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2 SCRANTON CITY COUNCIL MEETING
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6 HELD:
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8 Tuesday, May 5, 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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MS. SUE MAGNOTTA, ASSISTANT CITY CLERK
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16 MR. AMIL MINORA, SOLICITOR
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1 (Pledge of Allegiance recited and
2 moment of reflection observed.)
3 MR. MCGOFF: Roll call, please?
4 MS. MAGNOTTA: Mrs. Evans.
5 MS. EVANS: Here.
6 MS. MAGNOTTA: Mrs. Gatelli.
7 MS. GATELLI: Here.
8 MS. MAGNOTTA: Ms. Fanucci.
9 MS. FANUCCI: Here.
10 MS. MAGNOTTA: Mr. Courtright.
11 MR. COURTRIGHT: Here.
12 MS. MAGNOTTA: Mr. McGoff.
13 MR. MCGOFF: Here. Dispense with
14 the reading of the minutes.
15 MS. GARVEY: There is no business in
16 Third Order tonight.
17 MR. MCGOFF: Thank you, Mrs. Harvey.
18 Prior to Fourth Order any announcements?
19 MS. GATELLI: A couple of things.
20 MR. MCGOFF: Please.
21 MS. GATELLI: I wasn't ready for you
22 to come to me that fast.
23 MR. MCGOFF: While you are searching,
24 I would like to thank everyone for the
25 cards, calls, and concern that was shown to
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1 me during my recent illness. I greatly
2 appreciated it. Thank you.
3 MS. GATELLI: Before we started, I'd
4 like to welcome our two colleagues back. I
5 think we are falling apart one at a time
6 here.
7 This Thursday, May 7, and Friday,
8 May 8 at 7:00 and Saturday at 2:00, the West
9 Scranton players are putting on the play the
10 Saloon Keeper's Daughter. It's a melodrama
11 and the tickets are $5.
12 I spoke to Jeff Brazil about the
13 opening in the court behind the Guild
14 Studios that was reported last week. He
15 said that he believes there is a vault there
16 and he will be contacting the utility
17 company. I think it's the electrical
18 company that has a vault there has that
19 subsided, so he is going to contact them and
20 we'll get back to you about what the problem
21 is there, but there definitely is a problem.
22 In September at West Scranton High
23 School, they are going to be marking their
24 75th anniversary, and what they are doing is
25 they are going to restore the clock on the
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1 outside of the school. It is being run by
2 Chris Macino, one of our English teachers,
3 and they are asking for donations to help
4 replace the clock. It's going to cost
5 $4,500 to repair that clock at the top of
6 the building. I have a picture here and
7 maybe we can have it put on Channel 61. You
8 can mail your checks to: West Scranton High
9 School Clock Fund, attention Chris Macino,
10 1201 Luzerne Street, Scranton, PA, 18504.
11 Mrs. Garvey was in contact for me
12 concerning the railroad cars on South
13 Washington Avenue that we have been
14 complaining about for quite sometime. The
15 gentleman is supposed to be in the area on
16 Monday. I contacted Mr. Lomma and I'm going
17 to try to meet with him. If I'm not
18 successful then I'm going to request a
19 meeting with Congressman Kanjorski. Anyone
20 who has been over that way knows that it is
21 very unsightly, the railroad cars are full
22 of graffiti, the car doors are opened,
23 homeless people are living inside and now
24 because it's so unsightly people are dumping
25 in that particular area, so that is the plan
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1 for that.
2 Also -- I'll save it for motions.
3 That's all I have.
4 MR. COURTRIGHT. I just have one
5 thing, I normally don't bring up when
6 someone passes away because I'm always
7 afraid that I would miss somebody and I'll
8 offend somebody's family, so I usually don't
9 bring that up at all, but Marian Gabriel
10 passed away, I was unable to attend her
11 viewing today because I was out of town and
12 the second half is actually going on right
13 now and I am here so I can't attend, so I'd
14 like to send my condelences to the family of
15 Marian Gabriel. She did a lot of
16 volunteering with the Cancer Society and
17 Meals on Wheels, things of that nature, so
18 my condolences to her family and I apologize
19 for not being able to make it there. That's
20 all I have. Thank you.
21 MS. EVANS: And also please remember
22 in your prayers all those who have died in
23 the past week, particularly, Mr. Ron
24 Hubbard, husband of Liz and father of Dan,
25 frequent speakers at our meeting, and all of
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1 his family and friends he leaves behind.
2 Also, Patty Schrecengaust, the
3 Scranton School District Chief Nurse remains
4 hospitalized after a serious surgery.
5 Please keep her in your prayers as well.
6 The Upper Hill Ecumenical Committee invites
7 everyone to partake of the Friendly's Family
8 Fun Night on Wednesday, May 20, from 5 to 8e
9 p.m. A percentage of the food receipts from
10 those who dine at Friendly's in Dunmore will
11 be donated to St. Francis of Assisi Kitchen.
12 A benefit will be conducted on May 9
13 from 6 to 10 at the East Street Pub and
14 Eatery for the Ari Schoener Medical Fund.
15 Ari is a beautiful one-year-child who
16 suffers from Vater syndrome. Tickets are
17 $20 and may be purchased at the door.
18 Please support Ari and his parents.
19 I would also like to recognize all
20 of the teachers in our area on National
21 Teachers day and all of our school nurses,
22 like Mrs. Gatelli --
23 MS. GATELLI: Thank you.
24 MS. EVANS: -- on National School
25 Nurses Day, and finally, I hope everyone is
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1 enjoying Cinco D'Mayo, a nice celebration
2 today, and that's it.
3 MR. MCGOFF: Anyone else? Thank you.
4 Fourth Order. Citizens' participation.
5 Andy Sbaraglia.
6 MR. SBARAGLIA: Andy Sbaraglia,
7 citizen of Scranton. Fellow Scrantonians,
8 let me get the little sheet, I should have
9 took it out. One moment. I left it in my
10 pocket. Okay, I wanted to a little on 7-C,
11 the restoration of Fellows Park. You read a
12 letter from Wally Rancosky, okay, I know
13 Wally a long time, but you didn't read any
14 from Linda Caselle, which I think was more
15 pertinent. She wanted to know what they
16 want to do up there. Does anybody know what
17 they are going to do with the $50,000?
18 Plant grass maybe? Because that park isn't
19 run down, okay? It's not run down at all.
20 You can verify that, Mr. Courtright, because
21 it's right by you right up there right
22 across from the bank Fellows Park. It's not
23 run down, so it's nice to know what he wants
24 to do up there with the 50,000. Whether he
25 is going to put more swings in, more this,
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1 more that, before you even vote on things
2 like that I would ask a long time ago, since
3 I found out because I know the condition of
4 the park and I used to play up there when I
5 was a kid when I went to West Side, but
6 that's a long time ago.
7 And let's go on further, I was -- I
8 don't like to listen to the radio or make
9 comments, but one of the candidates
10 criticized the other candidate for being an
11 obstructionist.
12 MR. COURTRIGHT: Andy, could I
13 interrupt you for just one second, please?
14 I think it's the park that was down near
15 Stomack's bar they are talking about.
16 MR. SBARAGLIA: Yeah.
17 MR. COURTRIGHT: All right, but they
18 have already put new sidewalks in and the
19 lights and in the backup it says they are
20 going to resurface some of the parking area.
21 There is information in the backup.
22 Mr. McGoff has it if you want me to read it
23 off to you what it is.
24 MR. SBARAGLIA: No, no, I realize
25 that, but, like I said, Linda Caselle wanted
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1 to know --
2 MS. GATELLI: I didn't get a letter
3 from anybody else?
4 MR. SBARAGLIA: You got one from
5 Linda Caselle in the backup, that's the one
6 I read. That's where I got the name from.
7 Otherwise, I didn't draw it out of the air.
8 So anyway where that was in there, too, she
9 wanted to know and how it was going to
10 effect her parties that she has up there.
11 If you are familiar with them they have a
12 lot of parties up there. They are always
13 doing something, that's a very active park.
14 Okay, let me get onto this other
15 thing, I was listening to the radio where
16 one candidate was calling the other
17 candidate an obstructionist, but really it
18 wasn't the candidates that was the
19 obstructionist, it was me. I found it
20 appalling that they would actually transfer
21 the DPW site to the Ice Box for 198 years
22 for $1, and that's what was in the original
23 ordinance that came to Scranton before you
24 people and, like I said before, none of yous
25 were there, but I was well-founded in
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1 reading that. I read it from cover to
2 cover.
3 And you're, right I was up there and
4 I said it shouldn't be. When it came down
5 to the Hotel Hilton, again, I was an
6 obstrutctionist. It wasn't Gary, I
7 shouldn't mention his name, I'm sorry, but
8 they weren't obstructionists I was because I
9 read the backup and I didn't think it was
10 fair to the taxpayers. All of the times I
11 come before council I think of the
12 taxpayers, I think more than some of yous up
13 there. I don't know why, but for some
14 reason or other I do love this city real,
15 real deeply. I don't think there is too
16 many people that like it more deeply than me
17 because I had a whole wonderful life in this
18 city, in West Side was a golden age to grow
19 up in. And like I said many a times, the
20 city is a city and the reason why I came
21 really became such an obstructionist is like
22 I told the other councils, I want to slide
23 in. I'm getting up in age and I wanted to
24 slide out nice and easy. I don't want to
25 have to worry about this, that, or can I
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1 afford to pay the taxes on my house or am I
2 going to be penalize out of my house or is
3 somebody going to come around telling me I
4 can't do this or I can't do that. That's
5 the reason why I came. A woman once told
6 me, you know, keep up, but I told her
7 before, I'm really did it mainly for myself.
8 This is the reason I came to council and
9 probably the reason I continue to come.
10 Thank you.
11 MR. MCGOFF: John Judge.
12 MR. JUDGE: Good evening, city
13 council. My name is John Judge. I'm the
14 secretary of the IAFF Local 60. The reason
15 I'm here tonight is I just wanted to clarify
16 some things that were put in the paper and
17 that some of our union members have been
18 asked about. Obviously, you recall last
19 week was a busy week for our fire
20 department, we had several different fires
21 and because of the extreme heat conditions
22 there was some comments made in the paper by
23 our leadership that we were still using
24 winter liners in our coats and some of
25 our -- some our members were approached by
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1 members of the public asking why we would be
2 still be wearing winter liners in the coat
3 and I had never heard of a winter liner
4 before I had heard talk of it, almost like a
5 folk tale, so I did some research on it
6 talking to some of the older members and we
7 felt it was appropriate and we wanted to let
8 the public understand, you know, what we do
9 and also the equipment that we need to wear.
10 I brought two-piece of equipment ins
11 here, and they are both fire coats, one is
12 mine and one is somebody's that probably
13 could have been my father from way back
14 when. These coats are designed for a
15 specific purpose with three different layers
16 in them. Never thought I would be doing
17 show and tell at council meeting nor did I
18 want to, but how this coat is constructed is
19 basically three different layers, the
20 outside, the outer shell, there is a thermal
21 barrier which is right here, okay, and the
22 thermal barrier is now sewn in to the inner
23 liner, okay, and they all serve a different
24 purpose. There's a vapor barrier on this
25 side, thermal on this side and then an outer
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1 shell.
