cost-cutting solutions of any measurable magnitude. Rather, they are treating us to constant political spinning, and protecting their biggest, their most reliable voting block…the county employees.
Until Maryanne Petrilla starts making some serious noise about instituting draconian cuts across the board, nothing will be resolved and the taxpayers will take yet another big hit. And I would ask her if the huge budgetary outlays spent on county employees to attend seminars, conferences and the like are delivering anything of worth to the residents of this county. Because the way I see it, all of that supposed ongoing training hasn’t added up to a hill of beans. It hasn't put an end to the gross mismanagement which we've grown so painfully accustomed to.
If she’s our fiscal savior, as she’s been angling to appear to be, we are screwed all over again.
Chapter 9? Municipal bankruptcy? It can’t happen here, can it? We’re not nearly as bad off as Detroit, San Diego or Orange County, California, are we?
My question isn’t whether it can happen here, my question is, by all rights, should it happen here? Should the county's finances be taken over by outside entities?
Answer me that.
Later
Sunday, December 27, 2009
What's wrong with us? or: How we learned to love being apathetic dolts
I just finished reading a local blog post titled “What's Wrong With Us?,” in which the author basically assigns some measure of blame for the rampant corruption in Luzerne County on the commoners like you and I. And the piece comes off as elitist gibberish borne of self-immolation. Almost a reverse profundity in it’s abject absurdity.
And I'll not link to such a complete insult to my intelligence.
An excerpt…”I'm simply convinced that there are many in NEPA who simply don't care what happens in the rest of the world. Why does that matter? Simple...by not looking outward many simply have no perspective...they believe that the way it's done here is the way it's done everywhere.”
You could say I shouldn’t take this personally, but isn’t the writer painting with an awfully broad brush? And isn’t he assuming what he could not possibly know? Roughly translated, he’s saying we’re a bunch of dolts too dumb to take our heads out of the sand, himself excluded, of course.
Here’s a keeper, another excerpt…”Apparently some residents of NEPA never got the memo about adults having the ability to use logic to discern fact from fiction, obedience from faith.”
Okay, so forget having our fat heads in the sand as we've been accused of, now we’re reduced to being a bunch of unthinking dolts.
Yet another excerpt…”…we have had generations who could only find marginal employment outside of government. It's my belief that our Economic Development officials have failed us over the years.”
And now we’re being accused of being too completely stupid to earn a living without sucking up to politicos. And that’s a pile load of horse manure.
For the purposes of destroying this most laughable of constructs, let’s use myself, your hated author as an example.
I ended up settling here, so believe it or not, some of us have actually been outside of ‘da valley.’ Yes, I played hockey long before it became the game du jour in these parts, a few decades late.
Employment-wise, I’ve had three, count ‘em, three separate high-paying careers, and all by my own volition. When the bullspit got too deep at any one job, I simply moved on. And not once did I need any assistance from anyone. And never did I need to bribe anyone.
I really hate to burst anyone’s malformed bubble, but to obtain more than “marginal employment,” you need to possess employable skills. There are no lucky people, or “more fortunate” people in this economy being that the days of following daddy into a life of low-paying drudgery and servitude at the local mill are a thing of the past.
These days, you either have skills, or you don’t have skills. And if you don’t, that’s the fault of some nameless, faceless bureaucrat somewhere? You didn’t take advantage of seminars, employer-supplied studies, online courses or available financial aid, but your particular dilemma is not of your own making? The low-paying job, the lack of benefits or a lack of health insurance is somehow somebody else’s fault? For the most part, that’s bilge. Twaddle. An excuse.
Locally, we have a guy, a blogger, who, as a result of losing his job, decided to take the bull by the horns and continue on with his formal education. Or perhaps, his reeducation. He could have taken the low road by claiming victim hood, but instead he chose to rearm.
To suggest that you and I are somehow responsible, somehow complicit while the politicos in this county are dropping like indicted flies is irresponsible flapdoodle of the highest order.
The reason our self-absorbed politicians and their appointed underlings are being disgraced into copping plea agreements is because they chose to usurp the law. They chose to break the law, they chose the low road and now the iron fist of law enforcement has come down with an excruciating painful thud.
I will not be chastised by anyone (no matter how well-meaningingly self-absorbed) for the criminality, the depravity and the immorality of others. And I will not be categorized as being apathetic while all that I’m guilty of is keeping my nose clean, raising a family and working harder and longer than I ever wanted to.
What’s wrong with us?
No, more aptly put, it’s what’s wrong with them? What’s up with people who can’t or won’t discern when enough is enough? Why would so many risk their careers, their cushy personal lives and their reputations for chump change, for mere trinkets? Why? Because they could.
So rather than soul-searching, rather than looking inward, let’s make sure they can’t do it all over again. Let us start paying less attention to the sensational headlines and start focusing more of our personal capital, our time, on the Home Rule charter movement as it continues to develop.
We need real, black and white, enforceable checks and balances. We need to put the governmental systems in place that will all but guarantee us a readily transparent, responsible and responsive county government.
And as for the hand-ringing, the guilt-ridden finger pointing, the introspection and the like, let us not forget that while our elected and appointed were giddily raiding the taxpayer-supplied cookie jar, most of us were merely too busy with our own lives to notice. All that we’re guilty of is trying to live our lives to the best of our abilities, and without breaking the many laws we encounter along the way.
For the purposes of assigning blame for possibly the worst corruption scandal in the history of this rapidly back-sliding country, look to them and not to us. More specifically, look to them and not to me.
Because while the wicked so easily prone to wickedness are being called on their out-of-control wickedness, I got no time nor any need for any self-incrimination. Nah, I’m way too busy for any of that nonsense.
Them’s my restrained thoughts on all of that insufferable subterfuge.
Buh-bye
And I'll not link to such a complete insult to my intelligence.
An excerpt…”I'm simply convinced that there are many in NEPA who simply don't care what happens in the rest of the world. Why does that matter? Simple...by not looking outward many simply have no perspective...they believe that the way it's done here is the way it's done everywhere.”
You could say I shouldn’t take this personally, but isn’t the writer painting with an awfully broad brush? And isn’t he assuming what he could not possibly know? Roughly translated, he’s saying we’re a bunch of dolts too dumb to take our heads out of the sand, himself excluded, of course.
Here’s a keeper, another excerpt…”Apparently some residents of NEPA never got the memo about adults having the ability to use logic to discern fact from fiction, obedience from faith.”
Okay, so forget having our fat heads in the sand as we've been accused of, now we’re reduced to being a bunch of unthinking dolts.
Yet another excerpt…”…we have had generations who could only find marginal employment outside of government. It's my belief that our Economic Development officials have failed us over the years.”
