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2 SCRANTON CITY COUNCIL MEETING
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6 HELD:
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8 Tuesday, February 3, 2009
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10 LOCATION:
11 Council Chambers
12 Scranton City Hall
13 340 North Washington Avenue
14 Scranton, Pennsylvania
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CATHENE S. NARDOZZI, RPR - OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER
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3 CITY OF SCRANTON COUNCIL:
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MR. ROBERT MCGOFF, PRESIDENT
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7 MS. JUDY GATELLI, VICE-PRESIDENT
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MS. JANET E. EVANS
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10 MS. SHERRY FANUCCI
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MR. WILLIAM COURTRIGHT
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13 MS. KAY GARVEY, CITY CLERK
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MR. NEIL COOLICAN, ASSISTANT CITY CLERK
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16 MR. AMIL MINORA, SOLICITOR
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1 (Pledge of Allegiance recited and moment of reflection
2 observed.)
3 MR. MCGOFF: Roll call.
4 MR. COOLICAN: Mrs. Evans.
5 MS. EVANS: Here.
6 MR. COOLICAN: Mrs. Gatelli.
7 MS. GATELLI. Here.
8 MR. COOLICAN: Ms. Fanucci.
9 MS. FANUCCI: Here.
10 MR. COOLICAN: Mr. Courtright.
11 MR. COURTRIGHT: Here.
12 MR. COOLICAN: Mr. McGoff.
13 MR. MCGOFF: Here. Dispense with
14 the reading of the minutes.
15 MS. GARVEY: 3-A. MINUTES OF THE
16 FIREMEN'S PENSION COMMISSION MEETING HELD ON
17 DECEMBER 24, 2008.
18 MR. MCGOFF: Are there any comments?
19 If not, received and filed.
20 MS. GARVEY: 3-B. MINUTES OF THE
21 SCRANTON POLICE PENSION COMMISSION MEETING
22 HELD ON DECEMBER 17, 2008.
23 MR. MCGOFF: Are there any comments?
24 If not, received and filed.
25 MS. GARVEY: 3-C. MINUTES OF THE
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1 NON-UNIFORM MUNICIPAL PENSION BOARD MEETING
2 HELD ON DECEMBER 17, 2008.
3 MR. MCGOFF: Are there any comments?
4 If not, received and filed.
5 MS. GARVEY: 3-D. AGENDA FOR THE
6 NON-UNIFORM MUNICIPAL PENSION BOARD MEETING
7 HELD ON JANUARY 28, 2009.
8 MR. MCGOFF: Are there any comments?
9 If not, received and filed.
10 MS. GARVEY: That's it for third
11 order.
12 MR. MCGOFF: Thank you, Mrs. Garvey.
13 Prior to fourth order, are there any
14 announcements from council?
15 MS. EVANS: Yes. Please remember in
16 your prayers this week all those who have
17 died, particularly, Louis Auriemma, kind,
18 inspirational and a great lady from West
19 Scranton and all her family, Jerry and their
20 children, and their many friends who so
21 deeply miss her.
22 Coach Tom Lewis has been a huge part
23 of basketball in our area for many years.
24 Tom's son, Chad, is currently battling lung
25 cancer. To help Chad and his family during
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1 this terrible cancer battle a benefit will
2 be held on February 21 at Holy Rosary gym in
3 North Scranton from 6 until 10 p.m. Tickets
4 are $15. If all of the men whose lives who
5 have touched by coach during his basketball
6 career attend this fundraiser, it will go
7 over the top, so please support this very
8 important cause.
9 The Upper Hill Ecumenical Committee
10 invites you to dine at Friendly's in Dunmore
11 on Wednesday, February 1, from 5 to 8 p.m. A
12 percentage of all food receipts from 5 to 8
13 will be donated to the St. Francis of Assisi
14 Kitchen to feed the poor and homeless.
15 Enjoy a great meal and support a great cause
16 in our community. It's a win-win situation.
17 The West Scranton Invader Mat
18 Boosters will conduct a funfilled night at
19 the races this Saturday, February 7, at
20 Keyser Valley Community Center at 7:00.
21 Tickets are $10 and all proceeds benefit the
22 West Scranton High School Wrestling Team.
23 There will be food, beverages and the chance
24 to win $50 each time you bet on a race.
25 Now, where can you get a better deal on a
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1 night out than that? Please come out and
2 support the Invaders.
3 The Humane Society of Lackawanna
4 County is conducting a drive to benefit all
5 animals at the Lackawanna Humane Society in
6 Waverly. Donations of the following items
7 are needed by February 12, things such as
8 cat litter, dog and cat food, chew bones,
9 puppy and kitten food, small litter pans,
10 garbage bags of all sizes, paper towels,
11 cloth towels and blankets, dish and laundry
12 detergent, bleach, brooms, scrub brushes,
13 rubber gloves, buckets, and I'm wondering,
14 Kay, if you could ask the mayor's office
15 tomorrow if a canister can be placed either
16 in city hall or at the fire headquarters on
17 Mulberry Street for public donations to be
18 collected, and hopefully the mayor will
19 agreeable and all of us animal lovers will
20 be able to donate to that very worthy cause.
21 The Northeastern Pennsylvania
22 Chapter of the Friends of the NRA will be
23 hosting their annual banquet on Saturday,
24 March 29, at Genetti Manor, 1505 North Main
25 Street, Dickson City. The event starts at
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1 5:00. This event used to be held at
2 Pittston Convention Hall, but it had to be
3 moved since they closed. Tables seat ten,
4 tickets are $40 each, $75 for couples, $25
5 for those under 21. Sponsored packages are
6 also available at $295 and they come with
7 one dinner, one sponsor hat and the first
8 sculpture in the new NRA series, the cape
9 buffalo, so those of you who are members and
10 friends of the NRA they are certainly hoping
11 that you will attend their annual dinner,
12 and that's it.
13 MS. GATELLI: I just have two
14 announcements, also for the Chad Lewis, I
15 don't want to repeat it, but I also have
16 tickets if anybody here would care to
17 purchase any for Mr. Lewis' fundraisers.
18 And one other announcement, tomorrow
19 at 10:00 at West Scranton High School Eric
20 Shrive, our star football player, will be
21 signing his letter of intent with Penn State
22 University where he received a full
23 scholarship, and that's all I have. Thank
24 you.
25 MR. MCGOFF: Anyone else? Just one
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1 other just to mention, we received a -- or
2 the city received a check from the Harrison
3 House Personal Care Home in the amount of
4 $500 for payment in lieu of taxes and a
5 thank you to the Harrison House for their
6 donation. Fourth order. Citizens'
7 participation. Les Spindler.
8 MR. SPINDLER: Good evening, Council.
9 Les Spindler. City Resident, homeowner and
10 taxpayer. First of all, I'd like to make a
11 correction about something that was said
12 last week. I was speaking about freedom of
13 speech and the man in Luzerne County who had
14 his case thrown out for having the
15 four-letter word and the sign on his truck,
16 and Mrs. Gatelli said the reason why is
17 because he took out two letters from the
18 word. That's incorrect. That night the
19 mayor was on WILK news radio with Steve
20 Corbett and he said himself the judge threw
21 it out because he said under the First
22 Amendment, which is the right of freedom of
23 speech, that was a protected word and the
24 man had every right to use it. I don't
25 agree with it and I don't use the word but
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1 that is part of freedom of speech, he is
2 allowed to use that word on the sign.
3 MS. GATELLI: I don't think you can
4 use that word here though.
5 MR. SPINDLER: It's right from the
6 horse's mouth.
7 MS. GATELLI: I don't think you can
8 use that word here.
9 MR. SPINDLER: I'm not saying you can
10 use it here. That's how strong the First
11 Amendment is, that's my point. There's a
12 lot you can get away with. And while we are
13 on that subject because last week Mrs.
14 Fanucci asked the solicitor if political
15 candidates can get up here and speak. Well,
16 I can answer that, yes, they can. We went
17 down that road years ago and anybody, a bum
18 off the street can come in here and talk
19 about almost anything they want, because you
20 can't yell fire in a crowded theatre, but
21 you can get up here and say almost anything
22 you want, political candidates can speak at
23 this podium.
24 And moving on, Mr. McGoff, you and
25 Mrs. Fanucci always talk about Rules of
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1 Council, do Rules of Council also apply to
2 the council people, Mr. McGoff?
3 MR. MCGOFF: Yes.
4 MR. SPINDLER: Why don't you enforce
5 them because last week you didn't. You
6 didn't enforce them last week.
7 MR. MCGOFF: You are asking me a
8 question, do you want a response or not?
9 MR. SPINDLER: Yeah, it was a
10 one-word answer. Last week --
11 MR. MCGOFF: No, it wasn't.
12 MR. SPINDLER: Last week when Doug
13 Miller left the podium unprovoked and
14 uncalled for Mrs. Fanucci said, "Well, I
15 guess you started your campaign, Doug."
16 Uncalled for. You did nothing.
17 When I was talking to Mrs. Gatelli that
18 evening she put her two cents in, you did
19 nothing. When I walked away she made some
20 kind of silly comment about getting roses
21 for Valentine's Day.
22 MS. GATELLI: No, I didn't.
23 MS. FANUCCI: That was me.
24 MS. SPINDLER: I know, that's what
25 I'm saying, yes. Mr. McGoff, again, you did
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1 nothing, so I think you showed partiality
2 toward council members and I forget the
3 word --
4 MS. FANUCCI: Les, I invoke my
5 freedom of speech as well, and I certainly
6 will do it.
7 MR. SPINDLER: After I'm done.
8 MS. FANUCCI: Wrong.
9 MR. SPINDLER: Mr. McGoff, would you
10 invoke the Rules of Council, please? I'm
11 talking now, it's my time. Oh, and anyway,
12 you don't deserve roses, Mrs. Fanucci. The
13 only thing you deserve is poison ivy.
14 The next thing, last week there was
15 a speaker here, a speaker criticizing our
16 police department and our fire department.