2 The reason they sewed them together
3 was firefighters back in the 70's and 60's
4 used to take the liners out. You can see
5 this a fairly old coat. This coat, once
6 again, has three different liners to it,
7 okay, just like mine. The only difference
8 is the two inner linings will actually come
9 apart, okay? So you have your outer liner,
10 your vapor barrier and your thermal which
11 gives you the actual protection from the
12 radiant heat. They are designed, there is
13 an NFP standard, 1971 and it gets updated I
14 think every four years and it's -- it went
15 into effect in 1975 and it tells
16 manufacturers how to build this equipment.
17 They are both built by the same company,
18 Morning Pride.
19 What would happen years ago is some
20 of the firefighters would take this lining
21 out in the winter -- our excuse me, in the
22 summer because it was thermal. It wasn't
23 designed to do that. The design of the
24 coat, I'll just refer to one of our members
25 had a catalogue from 1979, and what it says
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1 is, "Inner linings are a firefighters'
2 suit's protection reserve. The linings
3 function is to insulate against conductive
4 heat. This is so important that the lining
5 must be used in the summer as well as the
6 winter."
7 They were never designed to be
8 pulled apart, but once again, we have
9 somebody that's, you know, of the old school
10 mentality that doesn't understand how we are
11 operating and it becomes very frustrating
12 for us that we get questioned like this when
13 we have a leader that doesn't understand it.
14 We have had other issues this week
15 which we have brought to, you know, Director
16 Hayes in the past over statements. If you
17 read any one of the print medias last week
18 or looked on Channel 16 you would have saw
19 we had a couple of firefighters that were
20 injured, some of them had some pretty
21 significant injuries. Their names were
22 mentioned. Correct me if I'm wrong, and I'm
23 sure Mrs. Gatelli is aware of HIPPA
24 violations, but it's very restrictive. You
25 are not to make those type of statements in
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1 the print media. He has been told that
2 before and, once again, we had four of our
3 members other the last month by name and
4 injury placed in the print media, sometimes
5 even before the family is notified that he
6 is at the hospital which becomes a real
7 burden for us because it's happened on two
8 other occasions.
9 Last week one of the fires, our
10 inspectors were actively digging out a fire
11 in West Side to determine the origin and
12 cause and somebody from the print media
13 showed up and goes, "I hear it's arson."
14 And I said, "We haven't made that
15 determination yet."
16 Your "chief we, just got off your
17 phone with the fire chief he told us it was
18 arson."
19 They are in the middle of digging
20 out this fire to determine cause and origin
21 and they are running into obstacles at every
22 step.
23 We just want to be able to educate
24 members of the public, you know, this the
25 way we operate, you know, in this turnout
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1 here, I mean, if anybody wants to take a
2 look at it it's very cumbersome. It's very
3 restrictive, but it's what we need to
4 protect us for up to 2,000 degrees of
5 radiant heat inside of a burning building.
6 All of these liners together give us that
7 protective envelope that's going to be able
8 to protect us from those type of
9 environments, so we can make, you know,
10 potential rescues.
11 But we just want to educate you, let
12 you understand that we are still dealing
13 with the same problems that we have brought
14 to this council a year ago and nothing has
15 been done. Nothing has been done to kind of
16 mitigate this and we are looking for some
17 direction here. Thank you for your time.
18 MR. MCGOFF: Les Spindler.
19 MR. SPINDLER: Good evening, Council.
20 Les Spindler, city resident and homeowner.
21 I want to speak about this flyer I got in
22 the mail last week where Mayor Doherty says
23 he is keeping our city safe, and I want to
24 read something from the newspaper from
25 March 29, "For the first time in eight years
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1 there is Scranton police foot patrol
2 downtown."
3 We have one person walking the beat
4 downtown, but the problem is there is no
5 major crime in downtown. The major crimes
6 are in the neighborhoods. Why don't we have
7 beat cops in the neighborhood? There has
8 been shootings in South Side. Last week on
9 Thursday night there was a car chase and it
10 ended up with shots being fired on Theodore
11 Street. Nothing reported in the Doherty
12 newsletter, but Channel 16 reported it.
13 Last Friday night, a few blocks from
14 my house at the Tripp Park Development, at
15 the baseball field, I mean, a car pulled up
16 into the community center parking lot and
17 pulled up to the community center, fired
18 shots into the softball field and there were
19 kids there at 11:00 at night. Thank God
20 nobody was hurt. The police came and found
21 39 millimeters shell casings on the ground.
22 Nothing in the newspaper again. The Doherty
23 newsletter is trying to hide the crime that
24 this city is being ravaged with crime.
25 A gentleman from Cedar Avenue came
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1 up to me yesterday, said he owns a house on
2 Cedar Avenue, he won't leave his house to
3 walk his dog unless somebody is with him.
4 When his girlfriend comes over he has to
5 escort her in and out of the house and take
6 her home. He was going to sell his house
7 until his brother moved in with him. He
8 said there is drugs being sold right across
9 the street and nothing is being done. And
10 Mayor Doherty says there is no crime in this
11 city. It's a darn shame. It's just his
12 newspaper doesn't report half of crimes that
13 are taking place.
14 Okay, there is something else called
15 the UCR, it's the uniform crime report.
16 These reports are supposed to be reported to
17 Harrisburg. For three years they haven't
18 been reported to Harrisburg and that's why
19 it looks like in Sunday's paper he showed
20 how his crime statistics are down, well,
21 they are not down, they are just not
22 reporting to the right places. Thank you.
23 That's all I have to say about that.
24 On the commercials, 6,000 new jobs
25 in the city. I didn't know there is that
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1 many people working in city hall. If there
2 was 6,000 new jobs in the city, our
3 municipal service tax would be up. Our
4 municipal service taxes are down, so to say
5 there is 6,000 new jobs in the city is an
6 out-and-out lie. If people can believe this
7 man they must be very, very névé.
8 The medical school, he is taking
9 credit for the medical school. As I said in
10 the past, I have as much credit for the
11 medical school as Chris Doherty does. It
12 was Bob Mellow and the Governor. You
13 shouldn't take credit for things you had
14 nothing to do with.
15 Last week the fire on Monroe Avenue,
16 we had dozen of our own city firefighters
17 sitting home and meanwhile Throop was
18 called, Dunmore, Clarks Summit, Chinchilla,
19 and yet our own firefighters were sitting
20 home. What's wrong, they didn't want to pay
21 them overtime? We had our own men sitting
22 there and we had to call firehouses from all
23 over the area. Something is wrong with this
24 picture.
25 The next thing, I wanted to talk
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1 about, once again, the 500 block of
2 Lackawanna, everybody keeps bragging about
3 it, well that's a disaster waiting to
4 happen. Whoever thought of putting that
5 island in the middle of that street I don't
6 know where they got their engineering degree
7 because it's just unbelievable. Let's just
8 say it's rush out hour and traffic is backed
9 up the length of the block there and an
10 emergency vehicle has to get by, how are
11 they going to get by? They are going to go
12 on the island in the middle of the street?
13 I don't think so. It's a safety hazard and I
14 don't know whose idea it was to put that
15 there.
16 Mrs. Gatelli, 0last week you asked
17 who sold the golf course and the South Side
18 Complex, well, I'll tell you who it was, it
19 was Mayor Doherty with the council of
20 Mr. Murphy, Mr. Pocius, Mr. Hazzouri and
21 Mr. Gilhooley and Mr. Reap, and that was the
22 council because I was come hearing to those
23 meetings then.
24 And lastly, everybody is speaking
25 out against the closing of the Scranton
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1 State School for the Deaf except I don't
2 hear anything from Chris Doherty. It's a
3 major part of this city and it will be a
4 crime if this place is closed and Chris
5 Doherty hasn't said a word about the State
6 School for the Deaf. Maybe it's because Ed
7 Rendell won't let him say anything?
8 By the way, I'm sorry, but I forgot,
9 Mr. McGoff and Mrs. Evans, welcome back.
10 It's good to have you back.
11 MR. MCGOFF: Thank you.
12 MS. EVANS: Thank you.
13 MR. MCGOFF: Doug Miller.
14 MR. MILLER: Good evening, Council,
15 Doug Miller, Scranton. I'd like to welcome
16 Mr. McGoff and Ms. Evans back. I'm glad to
17 see you are feeling a little bit better.
18 MS. EVANS: Thank you.
19 MR. MILLER: Last evening myself and
20 a few others had the opportunity to attend
21 the Scranton Recreation Authority meeting
22 down at the Weston field house and there was
23 a question posed regarding Genesis and they
24 had it on their agenda, and one of the
25 questions that I had asked the authority was
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1 a question that a lot of us asked and we
2 really never got a straight answer and that
3 was why was Genesis really closed, and we
4 got excuses that it was going due to the
5 economy, and the city could no longer
6 provide funding and on and on and on, so
7 many excuses. But when I posed the question
8 to the group I got an answer from
9 Mr. Maranuchi that Genesis was closed
10 because the PA Game Commission closed it.
11 He said, "Call them yourself, they will tell
12 you."
13 So, I took it upon myself to call
14 them this afternoon and they told me they
15 had absolutely nothing to do with Genesis
16 closing. They had no input on it, they
17 weren't involved at all. As a matter of
18 fact, a few weeks ago the commission was up
19 at Genesis to conduct an inspection and
20 Genesis passed, so if anything, the game
21 commission was on Genesis side, so the
22 statements that Mr. Maranuchi made last
23 night were totally inaccurate and as a
24 member of the board you would think he would
25 have his facts in order.
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1 And so we are still at the same
2 point we were at and we still are awaiting
3 for a real answer why was Genesis really
4 closed? Did the mayor close it? Did
5 council close it? Did the Recreation close
6 it? Did Beatrice Heveran, the bully, close
7 it? We are still waiting for the answers
8 and I don't think we are going to be
9 satisfied until we get one.
10 You know, as you all are aware a few
11 weeks back Mr. Morgan and I began
12 circulating petitions across the city in
13 support of Genesis, and as you can see here
14 tonight I have a whole stack them. This is
15 just some of them. There were thousands
16 collected and, unfortunately, these people
17 here were ignored and weren't allowed to
18 give an input on the future of the Genesis
19 Center and it's ashame because it's our
20 Wildlife Center, not the mayor's, not the
21 Recreation Authority, these people were
22 ignored and it's ashame.
23 A few weeks ago, council had
24 responded to a letter that was sent by the
25 Boy Scouts there was some criticism on the
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1 Kanjorski bridge, that is the bridge to no
2 where and everything, and I believe there
3 was someone on here that read a letter from
4 the Scouts saying that, you know, they are
5 insulted that people knocked the bridge
6 project and that nobody uses it and that
7 they camped out in the back with their
8 Scouts one night. Well, I think the one
9 thing they forgot to mention is that there
10 is no trespassing after dusk, so there was a
11 violation. Thank you.
12 MR. MCGOFF: Bob Bolus.
13 MR. BOLUS: Good evening, Council.
14 Bob Bolus, Scranton. Nice to see you back,
15 Janet, even though you just about made it in
16 here.
