The LuLac Edition #1934, February 7th, 2012

Fred, Wilma, Pebbles and Dino stopping at a Drive Thru. Who knew that this scene from the Hanna Barbara cartoon series would be used as an analogy for the Luzerne county debt!


Former House Speaker of Pennsylvania Bill DeWeese.


Former Lackawanna County Commissioner Randy Castellani.

DEWEESE GOES DOWN

Another Pennsylvania Speaker of the House is now a convicted felon. William DeWeese, once-a powerful lawmaker has been convicted on five of six corruption charges relating to allegations that he required taxpayer-paid staff members to work on his election campaigns as part of their jobs.
DeWeese was convicted Monday on three of four counts of theft and one each of conspiracy and conflict of interest. His lawyers said they would appeal and incredibly DeWeese he would seek re-election.DeWeese was one of the last to be charged among 25 people connected to the House Democratic and Republican caucuses who were investigated by then Attorney General Tom Corbett. The probe lasted 5-years and DeWeese was the only sitting Legislator to be convicted. DeWeese of Green County was known for his verbosity on the House floor and his ability to bring prisons to his Legislative District as a means of employment.

COUNTY BUDGET VETTED

It appears that there will be a new County budget. Council met last night and signaled that public hearings would be held on the document. Council members had vigorous debates about the spending plan. Linda McClouskey Hauck said that the debt was like the big rack of ribs that toppled Fred Flintstone’s car in the cartoon series. My question is this: if Council is so worried about the debt as an issue, why can’t they put a designated tax that will be solely targeted to pay it off? When the debt is gone, do something novel like get rid of the tax! That’ll put them in the Guinness Book of Records! Ed Brominski outlined his displeasure with the tax, saying the Council did its job by picking a Manager. Bromo said the Council picked the manager and should let him do his job in terms of the revamping of the budget. Brominski seems to want to put the entire onus on the new incoming manager. If that is the case the new manager might begin making some severe cuts to departments that everyone is working furiously to avoid. Tax payers who came to the meeting again slammed Council for raising taxes and while no one wants to pay higher taxes, I believe this added revenue stream will give the new government a chance to dig itself out. Two things the new County Manager should do on day 1 is (1)Begin a performance audit in every department in the County, every office, (2) Strongly urge the unions to re –open their contracts for renegotiations.

REP RACES IN THE LAC

Is Randy Castellani ready for a comeback? The former County Commissioner who replaced Ray Alberigi with Joe Corcoran in the latter’s last term and then won a minority seat when A.J. Munchak and Bob Cordaro got elected in 2003 is thinking of running for State Representative in the 115th. Ed Staback said he was going to step down this year. Castellani stepped down one year into his term and was replaced by Mike Washo. If Castellani does run, I wonder if anyone, Randy himself included will hire Bob Harper to do a campaign for or against? Remember the "RAndy is Dandy" radio ads? Harper most recently worked on Stefanie Salavantis' campaign for Luzerne County DA.
It appears Kevin Murphy will have some competition from Marty Flynn in the 113th. Murphy will be tough to unseat because he has been a staunch advocate of various issues in his district and has not been shy about being front and center on projects like the saving of The Scranton School for the Deaf.