And now we’re being accused of being too completely stupid to earn a living without sucking up to politicos. And that’s a pile load of horse manure.
For the purposes of destroying this most laughable of constructs, let’s use myself, your hated author as an example.
I ended up settling here, so believe it or not, some of us have actually been outside of ‘da valley.’ Yes, I played hockey long before it became the game du jour in these parts, a few decades late.
Employment-wise, I’ve had three, count ‘em, three separate high-paying careers, and all by my own volition. When the bullspit got too deep at any one job, I simply moved on. And not once did I need any assistance from anyone. And never did I need to bribe anyone.
I really hate to burst anyone’s malformed bubble, but to obtain more than “marginal employment,” you need to possess employable skills. There are no lucky people, or “more fortunate” people in this economy being that the days of following daddy into a life of low-paying drudgery and servitude at the local mill are a thing of the past.
These days, you either have skills, or you don’t have skills. And if you don’t, that’s the fault of some nameless, faceless bureaucrat somewhere? You didn’t take advantage of seminars, employer-supplied studies, online courses or available financial aid, but your particular dilemma is not of your own making? The low-paying job, the lack of benefits or a lack of health insurance is somehow somebody else’s fault? For the most part, that’s bilge. Twaddle. An excuse.
Locally, we have a guy, a blogger, who, as a result of losing his job, decided to take the bull by the horns and continue on with his formal education. Or perhaps, his reeducation. He could have taken the low road by claiming victim hood, but instead he chose to rearm.
To suggest that you and I are somehow responsible, somehow complicit while the politicos in this county are dropping like indicted flies is irresponsible flapdoodle of the highest order.
The reason our self-absorbed politicians and their appointed underlings are being disgraced into copping plea agreements is because they chose to usurp the law. They chose to break the law, they chose the low road and now the iron fist of law enforcement has come down with an excruciating painful thud.
I will not be chastised by anyone (no matter how well-meaningingly self-absorbed) for the criminality, the depravity and the immorality of others. And I will not be categorized as being apathetic while all that I’m guilty of is keeping my nose clean, raising a family and working harder and longer than I ever wanted to.
What’s wrong with us?
No, more aptly put, it’s what’s wrong with them? What’s up with people who can’t or won’t discern when enough is enough? Why would so many risk their careers, their cushy personal lives and their reputations for chump change, for mere trinkets? Why? Because they could.
So rather than soul-searching, rather than looking inward, let’s make sure they can’t do it all over again. Let us start paying less attention to the sensational headlines and start focusing more of our personal capital, our time, on the Home Rule charter movement as it continues to develop.
We need real, black and white, enforceable checks and balances. We need to put the governmental systems in place that will all but guarantee us a readily transparent, responsible and responsive county government.
And as for the hand-ringing, the guilt-ridden finger pointing, the introspection and the like, let us not forget that while our elected and appointed were giddily raiding the taxpayer-supplied cookie jar, most of us were merely too busy with our own lives to notice. All that we’re guilty of is trying to live our lives to the best of our abilities, and without breaking the many laws we encounter along the way.
For the purposes of assigning blame for possibly the worst corruption scandal in the history of this rapidly back-sliding country, look to them and not to us. More specifically, look to them and not to me.
Because while the wicked so easily prone to wickedness are being called on their out-of-control wickedness, I got no time nor any need for any self-incrimination. Nah, I’m way too busy for any of that nonsense.
Them’s my restrained thoughts on all of that insufferable subterfuge.
Buh-bye
Friday, December 25, 2009
Merry Xmas
Merry (insert whatever word it is that is least offensive to you)!
I love this holiday. And I love spoiling my grandkids as well. But to be perfectly honest, what feels the best right now is that I have four days off, and I didn’t even have to use any personal time to arrive at this mini-vacation.
Yes, I know it may not fit the template, I realize that it all but destroys the stereotype, but this here particular blogger is gainfully employed. And I enjoy great benefits, too. And to this very day, I haven’t even embarked on any prolonged bouts of plagiarism. Imagine that.
Two of the grandkids, Gage and Taylor, are at their roost down in Knoxville. And the way I hear it, Santa does venture that far south. Last night, the other three maniacal grandkids, Zach, Jeremy and Avery made mincemeat of an estimated metric ton of innocent wrapping paper.
Zach was amazed to find a toy submarine just about as tall as him buried within that pogromized wrapping paper. And Jeremy was likewise open-eyed to spy an Apache attack helicopter topping out at about three and a half feet tall. And Avery, well, Avery just turned two and he really isn’t grasping how this Christmas thing works. After he opened a 5-pack of Matchboxes, he was done. He retired to the flour meant to simulate snow under the tree, and his parental units had to open the remainder of his gifts.
Unlike previous years, I waited, literally, until the last minute to do my Christmas shopping. I headed out early yesterday, and I wanted absolutely nothing to do with the mall, Sprawl Mart, or wherever it is that throngs of people gather and act badly, act overly impatient or where they go to point middle fingers at each other when the traffic predictably bogs down. You know, I chose to eschew what could only be called your typical Christmas shopping entanglement.
And despite the fact that I steered clear of the lack of civility, the lack of courtesy and the lack of any restraint, I managed to drop a quick $1,000 just like that. And near as I can tell, nothing I purchased came coated in that toxic lead mix the Chinese and the Chinese alone specialize in. Near as I can tell, anyway.
Nah, I threw on my headphones, listened to Sue Henry and took care of business. And without being mean to or short with anyone while they hurriedly and rudely annoyed the hell out of me. How ‘bout that?
Actually, Sue Henry has a calming effect on me, much unlike a few of her on-air coworkers. I’ll not go into detail on any of that, since we’re supposed to be nice on a reverent and joyful day such as this.
Sure, a couple of her coworkers make me want to go ballistic all too often; escape the atmosphere, hit the apogee, and then plunge downward delivering destruction. But in this corrupt place, their variedly booming voices are needed now more than they ever were before. Even though they occasionally make me want to beat the puppy, I do greatly appreciate what they bring to the political scrum. So, I forwarded the following to the lot of them:
Yes, I know it may not fit the template, I realize that it all but destroys the stereotype, but this here particular blogger is gainfully employed. And I enjoy great benefits, too. And to this very day, I haven’t even embarked on any prolonged bouts of plagiarism. Imagine that.
Two of the grandkids, Gage and Taylor, are at their roost down in Knoxville. And the way I hear it, Santa does venture that far south. Last night, the other three maniacal grandkids, Zach, Jeremy and Avery made mincemeat of an estimated metric ton of innocent wrapping paper.