17 MS. EVANS: Thank you.
18 MR. BOLUS: You know, let's start
19 off a little on Genesis. I attended the
20 Recreation meeting last night and, you know,
21 I'm disturbed that we allowed Chris Doherty
22 and this Heveran to literally kick Genesis
23 out of the City of Scranton. That belonged
24 to us, not an outsider from Waverly who came
25 in here, she is an attorney, she had no
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1 standing here, she had no business even
2 doing what she was doing here, yet it was
3 allowed. Nobody should have to stand there,
4 but you had to go up and see kids crying
5 hysterically that the park was closed, and
6 the kids -- the zoo was closed or whatever
7 we want to call it. It belonged to us.
8 What disturbs me even more the dean
9 to the medical school is the husband of
10 Mrs. Heveran, and I just don't understand
11 why he didn't reign her in and let her stay
12 where she belonged and stay out of the
13 business of Scranton. He is the head of
14 another tax exempt property in the City of
15 Scranton who is going to get a free ride.
16 Are we going to get free medical service
17 here? I don't think so. I'm all for the
18 medical school, I'm all for progress, I'm
19 not for taking advantage of the people in
20 this city and profiteering and putting it to
21 the senior citizens and the people of the
22 city to pay for KOZ and nonprofits.
23 You know, fees have to be assessed,
24 I'm sick of talking about it, I'm sick of
25 coming to council and saying it for years
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1 and years and years and nothing is done. We
2 have a gas line now that's going from the
3 Alliance Landfill all the way through
4 Taylor, Scranton, Dunmore, and Throop,
5 running along DeNaple's rail line and spur.
6 Remember, the spur was an easement for
7 railroad tracks, not a gas line so again you
8 sit back and see DeNaple's get rich while
9 the City of Scranton takes a beating. There
10 is no emergency management plan in place and
11 nobody is doing a thing about it. It's an
12 environmental problem. It's everything.
13 Nobody has said a word about it because it's
14 election time. I don't think it should be
15 that way. I think you need to stop this.
16 I think we need to know what's going
17 on, I think we need receive money if
18 somebody is profitizing, us making a piece
19 of change or make millions of dollars to the
20 reserve center. Why isn't he paying for his
21 parking garage and all of the other taxes
22 that are owed in this city? Where is
23 everybody in this city to collect money and
24 take the burden off the taxpayers? I don't
25 see it happening. We do a lot of talking,
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1 and that's all we do, but nobody is doing
2 any action and it's time for it.
3 On East Mountain they are putting
4 water lines across or down alongside the
5 road for the water runoff, long overdue, but
6 it's only a Band-Aid. The road should have
7 been dug up, done properly, expanded,
8 widened out the way it should be because
9 it's a dangerous road coming off East
10 Mountain from the Friendship House down and
11 yet we're just not doing it the right way,
12 so we always have time to do it over, but we
13 don't have the time and money to do it right
14 the first time, and that's what's wrong in
15 this city. That's what wrong with the
16 leadership.
17 You know, millions are given away
18 for credits and the Connell building and I
19 can go on and on and on, the South Side
20 Shopping -- or the South Side Recreation, we
21 lost that. Everywhere we look in this city
22 we see the University just expanding, and
23 sure we are glad to have you here, but only
24 so many people really receive a benefit out
25 of it, out of the dollars, out of the
29
1 hundreds of millions that they have made
2 what about the people in the City of
3 Scranton and that's who you are here to
4 represent. The mayor or anybody else. It's
5 time to start doing your job because I'm
6 tired of talking about it and so is
7 everybody else.
8 The stables or the horses up at Nay
9 Aug Park where Genesis is they said, well,
10 they kicked them out because of insurance,
11 well, there are two different insurances,
12 but I'm not going to debate it, it's not my
13 issue. The people who ran it should be here
14 talking to you about it. They were there
15 and we weren't. We need to know what's
16 going on in Nay Aug, so I recommend that we
17 have a town meeting headed by council. Let
18 the people come in and start speaking their
19 voice publically where they are not shut up
20 in two minutes or five minutes, maybe come
21 up with ideas and concepts to generate
22 funding in Nay Aug, ideas that will make it
23 work instead of coming out of our pockets
24 and spending money to do studies and know
25 that we are doing the study to take care of
30
1 cronyism and the good ole boy's club and
2 that's what's happening in the city.
3 We cannot continue the course of
4 conduct we have been doing in this city with
5 grant money just to do a feasibility study
6 that's $170,000 and the end result do
7 nothing about it. We have engineers, we
8 have retired people that could come by and
9 help us do this. It's time to take care of
10 our own and stop spending the money and
11 increase the tax base then you will go
12 forward. Thank you.
13 MR. MCGOFF: Bill Jackowitz.
14 MR. JACKOWITZ: I would like to
15 welcome back Councilwoman Evans and Council
16 President McGoff and I would also like to
17 offer a publically apology to councilman --
18 or President McGoff. A few weeks ago I made
19 an allegation that he was possibly sleeping,
20 possibly he was sick during this period of
21 time, so I would like to apologize to him at
22 this time.
23 MR. MCGOFF: Thank you.
24 MR. JACKOWITZ: Bill Jackowitz,
25 embarrassed South Scranton resident, member
31
1 of the Taxpayers' Association, retired
2 United States Air Force. Again, I will say,
3 the person at the podium is the speaker,
4 everybody else are the listeners.
5 Is the election not city business?
6 Citizens have the right to express their
7 opinions about elected officials or those
8 who are seeking election to the office. You
9 must remember that Councilwoman Fanucci and
10 Gatelli and Mayor Doherty refused to the
11 invitation to appear at the taxpayer meeting
12 an answer questions that were being asked by
13 the Scranton/Lackawanna Taxpayers'
14 Associates. How else do we as citizens get
15 answers to our questions? They are not
16 answered at the weekly council meetings and
17 to my knowledge Councilwoman Gatelli,
18 Fanucci, and Mayor Doherty have not held a
19 town hall meeting where citizens can ask
20 questions. I agree, a speaker should not
21 come to the podium and campaign for certain
22 candidates or against certain candidates,
23 but to bring up an elected official's voting
24 record or position on an issue is totally
25 acceptable in my opinion.
32
1 What are elected officials running
2 from, the truth? We know that D.A. Jarbola
3 is running away from the Single Tax Office,
4 tax laws were violated, the Single Tax
5 Office Law of 1929. Who is responsible for
6 this?
7 What is missing from the
8 Times-Tribune front page picture, Sunday, 3
9 May 2009, and thi is the picture that I'm
10 talking about. It shows a picture of Mayor
11 Doherty, Chief Elliott and Ray Hayes in
12 front of the Scranton Police Department.
13 What's missing from that picture? Police
14 officers. Do you see any police officers in
15 this picture? No. Why not?
16 The article in the paper is all
17 about crime and the police department, but
18 yet the picture shows no pictures of the
19 police officers. Appointed police chief,
20 appointed public safety director, police
21 chief got a $13,000 raise, the police
22 officers got nothing. On the inside of the
23 paper you see a picture of the mayor
24 swearing in new police officers. This
25 picture you see police officers in it
33
1 because they had to be there because they
2 had to get sworn in. I think that's a very
3 important point. Why were the police
4 officers not in this picture?
5 Okay, there are no police officers,
6 only the mayor appointees, Hayes and
7 Elliott. By the way, Elliott received a
8 $13,000 a year pay race from Mayor Doherty.
9 Where are the police officers? There are
10 none in the picture. Pictures speak louder
11 than words. The story about our
12 professional police department on Sunday was
13 truthful and accurate, we have a very good
14 police department. I would like to thank
15 the uniformed officers and the detectives
16 for their dedication to the community.
17 Monday's newspaper pointed out that only
18 25 percent of the streets have been paved
19 and that the infrastructure in the city is
20 crumbling. Just drive around and look
21 around, I do on a regular basis.
22 Also as pointed out, the city paid
23 $47,000 for a pothole machine, wasting
24 money. Whatever happened to the asphalt
25 cutting machine that the city paid $18,000
34
1 for along with the county and other
2 municipalities?
3 Tuesdays article shows that the
4 downtown has not been revitalized, just the
5 opposite. We now have at least 64 empty
6 store fronts downtown, vacant office space,
7 second, third and fourth floors, mall space,
8 Southern Union building and the 500 block of
9 Lackawanna Avenue. Mayor Doherty counted on
10 Wall Street West and the train to save
11 Scranton. That train was derailed for
12 31 years, that's how long we have been
13 waiting, and Wall Street collapsed so now we
14 have to count on Senator Mellow medical
15 school to save Scranton. Time will tell on
16 that one.
17 You can't run away from the facts
18 and the truth. Look around and try to find
19 bacon and eggs downtown at 2 a.m. You will
20 find potholes, craters, for sale and for
21 lease signs and empty streets. Scranton is
22 not a 24-hour town, maybe 15 hours at best.
23 Scranton has been distressed for 17 years.
24 Mayor Doherty has been mayor for seven and a
25 half of those years. Mayor Connors for the
35
1 first nine years. You can thank past and
2 present mayors and council members for the
3 distressed conditions of Scranton and don't
4 forget Austin Burke and the Scranton Chamber
5 of Commerce for their contributions.
6 The tree house, dog park, Connell
7 Park and bridge to no where will no help
8 since we have the highest unemployment rate
9 in the state, 8.7 percent, an increase of
10 4.6 percent since 2002. Higher property
11 taxes and mercantile taxes based on gross
12 income, not net income and no reduction in
13 wage tax. Residents cannot spend money they
14 do not have.
15 Medium household income, $34,484
16 annual. 20.5 percent poverty. Real estate
17 taxes 1 percent increase, why more slumlords
18 will purchase homes in Scranton. 67 percent
19 of the residents in Scranton are renters.
20 You cannot run a city on renters who do not
21 pay taxes.
22 MR. MCGOFF: Lee Morgan.
23 MR. MORGAN: Good evening, Council.
24 It is nice to have Mr. McGoff and Mrs. Evans
25 here tonight. You know what, I sat or stood
36
1 in the back there and listened to speakers
2 who come up here and I agree with the lot of
3 things that have been said here tonight up
4 to this point, but I think the biggest
5 problem this city faces is that the people
6 have turned their backs on elections and
7 politics. They want no part of it. They
8 have just surrendered to the apathy and
9 without struggle there would be no change.
10 They have just lost all faith in all of the
11 elected officials in this city and we need
12 to take a look back and see where some of
13 this has come from.
14 I have my own opinions on what
15 happened to Genesis. Now, that's just a
16 small sample of the signatures that were
17 collected, I just grabbed them out of my
18 vehicle today before I came, but during this
19 administration Mr. Doherty has in my opinion
20 strangled all of the people that were
21 bringing good things here. Channel 61 was
22 absolutely fantastic. They were hurting for
23 money. There was no problem with giving
24 $100,000 to ECTV, but there wasn't a dime
25 for Scranton Today. You take a look at the
37
1 Genesis Center, the mayor made a lot of
2 promises, spent a lot of money up at Nay Aug
3 and I don't think they have received their
4 funding this year and everybody is wondering
5 in my opinion what happened to Genesis is
6 you intimidated the woman, brought her into
7 Court by somebody who had no standing. The
8 judge should have immediately thrown that
9 suit out. Whoever the judge is that heard
10 that case, it's just terrible. It's smacks
11 of politics. It really does. This judge
12 should be ashamed of himself, whoever he
13 might be, okay? And what you do is you
14 threaten somebody. Well, you threatened a
15 woman whose most important concern was her
16 animals and now she is trying to decide how
17 she going to save them, so what did she do?