17 She was mad at a police officer for stopping
18 her daughter who had four children, four
19 kids in the back seat. Well, the policeman
20 did his job. It's illegal to have four
21 people in the back seat of a car, and then
22 she went onto say that a Sewer Authority
23 worker, which I have no disrespect towards
24 Sewer Authority worker's, they say they are
25 dangerous as a firemen, firemen risk their
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1 lives every day when you go and fight a
2 fire, I never heard of a Sewer Authority
3 worker risking their life coming down the
4 sewer.
5 Next thing, about a year ago,
6 Scranton Ford on Franklin Avenue bought the
7 building next to them, tore it down, and now
8 they park their cars there. I wasn't going
9 to say anything, but I think they have a
10 safety hazard there. They park their cars
11 right to the end of the street, right --
12 there is no sidewalk. You can't walk on the
13 sidewalk there because the streets are
14 blocked -- the cars are blocking them. Now,
15 you have to walk out in the street to get
16 around the cars, last week I almost get hit
17 by a car walking there. Isn't there some
18 kind of an ordinance where you can't put
19 cars blocking the sidewalk?
20 MS. FANUCCI: Yes.
21 MR. SPINDLER: Can we look into
22 that?
23 MS. GATELLI: Is that in the back?
24 MR. SPINDLER: Send an inspector or
25 -- pardon me?
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1 MS. GATELLI: Is that in the back?
2 MR. SPINDLER: No, it's on Franklin
3 Avenue.
4 MR. COURTRIGHT: Is it where the --
5 MR. SPINDLER: It's where the old
6 fire station used to be. It was a printing
7 shop, they park their cars right to the
8 edge, you got to walk all the way into the
9 street to get around them, and I almost got
10 hit by a car. I walk by there every single
11 day back and forth to work, and I think
12 there is something wrong with that. That's
13 a safety hazard.
14 Lastly, I have to run out of here
15 tonight, I have a Crime Watch meeting, does
16 anybody know when these meetings are
17 repeated so I could watch the meeting again?
18 MS. FANUCCI: I don't know.
19 MS. GATELLI: I know tomorrow morning
20 at 9:30.
21 MR. SPINDLER: Oh, I work. That
22 won't be good.
23 MS. GATELLI: The tomorrow night at
24 the same exact time.
25 MR. SPINDLER: Tomorrow night?
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1 MS. GAWEL: No, it's 10:00 tomorrow
2 then I think it's noon Saturday and 8:00 on
3 Sunday.
4 MR. JACKOWITZ: I can give you the
5 exact times, it's 10 a.m. tomorrow, it's
6 2:30 in the afternoon on Wednesday -- or on
7 Thursday, and it's 12:00 on Saturday and
8 it's 8:00 Sunday night.
9 MR. SPINDLER: Thank you.
10 MS. GATELLI: Isn't that scrolling on
11 the station?
12 MS. GAWEL: It does scroll.
13 MR. MCGOFF: Joanne Williams.
14 MS. WILLIAMS: Good evening, Council.
15 Joanne Williams, taxpayer and homeowner in
16 this great city of Scranton. After speaking
17 here last week, I received a letter of
18 harassment from whom I considered a coward
19 who had no courage to sign their name. I
20 have made copies to present to each of you.
21 May I approach? Is that okay to approach,
22 Mr. McGoff?
23 If anyone has a problem as to what I
24 stated at this podium we should be able to
25 discuss it as normal adults. I want to make
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1 it perfectly clear that I consider
2 firefighters heroes, as I have stated last
3 week, but this coward heard what he wanted
4 to hear. In this letter they called me foul
5 names, used foul language, and they informed
6 me never to come back to a council meeting
7 again. A point is proven. A selective few
8 who are here every week, it's only a few,
9 who do not want anyone in chamber who speaks
10 positive about our city and mayor. It's
11 starting to become a private club meeting.
12 Instead, by law, it's a city council
13 meeting open to all to speak on city issues.
14 Let's not allow a few cowards to grandstand
15 here weekly. Enough is enough. It's time
16 to focus on the positive in this city. Week
17 after week all we hear is negative and put
18 down. I have made a police report on this
19 letter, they said it's harassment. And,
20 Mr. Minora, if I may ask you for your legal
21 advice, I'm contemplating turning this
22 letter over to the district attorney; is
23 that possible?
24 MR. MCGOFF: Attorney Minora
25 represents council.
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1 MS. WILLIAMS: Well, all right.
2 Well, I have already spoken to my lawyer
3 also, so this letter -- this isn't going to
4 stop here. This has to end. The first man
5 who came up here and spoke about the First
6 Amendment, I have every right to come here
7 and speak how I feel about this city, like
8 it or not that's the way I feel. I do feel
9 sorry for a few of you people sitting on
10 council. Once again, you and the mayor were
11 elected to serve us and some of you are so
12 disrespected it is disgusting. I'm not
13 alone here in this. I could show you
14 letters of praise I get and people who stop
15 me on the street and say -- pat me on the
16 back and say, "Good job, Joanne, keep it
17 up."
18 And just in closing I just want to
19 say thank God for this great city and it's
20 great people. Thank you.
21 MR. MCGOFF: Thank you, Mrs.
22 Williams. Bill Jackowitz.
23 MR. JACKOWITZ: Bill Jackowitz, South
24 Scranton resident and member of the
25 Taxpayers' Association. I probably got
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1 about 15 to 20 letters threatening my house
2 is going to be burned down and everything,
3 so I don't worry about stuff like that.
4 Okay, you know, there is so much to
5 say and so little time to speak about it up
6 here. You probably all saw the headlines
7 this morning 7.7 regional unemployment. I
8 have been speaking about this for five years
9 now. I have asked council how many times to
10 invite Austin Burke and the Chamber of
11 Commerce and the mayor to these meetings and
12 I have been ignored each and every time.
13 Now, Austin Burke states that they
14 were unaware of this. Well, you know what,
15 if he had came to the meetings like I asked
16 I would have made them aware of it because I
17 stay on top of it. This is what I
18 concentrate on most of the time.
19 Now, the state is at 6.7 percent,
20 the nation is at 7.2 percent. The nation is
21 actually starting to catch up to Scranton.
22 Now, I predicted in October that we would be
23 at 7 percent by the end of the year, well,
24 we are at 7.7 in December. And again, the
25 Chamber of Commerce president says he was
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1 not aware of it, but yet he has the gaul to
2 blame the people. He is saying we need to
3 educate our people more. Well, guess what?
4 If there is no jobs here and there is no
5 wages here you can have three masters
6 degrees and you are going to be flipping
7 burgers at McDonalds or Wendy's because
8 there is no place to get a job, and I'm not
9 talking about jobs I'm talking about wages,
10 okay?
11 You noticed Austin Burke and nobody
12 ever uses the word wages. It's always jobs.
13 Well, if you have a 6 or 7 dollar an hour
14 job you are not making enough money to feed
15 your family, to go on vacation, to do things
16 that you would like to do.
17 So, again, Council President McGoff,
18 I respectfully request that you invite
19 Austin Burke, the Chamber of Commerce and
20 Mayor Doherty to a public hearing or a
21 public caucus so citizens can address our
22 leaders and make them aware of the terrible,
23 terrible situation we have in Scranton and
24 in Lackawanna County, and this is not based
25 upon the current national situation. It's
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1 been this way for five decades, 50 years.
2 Isn't it about time that someone takes the
3 bull by the horn. Again, please,
4 Mr. McGoff, I'm requesting that you invite
5 Austin Burke, Chamber of Commerce, the mayor
6 and anyone else who can help us get jobs,
7 paying jobs in this city.
8 Okay, now, Al Boscov. I see they
9 made $28 million in the a month of December,
10 can we send Al Boscov a letter requesting
11 our $3 million back? He made a profit of 28
12 million in one month. If we have given him
13 the three million, I don't know if we have
14 or we haven't, but if we have given him that
15 $3 million can we please send Al Boscov a
16 letter requesting the taxpayers' money back,
17 because $28 million in one month is a pretty
18 good chunk of profit I think. So again, you
19 know, what's fair is fair and what's right
20 it right, okay?
21 And I'm going to predict that the
22 unemployment rate by the end of the year,
23 the next one will be up over 8 percent, and
24 I'm further going to predict by June we are
25 going to be at 10 percent. This has been
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1 going on forever. Forever. And our Chamber
2 of Commerce will state that they know
3 nothing about it. We were shocked. We were
4 blindsided. Read the paper, Courtright,
5 that's where it's at, Buddy. You are
6 looking at me like I'm making this up. I'm
7 not making this up.
8 And speaking of the paper, I hope
9 the Times and Tribune and the Times Leader
10 will actually take the time to do some
11 investigating reporting and really look into
12 the situation and not buy into the sound
13 bites they get from the mayor and Austin
14 Burke. Really take the time to investigate
15 it. See who is right. Them or me. I'm
16 asking you, the Times-Tribune and the Times
17 Leader, do some investigating reporting and
18 find out for sure. We have been at the top
19 of the unemployment list, lowest wages in
20 the state, everything, and I'm just going to
21 ask one request from the mayor, from the
22 Chamber of Commerce and from Scranton City
23 Council, fix it.
24 MR. MCGOFF: Thank you,
25 Mr. Jackowitz. Andy Sbaraglia.
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1 MR. SBARAGLIA: Andy Sbaraglia,
2 citizen of Scranton. Fellow Scrantonians, I
3 have been coming to this podium for maybe at
4 least ten years, but I don't know why some
5 people get derogatory. I have never had got
6 derogatory committed to me, nobody ever sent
7 anything bad to me. As long as you tell the
8 truth and you don't make up stories, and I
9 try to give you the truth as best as I can,
10 but coming before you now is, I don't know,
11 under -- I plan to bring it before you, but
12 it's the "F" word which means fighting KOZ.
13 North Scranton has sat idle for ten years.
14 Now, KOZ's are being renewed and many KOZ
15 projects nothing has been done with it other
16 than the fact is they haven't paid taxes.
17 The tax burden has shifted from the
18 manufacturing and from people in the system
19 to the people. I believe if it wasn't for a
20 lot of our nonprofits and the KOZ's you
21 would have no need for that 25 percent hike.