Zach was amazed to find a toy submarine just about as tall as him buried within that pogromized wrapping paper. And Jeremy was likewise open-eyed to spy an Apache attack helicopter topping out at about three and a half feet tall. And Avery, well, Avery just turned two and he really isn’t grasping how this Christmas thing works. After he opened a 5-pack of Matchboxes, he was done. He retired to the flour meant to simulate snow under the tree, and his parental units had to open the remainder of his gifts.
Unlike previous years, I waited, literally, until the last minute to do my Christmas shopping. I headed out early yesterday, and I wanted absolutely nothing to do with the mall, Sprawl Mart, or wherever it is that throngs of people gather and act badly, act overly impatient or where they go to point middle fingers at each other when the traffic predictably bogs down. You know, I chose to eschew what could only be called your typical Christmas shopping entanglement.
And despite the fact that I steered clear of the lack of civility, the lack of courtesy and the lack of any restraint, I managed to drop a quick $1,000 just like that. And near as I can tell, nothing I purchased came coated in that toxic lead mix the Chinese and the Chinese alone specialize in. Near as I can tell, anyway.
Nah, I threw on my headphones, listened to Sue Henry and took care of business. And without being mean to or short with anyone while they hurriedly and rudely annoyed the hell out of me. How ‘bout that?
Actually, Sue Henry has a calming effect on me, much unlike a few of her on-air coworkers. I’ll not go into detail on any of that, since we’re supposed to be nice on a reverent and joyful day such as this.
Sure, a couple of her coworkers make me want to go ballistic all too ofte
To my adopted WILK family,
Thanks for keeping me company (sane) while I’m all alone in dark, dank, musty smelly places for hours on end. Thanks for keeping me company when I’m lying prone in darkened crawl spaces from which movement can be detected at the other, unseen end. Thanks for keeping my mind off the fact that I’m stuck in some partially flooded subbasement on a beautiful, sunny day. Basically, thanks for making my mundane work days pass by quicker than they otherwise would have.
More importantly, thanks for continually getting under the skin of our many hapless, clueless and corrupt local politicians. You folks are to local political reporting, editorializing and punditry (muckraking) what the brilliantly beaming sun is to providing comfort on a bitterly cold day.
As we end one tumultuous year and head into what promises to be an equally upside-down year (Rats!), I’d like to extend a Merry Holiday, a Happy Christmas or whatever term is least offensive to one and all.
Enjoy, stay safe and we’ll see you on the other side of the new year.
Markie in Nord End
I received an e-mail response, which is interesting in it’s new year prognosticating…
Hi Mark-
Thanks for the Christmas greetings. I thank you for the enlightening commentary on your blog. It’s because of people like you, people who are involved in what’s going on and voice their opinions, that WILK is able to do what it does. We really couldn’t do it without you.
I think we’re going to be talking about more big power players going down in 2010….strap yourself in…it’s going to be an exciting ride.
Hope you have a great Christmas and are able to be with the grandkids to witness the joy of the season!
Happy and Healthy New Year to you and yours.
(Name deleted by your hated author)
Strap yourself in? I hear that.
Is it possible that our ongoing home grown corruption scandal has no end in sight?
Jesus!!! I shutter to think about it.
Oops. Sorry about that. I’m sure that must violate somebody’s imagined separation of church and blog statute.
Anyway, last night we got to reminiscing about some of our favorite, or most memorable Christmases past.
1967, the year I went Ralphie a la “Christmas Story” on my mom and her husband. And I did get the 2-wheeled bike with the banana seat I wanted. But only after the evil step dad made me believe that my sister got it and not myself.
1969, when my mom and I sat Indian-style in front of the tree in our housecoats and sang that little gray and white Church-supplied Christmas carol book cover-to-cover, and much to the evil step dad’s obvious chagrin. And right after we were done, a tractor trailer jackknifed on the cobblestone hill right out front, slid down the ice-covered hill and smashed through Derby Pizza with a sound not unlike those from the then latest Godzilla release.
That pizza joint must have been cursed or something. They rebuild the place after the big wreck. And some fifteen years later, my ears perked right up when a CNN commentator made mention of Derby, Connecticut. Turned out, a natural gas leak had reduced the entire building to rubble in the blink of an eyelid. No fatalities, but quite a few serious injuries resulted.
Mostly, Christmas makes me miss my mom and my brother all over again. Gaping wounds, I think they're called.
Enough with all of that.
My daughter Ebon pointed out last night that all of us, parents and kids alike, still get along with each other quite handsomely. And that’s a feat that not very many families are capable of. So I guess that’s a tremendous gift in itself.
And I realized early this morning while I was setting up Wifey’s new wireless mouse that this is our 35th Christmas spent together. Can you imagine? She’s as young as she is, and she’s been saddled with the likes of me for 35 years? Seriously, sainthood can’t be very far off for her…St. Wifey. It has a ring to it, I suppose.
Well, if that ain’t enough circumlocution for one day, enough excess verbiage, then I await the meandering, literary-like tour de force.
Long post short, we’re happy, we’re healthy and the government has left us with just enough of our money to be somewhat secure. And I hope everyone who reads this tiring swill can say the same.
Merry Xmas.
Later
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
America's political Chernobyl
From the Times Leader Web site (note the time stamp):
Updated: 5:38 PM
Thomas Cooney chosen to fill Skrepenak's seat
Luzerne County judges have selected Thomas Cooney to fill the seat of commissioner Greg Skrepenak.
The decision came after over a half hour of discussions behind closed doors. Cooney received four of seven votes.
Cooney was chosen from a panel of 14 candidates. Over 60 were interviewed for the position throughout the day.
Cooney is the director of development for the A & E Group. He resides in Jenkins Township.
Who?
A few precursory Google searches using a few differing phrases and the like proves that none of the well-connected, the politicos or the party apparatchiks are asking who this guy is. He’s well-known in their circles of rarified air.
The thing that throws me for a loop is the interviewing process used to arrive at this decision, or should I say, the lack thereof.
Sure, the Times Leader reported some no-shows from among the ranks of the 68 commissioner applicants. There were challenges and disqualifications and all of that predictable sort of stuff. One prospective candidate even withdrew for medical reasons.
But in all honesty, with the sheer volume of applicants to be waded through, I really thought the judges would convene the process and announce that they’d pick up where they left off tomorrow, or in the very, very near future. My thinking was, nobody could interview dozens of applicants, name the new commissioner, and all before dinnertime. Right?
But this Times Leader update did appear…
Interviews of the 14 finalists finished up shortly before 5 p.m. and the judges have begun closed-door deliberations to select a replacement for former commissioner Greg Skrepenak.
So, in review, they interviewed dozens of prospective candidates, and all of this interviewing was accomplished in less than seven hours. Wait. All of this was accomplished in less than seven hours?
Here’s how that must have gone:
Name?
Address?
Favorite color?
Party affiliation?
Thank you for coming.