18 She cuts and runs.
19 As you can see by the signatures
20 that were in Doug Miller's hands, that's
21 only a very small sample and I hope that the
22 residents of this city remember that at
23 election time, that this mayor played
24 politics with that park. Here is a man who
25 talked about revitalization of the City and
38
1 dumping tons of money into Nay Aug, and the
2 one thing if you read those signatures is
3 not all of those people were from the city.
4 There were signatures in there from
5 Louisiana. So, I mean, these people came to
6 the city, found out there was a sanctuary
7 there and went there. And I thought that
8 was the whole idea behind the park, but I
9 assume now that possibly it wasn't, and when
10 you listen to what Andy Sbaraglia said here
11 today from the podium about Fellows Park
12 $50,000, and then you take at look at the
13 study up there about a new zoo, and you look
14 at all of the other things, the ECTV, all of
15 the other spending that's come, and you know
16 something there was never -- there has never
17 been any plan -- I never even heard anybody
18 explain what happened in the Valentine's Day
19 storm of 2007 when a million dollars was
20 spent. I don't remember council ever
21 telling us who the contractors were, so what
22 we have done is we've just continually
23 alluded this city.
24 And I would just like to say from my
25 own viewpoint I have walked the city lately
39
1 and at one time I thought there were a lot
2 of empty residences, but I'll be honest with
3 you I was shocked by the amount of homes
4 with no people in them. I'm telling you
5 that from walking the neighborhood. I'm
6 just shocked, okay?
7 And all of these discussions about
8 crime, I came to podium like many others
9 over ten years ago, longer than that and
10 talked about the mistake of not having
11 enough police officers and about people
12 selling drugs with cell phones, mobility,
13 and about gangs in the city and,
14 Mr. Courtright, you brought up a couple of
15 weeks ago about the University of Scranton
16 and students, that issue was brought up with
17 this council long, long ago.
18 And the other thing I don't realize
19 that I can't seem to understand at this
20 point is, why didn't somebody confine the
21 University of Scranton from taking all of
22 these properties and keeping them in one
23 zone? I thought Mr. Spano brought that up
24 long, long ago, so what's happened here is
25 there has been no change, and the reason
40
1 there has been no change is because the
2 people they have stopped interacting with
3 their government. They are hiding in their
4 house and they are leaving one at a time
5 from the city. They've given up. They
6 actually have just given up, so when the --
7 another thing I don't understand about
8 politics, and I'm not a politician so I
9 don't understand it, we are all having of
10 these parties and all of that's parties, did
11 Nero have a party when he burnt Rome to the
12 ground?
13 MR. MCGOFF: Fay Franus.
14 UNKNOWN AUDIENCE MEMBER: Give them
15 hell, Fran.
16 MR. MCGOFF: Excuse me, it's
17 inappropriate.
18 MS. FRANUS: I am here this evening
19 to share certain and particular public
20 documents relating to city expenditures
21 relating to the legal representation of
22 Mrs. Gatelli in her libel lawsuit. I assure
23 this honorable council that my presentation
24 is fully protected by my constitutional
25 rights to free speech, so I respectfully
41
1 request that I am not subjected to any
2 prejudicial interference during my
3 presentation.
4 Courtesy of Mr. Renda, I have
5 obtained the billing statements for Mrs.
6 Gatelli's legal representation which I just
7 distributed among each of you along with a
8 Court docket sheet. At the top right corner
9 of the docket sheet it is stamped certified.
10 The docket sheet lists all of the legal
11 activity in this case. The billing
12 statements reflect the legal fees charged
13 for Mrs. Gatelli's representation on an
14 hourly basis and the bills are complete with
15 dates.
16 Please look at the first page of the
17 docket sheet and you will see that a
18 complaint was filed against Mrs. Gatelli as
19 a public official and an individual on
20 April 9, 2007. Now, look at the third entry
21 down after the date of April 24, 2007, that
22 is when Attorney Reihner filed her answer to
23 the complaint, but a close look shows she
24 also filed a private counterclaim. I have a
25 copy of Mrs. Gatelli's answer and
42
1 counterclaim right here. It's a total of 83
2 pages long. The first 23 pages represent
3 Mrs. Gatelli's answer to the complaint, but
4 the remaining 60 pages represent
5 Mrs. Gatelli's private counterclaim. So,
6 two-thirds of the filing relates to her
7 private counterclaim.
8 Please look at the first bill from
9 Attorney Reihner. It shows that he started
10 working on the case April 19, 2007. Now, go
11 to page three and you will see that by
12 April 24, the date the answer and private
13 counterclaim were filed, Attorney Reihner
14 billed for approximately 120 hours totally
15 in his $9,488. All things made relative,
16 two-thirds of that bill should be attributed
17 to the private counterclaim because
18 two-thirds of the filing on April 24 was her
19 counterclaim.
20 Directing your attention back to the
21 docket entry, you will see it is total of
22 four pages long. All of the legal activity
23 on those four pages, except the entry of
24 Mrs. Gatelli's answer, relates to
25 Mrs. Gatelli's private counterclaim, more
43
1 particularly, the actions she initiated to
2 try to get the names of various posters on
3 Dohertydeciet.com.
4 Directing your attention back to
5 Attorney Reihner's bills, please look at
6 Exhibits B, C, D, E, F and G. Those are his
7 hourly statements that were billed to Foxco
8 Insurance Management Service of Dunmore.
9 Each bill makes clear reference to Gatelli
10 vs. Pilchesky, file No. 5062179. The bills
11 total $41,930.86, $3,226 of which
12 Mrs. Gatelli has a right to as a public
13 official, but the rest is billing for legal
14 representation on behalf of her private
15 counterclaim which she does not have a right
16 to.
17 Questions beg to be answered
18 regarding these legal billings, the first of
19 which is this: Why did Attorney Reihner
20 bill the city at all if Mrs. Gatelli
21 retained him and she is paying for his legal
22 services?
23 Secondly, if Attorney Reihner was
24 retained by Mrs. Gatelli on a contingency
25 basis, where she'd have no fees unless she
44
1 won, why is Attorney Reihner billing the
2 city at all? Why would Attorney Reihner
3 take a losing case on a contingency basis.
4 The most important question is, can
5 Mrs. Gatelli produce cancelled checks in the
6 amount of $38,704 to prove she paid for her
7 private legal services or is this a case of
8 a public official using government resources
9 for private benefit.
10 MR. MCGOFF: Thank you. Ozzie Quinn.
11 MR. QUINN: Ozzie Quinn, Taxpayers'
12 Association. You know, as president of the
13 Taxpayers' Association my mind is really
14 screwed up when I see this debt,
15 $170 million and what really, you know, I
16 don't know how we are going to pay this
17 thing off, all right? That's just the
18 principle, but I'm going downtown and parked
19 my car and I see this meter maid, okay,
20 walking down and lo and behold this
21 gentleman retired by Mr. Doherty, okay,
22 Mr. Doherty gave him a package he couldn't
23 refuse and 25 other of the clerks, okay,
24 doubled his pension, full benefits for life
25 for him and his family and he is working for
45
1 the parking authority. I mean, come on.
2 How are we going to pay a debt off if we are
3 doing this with all of our money? This is
4 crazy. It's crazy. It's insane for people
5 -- for -- I don't know what to say. For a
6 mayor to act like that, give a person a
7 double pension, and that's not the only one,
8 there's a bunch of others, too, and I'm not
9 making this up. I have names if anybody
10 would like to follow-up with it.
11 Now, again, well, who can trust
12 Mr. Doherty whether he is lying or not like
13 giving another person a job after he --
14 holy. But the fact is seven years ago he
15 said about nonprofits, that's a fallacy. He
16 said nonprofits are going to pay their
17 share. The wage tax, 1/10 a percent is
18 going to go down every year, never went
19 down.
20 Now, what are we going to do about
21 this here, you know? You know, you are
22 operating with a budget that's got a hole in
23 it and you are hoping and praying that
24 somebody is going to come up with what,
25 $4.5 million? You got $1 million, did you?
46
1 I don't know understand that. I really
2 don't understand it and, Mrs. Gatelli,
3 Mr. McGoff, and Mrs. Fanucci you raised our
4 taxes and yet you are leaving people who
5 have pensions from the City of Scranton work
6 again double dipping. You can't do that.
7 Holy -- this is getting really out of hand.
8 You know, it scares me and, you know
9 what scares me, too, is the fact that, and
10 I'm going to leave now, okay, the fact that
11 you have a guy like Mr. Bolus there, you
12 know, trying to do something good for the
13 people, you know, and he is presented a
14 citation in front of the House of
15 Representatives in Harrisburg, the picture
16 goes into the Scranton Times and they won't
17 print it because he is a candidate. Well,
18 what the hell is Mr. Doherty?
19 You know, it's time -- it's time --
20 it's time to really move this along and get
21 this man out of office and let's get the
22 city back to the people where it belongs.
23 Thank you.
24 MR. MCGOFF: Stephanie Gawel.
25 MS. GAWEL: Welcome back, Janet.
47
1 MS. EVANS: Thank you.
2 MS. GAWEL: Welcome back, Mr. McGoff.
3 MR. MCGOFF: Thank you.
4 MS. GAWEL: You were right, Sherry, I
5 was glad to hear about the murals and what
6 they were for. I have a silly question for
7 you just real quick, do we very any other
8 programs for the kids or do we not do a
9 whole lot because of budgets?
10 MS. FANUCCI: There is another
11 project called Art in the Park and it's
12 where the children go and they do a certain
13 project. Now, that's a weekly -- and I
14 think that only run three weeks, so there is
15 another one, also.
16 MS. GAWEL: Yeah. Because the reason
17 I asked is I was thinking like if we're
18 worried about budgets and stuff, you know,
19 like I know like a lot of print companies, I
20 mean, and even like the Paper Shop and
21 Expedex, you know, they would pay for all
22 the time and then it gets, you know, that
23 they end of not using or whatever and I'm
24 sure if you checked with them they would be
25 glad to donate it.
48
1 MS. FANUCCI: That's a good idea.
2 MS. GAWEL: You know, it's free paper
3 and then you only have to worry about paints
4 and crayons so the kids could --
5 MS. FANUCCI: That's great. Thank
6 you.
7 MS. GAWEL: All right. Now I have
8 to get mean. I really can't believe how
9 névé and gullible some council are when it
10 comes to, you know -- we all heard the mayor
11 say at least a half a dozen times he was
12 closing the thing. Nobody ever said
13 anything about a plan before that. Never.
14 Didn't hear it, you know? And if the mayor
15 is such a good guy why doesn't he surround
16 himself with -- why does he surround himself
17 with incompetence? Chief Elliott the way he
18 talked -- the way he talks to his female
19 employees or -- and stuff, the way he treats
20 the rest of the them, these chiefs do not
21 respect their underlings I guess is the word
22 I'm looking for at this point.
23 And, you know, Ray Hayes, you know,
24 Chief Davis there has been so many
25 complaints against him 98 percent of the
49
1 guys don't even want him there and nobody
2 seems to be questioning it, nobody is doing
3 anything about it and I don't know how, you
4 know, I always thought the smartest thing
5 about being the chief is that you surrounded
6 yourself with the good people, and I don't
7 see Mayor Doherty doing that at all.