22 When this came up I said that, many, many
23 years before anybody -- probably any of you
24 were even on that spot, I said all of the
25 KOZ's are going to do in this city is raise
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1 the taxes for the little people, and they
2 have, and the taxes will consider when the
3 new KOZ coming in, I left some copies, I
4 think with the Neil. I don't know if you
5 all got them.
6 MS. GATELLI: Yes.
7 MR. SBARAGLIA: But the importance of
8 is it could push out the 27 years without
9 paying taxes. Like I said before, I would
10 have paid -- at the current rate I would
11 have paid about $50,000, but there is lot of
12 people in this city who paid 100,000 or even
13 more. You got to reign in the KOZ's because
14 the law is flawed. They didn't restrict
15 people from moving to one area of the city
16 to the other area of the city to avoid
17 paying taxes. They never went around and
18 checked on if the KOZ's were doing what they
19 were supposed to be doing.
20 The guy said at a meeting, I don't
21 know if you were even around then, but he
22 said if they got the KOZ, that's it. They
23 didn't have to adhere to some of the points
24 in the law. There is one KOZ in Scranton
25 where there is a fence around it, and that's
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1 it. That's all that was done. A fence was
2 put around the property, and you know what
3 was done at the height of the Junior High
4 School, if it wasn't for public money that
5 was poured into that project it wouldn't
6 even had a roof, and that's a sad part of
7 this whole deal. Not only do they want the
8 KOZ they want the people to fund that KOZ
9 and when people move into that KOZ they
10 don't pay taxes.
11 I don't know how much more you can
12 put on the people of Scranton. You have
13 really overload our backs. We are bending
14 back real bad, we are all becoming stoop
15 backed from the tax burden placed upon us.
16 And what's happening with the economy is
17 even worse, there is a lot of people that
18 aren't going to make it and it's just sad,
19 but it's going to happen. I already see
20 layoffs coming from even the department
21 stores they are starting to layoff, the
22 papers are always talking about layoffs, and
23 these things are happening, but no one has
24 figured a way to lower our tax burden, and
25 without that lowering of our tax burden a
24
1 lot of people aren't going to be able to
2 keep up their homes.
3 If you were read about, well, the
4 gas company, they want a big raise. It's
5 not time to be raising our gas. It's time
6 for the government to step up. I know some
7 of these things you can't do, but the
8 government should step up to the plate and
9 do something.
10 You had that Comcast meeting, I
11 didn't sit and listen to it because I went
12 through it all before for hours when we had
13 it at the library with Spano, and it was a
14 good one, and the questions were what she
15 said then, we can't do nothing about the
16 funding. You are going to pay that rate and
17 that's it. But somewhere along the line you
18 should request the Housing Authority that
19 maybe they put up an antenna and because of
20 the cost there is a lot of people would get
21 satellite cheaper than Comcast and the city
22 would lose money, but they should have that
23 option like I have an option. I thank you.
24 MR. MCGOFF: Thank you,
25 Mr. Sbaraglia. Ozzie Quinn.
25
1 MR. QUINN: Ozzie Quinn. Taxpayers'
2 Association. Mrs. Evans, I want to thank
3 you for bringing out the debt that is in the
4 city, okay? You know, the taxpayers
5 appreciate that because, actually, it was
6 never really explained in those details and
7 you explained it because otherwise they
8 usually sideskirt the authorities, but you
9 specifically said that the authorities are
10 the responsibility of the cities, the
11 taxpayers.
12 MS. EVANS: You are welcome, and I
13 hope next week to have an additional
14 comparison for you.
15 MR. QUINN: Thank you again. What I
16 want to -- from what I understand was
17 $159,340,000 and that's what the -- that's
18 without the 2008 refinancing and letter of
19 credit --
20 MS. EVANS: And that's the principle
21 only.
22 MR. QUINN: Principle only, yeah.
23 Okay, so that is our debt, how did we get
24 like that, you know? I'll tell you, one way
25 I know how we get like that, okay, is during
26
1 Mayor Doherty's term he gave an incentive
2 package to people in the clerical union to
3 leave and what he did is doubled the
4 pension, so if somebody was going to get a
5 $1,000 pension, they left -- for life, they
6 left with $2,000. Now, that means that
7 that's costing the city $800,000 a year.
8 $800,000 a year. That's how we go into debt
9 by just frivolousness, not thinking and
10 causing this problem, and you know what?
11 The people that are were laid off -- not
12 laid off, that got that incentive package
13 and got a good deal, they double dipped.
14 They are working down the school district.
15 They went out the back door. Out the front
16 door here and in the back door. I mean,
17 this is unbelievable.
18 I brought this to the attention of
19 the school board last night and they didn't
20 say anything, they agreed, you know, they
21 never publish -- they never publish when a
22 job was open or whatever or who gives it,
23 you know? But anyway, the school district
24 mand we spoke about the KOZ's, they tabled
25 the KOZ's, thank God. We just can't afford
27
1 it. With this debt that we owe we can't
2 afford to give anybody free taxes.
3 Now, this Bewitched over there, that
4 was a KOZ, now are they going to get seven
5 years because Kildaire's are going to go in
6 there, an extension? How do you know?
7 MS. FANUCCI: How do I know? Are you
8 asking me?
9 MR. QUINN: Yeah.
10 MS. FANUCCI: Well, we would have to
11 extend per project. It's just not a full
12 fledge extension.
13 MR. QUINN: Well, they will get it,
14 don't worry, but thank you.
15 MS. FANUCCI: Well, you know better
16 than me, Oz.
17 MR. QUINN: Okay, you know, then
18 they are saying 1,000 jobs and you don't
19 know how it's going to be transferred there.
20 It's ridiculous. You know, it's really
21 ridiculous, and the fact is now we have like
22 with our debt, with the school board's debt,
23 which is 144 million some hundred odd
24 thousand dollars, and the county 220, we are
25 over half a million dollars in principle,
28
1 but we owe, the taxpayers. This is
2 ridiculous. This is crazy. How are we
3 going to pay it as Andy said? It's just --
4 it's unheard of in a community of this size.
5 We got to do something about it and I hope
6 that something is done by this council, that
7 they get a little more thrifty on things
8 that come up before them.
9 Now, last night I went up to the
10 school board meeting, they passed a
11 resolution where they hired an association
12 known as the Northwest Pennsylvania
13 Incubator Association from Erie, and you
14 know what they do? They go out and they
15 purchase the delinquent taxes for the school
16 district and they do it for three years and
17 each year it's $5,720,000 no penalties. I
18 asked if there was any penalty, no
19 penalties. No poor soul on making $8,000 a
20 year on social security is going to get
21 taken over to Keyser Avenue and wind up with
22 $1,500 penalties. It's unbelievable. So
23 why don't you start trying to do that for --
24 look into that again, Mr. McGoff, why don't
25 you try to a little lead. I'm sick of the
29
1 triangle between what's going on with you
2 three, and actually the quadrangle, and
3 Mayor Doherty. It's getting out of hand,
4 and the other fact is here. I want to speak
5 -- oh, I do want to mention one other
6 anyone.
7 The freeze I saw in the paper is now
8 lifted from DCED, lack of communication, but
9 one thing I did learn, too, and I never knew
10 is that in 2006 -- no, 2007, March 2007,
11 July 2008, and August 2008, they were
12 lacking communications then, too. There
13 were froze then. A lack of communication or
14 lack of competence.
15 MR. MCGOFF: Thank you, Mr. Quinn.
16 MR. QUINN: And the Hill
17 Neighborhood Association Housing Blight, one
18 second -- there is two --
19 MR. MCGOFF: Mr. Quinn, you have five
20 minutes.
21 MR. QUINN: Two inspectors that were
22 just joined, two new housing inspectors
23 joined, okay? They are going to South Side
24 where Judy is again. There is the triangle
25 again.
30
1 MR. MCGOFF: Mr. Quinn.
2 MR. QUINN: And none are going up to
3 the Hill Section and we are very
4 disappointed that nobody else is getting it
5 but South Side. Thank you.
6 MR. MCGOFF: Thank you, Mr. Quinn.
7 Reverend Simmons.
8 MS. SIMMONS: Good evening, Council
9 members, my name is Reverend Kathryn
10 Simmons, and I'm a life-long Scranton
11 resident. I have not been here in quite
12 sometime because I believe that unless you
13 have something productive to say or ask for
14 you shouldn't come. You shouldn't waste
15 people's valuable time. Also, I spend
16 12 hours a day ministering to the homeless
17 shelter, to Scranton's homeless population,
18 to Lackawanna Prison Ministry and
19 Florence-Midtown Crime Watch and this is
20 down seven days per week, 12 sometimes
21 14 hours a day. And, no, I don't get paid
22 for any of it except from my father above.
23 On January 18, 19 and 20, a great
24 celebration took place in my church, in my
25 community, and even in my family. I don't
31
1 believe I have to describe the reason for
2 the celebration. Unless someone was in a
3 coma, everyone knows what took place that
4 weekend.
5 On January the 19th at Reverend
6 Dr. Martin Luther King Junior's service, I
7 took a moment and thanked our mayor, Chris
8 Doherty, for all that he had done this past
9 year to help the homeless community. I
10 don't want to hear from anybody about what
11 he didn't do, I know what he has done
12 because I'm out there and I work there,
13 okay?
14 Afterward, I received a phone call
15 telling me I should never again praise the
16 mayor, and I had no right to speak for, and
17 I quote, the colored people. Well, I'm here
18 tonight to say that my purpose in coming
19 here over the years has nothing to do with
20 politics. Never has been. I'm not a
21 political person. Everyone or anyone who
22 has heard me over the years knows I come to
23 this lectern only when I feel I have
24 something productive to say.
25 I'm a great supporter of the unions.
32
1 That will never change. Every time I hear a
2 siren or alarm or I hear a school bus pull
3 up, my thought immediately goes to the hope
4 that my father God will find finally
5 intercede and bring peace between the city
6 and those are in position.
7 I do not seek out and nor look for a
8 friend because we only think and or believe
9 alike. I respect all of my fellow citizens,
10 and this past presidential election has
11 shown that there is no more my people, there
12 is only our people.