Budget crisis or no budget crisis, this is a joke. Assuming you have any, this has to be yet another insult to your intelligence.
But hey, this is Luzerne County. This is probably the only place across these fruity plains of ours where you could conduct dozens of interviews starting mid-morning, ending before supper and having a clear winner.
Yeah, this is Luzerne County...America’s political Chernobyl. Why not continue on with the meltdown? Containment? Cooling waters? Screw it.
The back room, closed door plot thickens, the outstanding debts mount, the taxes will surely rise yet again and the populace will no doubt be sickened all over again.
Welcome aboard, Commissioner Who.
Later
Updated: 5:38 PM
Thomas Cooney chosen to fill Skrepenak's seat
Luzerne County judges have selected Thomas Cooney to fill the seat of commissioner Greg Skrepenak.
The decision came after over a half hour of discussions behind closed doors. Cooney received four of seven votes.
Cooney was chosen from a panel of 14 candidates. Over 60 were interviewed for the position throughout the day.
Cooney is the director of development for the A & E Group. He resides in Jenkins Township.
Who?
A few precursory Google searches using a few differing phrases and the like proves that none of the well-connected, the politicos or the party apparatchiks are asking who this guy is. He’s well-known in their circles of rarified air.
The thing that throws me for a loop is the interviewing process used to arrive at this decision, or should I say, the lack thereof.
Sure, the Times Leader reported some no-shows from among the ranks of the 68 commissioner applicants. There were challenges and disqualifications and all of that predictable sort of stuff. One prospective candidate even withdrew for medical reasons.
But in all honesty, with the sheer volume of applicants to be waded through, I really thought the judges would convene the process and announce that they’d pick up where they left off tomorrow, or in the very, very near future. My thinking was, nobody could interview dozens of applicants, name the new commissioner, and all before dinnertime. Right?
But this Times Leader update did appear…
Interviews of the 14 finalists finished up shortly before 5 p.m. and the judges have begun closed-door deliberations to select a replacement for former commissioner Greg Skrepenak.
So, in review, they interviewed dozens of prospective candidates, and all of this interviewing was accomplished in less than seven hours. Wait. All of this was accomplished in less than seven hours?
Here’s how that must have gone:
Name?
Address?
Favorite color?
Party affiliation?
Thank you for coming.
Budget crisis or no budget crisis, this is a joke. Assuming you have any, this has to be yet another insult to your intelligence.
But hey, this is Luzerne County. This is probably the only place across these fruity plains of ours where you could conduct dozens of interviews starting mid-morning, ending before supper and having a clear winner.
Yeah, this is Luzerne County...America’s political Chernobyl. Why not continue on with the meltdown? Containment? Cooling waters? Screw it.
The back room, closed door plot thickens, the outstanding debts mount, the taxes will surely rise yet again and the populace will no doubt be sickened all over again.
Welcome aboard, Commissioner Who.
Later
The fix is in
If you reside in this county, or if you follow our many disturbing travails, you already know we need a new commissioner appointed by tonight. Or was it by yesterday?
Either way, our judiciary will interview the following gaggle of applicants, and then vote in secret and behind closed doors no less.
Below is the list of prospective commissioners as compiled by the Times Leader:
Here’s a list of the 67 applicants for the commissioner seat, in no particular order: Clif Madrak, Plymouth; Justin McCarthy, Wilkes-Barre; Nicholas Volpetti, Kingston; Lawrence DeFluri, Hazle Township; Michael Szustak, Kingston; Rob Reddington, Hanover Township; Edward Palka, Kingston Township; John Pitcavage, Swoyersville; Charlene Aben, Swoyersville; Joseph J. Carey Sr., Hanover Township; Kenneth M. Phillips, Mountain Top; Terrence E. “Terry” Siple, Wilkes-Barre; Charles G. Blewitt, Kingston; Wilfred E. Toole, Dupont; Allan J. Mago, Wilkes-Barre Township; Mahesh (Mike) Trivedi, Butler Township; Eileen M. Sorokas, Wilkes-Barre; Joseph Gill, Hanover Township; Alfred Akulonis Jr., Duryea; Allison Walzer, Jackson Township; Michael S. Giamber, Ross Township; Joseph Morren, White Haven; Bonnie Lini Markowski, Plains Township; James Hassel, Wilkes-Barre; David Owen Roberts, Bear Creek Township; John J. Brennan, Kingston; John (Jack) Legins, Nanticoke; Curtis Muffley, Pittston; Amer Haobsh, Swoyersville; Adam Bender, Hanover Township; Thomas F. Connell, Plains Township; Marylee Brennan Ferrell, Wilkes-Barre; John F. Bednar Jr., Wilkes-Barre; Gerald D. Bau, Shickshinny; Joseph J. Gombeda, Hazle Township; James A. Casey III, Wilkes-Barre; Michael McGlynn, Duryea; Frank J. Trinisewski Jr., Mountain Top; Bob Morgan, Mountain Top; Richard Shermanski, Mountain Top; Jon Trosky, Butler Township; Thomas P. Cooney, Jenkins Township; Lillian Thomas, Kingston; Gary Zingaretti, Bear Creek Township; Darren G. Snyder, Wilkes-Barre; Brian E. McHugh, Kingston; James G. Zoller, Nanticoke; Steven Dommes, Duryea; William Andrews, White Haven; Adam Ruderman, West Pittston; Ronald Tirko Jr., Courtdale; Timothy McGinley, Kingston; Cynthia Smith, Plymouth; Gordon Snow, Mountain Top; William Balchune, Pittston; Michael Hrinko Jr., Nanticoke; John T. Banks, Wilkes-Barre; Thomas Dombroski, Kingston Township; Phillip Knobel, Exeter; Joseph A. Naperkowski, Wilkes-Barre; Antonio J. Rodriquez, Hazleton; Robert L. Shainline Sr., Pittston; Gary R. Shupp, Mountain Top; Beth Ann Wenner, Freeland; Sam Pennartz, Wyoming; Gary Reese, Kingston; and Greg Gulick, Mountain Top.
The way I see it, here’s the scoop. We’ll never know the details, so what follows is speculation on my part.
Despite the fact that Greg Skrepenak is feigning ignorance, I figure he knew his goose was cooked many moons ago. And if that’s true, it only stands to reason that he could have resigned weeks ago, perhaps even months ago.
But, with the county’s budget hanging in the balance, and with a much-needed Tax Anticipation Note hanging in the balance, and with the cutbacks/tax increase ratio hanging in the balance, he chose to resign just a fortnight before the 2010 budget had to be hammered out, finalized and approved.
