Posts tagged ‘Scranton City Council’

Mayor Doherty vetoed the new Comcast legislation passed by Scranton City Council which seeks to get a contract for the PEG channel (right now run by ECTV) and will likely put the PEG out to bid.  The reason he chose to veto it was in part because he feared the legislation could lead to potential lawsuits.

How?  ECTV has no contract with the city, which is utterly absurd.  What grounds could they possibly have?  I can’t see how Comcast could sue.  I just can’t wrap my head around this.  Legal minds, care to weigh in?

I got my hands on a press release concerning a disturbing vote that occurred last night at Scranton City Council.  Turns out that Council voted to amend the contract with Comcast and defund ECTV.  Here’s the release (forgive the formatting):

Scranton City Council, a few weeks back, appointed Andy Sbaraglia to the Scranton Redevelopment Authority. Mayor Doherty appointed somebody different. When Andy showed up to their first meeting after his appointment, he was relegated to the corner.

City Council has decided not to pursue legal action against the Mayor over this and, instead, is telling Sbaraglia that it’s his responsibility. If City Council wants to play games, they shouldn’t use ancillaries. Of course, they shouldn’t play games either.

The Mayor has the right to appoint people to these authorities, it just seems to me that Council is looking to pick a fight. The only reason they won’t be suing on Sbaraglia’s behalf, I’d say, is because they’ve got their hands full in a lawsuit already.

If Doherty doesn’t win the State Senate race, he’s going to have more than three years worth of this to deal with. What’s worse, so will the citizens of Scranton.

Scranton City Council’s move to lower the bidding threshold is a great idea, as it will allow for more contractors to compete and it will save the city money. Evans, of course, is doing this so that Doherty cannot award no-bid contracts to people, but the end result is a good one.

Council should go further, though, and mirror the Obama administration’s “union only” policy. All contracts should employ union labor, or not get hired. They should also give preference to local contractors, particularly those based in Scranton. I dislike seeing Harrisburg and Philly firms getting local taxpayer dollars, basically shifting investment away from us.

Councilman Frank Joyce said that the new budget will only cut 16 positions, not 32, and will add 10 positions.  I’m not sure if he means 16 will but cut counting the 10 added, or not.  We’ll have to wait and see what finally comes out of Council.

Doherty said the city’s charter doesn’t allow for a budget to be re-opened unless there is an emergency or new funding.  I’m sure Evans can construe of this as an emergency, as the city is pretty well in debt.

Councilman McGoff, the last vestige of Doherty’s tattered council, repeatedly questioned the Evans budget, specifically the lack of dialogue.  They didn’t even include him in the process, which, as I recall, was something that Janet often decried.

As I said yesterday, which evolved into a nice protracted discussion in the comments, I’m not a fan of this nyah-nyah retaliation.  But politics being what it is, commenter canoe pointed out, it shouldn’t really be a surprise.  Point taken.

The reason that Joyce cited for not including McGoff was that he thought McGoff wouldn’t be interested.  Of course he wouldn’t be interested in making cuts, but interest in giving input is different.   At least they could’ve listened, even if was obvious that they were going to ignore him.

Here’s a thought:  Why don’t all these people who came out of the woodwork to APPLY for a Council seat actually RUN for a Council seat?  Competitive primaries are only good for voters, because they open up a dialogue and offer diverse choice.  It gives voters a chance to see who has the best ideas and who works the hardest, who has the concerns of citizens in the forefront of their minds, and, really, who deserves the position.

Instead, these people want to apply and have the job handed to them.

The interviews for Scranton’s open Council seat are wrapping up.  Most locally in-tune people know that this kind of thing is a formality decided beforehand, it’s just a matter (for us inquisitive types) of finding out who it is.  The word, now, is that Steven Bartnicki, teacher at West Scranton High School, will be getting the post.  Steven is close to Janet’s son, Chris, who is also a teacher, has been an Evans supporter and family-friend and would be malleable.

Evans has pandered to the elderly and the unions to keep getting re-elected and to get her team (+1) into office.  The thing is, the choice is either to raise taxes (on everybody, including the pandered-to elderly) to give the unions the contracts they want (and that she goes on and on about supporting) or she forgoes supporting the unions, and doesn’t raise taxes.  She can’t just cut Ray Hayes out (especially now that he’s gone) and just expect gold to rain down from the skies.

Gary DiBileo put his name in for the spot, and the likelihood of him getting chosen was next to nil from the beginning, as Janet is not fond of sharing the stage, especially with those she can’t control (Rogan & Joyce +the new guy) or scapegoat (Now McGoff, formerly Fanucci & Gatelli).  But Gary showed up to his interview with some heavy hitters in the Scranton political scene:  Frank Giambrone, Helen Kravitz, Eddie Weidow, and Mary Chilipko-Faranti.  The message that this sends is pretty clear: they want Gary in, and if he doesn’t get in, the new majority won’t be getting their support.  Ah, governing.  Evans will no longer be able to claim she’s in a powerless minority.  Everything that happens, for good or ill, will now be owned by her.