13 I fear no one so you can tell
14 whatever you want to tell me because I know
15 who protects me and I will continue to thank
16 persons such as Scranton firefighter Dave
17 Gervasi, Larry Moran, Scranton police
18 officers Jill Foley and Lieutenant Leonard
19 Numeika and, yes, even Mayor Doherty. The
20 hungry will eat tonight, the dirty will take
21 a shower. The naked will be able to get
22 some clean clothes and those that are ill
23 will get medical attention, and when the
24 dark of night descends and there is no place
25 left for them to wander to, there is a
33
1 building in place where they can get a cot
2 and a blanket and all of this is done
3 because of people such as those that I just
4 mentioned.
5 I say to you tonight from this
6 lectern, don't ever approach me again to
7 show hatred because I am not afraid of you.
8 Don't ever tell me again I can't speak for
9 your people. You have no people. We are
10 all one and always have been. The love I
11 have for my city will go on until I myself
12 am called home.
13 So on February the 24th at 7:00 I
14 ask you to show your support of the homeless
15 and the poor and the needy. Purchase a
16 table at a dinner that we are having to help
17 waylay the costs of running a shelter.
18 There is going to be some awards given out
19 that evening, some people will be uplifted
20 by them. United States Senator Robert Casey
21 will receive an award; Mr. Patrick McMann
22 will receive an award, and our beloved
23 Reverend Daniel O'Waters, Jr. will receive
24 an award, but also Mayor Chris Doherty will
25 receive an award, and if you want to know
34
1 why come on over to 716 North Washington
2 Avenue. Any night 32 or 33 people will show
3 you why. Thank you.
4 MR. MCGOFF: Thank you, Reverend
5 Simmons. Lee Morgan?
6 MR. MORGAN: Hello, Council. The
7 first thing I have here is I can't
8 understand why there is a delay with ECTV,
9 and I really think it does a disjustice,
10 misjustice to the people in the neighborhood
11 to like to see this live. I just can't
12 understand why there is still technical
13 problems. One other thing I have here is
14 NCC. Now, today -- well, not today, two
15 days ago I received a bill from NCC for $249
16 for a garbage fee. I have a receipt for the
17 fee. I called them. The person I needed to
18 talk to wanted me to leave a voicemail, but
19 that's not the whole problem, that's just a
20 very small part of the problem.
21 I called the city today about the
22 fee, $249, and I stated to them that I had
23 paid in fee for the properties I owned and I
24 received a bill for one and I paid them all
25 at the same time. Now, the problem with the
35
1 city is they destroy their receipt book at
2 the end of the year. Now, I mean, that's
3 what this individual told me that as of the
4 end of 2008 they destroy their receipt book,
5 so if you are a person that paid your waste
6 removal fee and you lost your receipt and
7 NCC comes to you and they tell you you owe
8 us $249 and you lose your receipt then you
9 can't prove you paid it, so then you pay it
10 twice.
11 MS. FANUCCI: That's incorrect.
12 MR. MORAN: Well --
13 MS. FANUCCI: The receipt book is not
14 destroyed at the end of the year.
15 MR. MCGOFF: I was told the receipt
16 was destroyed. I was told that today.
17 MS. FANUCCI: Then you received the
18 wrong information.
19 MR. MORGAN: Well, I don't know. You
20 know, I called the people who should know
21 what's going on.
22 MS. FANUCCI: You are wrong.
23 MR. MORGAN: Okay. Well, maybe I'm
24 wrong, but you know something, I only know
25 what people who tell me who work in those
36
1 departments.
2 MS. FANUCCI: Do you have the name
3 of who told you that that works in the
4 department?
5 MR. MORGAN: No. No.
6 MS. FANUCCI: I'm sure you don't.
7 Thank you.
8 MR. MORGAN: Well, it doesn't make
9 one I'm saying to be invalid, it just means
10 that I didn't remember the person's name.
11 And I said to this person, "How can you
12 destroy a receipt book?" "That's
13 procedure."
14 That's what I was told, okay, and
15 I'm really troubled by that because in my
16 own opinion the city is seriously
17 mismanaged. That's not a cheap shot at any
18 single individual, but we have statements
19 made from council itself, council members,
20 and I'm not going to single out any single
21 council member, but I believe I read it last
22 week in the Scranton Times about slum lords.
23 Give you something to think about, is it
24 possible that the mis management of this
25 city has lead to it's demise, and it has
37
1 very little to do with individuals who have
2 come here and bought properties?
3 I have gone through South Side, I
4 have gone through other parts of the city,
5 we have an awful lot of rental properties
6 condemned even across from Scranton Dog and
7 Cat Hospital all over the place. These are
8 people that invested in this city. I just
9 can't understand it. There seems to be a
10 war on people who want to invest here, but
11 we seem to have a lot of money for special
12 interest people, whether like Andy Sbaraglia
13 said, KOZ's or other people who come here
14 and they get grants, but any time there is a
15 small investor who comes here and puts all
16 of his assets on the line it's a terrible
17 thing because they lose them all.
18 Now, I have a house up on East
19 Locust Street, there is five houses on that
20 one block, maybe six for sale. One of them
21 has been for sale for five years, and some
22 of them, I hate to say this, but there is
23 only five or six for sale, but some are
24 empty. They have nobody in them. I mean,
25 it's the most troubling thing, and my
38
1 question is as we tear these houses down,
2 does the city maintain the lot after they
3 tear the house down or is does the grass
4 grow up waist length or higher?
5 Are there any curbs and sidewalks in
6 this stay? What infrastructure repairs or
7 revitalization are going on in this city? I
8 mean, I see a lot of fees, we are talking
9 about a franchise fee here, we are talking
10 about taxation, but what's going to the
11 ordinary taxpayers who own all of these
12 homes in the city? We have come to the
13 point where we are hiring inspectors to go
14 in and try to in my opinion condemn as many
15 properties at possible because the
16 population base has actually fled the city.
17 MR. MCGOFF: Thank you, Mr. Morgan.
18 Hopefully one of the future speakers will
19 address the receipt book problem. Doug
20 Miller.
21 MR. MILLER: Good evening, Council,
22 Doug Miller, Scranton. I was driving into
23 the city today coming off the expressway
24 near Moosic Street, and certainly received a
25 big wake-up call as I was greeted by one of
39
1 the Scranton big famous potholes. Certainly
2 a nice Scranton greeting as usual, and I
3 think we can all agree that we won't have to
4 worry about anybody falling asleep behind
5 the wheel as we are driving through town.
6 Regarding 61, some issues were
7 raised with 61 earlier. It came to my
8 attention and I realized we only have one
9 camera here. I can recall in the past we
10 had various cameras around the room that
11 focused in on the meeting from different
12 angles, so maybe Council can address this
13 issue in the future, maybe I missed out on
14 the details.
15 Regarding agenda Item 7-A, you know,
16 I'd truly like to know when the city is
17 going to receive the thousands of dollars
18 that were owed from the Ice Box. It
19 certainly was a poor decision by previous
20 council to approve the sale of this piece of
21 land for a dollar to begin with. You know,
22 I believe that this deal certainly begs for
23 an investigation.
24 I'm certainly not here to apologize,
25 however, I believe the statements that I
40
1 made here last week were taken out of
2 context by this council. Regarding the
3 issue of the raises, no matter what money
4 was given back, and I'm not going to argue
5 that it was certainly a good gesture, but
6 the bottom line is the raises were on the
7 table and I do feel that the mayor's raise
8 should have been addressed as well as the
9 controller's raise.
10 As for the University, my comments
11 were only an add-on to all of council
12 members to ask the University to consider
13 expanding their project by traveling all
14 over the city cutting trees and installing
15 lights. Those statements were aimed at all
16 for council, not just one member.
17 I opposed the cancellation of the
18 meetings, we only need three members from
19 majority. Any council member can vote on
20 legislation the way they feel is necessary,
21 but the bottom line is they chambers should
22 never be closed to the public. Council was
23 elected to serve at the pleasure of the
24 people. Those were the issues that I had
25 with this council last week.
41
1 I certainly don't look to pick
2 arguments, there is no reason to. I want to
3 see this city move forward just as anyone
4 else does, but if I see things I don't like
5 along the way I'm going to raise the issues.
6 I spent two years on this junior council as
7 president, served along with other high
8 school students. As we know, it was
9 supposed to be an internship for each of us
10 to work with council, but we know that never
11 happened, and I'm still disappointed, as you
12 know, that this council has not put in any
13 effort to restoring this council. We see
14 areas around us that followed our lead and
15 here we are at this date no high school
16 students at the table, but the experiences
17 and observations and actions of this council
18 is what motivated me to come before you here
19 and address issues that I believe to be
20 discussed openly and forthright. Thank you.
21 MR. MCGOFF: Thank you, Mr. Miller.
22 Bob Bolus.
23 MR. BOLUS: Good evening, Council.
24 Bob Bolus, Scranton. First off, does anyone
25 have an answer to my questions that I raised
42
1 last week about the balance of the golf
2 course money from the first time it was put
3 in, wherever it went, for the $3 million
4 including the interest to date, and I'd ask
5 that and I would like to really know where
6 it is and what's it's accrued since it's
7 been put away there, and I intend to ask
8 every chance I get where it's gone.
9 Next, I brought up about windmills,
10 somebody should research about putting
11 windmills around the area to help defray the
12 cost of operating the city and give
13 taxpayers a break. I also brought up about
14 the leachate line and that will be asked
15 time and time again.
16 I'd like to see you bring impact
17 fees on Lackawanna Avenue. There is a
18 development there, there has been traffic
19 tie-ups and everything, those are the
20 realistic part about what an impact fee is.
21 On Washington Avenue where the parking
22 garage is there should be an impact fee.
23 They are done everywhere else, but Scranton,
24 we don't do it. We want the taxpayers to
25 pay.
43
1 Thought possibly about raising the
2 tax on liquor being sold in the city. The
3 governor wants to raise it on cigarettes, I
4 haven't seen anybody getting a DUI smoking a
5 cigarette unless it was a joint, but we have
6 seen a lot more problems with alcohol, okay?
7 So maybe someone would want to go look at
8 it.