Therefore, I am of the opinion that his chosen resignation date was a ruse perpetrated by some unseen body for the purposes of creating a purposely crafted budgetary emergency. And because of that cleverly crafted emergency, it’s already been said that this newly appointed commissioner must be familiar with the budgetary process and all that’s associated with such a process. In other words, we need a blast from the past. We need one of them good old boys from within the dwindling (not yet indicted) ranks of the party of corruption in Luzerne County.
I guess what I’m trying to say is, in my opinion…the fix is in.
The smart money is on former commissioner Frank Trinisewski.
Will our judiciary further muddy it's already thoroughly soiled reputation?
Methinks it will.
Later
Either way, our judiciary will interview the following gaggle of applicants, and then vote in secret and behind closed doors no less.
Below is the list of prospective commissioners as compiled by the Times Leader:
Here’s a list of the 67 applicants for the commissioner seat, in no particular order: Clif Madrak, Plymouth; Justin McCarthy, Wilkes-Barre; Nicholas Volpetti, Kingston; Lawrence DeFluri, Hazle Township; Michael Szustak, Kingston; Rob Reddington, Hanover Township; Edward Palka, Kingston Township; John Pitcavage, Swoyersville; Charlene Aben, Swoyersville; Joseph J. Carey Sr., Hanover Township; Kenneth M. Phillips, Mountain Top; Terrence E. “Terry” Siple, Wilkes-Barre; Charles G. Blewitt, Kingston; Wilfred E. Toole, Dupont; Allan J. Mago, Wilkes-Barre Township; Mahesh (Mike) Trivedi, Butler Township; Eileen M. Sorokas, Wilkes-Barre; Joseph Gill, Hanover Township; Alfred Akulonis Jr., Duryea; Allison Walzer, Jackson Township; Michael S. Giamber, Ross Township; Joseph Morren, White Haven; Bonnie Lini Markowski, Plains Township; James Hassel, Wilkes-Barre; David Owen Roberts, Bear Creek Township; John J. Brennan, Kingston; John (Jack) Legins, Nanticoke; Curtis Muffley, Pittston; Amer Haobsh, Swoyersville; Adam Bender, Hanover Township; Thomas F. Connell, Plains Township; Marylee Brennan Ferrell, Wilkes-Barre; John F. Bednar Jr., Wilkes-Barre; Gerald D. Bau, Shickshinny; Joseph J. Gombeda, Hazle Township; James A. Casey III, Wilkes-Barre; Michael McGlynn, Duryea; Frank J. Trinisewski Jr., Mountain Top; Bob Morgan, Mountain Top; Richard Shermanski, Mountain Top; Jon Trosky, Butler Township; Thomas P. Cooney, Jenkins Township; Lillian Thomas, Kingston; Gary Zingaretti, Bear Creek Township; Darren G. Snyder, Wilkes-Barre; Brian E. McHugh, Kingston; James G. Zoller, Nanticoke; Steven Dommes, Duryea; William Andrews, White Haven; Adam Ruderman, West Pittston; Ronald Tirko Jr., Courtdale; Timothy McGinley, Kingston; Cynthia Smith, Plymouth; Gordon Snow, Mountain Top; William Balchune, Pittston; Michael Hrinko Jr., Nanticoke; John T. Banks, Wilkes-Barre; Thomas Dombroski, Kingston Township; Phillip Knobel, Exeter; Joseph A. Naperkowski, Wilkes-Barre; Antonio J. Rodriquez, Hazleton; Robert L. Shainline Sr., Pittston; Gary R. Shupp, Mountain Top; Beth Ann Wenner, Freeland; Sam Pennartz, Wyoming; Gary Reese, Kingston; and Greg Gulick, Mountain Top.
The way I see it, here’s the scoop. We’ll never know the details, so what follows is speculation on my part.
Despite the fact that Greg Skrepenak is feigning ignorance, I figure he knew his goose was cooked many moons ago. And if that’s true, it only stands to reason that he could have resigned weeks ago, perhaps even months ago.
But, with the county’s budget hanging in the balance, and with a much-needed Tax Anticipation Note hanging in the balance, and with the cutbacks/tax increase ratio hanging in the balance, he chose to resign just a fortnight before the 2010 budget had to be hammered out, finalized and approved.
Therefore, I am of the opinion that his chosen resignation date was a ruse perpetrated by some unseen body for the purposes of creating a purposely crafted budgetary emergency. And because of that cleverly crafted emergency, it’s already been said that this newly appointed commissioner must be familiar with the budgetary process and all that’s associated with such a process. In other words, we need a blast from the past. We need one of them good old boys from within the dwindling (not yet indicted) ranks of the party of corruption in Luzerne County.
I guess what I’m trying to say is, in my opinion…the fix is in.
The smart money is on former commissioner Frank Trinisewski.
Will our judiciary further muddy it's already thoroughly soiled reputation?
Methinks it will.
Later
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Avatar
My grandson Zach and I moseyed on down to Movies 14 late this afternoon to see James Cameron’s latest theatrical release…Avatar.
I snagged the following from the trailer:
In Theatres Worldwide December 18 - AVATAR takes us to a spectacular world beyond imagination, where a reluctant hero embarks on an epic adventure, ultimately fighting to save the alien world he has learned to call home. James Cameron, the Oscar-winning director of Titanic, first conceived the film 15 years ago, when the means to realize his vision did not exist yet. Now, after four years of production, AVATAR, a live action film with a new generation of special effects, delivers a fully immersive cinematic experience of a new kind, where the revolutionary technology invented to make the film disappears into the emotion of the characters and the sweep of the story.
And Markie’s review?
I’ve seen plenty of 3-D movies, and I always came away wondering what all the fuss was about. The effects weren’t all that amazing. And wearing the glasses was always kind of annoying. But this flick, this latest 3-D wizardry is truly something to behold.
And the mix of cinematography, CGI, 3-D and whatever technology Cameron purportedly invented and perfected all mixed together were at times visually breathtaking, if not downright stunning. Mind-blowing, it was.
There were a couple of scenes in which the frame is looking downward from dizzying altitudes when I felt this Vertigo sensation coming over me. And all too often, the scenes from within the jungles had me lifting my arm as if to shoo away insects that seemed to be fluttering right before my eyes. And in one scene I lurched just as an automatic weapon appeared to be too close to impaling me. Crazy stuff and well worth the price of admission.
And how about a movie that causes you to root for the alien life forms, and against the human race? That's different. That hasn’t happened for me since I was in junior high and cuddled up with a hand-me-down Arthur C. Clarke paperback.
It’s been reported that Cameron spent over $300 million on the production of this movie, a figure that had 20th Century Fox worried about whether or not it would get a handsome return on it’s record-breaking investment. The way I see it, they ought to relax, if not, start celebrating. This is a must-see movie. And in hindsight, it will be considered groundbreaking in it‘s cutting edge technological innovation.