8 And the reason a lot of us are
9 coming to the meetings continually is
10 because we are hoping to accomplish
11 something. We really do love this city. I
12 love where I live. If it wasn't so
13 dangerous to walk at this point, I used to
14 walk everywhere. I live in South Side. I
15 was in walking distance of anything I wanted
16 to do whether it was the drugstore, the
17 grocery store, even the liquor store, it was
18 nice, you know, it was convenient. And, you
19 know, trust me, I don't walk too much any
20 more, especially in South Side.
21 Now, my favorite subject again right
22 after Mr. McDowell, have we heard anything
23 yet on Mr. McDowell?
24 MR. MINORA: I'm sorry, could you
25 repeat that. I don't have anything new for
50
1 you.
2 MS. GAWEL: Okay. Thank you. Just
3 thought I would bring it up one more time.
4 Don't want to get under their too much.
5 I think the Times should be ashamed
6 of what it's doing at this point. It's
7 embarrassing to do what it is doing running
8 this five page -- or five-day story and
9 Mr. Doherty is embarrassing. It's
10 humiliating and I for one along with several
11 other people have already called and
12 cancelled my subscription because I only
13 bought it for one reason and I can borrow
14 somebody's paper to find out if I need to be
15 at a funeral parlor or not because mostly
16 anything else in that Times you cannot
17 believe. It is all one-sided. They should
18 be ashamed of themselves. They are a
19 monopoly and they know it. They know they
20 have us by the short ones as you want to put
21 it, and it's embarrassing.
22 And that's -- oh, no, it isn't. It
23 was close. Also, we talked about bringing
24 in the small businesses, they're wonderful
25 and we like having them whether it be
51
1 restaurants or whatever, well, if somebody
2 had already stated tonight why did we run
3 Channel 61 out of town? If he wanted
4 another TV station why didn't he put ECTV on
5 Channel 62 and leave Channel 61 to Scranton
6 Tomorrow? What he did was ashame. He
7 should be embarrassed. Again, that station
8 was put up by people of Scranton who worked
9 hard for it, built it to what it is and then
10 let these people, and not that they are not
11 doing a nice job, come in and take over was
12 wrong, and again, he should be ashamed of
13 himself. But then again, he still doesn't
14 run his business out of Scranton, so there
15 you go. Have a nice evening, everyone.
16 MR. MCGOFF: David Dobson.
17 MR. DOBSON: Good evening, Council.
18 Dave Dobson, resident of Scranton, member of
19 the Taxpayers' Association. I received a
20 little love letter here addressed to council
21 and in the past, it's kind of comical, but
22 somebody is apparently not happy with my
23 comments about Nay Aug Park. I would like
24 to point out a few things about that. Nay
25 Aug lends the concerts --
52
1 MR. MCGOFF: Excuse me, Mr. Dobson.
2 Could we please be quiet. It's very
3 difficult to hear.
4 MR. DOBSON: Nay Aug --
5 MR. MCGOFF: I'm sorry, Mr. Dobson.
6 MR. DOBSON: That's okay. Wednesday
7 concerts in 2007 took me 20 minutes in line
8 to purchase concessions. Now, anybody that
9 knows anything about mathematics in this
10 respect must realize that they are making
11 money. In 2008, no concessions were
12 available on Wednesday night. I also feel
13 that our old oak trees in Nay Aug Park, some
14 of them are probably 100, 150, maybe even
15 200 years old and they're a tragedy. They
16 are dying of neglect, cut down and ignored
17 after gypsy moth damage. It's really ashame
18 and I would love to see things change on
19 that. Every year I see leaves eaten in half
20 and on the ground and realize that I'm
21 sitting in the sun under an oak tree in the
22 middle of August.
23 I lost Mr. Gilhooley, not over the
24 jail, I felt that some of those people might
25 have even enjoyed going up to his house and
53
1 maybe sneaking a lawn cut and being able to
2 see the daylight, but his disregard for kids
3 unable to swim and quoting the dollar amount
4 that they took in over the sliding board, I
5 never complained about the bridge, tree
6 house, Sunday concerts, Davis trail,
7 however, some people questioned the dollar
8 amount that they cost and I have to respect
9 that.
10 Well, finally, they seem to have a
11 problem with the length of my hair. Well,
12 my barber tore a muscle in his back, I used
13 to get a haircut up at -- up on Meadow
14 Avenue and he had to have an operation, but
15 seeing that it annoys them I might tell them
16 to just trim it a little. And, finally, my
17 answer to that person is I simply refuse to
18 live in a world where everyone looks, thinks
19 and acts and believes the same old failed
20 dogma for the last two to 5,000 years.
21 Thank you and have a good night.
22 MR. MCGOFF: Thank you, Mr. Dobson.
23 Cathy?
24 MS. BECK: Good evening, Council.
25 It's nice to have you back, Janet and
54
1 Mr. McGoff. It's great to see you back at
2 city council.
3 MR. MCGOFF: Thank you, Mrs. Beck.
4 MS. BECK: My name is Cathy Beck,
5 city resident and taxpayer. It's been quite
6 some time since I have been appeared here at
7 a council meeting, however, a number of
8 recent articles appearing in the
9 Times-Tribune, political flyers that have
10 been sent to my home, and the presentation
11 made last week by Joanne Williams has
12 brought me here this evening. I know I
13 would not have enough time to address
14 everything I would like to say tonight, so I
15 will address one item and will return next
16 week if possible.
17 At least week's meeting Joanne
18 Williams asked who was responsible for the
19 red and white yard signs that tell Doherty
20 not to close firehouses. She referred to
21 them as a scare tactic to try to upset
22 Scrantonians. The mayor has said he is not
23 closing firehouses. She wanted whoever put
24 these signs up to take them down. This is a
25 false political statement.
55
1 Let me quote Mayor Doherty from a
2 Times article dated April 21 of this year:
3 "I am not closing any fire stations any time
4 in the near future. We don't have those
5 dollars today."
6 We all know too well Mayor Doherty's
7 history of borrowing and spending, so just
8 how far off could station closings be. He
9 declined to permanently rule out the closing
10 of fire stations as did public safety
11 director Ray Hayes when he stated, "We no
12 plans of closing fire stations at this
13 time."
14 Let me point out at this time, there
15 are no firemen or policemen in my family,
16 therefore, my comments are not made for
17 personal gain. My reward is improving
18 public safety. As long as Mrs. Williams
19 brought up false political statements let's
20 revisit some reelection statements made by
21 Mr. Doherty, even though we may be tired of
22 hearing them:
23 Number one, "I will not sell the
24 city assets."
25 This preelected statement was made
56
1 not long before he sold the South Side
2 Complex and the municipal golf course.
3 Two, "I will be the sixth
4 councilman."
5 He attended one meeting in seven
6 years and that was to get something he
7 wanted by casting a tie breaking vote for
8 something which, by the way, wasn't even on
9 the agenda.
10 Three, "The proceeds from the sale
11 of the golf course were to be placed in a
12 trust fund."
13 This, of course, never happened.
14 Prior to the last mayoral election the mayor
15 claimed crime was not a problem and gangs
16 did not exist, a subject I may address next
17 week.
18 Lastly, and of great importance,
19 during the recent presidential campaign then
20 Senator Obama made remark about
21 Pennsylvanians holding onto their bibles and
22 guns. Shortly thereafter the mayor was
23 asked by radio station WILK to comment on
24 Senator Obama's statement. Mayor responded
25 by saying, "When Mr. Obama made that
57
1 statement he was speaking to a small group
2 that he felt comfortable with and when you
3 are speaking to such a group you tell the
4 truth."
5 This must mean that in order for us
6 to know when Mayor Doherty is speaking the
7 truth we must first know who he is
8 addressing and how comfortable he feels with
9 them.
10 One more thing, I do not have a do
11 not close the fire station sign in my yard,
12 but if someone would tell me after the
13 meeting where I can get one I'm very
14 interested. Thank you.
15 MR. MCGOFF: Marie Schumacher.
16 MS. SCHUMACHER: Good evening,
17 Council. I'm disappointed we don't have
18 margaritas and salsa and chips tonight, but
19 I have again a number of small, but I think
20 important things, obviously. I would like
21 to know what is the threshold for council
22 approving budget transfers? I looked
23 monthly at the controller's report and there
24 are quite a few transfers even early in the
25 year and what is the dollar amount that
58
1 forces a transfer to come to this group?
2 Mrs. Gatelli, you are the finance chair?
3 MS. GATELLI: I think it's 20 or 25.
4 MS. SCHUMACHER: Thousand dollars?
5 Maybe you could tell us.
6 MS. EVANS: If I might inject, I
7 think when a transfer is made within a
8 department it really doesn't come to council
9 for our approval, we are made aware of it --
10 MS. SCHUMACHER: Okay. Thank you.
11 MS. EVANS: -- but we don't vote --
12 MS. SCHUMACHER: Thank you.
13 MS. EVANS: -- but an
14 interdepartmental requires a vote.
15 MS. SCHUMACHER: Thank you.
16 MS. GATELLI: Over 20; right?
17 MS. SCHUMACHER: Now, again to the
18 Genesis Wildlife Center for just a minute,
19 Genesis Wildlife Center is obviously gone
20 forever, but I hope we have learned some
21 lessons and I hope that there is going to be
22 public input on what happens with that
23 former zoo in the days to come.
24 I hope, and again, I still don't
25 understand and I have asked before on what
59
1 the -- on what your role as oversight of
2 these authorities is. It seems to me that
3 we have an awful lot of unelected people
4 making a lot of decisions that impact us in
5 one way or the another and you people
6 apparently don't care enough to get
7 involved, and I think it would be nice if --
8 it would be nice if Ozzie Quinn suggestion
9 that all authority meetings occur in this
10 council chambers and be broadcast on the
11 city's public access channel. I think that
12 would help to go a long way so people could
13 be informed, they would know what they are,
14 for instance, the Recreation Authority I
15 believe posts their schedule once. They
16 post the entire year's schedule and then
17 that's it. So, if somebody hasn't clipped
18 that out of the legal notices they have no
19 idea when to go.
20 So I hope that as we move forward on
21 the Genesis Wildlife Center that that space,
22 the old zoo, there will be a public hearing
23 and public input will be sought.
24 And then since I obviously did go to
25 the Rec Authority meeting last night, I do
60
1 want to report, Mrs. Gatelli, awhile back
2 you said that the proceeds from the holiday
3 show went to the conservancy and I
4 questioned that at the time and it's not
5 true, I asked last night. It goes to the
6 authority, to the Recreation Authority.