9 Another thing I think we should do,
10 and this is important, that we need to look
11 at grants to possibly save the Catholic
12 churches in this community. Marino has
13 taken it upon himself to literally close
14 what we have all grown up with for
15 generations. I think it's wrong. I don't
16 think he should have the power to do what he
17 is doing. I believe it has to be something
18 we have to take charge of and it should be
19 done through council or through the city or
20 through the county commissioners. There are
21 grants that are out there. We give the
22 Connell Building away, we waived hundreds of
23 thousands of dollars in taxes, we gave them
24 $4 million so these people could afford to
25 pay the taxes and they could afford to pay
44
1 for the building. They have a place up off
2 81 there that is still vacant for how many
3 years, the old Corning Building, so it's not
4 like they were out of money. So we need to
5 go on that part that I'm looking at.
6 Now, I'm going to get a little
7 technical here tonight, it was something
8 that happened last week that I'm going to
9 raise this issue. On candidates, Mrs.
10 Fanucci, are you going be a candidate this
11 year?
12 MS. FANUCCI: I haven't made my
13 formal announcement yet, so when I do I
14 certainly will let you know.
15 MR. BOLUS: Well, let see say this,
16 the statements you made last week regarding
17 Doug Miller, I think you were out of order
18 with and the reason I'm --
19 MS. FANUCCI: Is he not running
20 though?
21 MR. BOLUS: Pardon?
22 MS. FANUCCI: He is running for
23 council? I mean, it wasn't out of order --
24 MR. BOLUS: Yeah, that's fine.
25 MS. FANUCCI: -- he came to the
45
1 podium and said something. It was already
2 known.
3 MR. BOLUS: It was the way it was
4 brought up, and I'm going to raise an issue
5 here because I think you were out of order
6 and saying an issue about who is running as
7 a candidate and wether they can speak here.
8 I want to set the record straight. Council
9 members every time they have ran here have
10 been on this seat, have used that forum to
11 their own benefit to run for office right
12 where they are sitting. Every member
13 running for reelection is a candidate, yet
14 you get to speak about council issues and
15 some personal issues. Nobody faults it, but
16 what you have to understand, people running
17 while they are running, do we ever see
18 council members come back here? Very rarely
19 after they have left this seat.
20 MS. FANUCCI: We have one that comes
21 back a lot.
22 MR. BOLUS: Very rarely you see
23 them. Very, very rarely once they go they
24 don't come back, but this kid showed up here
25 two years. I'm not here defending him, I
46
1 think he could do a pretty darn good job and
2 his own.
3 As far as a candidate that is
4 running for public office coming before
5 council and council denying them the right
6 to speak, it has already been tried to Court
7 and they were defeated. I was that person
8 that defeated them, okay?
9 MS. FANUCCI: I wasn't looking to
10 stop people from coming, I was looking from
11 stopping it to be a quorum just for
12 political activity constantly, and I was
13 more worried about what the law was with
14 camera time because I knew that was
15 something --
16 MR. BOLUS: Well, I don't think
17 that's even an issue and that's where I was
18 going.
19 MS. FANUCCI: Well, we did figure
20 that out last week, so you are coming here
21 with something we already talked about.
22 MR. BOLUS: Well, that's why I'm here
23 to set the record straight whether it was
24 figured out or not. It really wasn't cast
25 in stone, but I don't even think it was an
47
1 issue that should have been raised by you,
2 and I have a lot of respect for you and
3 every council member here, whether we are in
4 chambers or outside of the door, but I think
5 there is one thing here that people have to
6 say, and I think that goes for everybody in
7 this administration or the city or political
8 office, and it's one I was raised with and
9 it was recommended many, many times with, it
10 said engage the brain before putting the
11 mouth in gear. We all need to think about
12 what we are saying before we say it and we
13 won't have these issues. Thank you.
14 MR. MCGOFF: Thank you, Mr. Bolus.
15 Mrs. Schumacher.
16 MS. SCHUMACHER: Good evening, Marie
17 Schumacher, resident and member of the
18 Taxpayers' Association. Mrs. Gatelli, last
19 week as I was leaving the podium after
20 harping about the status of the resolution
21 on the city's neighborhood stabilization
22 application you questioned my South Side
23 credentials as I had spent a number of years
24 out of town. I chose to leave Scranton to
25 seek employment based on my God given
48
1 ability and my parents' investment in my
2 education instead of staying in Scranton so
3 I wouldn't have to kiss somebody's butt or
4 sell my soul to get a decent job.
5 That does not mean I'm ignorant.
6 Mrs. Gatelli, there were several rather
7 famous retail businesses in South Side such
8 as Kolomark's Bakery, Goodhinz and
9 Schumacher's Meat Market. I would expect
10 anyone with the knowledge of South Side to
11 know the family name is Schumachers not
12 Schumacher.
13 I grew up in the heart of the Elm
14 Street project area and stayed connected
15 through the family business. I am well
16 aware of what happened to South Scranton. I
17 still worship in South Side, my auto
18 mechanic is in South Side as our many
19 friends, my bank and my hairdresser, and all
20 of my personal services.
21 Even if I hadn't stayed connected, I
22 have been back in Scranton five years and it
23 doesn't take that long to observe what has
24 happened and why. I would love to see South
25 Side return to the wonderful neighborhood in
49
1 which I grew up.
2 On October 29 of last year, I
3 attended a meeting on the Elm Street project
4 in South Side at which a professional firm
5 provided the results of a survey of what
6 people wanted done with the Elm Street
7 funding. The results of their survey
8 included the fact that only 2 percent of the
9 survey responders want the library, but who
10 is listening. They will get what others
11 want for them as a library continues to be a
12 priority for the mayor.
13 At the last library board meeting
14 held in Scranton, it was reported that the
15 mayor has been lobbying Senator Casey to
16 insure the library is in the stimulus
17 package, and the board is thinking about
18 dipping into reserve to rush blueprints so
19 the project is shovel ready. All of this
20 for a project desired by 2 percent. I do
21 believe that it is unfair to the
22 neighborhood stabilization proposal to
23 desire to spend the entire $3 million in
24 South Scranton.
25 In last year's state of the city
50
1 address, Mr. Doherty laid out plans for West
2 Scranton that included knocking down 30
3 dilapidated structures in West Side, so it
4 would make sense to at least at a minimum
5 share that $3 million with West Side, if not
6 the entire city.
7 The rental registration has been on
8 the books since I believe July of 2007, and
9 yet it has yet to be enforced. That is
10 something that could help the entire city.
11 Now, to a few other loose ends and
12 items. Last month Mayor Doherty committed
13 -- excuse me, maybe it was December,
14 committed $3 million to a Section 108 loan
15 to Boscov's NUCO. I believe city council is
16 required to approve Section 108 loans, so I
17 wonder when this loan will appear on the
18 agenda. Maybe this can be addressed in
19 motions.
20 Last week at the school board
21 meeting, Scranton Chamber's Austin Burke
22 reported the city has given $225,000 for the
23 Mt. Pleasant Corporate Center
24 infrastructure. I don't believe that items
25 has come before council as yet either and I
51
1 would like to know when that might occur or
2 when it occurred if I did miss it. I
3 believe it was two weeks ago that Mr. Burke
4 made his stealthy visit to a council caucus
5 regarding extending KOZ status for this
6 project. When will that be on the agenda?
7 And then just a few words on KOZ's
8 and KOEZ's. For instance, the Moon Shine
9 Theatre has had KOZ status since the
10 beginning. They have had one production at
11 this facility and they do not bother to show
12 them their snow from their sidewalks. I
13 could go down the entire list of KOZ's and
14 KOEZ's, but I hope that you are as deadset
15 against approving any extensions for KOZ's
16 as I am in opposing them. There are many
17 KOZ properties which have had nothing built
18 on them, and would be eligible or over the
19 ten-acre minimum and they would be eligible,
20 and I don't know how you would say no to one
21 or yes to one and then no to all the rest,
22 so you are opening a Pandora's box if
23 approve just one. There are a lot of
24 KOEZ's, as I say, such as the Moonshine
25 Theatre which has had one single production,
52
1 don't keep the place up, and I'll be back
2 next week, good Lord willing. Thank you.
3 MR. MCGOFF: Thank you, Mrs.
4 Schumacher. Stephanie Gawel.
5 MS. GAWEL: Good evening, Council.
6 First off, I'm a happy girl. Steelers. I
7 got to kind of pickup, I never hang around
8 after I speak, I have to get home, I
9 couldn't believe what I heard last week
10 finishing watching the meeting when I got
11 home. I can't believe we are going to have
12 the mayor or any other untrained person
13 manning the police and fire department. I
14 mean, that doesn't even make sense to me.
15 We need the police and fire. They are
16 semi-military who serve the city with honor
17 and sacrifice and courage. We should be
18 thankful that they are there, and we should
19 thank god that they are there, which I do
20 ever day by the way. But, are they fighting
21 this, do we know?
22 MS. FANUCCI: I think Mr. Gervasi
23 could probably tell you better. I'm not
24 sure what their plans are. I would imagine
25 that they are going to Court with it. I
53
1 would think since that's what their
2 statements are in the paper and I'm sure
3 that it's --
4 MS. GAWEL: Oh, it's just -- I
5 appreciate Mrs. Williams' opinion, and like
6 her I would love to talk about the good
7 things of the city which are the
8 architecture that we keep tearing down and,
9 you know, that's sort of stuff, but we have
10 issues that need to be settled.
11 The police and firemen are in more
12 danger on a regular basis, especially
13 nowadays with the drug houses and the drug
14 dealers, the houses could blowup very easily
15 from a Meth lab. The policemen could get
16 killed very easily with fully automatic
17 weapons out there, so I just disagree with
18 her a little bit.
19 I'd also like to get back to the
20 safety issues that I was discussing. Just
21 could you humor me on this, Mr. Courtright,
22 would you explain to everybody out there
23 what a defibrillator does?
24 MR. COURTRIGHT: I don't know if I
25 could give it justice, but it shocks the
54
1 heart.
