The LuLac Edition #144, Feb. 2, 2007

PHOTO INDEX: MEET COLONEL SANDERS (LEFT) WHO GAINED FAME AND FORTUNE SELLING FRIED CHICKEN TO THE WORLD. NEXT, MEET COLONEL BOB MELLOW (RIGHT) WHO CONTINUES TO SERVE UP THE SAME STALE MEAL TO HIS CONSTITUENTS WHEN IT COMES TO EXCESSIVE AND GREEDY SPENDING BY THE PA. STATE LEGISLATURE. (MELLOW WAS NAMED AN OFFICIAL KENTUCKY COLONEL FOR HIS MANY YEARS OF PUBLIC SERVICE BY A KENTUCKY GOVERNOR. OH IF ONLY MELLOW WERE IN THE BLUEGRASS STATE PERMANENTLY! ) ANYWAY, MELLOW'S LATEST BROMIDE IS REGARDING THE RECENT BONUS PAYMENTS MEMBERS OF THE STATE HOUSE AND SENATE STAFF RECIEVED OVER AND ABOVE THEIR SALARIES. THE COLONEL, (MELLOW NOT SANDERS) SAYS, "THEY WORK HARD". AS IF WE DON'T.


THE BONUS

BOONDOGGLE

You would think that after all the bad blood over last year's payraise and the way some incumbents suddenly discovered their longing for the folks back home, the State Legislature might have learned a lesson. But NO!
Now it comes to our attention that staffers working for these representatives recieved bonuses at the end of the year for work "above and beyond". Apparently, the Legislators still don't realize they work for the people and not some Wall Street entity that routinely treats the "stars" at the top. THe Legislators say the bonuses were given because the staffers worked "extra hard". My guess is these so called "staffers" would last a hot three minutes in the private sector. Take a gander at this:
Senate and House Republicans released a long list of employees who got bonuses for legislative work in 2005-06, with one new GOP senator calling for a state audit of all four legislative caucuses to see if any taxpayer money had been used illegally as "political payback'' for campaign work.
Sen. John Eichelberger, R-Blair, who last May upset former Senate President Pro Tem Robert Jubelirer in a primary, applauded the new president pro tem, Sen. Joe Scarnati, R-Jefferson, for releasing the two-year list of Senate bonuses and for immediately halting the practice of giving them out.
The bonuses, which weren't made public until yesterday, totaled more than $1 million for about 250 employees over the past two years.
Mr. Eichelberger called for an attorney general audit of the Legislature, "including all leadership accounts in both houses,'' such as the four accounts of $50 million each that are controlled by the House and Senate Democratic and Republican leaders. They use them for salaries, office rentals, travel and other expenses.
Mr. Eichelberger said he wants Attorney General Tom Corbett "to investigate any possibility of political payback with taxpayer funds for a select group of individuals typically involved in campaign work.''
A Corbett spokesman, said the office would have to study the senator's request before commenting.
He has called the bonuses he gave this month to unnamed House Democratic staffers "an internal personnel matter,'' even though the money came from taxpayer-funded House accounts. In a letter to the recipients, he told them to keep quiet about the bonuses.
Mr. Scarnati and new Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, R-Delaware, said they "were not involved in those decisions'' to give bonuses in 2005-06. They said they only recently "became aware that supplemental payments had been awarded in the past to some Senate Republican caucus staff for legislative work. We are ending this practice immediately.''
In releasing the list of bonus recipients, they said, "We are committed to the principle that the public has a right to know how their money is spent.''
The top bonus recipients for the two-year period of 2005-06 included: Mike Long, a top aide to Mr. Jubelirer, who received $41,405; David Atkinson, press secretary for Mr. Jubelirer, $36,278; Senate parliamentarian Mark Corrigan and Chief Clerk Russell Faber each got $35,126 in bonuses; Steve MacNett, GOP legal counsel, $32,801; Donna Malpezzi, an aide to former GOP leader David Brightbill, $33,427; Drew Crompton, legal counsel to Mr. Jubelirer, $30,767; and Erik Arneson, press aide to Mr. Brightbill, $22,480. In all, 47 Senate employees got bonuses in those two years.
House Republican leader Sam Smith also released a long list of GOP staffers who got bonuses in 2005-06 for outstanding legislative work, but he said he plans to continue the practice, where warranted.
The bonuses, for both staff in legislators' district offices and in the Harrisburg office, totaled $649,661 in 2005, decreasing to $269,608 in 2006. More than 200 employees got bonuses.
"In no way is the House bonus plan related to volunteer campaign participation,'' said Smith spokesman Steve Miskin. "That would be illegal, and if it wasn't illegal, it would be just plain wrong. We are rewarding exceptional legislative work for people who have reached their maximum salary cap.''
Okay then, why don’t we, the citizens of Pennsylvania do this. Since we are all exceptional at something, perhaps we should ask the State Senators to give us a bonus. If the Legislative flunkies are worth it, we certainly can be too. And it just wasn’t the Republicans either.
Bowing to pressure, House Democrats yesterday released details of $1.9 million in bonuses paid to staffers last year, an amount that Gov. Ed Rendell said astonished him.
"It's stunning to me that [legislative leaders] would do this,'' he said. "It shows the need for reform is urgent.''
Ed, (and all my blog readers know I love him) reminds me of the Police Chief “Louis” in the movie “Casablanca” when he found out there was gambling at Rick’s Café!