Markie sez…8 thumbs up. Er, something like that.
Do it now.
Later
(Sue...Jimmy told me about the backpack. I searched under the bridge and along the railroad tracks, but no bag. Sorry. My guess is that the Ipod shows up at the Trading Post pawn shop.)
I snagged the following from the trailer:
In Theatres Worldwide December 18 - AVATAR takes us to a spectacular world beyond imagination, where a reluctant hero embarks on an epic adventure, ultimately fighting to save the alien world he has learned to call home. James Cameron, the Oscar-winning director of Titanic, first conceived the film 15 years ago, when the means to realize his vision did not exist yet. Now, after four years of production, AVATAR, a live action film with a new generation of special effects, delivers a fully immersive cinematic experience of a new kind, where the revolutionary technology invented to make the film disappears into the emotion of the characters and the sweep of the story.
And Markie’s review?
I’ve seen plenty of 3-D movies, and I always came away wondering what all the fuss was about. The effects weren’t all that amazing. And wearing the glasses was always kind of annoying. But this flick, this latest 3-D wizardry is truly something to behold.
And the mix of cinematography, CGI, 3-D and whatever technology Cameron purportedly invented and perfected all mixed together were at times visually breathtaking, if not downright stunning. Mind-blowing, it was.
There were a couple of scenes in which the frame is looking downward from dizzying altitudes when I felt this Vertigo sensation coming over me. And all too often, the scenes from within the jungles had me lifting my arm as if to shoo away insects that seemed to be fluttering right before my eyes. And in one scene I lurched just as an automatic weapon appeared to be too close to impaling me. Crazy stuff and well worth the price of admission.
And how about a movie that causes you to root for the alien life forms, and against the human race? That's different. That hasn’t happened for me since I was in junior high and cuddled up with a hand-me-down Arthur C. Clarke paperback.
It’s been reported that Cameron spent over $300 million on the production of this movie, a figure that had 20th Century Fox worried about whether or not it would get a handsome return on it’s record-breaking investment. The way I see it, they ought to relax, if not, start celebrating. This is a must-see movie. And in hindsight, it will be considered groundbreaking in it‘s cutting edge technological innovation.
Markie sez…8 thumbs up. Er, something like that.
Do it now.
Later
(Sue...Jimmy told me about the backpack. I searched under the bridge and along the railroad tracks, but no bag. Sorry. My guess is that the Ipod shows up at the Trading Post pawn shop.)
What Culm County needs is a gas-laden enema
“I again want to stress my heartfelt sorrow for what has taken place. I can say without hesitation that I never intended to do wrong.”--Greg Skrepenak
So, the most highly-anticipated ‘surprise’ in the history of Culm County has finally come to pass. Greg Skrepenak went and stepped down in disgrace.
I hearken back to, I think it was 2001, when then WILK radio talk show host Fred Williams had Skrep on his show and was encouraging him to run for an elected office on the local scene.
Now, even though I had absolutely nothing against the ex-NFL lineman, I was seriously annoyed with Fred and found myself shouting at the radio. As if this area didn’t have enough of a leadership vacuum back then, here we had the most popular local political raconteur of the time trying to add to the vacuous mix. Argh!
Needless to say, I was disinclined to vote for any ex-jock, and never did Skrep receive my vote.
Still though, he shot right to the top here in Culm County. And now his lackluster political dalliances have led him to this fateful day. Even if he never intended to do wrong, apparently he got plenty wrong.
And while the anonymous assassins of the internet will have at him with their incessant electronic name-calling and vitriol and what have you, a big, big part of me can’t help but feeling sad about what has become of the freakishly big kid I used to plunk down cash money to see perform on the gridiron and on the court.
The way I see it, the decades-old status quo in Luzerne County can make losers out of everyone, anyone, no matter their original background and no matter their originally high-minded intentions. So now, perceived flaws, warts, foibles and all, it’s time to do away with the cash-stuffed envelopes, the business-as-usual governing by way of back room deals, it’s time to vote Yes for Home Rule. If the system is too easy to manipulate for personal gain, then it’s time to change the system.
Despite the lofty promises made to us--the voting, tax-paying public--by both Todd Vonderheid and Greg Skrepenak back in 2003, all that they really managed were a couple of personal foul calls, and now a game misconduct. One retired from the game and the other has been ejected by the refs.
So much for that playbook.
What else?
Oh yeah, some snot-nosed college kid went and complained about a nativity scene on the courthouse lawn. And true to form, the ACLU came a callin’ with threats of legal action.
Yawn.
First of all, I loathe people who spend too much of their time trying to be offended by damn near everything. Seriously. If a plastic figurine of any sort has put you off your lunch, you ought not go on breathing.
And please don’t send me any legalese claptrap. I’ve read it all before, the “separation of church and state” malarkey that is nowhere to be found in any of our founding or supporting documents. It’s bunk. I know it. You know it. And so do the easily-offended pansies.
Anyway, so the kid got his ill begotten 15 seconds of fame (or is it shame?), but the most cockamamie part of this story is the gross overreaction of the hardscrabble hoi polloi, as well as the elected, the appointed and some of their well-connected attorney friends.
This is a fight we need to fight? We will spare any expense in a county that can’t balance a single fiscal budget, can’t stop hemorrhaging tidal waves of red ink and can’t even imagine how to begin retiring it‘s $466 million in outstanding debts?
But we will fight to save our plastic figurines?!?
“Whoever we are, wherever we’re from, we should have noticed by now our behavior is dumb. And if our chances except to improve, it's gonna take a lot more than tryin' to remove the other race or the other whatever from the face of the planet altogether.”--Francis Vincent Zappa
You know, if Greg Skrepenak did as was alleged, if he accepted bribes from some developer who wanted a Tax Incremental Financing (TIF) zone created for their personal enrichment, then I can’t help but to wonder how much money changed hands on the down-low when the Keystone Opportunity Zones (KOZ) were first created here back in 1999.
As first envisioned, KOZs were supposed to trigger investments in long dormant or blighted properties, to bring businesses to blighted areas, and with the end result being job creation, job creation and more job creation. KOZ properties are exempted from property taxes, business privilege taxes and mercantile taxes after the host school board, municipality and county approve of the designation.
But all too often, the tax-exempt designations have become personal tax shelters for the well-connected and nothing else.
Case in point: Lowes’s Restaurant, West Market Street, Wilkes-Barre. An existing restaurant owned by a congressman’s underling is declared a KOZ property in 1999, all taxes are forgiven for a decade, and then the restaurant is sold to an adjoining business owner.
Were any investments made in that tax-exempt property? Were any jobs created? Was any blight removed? No. So the only party that benefited from that KOZ status was the property owner, the longtime political player. As for the community at large, well, we got the decreased tax base.