2 MS. GAWEL: Yes, it's a lifesaving
3 device, would that --
4 MR. COURTRIGHT: Yes, there is one
5 right in the hall.
6 MS. GAWEL: Would that be fair to say
7 though, it's a lifesaving device?
8 MR. COURTRIGHT: I would say, so,
9 yes.
10 MS. GAWEL: And past practice is we
11 had one in every police car.
12 MR. COURTRIGHT: Not every police
13 car. We had at least on each side of the
14 river.
15 MS. GAWEL: And they functioned?
16 MR. COURTRIGHT: Yes.
17 MS. GAWEL: Do we have that now?
18 MR. COURTRIGHT: No.
19 MS. GAWEL: No. Do we have oxygen in
20 the cars?
21 MR. COURTRIGHT: Not to my
22 knowledge, no.
23 MS. GAWEL: Again, safety device?
24 MR. COURTRIGHT: Yes.
25 MS. GAWEL: Okay. Now, maybe it's
55
1 only my opinion, but I will --
2 MS. GATELLI: Excuse me for one
3 minute, do we have ADD's in any fire trucks?
4 MR. COURTRIGHT: I'm sorry, I don't
5 know the answer to that. I don't believe we
6 do, do we? Does rescue have one?
7 MR. GERVASI: We have some, I'm not
8 sure how many are actually functioning right
9 now.
10 MR. COURTRIGHT: This is certainly a
11 legitimate complaint. We should have ADD's
12 out there. I just got trained in it not too
13 long ago. It's pretty simple.
14 MS. GAWEL: Here is my point behind
15 this, my point is that 99.9 percent of the
16 time the cops are there first, they are
17 trained to give the First Aid, they are
18 usually going to beat the fire department
19 there, they are going to beat any ambulances
20 there because they are in the neighborhoods,
21 they are going to get there first, they
22 should have these.
23 MR. COURTRIGHT: I agree with you,
24 yes, and we did have them and why we don't
25 have them now is --
56
1 MS. GATELLI: Can we find that out?
2 MR. COURTRIGHT: What happened is --
3 MS. GAWEL: Go ahead.
4 MR. COURTRIGHT: I don't want to take
5 your time. What happened, we had them, the
6 batteries either died and some of them were
7 damaged and we never replaced them. Some
8 people would say that some of them were
9 damaged purposely, I don't think we can
10 prove that. The batteries are -- I know,
11 I'm just telling you what I was told, the
12 batteries die and they are expensive and we
13 didn't purchase any.
14 I believe there was a gentleman
15 willing to donate one from a company, I'm
16 not going to say his name on the air because
17 it's somebody running for office and I will
18 get yelled at, and I think we need them and
19 I will ask Director Hayes why we don't have
20 them in there and if he is going to do
21 anything about putting them in there.
22 MS. GAWEL: Again, I'm sure you can
23 get these things through grants or at least,
24 you know.
25 MR. COURTRIGHT: Right. I have no
57
1 good answer for you. We should have them.
2 I apologize.
3 MS. GAWEL: Thank you. I would like
4 to move onto something else. I would also
5 like to know when and where are we going to
6 replace the Schmidt Complex? I don't
7 understand why this mayor could and did give
8 away the complex. It was dedicated to the
9 Mayor Schmidt. It was built for the
10 children of the lower section of South Side
11 and West Side. Is it ever getting replaced?
12 Okay. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to --
13 MS. GATELLI: I think it's still in
14 litigation. That's why nothing is done I
15 don't think. I think it's in litigation.
16 Can you hear me?
17 MS. GAWEL: Yes.
18 MS. GATELLI: I'm sorry, I think the
19 voice travels around there.
20 MS. GAWEL: I'd also like to know --
21 okay, I'll get back to it. Thank you.
22 MR. MCGOFF: Thank you, Mrs. Gawel.
23 Dave Dobson.
24 MS. GATELLI: You know, before he
25 comes up, Bob, I don't know if anyone is
58
1 interested, but maybe we can set up some ADD
2 CPR lessons for people that come here. I
3 don't know if anybody in this room is
4 certified, Bill and I are, I don't know how
5 many else are, but it's a question with a
6 lot of people here all of the time that
7 people should be certified, so maybe if some
8 of you are interested we can set something
9 up one night a week or something, it only
10 takes a few hours so.
11 MR. COURTRIGHT: Mr. McGoff almost
12 gave me a heart attack with that gavel
13 before.
14 MS. GATELLI: Yeah, I think it's the
15 first time he used it. Anyway, if anyone is
16 interested tell us after the meeting and
17 maybe we could set up something for ADD
18 training, I'm sorry, Mr. Dobson.
19 MR. DOBSON: That's okay. Dave
20 Dobson, resident of Scranton, associate with
21 the Taxpayers' Association. In listening to
22 our Comcast caucus tonight, the thought
23 occurred to me and something council could
24 help out with, trying to get Channel 61 and
25 62 finally settled on basic service. You
59
1 have to have at least intermediate service
2 to receive this and that already puts you at
3 about --
4 MR. COURTRIGHT: Excuse me,
5 Mr. Dobson, I asked that woman that question
6 and she said that the package that would be
7 coming up $16 would carry Channel 61.
8 That's the question I asked her.
9 MR. DOBSON: That's not what is I was
10 told. They are trying to do it, but there
11 has been other issues there. That extra
12 channel that they had to broadcast took up I
13 think Channel 11 or something like that, so
14 it was being announced that it was Channel
15 11. Well, it can't be 11 anymore, so they
16 are working towards it, but it's something
17 that you people could try and facilitate and
18 expedite it would be a big help. People
19 wouldn't have to pay as much if they would
20 just were interested in local programming.
21 On our president's stimulus plan, a
22 thought occurred to me the other day and it
23 was mentioned by another speaker here, sewer
24 and water separation should be part of our
25 shovel ready economic stimulus package
60
1 eligible for money and at over $100 million
2 to separate these, the sewer and the
3 drainage water, I think that would be a very
4 meritorious cause to spend that money on and
5 try an acquire money for 100 million
6 dollars. Every time somebody is up here
7 they are complaining that we have a
8 $100 million debt here or there, well, we
9 are going to have over a 100,00 debt with
10 that, and if that money comes down the pike
11 it would be awful nice to see it spent on
12 something that isn't going to -- the gift
13 that keeps on giving as opposed to other
14 things.
15 On this library, the one issue I
16 have with it is that bus service does not,
17 to the best of my knowledge, go by there.
18 It would outrule handicapped people and
19 people without cars. It would also there
20 are no -- in that section of town the
21 sidewalks are not mobile wheelchair ready at
22 all, so they would have to be made that way,
23 but basically it would require you getting a
24 transfer ticket and I think the nearest
25 place you could hop off at would be Alder
61
1 Street and Pittston Avenue, so any
2 consideration on that library location
3 should be coordinated with the Colts bus
4 company to get them to try and alter their
5 routes and make it possible for people that
6 lack transportation to come down.
7 And on these tax exempts, I had an
8 idea the other day, possibly colleges and
9 hospitals getting together with you people,
10 I forget what the number of the bill was,
11 Janet, do you still remember that?
12 MS. EVANS: I know what you are
13 talking about. I think that actually died
14 in the last session. It can't be brought up
15 once again. In other words, it wasn't
16 addressed and so the legislative session
17 ended and now if one of the legislators will
18 sponsor it and --
19 MR. DOBSON: It will have a new
20 number then.
21 MS. EVANS: -- pull the banner --
22 that I'm not sure.
23 MR. DOBSON: Because what we need is
24 some of the people that are benefiting from
25 this, well, of course, we all benefit from a
62
1 hospital or a college or whatever, but the
2 benefits are limited. We need somebody to
3 get -- of these people to get together short
4 of you people finally refusing to give them
5 or let them go tax exempt, this block or
6 that block and get our compensation for it,
7 and I feel it's their duty to be a little
8 more cooperative in lobbying these
9 legislators to get these bills passed.
10 MR. MCGOFF: Thank you, Mr. Dobson.
11 MR. DOBSON: It's involves their
12 future as well as ours. Thank you and have
13 a good night.
14 MR. MCGOFF: David Bergerhoff.
15 MR. BERGERHOFF: Hello. David
16 Bergerhoff, North Scranton. First of all, I
17 would to like thank all of for your service.
18 Although many citizens disagree with your
19 politics and take umbrage with your lack of
20 success, I don't think anybody out there
21 intended this to turn out the way it has in
22 many a weeks.
23 I'm not in your position and,
24 therefore, I'm not going to pretend to know
25 any better than anybody up there standing on
63
1 this side of the podium. As Jefferson said,
2 he who knows best knows he knows too little.
3 Some of you made statements a few
4 weeks ago though, and that's what I'm here
5 for tonight because with the election not
6 too far off I wanted you to elaborate on
7 those comments, and I hope you can be honest
8 in the responses and you don't take this the
9 wrong way because there is no other way for
10 me to word these and I wish you would speak
11 out after I concluded or when you wish to at
12 the end of the meeting.
13 Mrs. Evans, you had stated that
14 family comes first no matter what regardless
15 of which job, even council. Although, I
16 appreciate your love of family I ask what
17 family issues and how serious an issue need
18 be before you neglect the council's duties
19 and the public interest and, therefore, all
20 our families. After all, when by son gets
21 sick I still have to go work and most of us
22 still do. Where did you draw the line and
23 how do you justify the decision?
24 And, finally, it has been said that
25 you are a grandstander. I tend to agree.
64
1 After all, what success have you had in
2 getting others to join you and vote with you
3 sand how do you explain your inability to
4 persuade your colleagues. And it's not an
5 insult, I'm sure you have a reason why they
6 don't agree with you and I would love to
7 hear your answer.
8 MS. GATELLI: Councilwoman Gatelli is
9 not here, but I'm going to read this and
10 then perhaps she will respond to it later.
11 A few weeks ago she defended Zach Connors,
12 and I hate to bring this back up, but she
13 did chastise the citizens for their
14 responses. She then went on to create his
15 biography and stated he deserved a chance.
16 Does that mean she believed that no other
17 candidates deserve the chance? Does she
18 really believe that this hire wasn't simply
19 a political move to win favor with Jim
20 Connors and his supporters for Mayor
21 Doherty's reelection? Does anybody up there
22 truly believe that?