7 And now a slight diversion because
8 I'm -- this next issue, although it's
9 something I'm interested in as well, I was
10 called this afternoon by a good friend of
11 mine who can't make it to council meetings
12 and asked that I would respectfully ask for
13 an accounting of the 6,000 jobs that the
14 mayor claims he has created, maybe by
15 company. If you could maybe in motions
16 ask -- vote to ask the mayor to provide
17 these 6,000 jobs by company that would be
18 nice. If not, there is always
19 Right-to-Know.
20 The Ice Box, I don't understand why
21 there could be any hindrance to getting that
22 $600,000. Mr. Minora said last week that in
23 his conversation with the Redevelopment
24 Authority solicitor, there are still
25 obstacles. Why would they have sent that
61
1 agreement over three years ago to this body
2 which this body then chose not to take
3 action on if it was not complete, and I
4 would like to know by next week if
5 Mr. Minora doesn't have that information
6 tonight what those obstacles -- what those
7 particular obstacles --
8 MR. MINORA: They are not obstacles.
9 They are prerequisites. They have to be met
10 before an obligation begins. It's a
11 contractual prerequisite, it's not an
12 obstacle.
13 MS. SCHUMACHER: How could they have
14 submitted that agreement three years ago --
15 MR. MINORA: That was submitted with
16 different terms as an offer as opposed to
17 waiting for the prerequisites and the
18 completion of the agreement. It was offered
19 in the alternative not as part of the
20 agreement.
21 MS. SCHUMACHER: So they are
22 prerequisites. I will write a
23 Right-to-Know, prerequisites to what, so I
24 get the terminology correct?
25 MR. MINORA: They are prerequisites
62
1 before payment is due.
2 MS. SCHUMACHER: Okay.
3 MR. MINORA: I don't know what you
4 are asking me.
5 MS. SCHUMACHER: Thank you. And then
6 recently in the Times-Tribune there was an
7 article saying a probe was urged of the
8 pension in Dunmore, and within that article
9 it noted that Scranton's portfolio dropped
10 about 35 percent or $26.7 million and I am
11 wondering whether this council is going to
12 have some kind of hearing or hear from our
13 investment -- whoever handles the investment
14 on why we lost that much money. So I'll be
15 back with the rest next week, good Lord
16 willing. Thank you.
17 MR. MCGOFF: Thank you. In other
18 speakers?
19 MS. BRIZINSKI: Good evening.
20 Gloria Brizinski, city resident, taxpayer,
21 voter. I was wondering if any of you kept
22 track of the status of my property at 1212
23 Cedar Avenue that you passed into
24 litigation? No? You probably have long
25 forgotten about me, but not I you. It has
63
1 been one year, six months and 19 days,
2 exactly 567 days total since all of you
3 singly chose to ignore the simple black and
4 white information in front of you and with
5 haste and misinformation threw my family of
6 Scranton into the turmoil of an unending
7 corrupt legal system in our city.
8 My family has endured through legal
9 fees and mumbo-jumbo brought on by the city
10 lawyers without any inkling of a resolve to
11 this date. Let's get this straight, we are
12 paying taxes so that the city lawyers can
13 fight against us. Does that make any sense?
14 It doesn't to me. The taxpayers should not
15 have to fund this travesty anymore.
16 Strangely enough, the parcel in question
17 falls in the section of our city seeking
18 funding through the Elm Street project. Any
19 word on that yet? Elm Street project? No?
20 MS. GATELLI: They are waiting for
21 approval.
22 MS. BRIZINSKI: Well, we will
23 continue to hang on until hopefully the Elm
24 Street project comes to fruition and we get
25 our piece of the pie. All that my family
64
1 wanted was a little time and consideration
2 of the facts at hand, but we were ignored.
3 We are a decent, loving, hard-working family
4 that wants this city to succeed because we
5 live here. In return, this elected
6 administration has greatly wronged us. My
7 oldest daughter, a violinist, represented
8 Scranton High School at Carnegie Hall and
9 brought nationwide attention to Scranton on
10 NBC's Today Show.
11 My youngest daughter just last week
12 received a second place award in the state
13 for film production. When asked by
14 Miss Pennsylvania where she represented she
15 replied with pride, "South Scranton
16 Intermediate School."
17 My family has done nothing but try
18 to better the name of Scranton, but the
19 elected public officials only stab us in the
20 back. Do you want to know who knows about
21 the families? My husband and I are families
22 of Scranton for over 100 years. We chose to
23 raise our family here. I will continue to
24 frequent the council meetings when possible
25 until answers are received. I urge all
65
1 families, especially the voters of Scranton,
2 to chose wisely in the upcoming election.
3 Candidates make a lot of false claims
4 helping people, for the people, safe
5 neighborhoods, more arts and more music in
6 Scranton to attract people, but what about
7 the people who are already here? And we
8 have stuck it out over the years, tax after
9 tax after wage tax.
10 Scranton is not made up of malls,
11 big businesses, colleges and buildings, it
12 is the people who make up Scranton, and I
13 have to say if there is a mass exodus no
14 business or school can survive. If families
15 are treated like my family has been treated
16 I doubt they will stay.
17 More recently there has been no less
18 than three shootings in my neighborhood of
19 South Side alone over a few months or at
20 least those that were reported to us. I
21 have never felt more concerned about my
22 family's safety. I am afraid to let my
23 children ride their bikes or shop at the
24 Steamtown Mall.
25 I can only hope that voters wake up
66
1 and chose wisely those people who can and
2 will justly represent the people and
3 families of Scranton. Enough of the old
4 closed door politics, time for a change on
5 all levels.
6 In closing, I would like to wish
7 everyone a Happy's Mother's Day here present
8 and everyone watching. I know that it good
9 mother will fight for what is due her child
10 at any cost until the finish. Thank you.
11 MS. HUMPHRIES: Everyone, you think
12 this is funny, but it isn't. I'm kind of in
13 Honor here of Mr. Robeson and all of the
14 firefighters and the police department that
15 died throughout their life in September 11.
16 This is an FBI action play set. This
17 represents all of my FBI guys that fought,
18 died and gave -- was given a lot of false
19 information by evil, corrupt, selfish
20 people.
21 This represents the police
22 department. Now, I'm working on something,
23 and this is what I found out, vandalism
24 2,359; cleared 1,681. The officers used --
25 there is 300 males, 800 females. Of all of
67
1 the offenses there is 1,659 clear and
2 10,132. When you say cleared, did they go
3 to Court or which is the story there when
4 you say cleared? That's 2008, there's a
5 791.1 percent. The offenses against family
6 and children 182, 41 cleared, 86 percent and
7 then there's a slash .8 percent rape per 100
8 thousands.
9 Sex offenses, I'm a survivor, except
10 forcible rape, 162/52. Clear to
11 55.3 percent. 2001, Mayor James Connors,
12 president of council; Alex Hazzouri,
13 vice-president of council; Christopher
14 Doherty, council; John Pocius; Councilman
15 Brian Reap; Councilman Kevin Murphy; and
16 Councilman -- there is a blank there.
17 Councilman about -- blank again. Tax
18 collector, Joseph Dougherty, he had a
19 different spelling. Controller, Roseanne
20 Novembrino; treasurer -- city clerk, P.J.
21 Wintermantle; business administrator, Brian
22 M. Nixon, Esquire; director of community
23 deed or inspection and cleansing --
24 cleansing, licensing Mary Alice Burke;
25 solicitor, Attorney James Mulligan;
68
1 engineer, Ronald A. Bienski; chief of police
2 James Klee; fire chief, God bless him, Harry
3 Applegate.
4 Now, I'm going to go to 2001,
5 September 7. Blakely Borough, Mayor Klinko;
6 president of council, Edward Ghilardi. They
7 have people that are in the -- Chris and
8 Frank are in my prayer group, Frank is
9 president of council, Robert Munley;
10 Councilman Patrick Stanvich; Councilman Ed
11 Falko; Councilman Michael Henz; Councilman
12 John Kordish; Councilman Thomas Bestroy; tax
13 collector Robert Castellano; controller
14 Dennis Carval; District Justice, Joe
15 Todzylowski.
16 I went to Joe to file charges
17 against Mr. West and they refused
18 everything. When I went across to the
19 District Attorney's Office in Scranton the
20 sheriffs all blocked me, Mr. Davis was
21 involved with the sheriffs. There has been
22 a conspiracy here. Borough secretary Harold
23 McCluster, some of these people are
24 innocent. The engineer, Robert Burnoski,
25 the police chief Joe Williams, Christopher
69
1 -- now, this is the Blakely Borough.
2 As we go to it, it will go on and on
3 and on. Where is that newspaper boy? Could
4 you stand up and give me your name?
5 MR. MCGOFF: Phyllis.
6 MS. HUMPHRIES: He doesn't want to
7 give his name because you know what, there
8 is a thing called obstruction of justice --
9 MR. MCGOFF: Please, Phyllis.
10 MS. HUMPHRIES: There is a thing
11 called freedom of the press. They are not
12 telling everything what's happening here in
13 the City of Scranton.
14 MR. MCGOFF: Phyllis.
15 MS. HUMPHRIES: This is wrong.
16 MR. MCGOFF: Thank you, Phyllis.
17 MS. HUMPHRIES: Not only thank you,
18 you are welcome, I have more to tell.
19 MR. MCGOFF: No. Phyllis.
20 MS. HUMPHRIES: Everything that's
21 going to go to Bishop Martino tonight will
22 go to the CIA because there's not going to
23 be people working on construction at the
24 Pentagon or any place for what they did.
25 They screwed over our FBI guys and let the
70
1 World Trade Center go down.
2 MR. COURTRIGHT: Phyllis.
3 MR. MCGOFF: Please stop. Thank you.
4 MS. HUMPHRIES: And that's the
5 truth.
6 MR. MCGOFF: Phyllis.
7 MS. HUMPHRIES: And I'm sure he's
8 not going to put none of this in the paper.
9 MR. MCGOFF: Phyllis, please.
10 MS. HUMPHRIES: And Mr. Robson was
11 going to testify to me, what happened to
12 him.
13 MR. COURTRIGHT: Phyllis.
14 MR. MCGOFF: Phyllis. You have --
15 too much. Next speaker, please.
16 MR. STUCKER: They are parking a lot
17 of cars on the sidewalks again. Everywhere
18 I ride the bike yesterday, everywhere I go
19 walking or not walking the cars were on the
20 sidewalk, you can't walk.
21 MR. COURTRIGHT: We are looking the
22 that, Jim.
23 MR. STUCKER: And I'm glad I came to
24 the party, Gary DiBileo's, I'm glad I came.
25 Everybody was happy for me to go, and I got
71
1 Janet Evans something nice.
2 MS. EVANS: Oh, you did. Thank you
3 so much, Jim. Jim got me two beautiful
4 plants --
5 MR. STUCKER: Yeah.
6 MS. EVANS: -- while I was recovering
7 so thank you so much.
8 MR. STUCKER: And I want you to take
9 them home with you.
10 MS. EVANS: I did. I took them home.
11 MR. STUCKER: Take them home and
12 plant them.
13 MS. EVANS: Yes.
14 MR. STUCKER: And I owe you two
15 bucks.
16 MR. COURTRIGHT: No, that's okay,
17 Jim, you can keep it. That's okay, no
18 problem.
19 MR. STUCKER: And I have been
20 thinking about you, Janet, I got your
21 picture --
22 MS. EVANS: Thank --
23 MR. STUCKER: -- in the window.
24 MS. EVANS: Oh, thank you.
25 MR. STUCKER: I got Gary's picture
72
1 in the window.