The word is that Gary will be running next year, so whether or not Evans appoints him, he’ll be around.  Even though Gary hasn’t been able to capture the Mayor’s spot, he can definitely pull the support to get re-elected to Council.

Scranton City Council has had a multitude of applicants for the position about to be vacated by Bill Courtright, soon-to-be Tax Collector.

Many applicants have either run before or just recently lost the election, so we’ve got a lot of familiar faces.

Doug Miller, fresh and without meaningful experience, is still fresh and without meaningful experience, so, unless he calls Corbett again and maybe this time says something reasonable and acts like an adult, well, he’s probably not going to get appointed.  Unless Council wants to be more of a joke than it is, which is always a possibility.

Lee Morgan, Doug Miller’s running mate last time around, as well as the co-recipient of a Times endorsement, remains unremarkable.  And Morgan and Miller are Republicans, which, as regular readers know, scares me.

The Times made a mistake in their reportage (crazy, I know), since Tom Charles and Bob Bolus missed the deadline of noon for submission of  their application and are not under consideration.  Oopsie.  We’ve argued previously that Charles made the logical choice for Evans, since DiBileo would be a challenge to Evans’ stardom and Charles would, along with McGoff, become an easy scapegoat for the failure of the totally unrealistic Evans agenda that will inevitably be populist but disastrous if enacted.  So, it’s pretty likely the Mayor is unhappy, since Charles won’t be there to obstruct the Evans-bloc on his behalf and it’s pretty likely that Evans is unhappy, since Charles won’t be there to obstruct the Evans-bloc on her behalf.

So who gets the seat?

This is a tough one.  Gary DiBileo has the unique ability to exert political pressure, since he has a rather large base and many allies.  This would make it pretty tough for Evans to say no without some sort of consequence.  But there is that question of ego.  Evans would have to share the stage, something I doubt she’s amenable to.

More will trickle out as the days go by, and we’ll be sure to keep you posted.

Daniel Tosh, a very amusing comedian I’ve followed for some time, has a nice little show on Comedy Central, and guess what, they found the Ray Lyman videos on YouTube. For those of you that don’t know, Ray Lyman is part of the cast of characters that goes to City Council, or Consil in Ray’s case, and cause a bit of a ruckus.

One of his videos on YouTube has over 1.3 million hits (he didn’t put the video up). They are admittedly hilarious.

Mr. Lyman obviously has a disability of some kind, so I feel like this is exploitative. While the battles that Council members, particularly Judy Gatelli, have gotten in with Lyman are amusing, I tend to think they shouldn’t happen, that patience should be given to some extent. Gatelli’s decision to appear on this show, while, again, funny, feeds the spectacle. And sure, people love the spectacle. Maybe this is unrealistic in the City of Scranton, but I’d like to see civility and respect be the name of the game for Council. I een understand Gatelli’s desire to make light of this and to get her fifteen minutes.

However, this whole situation, from Comedy Central to the decision to feed it, further stifles any meaningful attempts or even desire to establish an atmosphere of respect at City Council.

The bit of drama that played out at the recent Scranton City Countil Meeting with Bill Courtright’s aggravation at cuts being made to the Single Tax Office, where he will soon assume command, has at least taken somewhat of a positive turn. Two jobs slated to have been cut are not going to be cut after all.

But there is an underlying issue here. While Courtright, gentlemen that he tends to be on Council, regretted his outburst and offered an apology, his demeanor is understandable particularly because when Stu Renda was asked if he got any input from the tax office, he indicated he did not talk to employees about the potential impact, but he did talk to the current Tax Collector, Marilyn Vitali-Flynn. Her input? Cutting employees would make the job harder and she was against it. Did Renda listen? No. The cuts were made anyway.

Why ask for input if the conclusion is predetermined? Aside from the crippling going on at the Tax Office, actual insight from the office either wasn’t sought or was ignored. No wonder Courtright lost his cool.

I recommend any interested parties (that is, parties interested in listening to the single worst political interview of all time) to head over to Corbett’s Corner on WILK’s website.  There, you can read Corbett writing about how Miller is unqualified, or, better yet, if you’re so inclined, listen to this recent broadcast of Miller epic failing.

Necessary Background: Doug Miller failed to file campaign finance reports, which is illegal.  Oops.  Doug Miller is also being sued by the Pilchesky’s (who isn’t?) for not being a Scranton resident.  Normally, I’m pretty suspect of such suits, but after hearing Miller’s “defense” I’m not so sure he’s innocent.

This interview is abysmal.  I understand Doherty’s mentality here, he needs Miller to win to offset the Evans & Company Bloc.  But I’d rather a self-absorbed Evans to a totally inept Miller.

If you want to spare yourself the same embarrassment you’d feel watching Michael Scott on the Office doing something ridiculous and stupid, then I’ll give you a synopsis of this disaster:  Miller refuses to explain anything, answer questions, and really refuses to act like a real candidate.  Ninety-percent of Doug Miller’s dialogue is as follows: he goes on about “setting the record straight” and “I’m not going to comment” or “I don’t want to debate” or “I don’t want to get involved with that” or “I want to move on” and so on.  He won’t even talk about where he lives, where he used to live, who he lives with now.