23 Finally, she talked about Zach's
24 three years of college as a resume
25 enhancement. I would disagree and I believe
65
1 it's indication of one's inability to finish
2 something that they had started.
3 Mr. McGoff, you're obviously not
4 going to be up for reelection from what I
5 hear, but that doesn't mean I agree you
6 should be up there. If Mayor Doherty had a
7 large enough right pocket, I believe you
8 would live there. I don't trust you, but
9 since you are council president I do have
10 two questions directly related to city
11 issues. One, will Goodwill complete the
12 work on the North Scranton eyesore, the
13 middle school; and second, when will the
14 city complete the work on the sewer system
15 which as discontinued dumping raw sewage
16 directly into the Lackawanna River, a place
17 close to my home, close to my heart and just
18 another victim of the city's bureaucracy.
19 Council Courtright, you seem like a
20 nice guy. The public seems to like you, my
21 parents like you, you seem patient and
22 friendly, you come across well on the
23 television. However, you throw your hands
24 in the air without questioned about the lack
25 of maintenance in public areas or in a lot
66
1 of areas just like this evening. You
2 laughed at the despicable conditions of the
3 steps at city hall the night of the protest.
4 It wasn't funny. Yet you quickly jot down
5 the name of private citizens and businesses
6 so you can send enforcements to their homes.
7 Where is that assertiveness when it comes to
8 the public employees. I do not believe, as
9 you have stated yourself, that you have the
10 ability and I don't believe you have the
11 temperament to get those employees to do
12 their jobs and, therefore, perhaps you don't
13 have the possible capabilities of doing this
14 job.
15 And, finally, Mrs. Fanucci, although
16 I could not hear all of what's said
17 regarding bartenders and hairdressers a
18 couple of weeks ago, I inferred you are one
19 or both, I'm not sure, but I believe are
20 professions are worthy ones and I commend
21 anyone for earning an honest living.
22 However, I believe the point may have been
23 that there are different levels of
24 professional and codes of conducts for
25 bartenders and hairdressers and that of
67
1 council persons. You may be a good
2 hairdresser, you may be a great bartender,
3 God knows you serve up enough wine, but to
4 be blunt, you are not a good council person.
5 The citizens at home don't get to see the
6 expressions of council to citizen's
7 statements, but sitting here I do. I saw
8 the faces you made when it was suggested you
9 may not be reelected. It appeared you could
10 care less, and I'm glad because I hope you
11 will not be, and although I understand you
12 were voted to this position, I remind you
13 that just because one has many followers
14 does not necessarily make them a good
15 leader. I apologize for my honesty, but not
16 for speaking the truth, and although I do
17 not need a response from you, Mrs. Fanucci,
18 I can only be too sure you will have
19 something to say.
20 One final note on that "F" word and
21 freedom of speech, again, Gatelli is not
22 here, I don't understand how the federal
23 government has no authority over the way we
24 speak and protected speech and yet you guys
25 think you can pass rules that basically put
68
1 it that we can't say those words. Now, I'm
2 not trying to say those words and I would
3 like to read it and I would like to see it
4 brought in front of court if it ever became
5 necessary, because I would like to see you
6 arrest someone for it and see it really
7 being prosecuted, because as I was shown,
8 and I read a lot of stuff on the First
9 Amendment, I'd have to question. I didn't
10 sign any documents besides putting my name
11 on the list to speak here today, I don't see
12 anything stating that I'm not legally bound
13 to it or adhere to any rules besides the
14 basic decorum, so therefore, I will -- I
15 take some, you know, umbrage with the fact
16 that she stated that that's not possible.
17 And I'd just like to end with
18 something here, it's from Mother Theresa:
19 People are often unreasonable, irrational,
20 and self-centered; forgive them anyway. If
21 you are kind, people may accuse you of
22 selfish, ulterior motives; be kind anyway.
23 If you are successful, you will win some
24 unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies;
25 succeed anyway. If you are honest and
69
1 sincere, people may deceive you; be honest
2 and sincere anyway. What you spend years
3 creating, others could destroy overnight;
4 create anyway.
5 MR. MCGOFF: Thank you, Mr.
6 Bergerhoff.
7 MR. BERGERHOFF: Thank you.
8 MR. MCGOFF: And perhaps you should
9 look at the concept of limited rights.
10 MR. BERGERHOFF: Pardon me? I missed
11 that, sir.
12 MR. MCGOFF: You can get on the
13 replay. Mr. Talimini.
14 MR. BERGERHOFF: Please repeat it.
15 You spoke to me I missed that.
16 MR. MCGOFF: Mr. Talimini.
17 MR. BERGERHOFF: Repeat that, please.
18 MS. FANUCCI: I love the irony of him
19 Mother Theresa.
20 MR. BERGERHOFF: Well, I love the
21 irony of --
22 MR. MCGOFF: Excuse me,
23 Mr. Bergerhoff. Thank you.
24 MR. BEGERHOFF: She spoke and
25 addressed me, I think I have a right --
70
1 MR. MCGOFF: Mr. Talimini.
2 MS. FANUCCI: I'm not addressing you,
3 I'm addressing the public.
4 MR. BERGERHOFF: I'm not surprised
5 by your statements, let me just put it that
6 way.
7 MR. MCGOFF: Please.
8 MR. TALIMINI: Joe Talimini. Tough
9 act to follow.
10 MR. MCGOFF: Not really.
11 MR. TALIMINI: What can I say. First
12 of all, I'd like you to know a very
13 important thing happened today on a call
14 this morning, the passing of Mr. Miller
15 Fuller, I don't know if any of you know who
16 he is or not. Mr. Fuller back in 1976 along
17 with an interracial gentleman started
18 Habitat for Humanity in Meritus, Georgia.
19 Miller is four years younger than I am. I
20 know him and his wife Linda very well, and
21 the sudden passage it's a terrible loss
22 because I think Mr. Fuller was responsible
23 for somewhere around 115,000 houses that
24 Habitat for Humanity built, and it's
25 paradoxil because he started in a little
71
1 church on Church Street in Meritus, Georgia,
2 and that was his office to. Mr. Miller was
3 a multi -- well, he wasn't a
4 multi-millionaire, he was a millionaire who
5 gave all of his money away and described
6 himself as a poor millionaire with a hammer
7 and he accepted a $15,000 a year job which
8 he carried for six years. It's kind of a
9 big loss. I know a lot of people in this
10 area don't know who he is, but people around
11 the country know who he is and he was a
12 very, very important man and he did an awful
13 lot by helping homeless and helping people
14 who couldn't afford to buy homes.
15 I'd like to ask a question of
16 council, I hope somebody can come up with an
17 answer, it doesn't have to be tonight, but
18 I'd like to know how many KOZ's we've had in
19 the past ten years, how many of them are
20 still in existence and just what they were
21 supposed to accomplish.
22 And secondly, I would like to know
23 how many jobs, I'm talking about new jobs
24 that were created by these KOZ's, I'm not
25 talking about transferring from Department A
72
1 to Department B, from Building A to Building
2 B, I'm talking about new jobs which the
3 KOZ's are supposed to create, and I think it
4 would be behoove Mr. Burke if he came back
5 and he addressed this council publically and
6 let the rest of the city know exactly what
7 he has in mind because I think very, very
8 seriously we do not need another KOZ in this
9 town. We need to clamp down on the ones we
10 had, collect the money that's owed, I'm sure
11 there is a lot of people out there that owe
12 money on these KOZ's, and I recall one
13 particular business last year that was
14 mentioned as a KOZ and some of their tenants
15 came up here and asked for loans and they
16 were denied, but I think this is a
17 tightening of the belts that we need to look
18 at.
19 We talk about blight in this city,
20 we talk about the buildings which are being
21 demolished, and I'm not trying to make light
22 of it, but I think we can save an awful lot
23 of money if we can take all of these
24 buildings which we are knocking down, make
25 them into compost and fill the potholes we
73
1 have in the city we would save an awful lot
2 of money, and I would like to see nothing
3 better than DPW and Mayor Doherty out here
4 with shovels filling these holes. We got a
5 big one on Prospect. The street was closed
6 down for quite while. I think it's still
7 closed down; am I right?
8 MS. FANUCCI: Yeah.
9 MR. TALIMINI: That's a pothole
10 that's gigantic. It's what, 25 feet deep
11 and they are going to pour -- yeah, it's --
12 MS. GATELLI: That's a mine
13 subsidence. That's a mine subsidence.
14 MR. TALIMINI: Yeah, well, we have an
15 awful lot of mines subsidence, mines that
16 are underneath us here and we've got these
17 little subsidence beginning all over the
18 city and nobody has done a damn thing about
19 it. I have been harping on this for two
20 years and, I mean, you know, we could change
21 the name from the Electric City to Pothole
22 City because that's exactly what it is. We
23 have got more potholes than we have
24 electricity in this city, and I would love
25 to see something done about it. Who knows,
74
1 maybe we can accomplish something in this
2 town. I doubt very much, but I would like
3 to see it happen.
4 And again, I'd like to have the
5 answer on those KOZ's. Next week is a funny
6 time. Thank you very much.
7 MR. MCGOFF: Thank you, Mr. Talimini.
8 Jim Stucker.
9 MR. STUCKER: Over where you go up
10 the avenue, there's a bar where you go up
11 the alleyway that would much down on the
12 ground, it's about that much down in the
13 road in the alleyway, and somebody is going
14 to twist their ankle and a lot people in
15 that Tink's and coming out of the bank. The
16 state building and they park there and it
17 says "No Parking" and they still park in the
18 alley. There is sign that says "No Parking
19 Zone." I think the girl should go around
20 and give them tickets and they still park in
21 the alley.
22 And I did a lot of walking today and
23 there is no sidewalks never been shoveled
24 and never been rock salted from Greenridge
25 all the way down to the -- all the way down
75
1 to that -- where Jilly's building there,
2 Jilly's sidewalk is clear, from there it
3 hasn't been shoveled at all.
4 MR. COURTRIGHT: Okay, Jim, we'll
5 look at it.