2 MS. EVANS: Thank you.
3 MR. STUCKER: And I want to see him
4 win, that's the big thing. I hope he wins
5 and I hope -- I want to see you win and both
6 of you, too.
7 MS. EVANS: Thank you.
8 MR. STUCKER: Yeah. The city is --
9 it's about time the city do something. Yep.
10 I would like to see maybe they fix the
11 lights on Greenridge, the red lights are
12 out, and the ones by Sheeley's Drug Store is
13 out.
14 MR. COURTRIGHT: Okay, Jim.
15 MR. STUCKER: They are all out. Can
16 you put a sign up on the sign where Danny's
17 shop -- Danny's drug store is that says "No
18 Parking" on the corner. I see people
19 parking on the corner, there is no meters
20 there in front of Sheeley's.
21 MR. COURTRIGHT: Sheeley's, okay.
22 MR. STUCKER: And right around the
23 corner, too, at Sheeley's they park in there
24 and there no meters there.
25 MR. COURTRIGHT: They are not
73
1 supposed to park there, Jim.
2 MR. STUCKER: Yeah, all of the way up
3 by that Tink's bar. Tink's bar, all the way
4 up to the corner.
5 MR. COURTRIGHT: Well, no, just at
6 the corner they can't park, Jim. They are
7 allowed to park on the street. It's just at
8 the corner.
9 MR. STUCKER: Well, at Tink's bar
10 there is no meters there, yeah.
11 MR. COURTRIGHT: Okay.
12 MR. STUCKER: Yeah? Okay?
13 MR. COURTRIGHT: Thank you.
14 MR. STUCKER: Congratulations,
15 Janet, everybody wants to see you at the
16 party, I know you couldn't make it so, we
17 were thinking about you up there.
18 MS. EVANS: Thank you.
19 MS. ROYCE: Hi. Good evening.
20 Bernadette Royce. Recently Mayor Doherty
21 finally said something with which I agree or
22 at least part of it at least. The mayor was
23 quoted in the Times Report as saying, "I
24 have said publically that I'm not closing
25 any fire stations. I have said it time and
74
1 time again. This is an election tactic."
2 Let me repeat the part I agree with:
3 This is an election tactic. I couldn't
4 agree more. Why? Because Mayor Doherty has
5 been on record for years stating that he
6 wants to close fire stations and also cut
7 the number of firefighters.
8 August 31, 2008, the Scranton Times
9 headline: "Doherty has plans to cut number
10 of firefighters. Date in Court looms."
11 Mayor Doherty wants to close
12 stations, "Eight fire stations eventually
13 consolidated to four or five."
14 And also to cut the firefighters
15 from 150 to 112, a 25 percent reduction in
16 the force. I want everyone to ask
17 themselves, would they be comfortable with
18 25 percent less police; 25 percent less
19 paramedics; 25 percent less emergency room
20 physicians; 25 percent less emergency room
21 nurses. If not, why would you be
22 comfortable with 25 percent less
23 firefighters?
24 The Scranton firefighters and their
25 supporters have maintained the same position
75
1 for years on the side of fire safety for the
2 citizens of Scranton. Mayor Doherty's
3 position against adequate fire protection
4 levels is also well-documented until, not
5 surprisingly, two months before election.
6 So I ask you, who should you believe? Those
7 who have argued for safety all along or
8 those who have pledged to decimate the
9 number of firefighters and fire stations
10 until, not surprisingly, he was up for
11 reelection. When a politician pulls a
12 complete reversal on his position just
13 before an election, I am confident we all
14 know that this is election tactic. Thank
15 you and have a good evening and Happy
16 Mother's Day.
17 MS. O'MALLEY: Barbara O'Malley,
18 Scranton resident and taxpayer. Last summer
19 I came before this body as a representative
20 of the Scranton Today which operated Channel
21 61 for ten years to strenuously object to
22 the proposed $90,000 OECD grant to ECTV. My
23 objections were founded about concerns about
24 the questionable bidding process, the
25 physical stability of the ECTV principals,
76
1 and the board composition among other
2 things.
3 From May of 2008 through October of
4 2008, I attempted to get information from
5 OECD about ECTV's application, the criteria
6 for the award and any supporting
7 documentation. I never received that
8 documentation. I believed that it was
9 public information and public money. With
10 the advent of the new Right-to-Know law in
11 January of 2009, I decided to make another
12 attempt.
13 On March 2 I sent a letter to Stu
14 Renda, the open records officer for the City
15 of Scranton, and requested all public
16 records pertaining to ECTV which I believe
17 I'm legally entitled to under the
18 Pennsylvania Right-to-Know Law. On
19 March 10, 2009, I received a reply from
20 Mr. Renda stating that due to the extensive
21 nature of my request the city expected to
22 respond within 30 days, that would be
23 April 10.
24 On April 22 I called Mr. Renda's
25 office, I spoke to Kristin, she placed a
77
1 call to OECD and said the records were at
2 the lawyer's office, they should be there by
3 the end of the week.
4 On Tuesday, April 28, I called
5 Kristin again. She again called OECD
6 office, Linda Aebli said I would probably
7 have them by Friday. The date has passed.
8 Today is May 5. I still don't have the
9 records.
10 For those who don't know, the new PA
11 Right-to-Know Law requires agencies to
12 respond to citizen's requests within five
13 business days. The law does provide for an
14 additional 30 days upon certain
15 circumstances according to Terry Muchler,
16 director of PA Office of Open Records. From
17 my perspective, the City of Scranton is
18 clearly not in any hurry to comply with this
19 law. Why is it taking over two months for
20 the city to respond to my request?
21 ECTV records should be easy to
22 retrieve. The application and the
23 documentation and the awards took place in
24 2008, so barring an unlikely accessibility
25 problem, what is the reason for the delay?
78
1 Also, the people should be aware that the
2 law bars agencies from requiring a citizen
3 to explain why a record is requested.
4 I hope the city isn't holding up my
5 request based on assumptions as to the
6 reasons for my request of ECTV records. My
7 interest in ECTV records is well-known and
8 it stems from the controversy I've described
9 when I came to the podium. ECTV has been
10 awarded at least $100,000 from the mayor's
11 office and OECD. It is speculated that the
12 lion's share of the money went to rehab
13 studio space in a building ECTV no longer
14 calls it's office. There's a sign on the
15 door that says that they are not operating
16 at 933 Prescott Avenue anymore.
17 So as a taxpayer in the City of
18 Scranton I want to know what safeguards are
19 in place regarding the appropriate use of
20 the public funds and what happens to the
21 money that was invested into remodeling this
22 space which ECTV apparently has vacated or
23 will be, their sign on the door says it's no
24 longer their office space. I would like to
25 review the loan agreement and the pertinent
79
1 paperwork between ECTV and the City of
2 Scranton for answers to my questions. For
3 some reason, that information is being
4 withheld from me.
5 The original Channel 61, which I was
6 proudly involved with, was founded by
7 citizens of Scranton, originally Scranton
8 Tomorrow, but then we formed our own
9 organization Scranton Today, and we were
10 committed to transparency in government and
11 an informed and engaged electorate. It's
12 ironic that it's successor, Electric City TV
13 continues to be surrounded by a smoke
14 screen. Thank you.
15 MS. KRAKE: Good evening, Council.
16 My name is Nancy Krake and I would like to
17 say welcome back to Mrs. Evans and
18 Mr. McGoff.
19 MS. EVANS: Thank you.
20 MR. MCGOFF: Thank you.
21 MS. KRAKE: You are welcome. We have
22 some extra big lies this time in the
23 election year. Four years ago Mayor Doherty
24 told us he created 3,000 jobs. This time
25 around he is telling us 6,000 jobs. Well,
80
1 pretty much that would be like four
2 Universities of Scranton, six Mercy
3 Hospitals or maybe six CMC's. I haven't
4 seen them, if they are here they are very
5 well hidden.
6 I think it's time for a change from
7 all of these lies. We also had a 27 percent
8 tax increase that was courtesy of
9 Mr. Doherty, Mrs. Gatelli, Mr. McGoff and
10 Mrs. Fanucci. They also continue to vote
11 over and over again for crippling fines and
12 fees on delinquent real estate taxes. Huge
13 burdens on our citizens. You can count on
14 two more 25 percent tax increases if these
15 people are reelected. I know this because
16 when the Pennsylvania Economy League was
17 here several years ago they told us they
18 needed to see taxes raised 75 percent. So
19 that's another 50 percent we can look
20 forward to if we reelect Mayor Doherty and
21 the people that support him.
22 These consultants were hired by Mr.
23 Doherty's best friend, Ed Rendell. They
24 like to keep us distressed and they like to
25 feed off of our tax dollars. The one thing
81
1 they don't like to bring us is the economic
2 change that we need. We really do need
3 change. We are not going to get it with the
4 same people in office. We are going to get
5 more and more of the same.
6 I'd also like to address the issue
7 of health care. Mrs. Fanucci likes to tell
8 us, and I'm sure she is getting her
9 information from the administration where
10 she usually gets it, that one of the big
11 reasons we are still distressed is the cost
12 of health care. Admitted by Mr. Stu Renda
13 under oath in Court on Friday, was the cost
14 of health care has increased for the public
15 safety unions by $4 million since 2002. The
16 budgets have gone up $22 million. That
17 hardly would constitute the reason that we
18 are still distressed. They received no
19 raises in that time, whereas, the
20 administration is up to probably around
21 between seven and eight million
22 cumulatively.
23 And we also learned tonight from
24 Mr. Renda that they paid very small co-pays
25 while the police and fire are now paying
82
1 more than double the amount the
2 administration is paying for their health
3 care and they have received no raises over
4 the years, they just received a small one,
5 excuse me, but over the years the
6 administration has been receiving their
7 raises.
8 I would also like it say that
9 conservatively half of this cost, the
10 four million, would not have been incurred
11 if the mayor had allowed the Health Care
12 Cost Containment Committee to do it's job.
13 The two judges we were in front of on Friday
14 also remarked on the city not utilizing the
15 Health Care Committee since it had been
16 produced millions, that's a key word here,
17 millions of dollars of savings in the past.
18 I remember vividly the Health Care Committee
19 meeting that Harry Miller from the
20 Pennsylvania Economy League walked out of
21 never to return again. We went from that
22 point to saving $4 million without the
23 Pennsylvania Economy League.
24 It's time to work together, it's
25 time to get rid of these consultants and the
83
1 people who want to keep them here, and it's
2 time for change. Thank you.
3 MR. LYMAN: Raymond Lyman. You know,
4 Mrs. Fanucci, do you remember when you
5 accused me of the being a child molester.
6 MS. FANUCCI: I never did that.
7 MR. LYMAN: Oh, yes, you did. And
8 it was in a police report.
9 MS. FANUCCI: Never.
10 MR. MCGOFF: Mr. Lyman --
11 MS. FANUCCI: I never said that.
12 MR. MCGOFF: That's out of order.
13 MS. FANUCCI: Never said it.
14 MR. LYMAN: No, it isn't.
15 MR. MCGOFF: Yes, it is.
16 MR. LYMAN: No, it isn't. It was a
17 police report put on her when I had --
18 MR. MCGOFF: Excuse me.
19 MR. LYMAN: -- four pictures of a
20 catch basin --
21 MR. MCGOFF: You are out of order.
22 MR. LYMAN: And you four seen it.
23 MR. MCGOFF: If are going to --
24 MR. LYMAN: And I have a letter here
25 from the ACLU who will defend me in a court
84
1 of law against her and the law firm.