Then, here comes the best part:  HE HANGS UP ON CORBETT!

Allow me a moment to both laugh and cringe.

…

Now that I’ve composed myself, I will continue.

Normally, I would feel bad.  In fact, I’m inclined to anyway.  But Miller is playing a big-boy game and needs to be able to handle big boy issues, like phone calls to political talk radio (or critical blog posts).  Miller is obviously a Republican-in-training.  Deflect criticism, deny, avoid, obfuscate.  But since he’s still got his training wheels on, Corbett dissects him pretty thoroughly.  This interview is evidence of total inanity.  I’m all for young people running for office, but they need to have credibility and sincerity, which Miller obviously does not.

I always thought it would be sophisticated to use the word “quixotic” on NEPArtisan, and low and behold, Judy Gatelli has provided us an opportunity.

While none of the current Scranton City Council candidates shine brightly as beacons of hope in Scranton’s seemingly endless dark (fine, it isn’t that bad, I felt like being dramatic), Judy Gatelli’s addition to the race won’t really even be a blip on the radar.

Had she been on the ballot, then this would be a different story, but she’s running a… here it comes… quixotic write-in campaign for Council.

The effort required to win a write-in will be insurmountable.  Maybe this is a statement.  Maybe she really thinks she’ll win.  NEPArtisan doesn’t know.

On an amusing, if consistent, side note.  Janet Evans wasn’t available for comment, according to the Times article.  Is she available for anything other than grandstanding at Council?

Initially, I was surprised at the Times endorsement of Doug Miller and Lee Morgan over Pat Rogan and Frank Joyce. Janet Evans is pretty much a given, so they left her out. I wouldn’t mind leaving her out, too. For the sake of her bad back, of course.

I am not necessarily a fan of any of the five candidates.

Janet “Talks to Everyone Like They Are an Infant” Evans is, as the Times editorial reads, self-absorbed and not really interested in reform or positively affecting the city. Nay-saying is not, and should not be a platform. Honestly, I don’t get why people vote for her.

Doug Miller is eager, good for him, but very, very green. This isn’t necessarily bad, but I fear that he doesn’t understand the way city government works. To be fair, lots of pols get on the job training, though.  I definitely can’t forgive his being a Republican.

Lee Morgan’s performances at Council meadins (to speak Lymanese) don’t endear me to him.  And he’s an R.

Frank Joyce might be okay, but seems unremarkable (which might qualify him in this particular race).

Pat Rogan, while educated (in the process, actually), ran 2 years ago on an anti-immigrant platform that I found borderline xenophobic. We need less Lou Dobbsy types in this world. He did, however, assure me that he’s not quite a zealot for that issue this time around. Maybe because Lou Barletta isn’t cool anymore.  With me, as opposed to the Times, he’s very open for questions, so I do have to give him points for that.

Who would NEPArtisan endorse? Not the Republicans, just because the entire Republican philospohy is restrictive and not progressive. Keep in mind, though, that Republican in Scranton usually means failed Democrat.  But an R is an R.

The word on the street is that Doherty’s people are behind Miller. It only makes sense. Evans/Rogan/Joyce cannot stand the Mayor and would certainly be more obstructionist than the slightly-can’t-stand-the-Mayor Miller.

The Times editorial is probably slightly vindictive in that the Joyce/Rogan/Evans team declined the request for an interview. They should have responded, whether or not they perceive the Times as hostile. It only looks like cowardice or aloofness. Yes, “aloofness” is a word.

The Times probably feels an obligation to endorse every major race every time around, but I would’ve stayed out. Nobody really shines.

Councilwoman Janet Evans hasn’t really worked much the past year due to a back injury.  Some of her former students say she hasn’t really worked the past 20 years (BA-ZING!).

Back injuries are very serious, especially if you are in a union that will defend you when you have a claim.  This is a good thing, because work-related injuries should not stop those injured from getting medical care, convalescent leave, or their pay.  Does it get taken advantage of?  Sure.  But there will always be those that do.

In the case of Evans, though, her back injury prevents her from teaching, but not being on Council.  Council has no workman’s comp provision, last I checked (which I haven’t). 

Evans should, in the interests of her own health, resign from Council and politics altogether until she fully recovers.  I am merely looking out for her, here.  Nobody wants to see her sitting in that chair at those Council meetings in total physical anguish.  While I admire her willingness to go above and beyond, putting herself at near mortal peril for the sake of Scrantonian political discourse, the resulting medical trauma will undoubtedly make her life as a senior citizen (which fast aproacheth) miserable.  And given the national debate over national health care, I think we all want to see her medical costs as low as possible, lest the Scranton School District, and taxpayers, be further burdened.  That would be very politically irresponsible of her.

Evans did have the good sense to duck a political debate due to her back injury.  Good for her.  Doug Miller puts a strain on my spine as well. 

So, dear readers, take pity on Janet Evans and her pain.  I would say give her a hug, but that may harm her irreparably.  Just like staying on Council more assuredly will.