6 MR. STUCKER: And I have this little
7 CD, I have a little thing on my answering
8 machine and it says Courtright -- it said
9 something about Courtright, Gary DiBileo is
10 on the answering machine and he says they
11 are supposed to get me a scooter and deliver
12 the mail, tax forms.
13 MR. COURTRIGHT: I'm supposed to give
14 you a scooter, Jim, is that you were saying?
15 MR. STUCKER: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
16 That's what they said. I'm supposed to go
17 and --
18 MR. MCGOFF: Jim, somebody is just
19 playing tricks with you.
20 MR. STUCKER: No, it's on my
21 answering machine.
22 MR. MCGOFF: I know, but somebody is
23 just teasing you.
24 MR. STUCKER: I got an answering
25 machine because --
76
1 MR. MCGOFF: It's not true.
2 MR. STUCKER: I can bring it in and
3 replay it.
4 MR. MCGOFF: I know. I'm sure that
5 the message is there, but somebody is just
6 place -- is just teasing you with those
7 messages.
8 MR. STUCKER: Okay. Right across the
9 street from where I live some girl, it's not
10 the girl's fault, there was a guy walking
11 across the street and the girl hit him with
12 a car. He walked in front of the girl
13 Saturday -- Saturday or Sunday, yeah.
14 MR. COURTRIGHT: Okay, Jim.
15 MR. STUCKER: And it's bad right
16 there on the corner and they need a light
17 there, a traffic light.
18 MR. COURTRIGHT: Okay. We'll take a
19 look at it, Jim.
20 MR. STUCKER: The cars are really
21 going fast.
22 MR. COURTRIGHT: All right.
23 MR. MCGOFF: Thank you.
24 MR. STUCKER: Yeah.
25 MR. MCGOFF: And be careful. Don't
77
1 get stuck.
2 MR. STUCKER: No. That's the first
3 time I got stuck. Thank you.
4 MR. MCGOFF: Others speakers? Anyone
5 else? Please.
6 MS. ROYCE: Hi. Bernie Royce, West
7 Side. Regarding the mayor wanting to cut
8 firefighters, I want to say that I'm beyond
9 appalled that this administration continues
10 to look at dollars ahead of lives and safety
11 of the citizens of Scranton and the
12 firefighters of Scranton. Yes, I realize
13 that the city faces economic decisions
14 mostly due to city hall's incompetence.
15 However, if Mayor Doherty's only
16 consideration for cutting firefighters is
17 financial and, once again, the mayor's
18 decision is shortsided.
19 In 1994 there was a landmark study
20 by J. Curtis Barone concerning fire
21 department staffing. It indicated that
22 four-man engines will pay for themselves
23 with the savings from injury reduction of
24 firefighters. The four-man staffings lead
25 to quote: A 23.8 percent reduction in
78
1 injuries, a 25 percent reduction in time
2 lost injuries, and a 71 percent decrease in
3 time loss due to injury when compared to
4 three-person staffing.
5 These are significant decreases that
6 should be considered with the average
7 firefighter overexertion injury and costing
8 $10,000. Obviously, when we are dealing
9 with the economics of Scranton this is
10 something that we need to consider.
11 When you are dealing with
12 firefighter injuries in general, the
13 National Institute of Standards and
14 Technology averaged that annually
15 firefighter injuries cost 2.7 billion to 7.8
16 billion estimate. That's for 80,000
17 firefighters injured every year.
18 Obviously, I'm not going to tell you
19 that we need to take care of firefighters
20 for injuries from an ethical point of view.
21 If the mayor does not want to take care of
22 his firefighters certainly because it is the
23 ethical thing to do, then perhaps he needs
24 to consider that it is the economic thing to
25 do, and cutting firefighters staffing is not
79
1 the economic smart thing to do. Thank you
2 very much.
3 MR. MCGOFF: Anyone else?
4 Mr. Ellman?
5 MR. ELLMAN: Ronnie Ellman,
6 homeowner and member of the taxpayers. I
7 think all we need to tonight was Ray Lyman
8 and Phyllis and we would have had a full
9 house. These are notes, I won't be here but
10 15 or 20 minutes or so. This article that
11 was in the paper that be Mr. Boscov made
12 $26 million last month in December, this is
13 unbelievable. I think Donald Trump would be
14 up here studying him. In the car business
15 it's known as working a pencil like when you
16 get your trade-in and they say you are
17 getting thousands and you are not.
18 I have talked to some business
19 people Saturday and they said it's an
20 impossibility that, you know, he just worked
21 a pencil or something, but if he -- let's
22 just assume he did. Let him just forget
23 about the three million dollars and let's
24 use it for the city where it's supposed to
25 be.
80
1 And my next attack, my next attack
2 would be that this pompous Austin Burke. He
3 is just a big stuffed overpaid shirt and
4 it's ashame. It's just ashame --
5 MR. MCGOFF: Please no name calling.
6 MR. ELLMAN: Do you know how much
7 money Austin Burke gets? His salary is over
8 $200,000 plus his benefits and he gets a car
9 and he gets -- he belongs to the country
10 club all at taxpayers' expense. Yeah, how
11 many people out here go to the country club
12 and have a car and gasoline and insurance
13 and what has he given this city? Now he
14 wants to extend KOZ's seven more years?
15 This asinine. There is no excuse for it.
16 KOZ's have killed the city. They
17 are killing us. You know, every time -- I
18 have said it before, every time I go down
19 Keyser Avenue to Taylor, I go once a week to
20 take Ms. Rosie to the doctor in Taylor, I go
21 pass the 150 houses. They got so many kids
22 we need to build a school for them, you
23 know, let them -- when I was in Missouri
24 they had a volunteer fire department and
25 they put a little number on the telephone
81
1 pole and you'd have to belong to them or
2 they are not too enthusiastic about coming
3 for your house for fire if you are not a
4 member.
5 Let these KOZ places, you know, we
6 got a bunch of bars and restaurants, let
7 them pay for the police. They are not
8 paying taxes get them another way. Let them
9 pay for fire protection and sidewalks and
10 streetlights.
11 I listened to these guys come in
12 here and whining about basins out there,
13 that ought to be the people that built the
14 houses ought to be worrying about it, you
15 know, not the city doing all of this. It's
16 just not right.
17 You know, getting back to
18 Mr. Boscov, last week Ms. Rosie wanted a new
19 coffee pot, she wanted percolator so we went
20 to Boscov's and they are 30 and 40 dollars
21 for those Mr. Coffee kind of things, you
22 know, and we went over to the Dollar Store
23 and bought one for $10. That's right, the
24 Dollar Store at Keyser Oak they are $10 over
25 there, Mr. Coffee, with a drip down, but I
82
1 talked to two men and woman that were
2 salespeople and all three of them are
3 looking for jobs and all three of them told
4 me they can see the handwriting on the wall.
5 They are not doing the business and they are
6 not going to make it, you know, for people
7 to think they are going to have a career
8 there. I don't know.
9 To me, our esteemed mayor the motto
10 for Scranton ought to be, you know, the rich
11 get richer off the taxpayers' expense and we
12 don't need bumper stickers saying that, but
13 I think Mr. Doherty's legacy is going to be
14 that he got a $200 million debt that would
15 be here for 30 or 40 years, when Doug Miller
16 wants to run 10 or 20 years from now he will
17 still be fighting with it if he gets to be
18 the mayor, you know, his children will
19 probably be fighting with the debt that
20 Doherty has put us in.
21 His legacy is not going to be no
22 medical school, his legacy is going to be
23 that he was a complete failure as a mayor
24 and a failure to the people of this city.
25 Thank you.
83
1 MR. MCGOFF: Thank you, Mr. Ellman.
2 MR. GERVASI: Hi. Good evening,
3 City Council. I'll be brief. I want to
4 thank this young lady who come up and spoke
5 earlier. I finally met her. I have heard
6 all about it her, I have never actually met
7 her, a brilliant woman, and I think what she
8 says you should pay attention.
9 Just a few things that were said
10 here tonight about ADD's. We do -- the fire
11 department does have ADD's on board, both
12 truck companies, Car 21, the assistant
13 chief's car and rescue, so we do have ADD's.
14 They are very important. Actually, for
15 every minute that goes by when you need to
16 be defibrillated there is a 10 percent
17 chance or mortality as each minute goes by,
18 so it is very important and, Mrs. Gatelli,
19 if you are worrying about anyone having a
20 problem here right now down the hall there
21 is always eight emergency medical
22 technicians on duty so we could be here
23 immediately with just a quick phone call, so
24 if you really did want to get CPR trained
25 some of our guys are CPR instructors. I'm
84
1 not sure if they do it through Red Cross
2 anymore. I haven't been an CPR instructor
3 since 1988 or '89 when the ambulance went
4 out of business, but we do have instructors
5 and we would be happy to instruct anybody if
6 they would like to get certified in CPR.
7 And one more comment I would like to
8 make, I mean, usually every week there is
9 someone talking about safety or something, I
10 would be happy to sit here, but it's not
11 exactly my place. As you see, you know, the
12 city want to have sole discretion over
13 everything in our department, apparently we
14 are not going to be getting involved in too
15 many things anymore because we never had
16 control, but at least we were allowed at
17 times when they messed something up to
18 correct it, but, you know, I think they are
19 just going to be calling the shots from this
20 point on. But the point I'm trying to make
21 is we have a chief that just got a $13,000
22 last year, maybe you should have him here
23 periodically to answer questions, you know?
24 Where is ADD's and things like safety
25 questions, so that's all. Thank you.
85
1 MR. MCGOFF: Thank you, Mr. Gervasi.
2 MR. UNGVARSKY: Good evening, City
3 Council. I'm Tom Ungvarsky. I understand
4 stand that ECTV is not showing this live
5 tonight. It's going to be rebroadcast a
6 half hour after you adjourn. Mr.
7 Courtright, you asked several weeks ago if
8 they could show it in prime time a few more
9 times than what they are. They have managed
10 to show quite a few other shows that really
11 aren't of that much interest, but they only
12 show ours or shows this three times I
13 believe it is a week. Have you got any