And whether any bribes were proffered matters not to me. The undeniable fact is that a congressman’s aide was given a tax exemption for a decade. And now that that decade has passed, where’s the cost-benefit analysis? Were any capital investments made to said property? Were any jobs created? And should we be insulted, should we be further maddened by the fact that he ended up being Pennsylvania's Director for Rural Development?
The owner of the newsstand wasn’t afforded as much. And neither was the owner of the deli, or the guy who owns the downtown music store. No, only the well-connected are afforded a tax-exempt status that flies in the face of the original intent of the KOZ program.
And that’s not corruption?
Perhaps a huge investigation needs to be conducted of the various and sundry folks who apply for and receive KOZ status, Tax Incremental Financing (TIF) freebies, Local Economic Revitalization Tax Assistance (LERTA) giveaways, Rural Business Enterprise Grants (RBEG) and the people who awarded them in the first place.
It seems the State Department of Community and Economic Development has delegated too, too much to the local yokels who have clearly demonstrated they can’t be trusted when the big deals are made on the back nine in violation of the Sunshine Laws.
Who gets what, why, and how much money was passed under the table in advance? Is that too much to ask being that we are then called upon to shore up the declining tax base? Methinks not.
The long and short of it is, when what would have been public money is used for private gain, in my denuded mind, that’s corruption.
Now somebody send me that FBI tip line number, will you?
Ah, never mind.
What Culm County needs is a gas-laden enema. And with that much-needed accelerant inserted, all we need is the match.
Sez me.
6 more days ‘til Christmas and I haven’t bought a single thing. Not a gift. Not a foodstuff. And no wrapping paper or frilly bows.
In other words, from here on out, stay well out of my way. You have been duly warned.
Merry Christmas.
Later
So, the most highly-anticipated ‘surprise’ in the history of Culm County has finally come to pass. Greg Skrepenak went and stepped down in disgrace.
I hearken back to, I think it was 2001, when then WILK radio talk show host Fred Williams had Skrep on his show and was encouraging him to run for an elected office on the local scene.
Now, even though I had absolutely nothing against the ex-NFL lineman, I was seriously annoyed with Fred and found myself shouting at the radio. As if this area didn’t have enough of a leadership vacuum back then, here we had the most popular local political raconteur of the time trying to add to the vacuous mix. Argh!
Needless to say, I was disinclined to vote for any ex-jock, and never did Skrep receive my vote.
Still though, he shot right to the top here in Culm County. And now his lackluster political dalliances have led him to this fateful day. Even if he never intended to do wrong, apparently he got plenty wrong.
And while the anonymous assassins of the internet will have at him with their incessant electronic name-calling and vitriol and what have you, a big, big part of me can’t help but feeling sad about what has become of the freakishly big kid I used to plunk down cash money to see perform on the gridiron and on the court.
The way I see it, the decades-old status quo in Luzerne County can make losers out of everyone, anyone, no matter their original background and no matter their originally high-minded intentions. So now, perceived flaws, warts, foibles and all, it’s time to do away with the cash-stuffed envelopes, the business-as-usual governing by way of back room deals, it’s time to vote Yes for Home Rule. If the system is too easy to manipulate for personal gain, then it’s time to change the system.
Despite the lofty promises made to us--the voting, tax-paying public--by both Todd Vonderheid and Greg Skrepenak back in 2003, all that they really managed were a couple of personal foul calls, and now a game misconduct. One retired from the game and the other has been ejected by the refs.
So much for that playbook.
What else?
Oh yeah, some snot-nosed college kid went and complained about a nativity scene on the courthouse lawn. And true to form, the ACLU came a callin’ with threats of legal action.
Yawn.
First of all, I loathe people who spend too much of their time trying to be offended by damn near everything. Seriously. If a plastic figurine of any sort has put you off your lunch, you ought not go on breathing.
And please don’t send me any legalese claptrap. I’ve read it all before, the “separation of church and state” malarkey that is nowhere to be found in any of our founding or supporting documents. It’s bunk. I know it. You know it. And so do the easily-offended pansies.
Anyway, so the kid got his ill begotten 15 seconds of fame (or is it shame?), but the most cockamamie part of this story is the gross overreaction of the hardscrabble hoi polloi, as well as the elected, the appointed and some of their well-connected attorney friends.
This is a fight we need to fight? We will spare any expense in a county that can’t balance a single fiscal budget, can’t stop hemorrhaging tidal waves of red ink and can’t even imagine how to begin retiring it‘s $466 million in outstanding debts?
But we will fight to save our plastic figurines?!?
“Whoever we are, wherever we’re from, we should have noticed by now our behavior is dumb. And if our chances except to improve, it's gonna take a lot more than tryin' to remove the other race or the other whatever from the face of the planet altogether.”--Francis Vincent Zappa
You know, if Greg Skrepenak did as was alleged, if he accepted bribes from some developer who wanted a Tax Incremental Financing (TIF) zone created for their personal enrichment, then I can’t help but to wonder how much money changed hands on the down-low when the Keystone Opportunity Zones (KOZ) were first created here back in 1999.
As first envisioned, KOZs were supposed to trigger investments in long dormant or blighted properties, to bring businesses to blighted areas, and with the end result being job creation, job creation and more job creation. KOZ properties are exempted from property taxes, business privilege taxes and mercantile taxes after the host school board, municipality and county approve of the designation.
But all too often, the tax-exempt designations have become personal tax shelters for the well-connected and nothing else.
Case in point: Lowes’s Restaurant, West Market Street, Wilkes-Barre. An existing restaurant owned by a congressman’s underling is declared a KOZ property in 1999, all taxes are forgiven for a decade, and then the restaurant is sold to an adjoining business owner.
Were any investments made in that tax-exempt property? Were any jobs created? Was any blight removed? No. So the only party that benefited from that KOZ status was the property owner, the longtime political player. As for the community at large, well, we got the decreased tax base.
And whether any bribes were proffered matters not to me. The undeniable fact is that a congressman’s aide was given a tax exemption for a decade. And now that that decade has passed, where’s the cost-benefit analysis? Were any capital investments made to said property? Were any jobs created? And should we be insulted, should we be further maddened by the fact that he ended up being Pennsylvania's Director for Rural Development?
The owner of the newsstand wasn’t afforded as much. And neither was the owner of the deli, or the guy who owns the downtown music store. No, only the well-connected are afforded a tax-exempt status that flies in the face of the original intent of the KOZ program.
And that’s not corruption?
Perhaps a huge investigation needs to be conducted of the various and sundry folks who apply for and receive KOZ status, Tax Incremental Financing (TIF) freebies, Local Economic Revitalization Tax Assistance (LERTA) giveaways, Rural Business Enterprise Grants (RBEG) and the people who awarded them in the first place.