Meanwhile, one legislative watchdog has asked the state attorney general to investigate whether bonuses were illegally used to reward staffers for campaign work.
"Last year was an intense political year. Political activity by legislative members and legislative staff may have taken place in taxpayer-funded offices, during taxpayer-funded working hours, using taxpayer-funded equipment and services," activist Gene Stilp said in a letter to Attorney General Tom Corbett.
"You may want to look at bonus payments ... to determine if there have been rewards for political activity or inappropriate political activity in any legislative office even without rewards."
The bonuses paid by House Democrats ranged from $65 to $28,000 and amounted to more than four times as much as in 2005, a non-election year. In all, 678 of the caucus's 814 staffers got bonuses.
After first claiming the bonuses were an "internal caucus matter,'' House Democrats decided to follow in the footsteps of House and Senate Republicans, who released reports on their bonuses earlier in the week.
House Republicans gave $270,000 in bonuses last year, Senate Republicans gave $180,000 and Senate Democrats gave $38,000.
Tom Andrews, spokesman for House Majority Leader Bill DeWeese, D-Waynesburg, said that his caucus gave bigger bonuses because its salary scales are lower.
He could not immediately provide those salary scales, which are soon to be adjusted, he said.
Mr. DeWeese believes the bonuses "are a management tool to reward employees who work hard, who work late and who work weekends," Mr. Andrews said.
However, Mr. DeWeese decided yesterday to suspend bonuses in his caucus until the new House Rules Reform Committee discusses them, according to Mr. Andrews, whose bonus last year was $12,750, up from $1,250 the previous year.
Democratic leaders initially told recipients of the bonuses not to discuss them among themselves or with lawmakers. When reporters learned of them, the leaders called the bonuses an internal caucus matter and refused to talk about them.
Late yesterday, though, Mr. Andrews provided a list of bonus recipients.
Democratic leaders had begun their retreat Wednesday night, when they agreed to discuss the bonuses and estimated them at $400,000.
Actually, they were quadruple that estimate.
Mr. Andrews disputed Mr. Stilp's suggestion that the bonuses were tied to campaign work.
"There is no correlation between campaign work, legislative work and legislative bonuses," he said. "They weren't for political work. We know that's illegal."
The bonuses, which averaged $2,800, were given for a variety of reasons, Mr. Andrews said.
Some were Christmas bonuses and others were to compensate employees for time-consuming work on legislative projects. Some were given as a way to boost compensation for employees who had reached the top of their salary scales or to reward employees in advance for a heavier workload anticipated because of the party's move to majority status in the House, he said.
For the most part, recipients of the largest bonuses worked for Mr. DeWeese or former Democratic whip Mike Veon of Beaver Falls.
Most of the large-bonus recipients made contributions to Democratic campaigns, and election reports show that several of them were reimbursed for food, travel and other expenses associated with last fall's election.
Brett Cott, who contributed $1,200 to Democratic campaigns last year, received a $25,065 bonus. He previously worked for the House Democratic Campaign Committee and served as election spokesman for Mr. Veon, who lost his re-election bid in November. In 2005, his bonus was $6,065.
The third-largest bonus, $20,250, went to Mr. DeWeese's top aide, Michael Manzo, and another $15,185 went to Mr. Manzo's wife, Rachel, a staffer on the House Tourism Committee who worked on Mr. Veon's failed campaign. In 2005, Mr. Manzo received $5,750 and Mrs. Manzo $1,065.
The caucus's largest bonus, $28,137, went to Miriam A. Fox, executive director of the House Appropriations Committee. Her bonus in 2005 was $10,315.
The caucus's director of research, Jennifer K. Brubaker, and husband Scott V. Brubaker, who is caucus director of administration, received $17,750 and $15,250, respectively. In 2005, Mrs. Brubaker received $5,750 and Mr. Brubaker $5,500.
Thirty-one staffers in all were given bonuses of $10,000 or more.
In the meantime Senator Robert Mellow of Lackawanna County says the bonuses were earned for the good job the recipients did.
Well, we all do a good job at our vocations. And I think we need a bonus. So let’s contact Colonel Mellow and see if we, as individual taxpayers can get a bonus for our hard work on weekends, and going that exrtra mile.
Here’s how to contact Mr. Mellow:
Senate Box 203022 Harrisburg, PA 17120-3022
ROOM: 535 Main Capitol Building
TELEPHONE:
(717) 787-6481
D.O. ADDRESS:
524 Main Street Post Office Box B Peckville, PA 18452
E-MAIL ADDRESS:
mellow@pasenate.com

NOW THE COLONEL MOST LIKELY WILL TELL YOU "TO GET A LIFE" LIKE HE DID LAST YEAR TO AN INTERESTED TAXPAYER. IF SO, THEN VOTERS NEED TO SEND "THE COLONEL" A MESSAGE. NOW, BECAUSE OF POLITICAL FLIM FLAMS, HE NEVER HAD ANY REAL OPPOSITION IN LAST YEAR'S ELECTION. BUT YOU CAN MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD BY SAYING NO TO BOB MELLOW.

IF MELLOW ENDORSES DEMOCRATS FOR COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OR DOG CATCHER, JUST SAY NO. IT'S THAT SIMPLE. MAYBE THE COLONEL WILL LEARN THAT THERE ARE MORE PRIVATES AND SARGEANTS THAN THE ANNOINTED BRASS, KENTUCKY OR OTHERWISE!