The LuLac Edition #517 July 9th, 2008

PHOTO INDEX: LUZERNE COUNTY COMMISSIONER MARYANNE PETRILLA, AL MARTINO AND MARLON BRANDO PLAYING THE ROLES OF JOHNNY FONTAINE AND VITO CORLEONE.

FANTASY LAND!!!!!

In 1995, an employee was told he was a “scammer” who was trying to rip off the guy he worked for because he attended his uncle’s funeral that day. During a 1997 sales meeting, an employee was told in front of his sales team that he was “a philandering, duplicitous worker with no moral scruples and made virtually no contribution to the sales effort”. The General Manager also said about his entire staff, “This is the team I got, not the one I want”. In a 1998 job interview, an employee was accused of being “an opportunist who was using his wife’s brain injury after an accident” in order to get more money. During a 1999 sales contest, an employee was told “his clients were lowlifes and that he himself could only dream of reaching their level”. During an exit interview the employee was conducting he was called “a brown nosing queer who only got his management position by giving a quarter of his salary to the corporate office In Salisbury, Maryland”. That employee folks was me. And those incidents took place in private business in a 12 year time period. Now granted I had some pretty peculiar jobs with a cast of characters (just read “A Radio Story” to find that out.) Some of the comments made me laugh, some enraged me and others didn’t faze me. I just kept on being the person I was and moved on flicking the offenders like lint off of a double breasted coat. (Oh and let’s not forget the woman who called me “a fat **** not fit for a double breasted look). What I didn’t do and never considered doing was contacting a lawyer.
Tonight, for reasons that will become increasingly clear I had another long dinner with an old friend I hadn’t seen in years. When the subject of the employee at the Courthouse who was mad at Mary Anne Petrilla because he was being “defamed”, we, as well as the rest of this community was doing today, had a good laugh. Apparently this employee is miffed that Petrilla made references to him in public regarding his actions as a public official. His out of town Philadelphia lawyer (wonder why none of the local barristers took up his cause?) says Petrilla used the words “thug” and “thief” even though the employee has stolen nothing. It appears that this is an attempt to silence a duly elected official who has a right to express an opinion about a worker that is in her employ. Petrilla has been accused of “currying favor” in the Courthouse to get this employee fired. Petrilla trying to curry favor? You have that backwards, there’s tons of people under the dome waiting in line to shine her pumps. And besides, how’s he going to get fired when protected by the Judiciary of the County who have their own separate funding? Petrilla can’t even get a phone call from that branch, maybe after the FBI has left it may happen but not now. Petrilla at one point backed the employee but changed her attitude when a report by the County Solicitor on bidding at the County Prison made the employee a front and center player in what appeared to be unusual doings. The Philadelphia lawyers has banned Petrilla from contacting the employee and said that all communications must go through his law firm. Call me funny, but that looks like a violation of free speech but what the hell, he’s a lawyer! Imagine the conversation:
Petrilla: M.A. here. May I take three steps before the King to say "hi" to the embattled employee who is your client?
Philadelphia Lawyer: Uhhhhhhh, we’ll get back to you on that.
Benjamin Franklin must be spitting on the Liberty Bell about now. This lawyer has people running scared. Even the intrepid Corbett today shut down a caller who said he saw the employee at a fitness center on county time. (Maybe he did, maybe he didn’t but this again makes the point that all county employees use a Kronos time stamp card that keeps track of their hours and whereabouts. Most private businesses do that, why not the County?) By doing so, Corbett could verify whether the caller was correct or had an axe to grind. Right now, with all the scandal, no one has even taken the most basic step to make sure the workers are earning their hourly rate whether it be $12.50 an hour or say………$37.50 an hour. Petrilla has been accused of inflicting emotional distress on the employee causing him to lose weight, become a wreck and causing him undue stress. Petrilla, proving herself to be a true representative of the people, as well as other county residents know stress is living on a salary less than the said employee, having to make ends meet in a difficult economic world and not having a cushion to land on like the gaunt, embattled employee who is being picked on (my God!!!!!!!) “by a girl!!!”
Yes, “Fantasyland” continues at the Courthouse. Your guy loses power, he gets usurped by his partner, you land on your feet but call a lawyer when you don’t like the things you hear. Two words of advice, to Petrilla, to quote K.C. and The Sunshine Band, “Keep It Coming”. To the wounded employee, advice from Vito Corleone to Johnny Fontaine in “Godfather One”, “You can act like a man!”