It seems the State Department of Community and Economic Development has delegated too, too much to the local yokels who have clearly demonstrated they can’t be trusted when the big deals are made on the back nine in violation of the Sunshine Laws.
Who gets what, why, and how much money was passed under the table in advance? Is that too much to ask being that we are then called upon to shore up the declining tax base? Methinks not.
The long and short of it is, when what would have been public money is used for private gain, in my denuded mind, that’s corruption.
Now somebody send me that FBI tip line number, will you?
Ah, never mind.
What Culm County needs is a gas-laden enema. And with that much-needed accelerant inserted, all we need is the match.
Sez me.
6 more days ‘til Christmas and I haven’t bought a single thing. Not a gift. Not a foodstuff. And no wrapping paper or frilly bows.
In other words, from here on out, stay well out of my way. You have been duly warned.
Merry Christmas.
Later
Monday, December 14, 2009
Druggies with drills
Here's a reprint from the Times-Tribune of Scranton.
The link was provided to me by none other than Kayak Dude. Think about this before you lease your land to any energy outfit.
Cabot workers fail drug tests
Employees at gas wells tested positive
by jeremy g. burton (staff writer)
Published: December 12, 2009
Contracted workers at natural gas wells in Susquehanna County tested positive this week for using illegal drugs or alcohol on the job, a spokesman for Cabot Oil and Gas Corp. confirmed Friday.
Kenneth Komoroski, a Cabot attorney, said surprise drug tests conducted Tuesday and Wednesday were prompted by an employee who was concerned about the use of drugs and alcohol at well sites in Dimock Twp. Mr. Komoroski said the results are preliminary and would not be final for another two weeks, pending further testing.
He also said he did not know the number of employees who tested positive, or for what substances they tested positive. Cabot has a "zero-tolerance" policy and would terminate anyone found to violate it, Mr. Komoroski said.
Cabot is a Texas-based natural gas operator that has drilled 63 Marcellus Shale wells in Susquehanna County and has permits to drill about 60 more. A group of 15 families filed a lawsuit against the company Nov. 20, alleging Cabot ruined their water supply, polluted their land and endangered their health.
Cabot denies the claims.
Mr. Komoroski said the company responded swiftly when alerted to the drug and alcohol problem just before Thanksgiving, and Cabot routinely drug tests employees.
"These are important issues, very important issues, and it is unacceptable to have workers under the influence working on well sites," he said.
Michael Lebron, a consultant and liaison for the 15 families suing Cabot, expressed doubt that Cabot is committed to the community's well-being. The company, he said, has repeatedly exhibited a "negligent attitude" and an "irresponsibility to the people they've signed leases with."
Cabot takes its responsibilities seriously, Mr. Komoroski said. The company drug-tested every employee in the county, using a third-party firm that brought in drug-sniffing dogs to canvass the wells, he said.
Neither state police nor local authorities were involved in the internal investigation, Mr. Komoroski said.
When asked Friday about possible drug arrests involving gas well workers, the Susquehanna County district attorney's office said it was unaware of the situation.
tinely drug tests employees.
"These are important issues, very important issues, and it is unacceptable to have workers under the influence working on well sites," he said.
Michael Lebron, a consultant and liaison for the 15 families suing Cabot, expressed doubt that Cabot is committed to the community's well-being. The company, he said, has repeatedly exhibited a "negligent attitude" and an "irresponsibility to the people they've signed leases with."
Cabot takes its responsibilities seriously, Mr. Komoroski said. The company drug-tested every employee in the county, using a third-party firm that brought in drug-sniffing dogs to canvass the wells, he said.
Neither state police nor local authorities were involved in the internal investigation, Mr. Komoroski said.
When asked Friday about possible drug arrests involving gas well workers, the Susquehanna County district attorney's office said it was unaware of the situation.
Contact the writer: jburton@timesshamrock.com
The link was provided to me by none other than Kayak Dude. Think about this before you lease your land to any energy outfit.
Cabot workers fail drug tests
Employees at gas wells tested positive
by jeremy g. burton (staff writer)
Published: December 12, 2009
Contracted workers at natural gas wells in Susquehanna County tested positive this week for using illegal drugs or alcohol on the job, a spokesman for Cabot Oil and Gas Corp. confirmed Friday.
Kenneth Komoroski, a Cabot attorney, said surprise drug tests conducted Tuesday and Wednesday were prompted by an employee who was concerned about the use of drugs and alcohol at well sites in Dimock Twp. Mr. Komoroski said the results are preliminary and would not be final for another two weeks, pending further testing.
He also said he did not know the number of employees who tested positive, or for what substances they tested positive. Cabot has a "zero-tolerance" policy and would terminate anyone found to violate it, Mr. Komoroski said.
Cabot is a Texas-based natural gas operator that has drilled 63 Marcellus Shale wells in Susquehanna County and has permits to drill about 60 more. A group of 15 families filed a lawsuit against the company Nov. 20, alleging Cabot ruined their water supply, polluted their land and endangered their health.
Cabot denies the claims.
Mr. Komoroski said the company responded swiftly when alerted to the drug and alcohol problem just before Thanksgiving, and Cabot routinely drug tests employees.
"These are important issues, very important issues, and it is unacceptable to have workers under the influence working on well sites," he said.
Michael Lebron, a consultant and liaison for the 15 families suing Cabot, expressed doubt that Cabot is committed to the community's well-being. The company, he said, has repeatedly exhibited a "negligent attitude" and an "irresponsibility to the people they've signed leases with."
Cabot takes its responsibilities seriously, Mr. Komoroski said. The company drug-tested every employee in the county, using a third-party firm that brought in drug-sniffing dogs to canvass the wells, he said.
Neither state police nor local authorities were involved in the internal investigation, Mr. Komoroski said.
When asked Friday about possible drug arrests involving gas well workers, the Susquehanna County district attorney's office said it was unaware of the situation.
tinely drug tests employees.
"These are important issues, very important issues, and it is unacceptable to have workers under the influence working on well sites," he said.
Michael Lebron, a consultant and liaison for the 15 families suing Cabot, expressed doubt that Cabot is committed to the community's well-being. The company, he said, has repeatedly exhibited a "negligent attitude" and an "irresponsibility to the people they've signed leases with."
Cabot takes its responsibilities seriously, Mr. Komoroski said. The company drug-tested every employee in the county, using a third-party firm that brought in drug-sniffing dogs to canvass the wells, he said.
Neither state police nor local authorities were involved in the internal investigation, Mr. Komoroski said.
When asked Friday about possible drug arrests involving gas well workers, the Susquehanna County district attorney's office said it was unaware of the situation.
Contact the writer: jburton@timesshamrock.com
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