2 MS. FANUCCI: They should then. I
3 never said that.
4 MR. LYMAN: And I will sue you for
5 slander and that idiot district attorney.
6 MR. COURTRIGHT: Oh.
7 MR. MCGOFF: You out of order, please
8 leave the podium.
9 MR. LYMAN: No, I'm not out of order.
10 MR. MCGOFF: Please leave the podium.
11 MR. LYMAN: Well, I have a letter
12 here that says my rights were violated by
13 you, Mr. McGoff, each time you say I'm out
14 of order -- I'm not fighting here.
15 MR. MCGOFF: Ray --
16 MR. LYMAN: I'm just talking.
17 MR. MCGOFF: It's time to leave the
18 podium.
19 MR. LYMAN: No, it's not time to
20 leave the podium.
21 MR. MCGOFF: The officer is going to
22 come and remove you.
23 MR. LYMAN: My letter says I can
24 speak, you cannot violate me saying out of
25 order because you hate my guts.
85
1 MR. MCGOFF: Pleas. Ray.
2 MR. LYMAN: My lawyer and the ACLU
3 said in this letter that I could go and
4 speak.
5 MR. MCGOFF: Officer, thank you.
6 MR. LYMAN: I have five minutes.
7 THE POLICE OFFICER: Mr. Lyman.
8 MR. LYMAN: Don't threaten me.
9 THE POLICE OFFICER: I'm not
10 threatening you.
11 MR. LYMAN: I'll call my friend the
12 state trooper and you cannot stop me.
13 THE POLICE OFFICER: Please step away
14 from the podium now.
15 MR. LYMAN: You are not going to
16 arrest me.
17 THE POLICE OFFICER: Please step
18 down.
19 MR. LYMAN: No, I have five minutes
20 to speak and I'm going to stay here for the
21 five minutes.
22 MR. COURTRIGHT: Raymond, Raymond --
23 MR. MCGOFF: Your time --
24 MR. LYMAN: I'm not going to fight.
25 Listen, I have five minutes. I've got a
86
1 letter here from the ACLU that I have a
2 right to speak. He has no right to cut me
3 off.
4 MR. MINORA: You are out of order.
5 MR. LYMAN: And I have a right to
6 speak.
7 THE POLICE OFFICER: You are
8 disrupting a public meeting.
9 MR. LYMAN: I'm not disrupting the
10 meeting.
11 THE POLICE OFFICER: Yes, you are.
12 MR. LYMAN: I have five minutes to
13 speak.
14 MR. POLICE OFFICER: You are
15 disrupting a public meeting. Step back.
16 MR. COURTRIGHT: Raymond, if you
17 don't go you are only going to get yourself
18 in trouble.
19 MR. LYMAN: Mr. McGoff, I will have
20 you taken in a court of law and you will be
21 sued for everything you own.
22 THE POLICE OFFICER: Step back.
23 MR. LYMAN: And tomorrow I'm going to
24 call the ACLU and they will defend me and
25 I'll sue you, that idiot district attorney
87
1 and Mrs. Fanucci, and the City of Scranton,
2 and you always hammer violating my civil
3 rights because you are racist against me. I
4 hope you and that idiot mayor have a big
5 wallet because I'm going to sue you for
6 $10 million.
7 MR. MCGOFF: Officer. Thank you.
8 (Officer escorts Mr. Lyman from the
9 podium.)
10 MR. LYMAN: And you better pay up
11 because this tape I'm already tape it. I
12 can sit here.
13 MR. MCGOFF: I'm sorry for that.
14 MR. LYMAN: I can stay here.
15 MR. MCGOFF: Please.
16 MR. LYMAN: No, they told me I could
17 leave the podium that doesn't mean I have to
18 leave.
19 MR. MCGOFF: Please, you have been
20 asked to leave.
21 MR. LYMAN: No, I'm --
22 (Whereupon the police officer
23 removes Mr. Lyman from Council chambers.)
24 MR. ELLMAN: Ronnie Ellman again.
25 Hard act to follow.
88
1 MS. GATELLI: No, not really, they
2 are all about the same here.
3 MR. ELLMAN: I'm glad to see
4 everybody back in better health. I think
5 Dave certainly does need a haircut, but like
6 he mentioned before, as usual I got all of
7 these notes over here that I can't read what
8 when I'm up here. You left to quick the
9 other night, Johnny was doing all of these
10 magic tricks.
11 MR. COURTRIGHT: I saw them.
12 MR. ELLMAN: He is not as good as the
13 mayor, he is not nearly that tricky, but he
14 is working at.
15 MR. COURTRIGHT: I know he does that
16 dollar trick, I don't know if you know the
17 secret or not.
18 MR. ELLMAN: Well, he changed dollar
19 bills into hundreds except for me. I got a
20 question, these nonprofits like the house on
21 Monroe, which was a United -- you know, for
22 the home -- it's a nonprofit when they had
23 that fire were these people just like not
24 being paid to fight a fire?
25 MS. FANUCCI: I don't understand the
89
1 question.
2 MR. ELLMAN: Well, it's nonprofit.
3 We are a supplying firemen and police and
4 everything to -- without -- without cost,
5 aren't we?
6 MS. FANUCCI: I'm sorry, I --
7 MR. MCGOFF: Yes. We are actually a
8 providing to nonprofits.
9 MR. ELLMAN: They should be billed.
10 They should be -- they should be paid for
11 services, you know, a forth of the city is
12 nonprofit. It doesn't make sense that you
13 let them -- let the rest of us pay for them,
14 you know, and I just don't understand it.
15 This is deplorable the way things are around
16 here. I was reading this letter to the
17 editor, some jerk down here in Exeter,
18 George Race, he is telling us how to vote
19 from Exeter. You know, we had at that lady
20 lived out there in Dalton or someplace got
21 the zoo closed, why don't these people just
22 come here and buy one of these houses, there
23 is 5 or 6,000 houses for sale then they come
24 up here and express themselves like the rest
25 of us. You know, it's easy when you are
90
1 down there saying how great everything is
2 when you are not looking forward to
3 having to pay $500 million worth of taxes
4 over the next 30 years or so.
5 I was wondering if Mr. Doherty's
6 children are going to stay here like
7 Mr. Miller and Mr. Connors' son and be part
8 of this community or are they going to
9 disappear? I asked someone Sunday and they
10 are probably still laughing about it because
11 they said there wasn't much hope in that.
12 But Mr. Doherty's failure as a mayor
13 of the city is council's fault in my
14 opinion. You people gave him no incentive
15 to work. When he needed money you said
16 borrow, borrow, borrow and now look where we
17 are at? You know, a distressed city doesn't
18 just keep asking for KOZ extensions and more
19 KOZ's. This is just ridiculous what's going
20 on around here to the taxpayers.
21 Mr. Doherty has a vision and it's
22 just going no where. His vision is going no
23 where. He wants to run on his record. I
24 got a little statement here, we cannot
25 defend the past at the expense of the
91
1 future. Do you understand what I just said?
2 His record stinks and if we keep going
3 for -- he is defending his bad record at the
4 expense of the future and it's just time for
5 a change. You know, I'm a moderate and I
6 don't think he is all bad, I have said it,
7 but it's like the commercial I've watched
8 over and over again on television.
9 I was with someone on the board this
10 morning for the medical school, he had no
11 more to do with that medical school than
12 anyone in this room. He should be, you
13 know, I know he wanted it as much as
14 anybody, but he wanted on any committees, he
15 wasn't on nothing, you know, he can't take
16 credit for it. He needs to take credit for
17 the way this city is. It's just deplorable
18 conditions and it's getting worse and worse.
19 It's not getting no damn better and it's
20 just time for a change like everybody keeps
21 asking. Thank you.
22 MR. ANCHERANI: Good evening. Nelson
23 Ancherani, First Amendment Rights. Welcome
24 back, nice to see a full house. First, I
25 want to remind everyone that we are faced
92
1 with long-term debt of approximately 300
2 million over the next 35 years or so. A
3 little history and reminder. Mayor Connors'
4 2001 budget totaled $55,790,000, that's
5 2001. He decreased his budget for 2001 from
6 2000 and still left three million surplus.
7 Every budget under this
8 administration has increased from 2002 to
9 2009, so much so the total of budgets 2002
10 to 2009 is $556,433,218. This is over a
11 half a billion dollars. We are
12 approximately 300 million in long-term debt.
13 We are in debt on a smaller scale than the
14 federal government, but our children and
15 grand children are going to be dealt a
16 double whammy paying for city and federal
17 debt for many, many years of their lives and
18 just for your information, cumulative
19 increases from 2002 through 2009 is
20 $107,703,178. That's well over another
21 year's budget.
22 Ms. Fanucci, just so you know, I get
23 my figures from the budgets. They are black
24 and white so they should be right. As for
25 health care, I along with all union members
93
1 don't mind paying our fair share. Since
2 2003 we have been asking this city to show
3 us the actual, actual figures on health care
4 which they haven't done. Even when
5 subpoenaed for our arbitration hearings. If
6 the city is paying more then the 7.2 actual,
7 which they won't even show the 7.2 million,
8 show us. By them not giving the figures,
9 makes me think something is being hidden
10 from us. It makes me think that the figures
11 aren't as high as they say. Makes me think
12 that they want us to pay for the retired
13 insurance. Retired is the city's
14 responsibility.
15 The Health Care Committee hasn't met
16 in at least two years. At a prior meeting
17 tonight, Stu gave a figure of $15 for single
18 co-pay for pay period. I have two bills
19 that show I paid $30.50 per pay period for
20 single. As I said, I don't mind paying my
21 fair share as do any other police or fire
22 personnel.
23 Ms. Fanucci, next week I'll rebut
24 what you say tonight in motions since you
25 have the last word. So council, the slimes,
94
1 they can laugh at us speakers, they can call
2 us names, it's their -- it's your First
3 Amendment Right. Our First Amendment Right
4 is to come here and agree or disagree.
5 That's our First Amendment Right. Do I care
6 if we are called names. Do I care if
7 Ms. Fanucci looks in the camera? No.
8 I care about this city -- there you
9 go, laugh, I like that. That's great. I
10 care about this city and so does everyone
11 else who comes here. I care that you answer
12 our questions. Seventeen were asked by me a
13 few weeks ago, no answers. I care that we
14 get what we pay for when we pay our taxes.
15 I care that I get a 25 percent tax increase
16 voted on by Ms. Fanucci, Mrs. Gatelli and
17 Mrs. McGoff, when 12.2 million was sitting
18 in the Single Tax Office account. I care
19 that we have two million missing and no one
20 is doing anything about it. I care that
21 when elected officials get paid by my tax
22 dollars and they refuse to do what they were
23 elected to do. I care that we get that we
24 get cleared up, that $2 million so there is
25 no doubt. No clearing it up is sewing the
95
1 seeds of doubt. Thank you.
2 MR. MCGOFF: Anyone else? Mrs.
3 Evans?
4 MS. EVANS: Good evening. I'd like
5 to thank everyone who sent beautiful cards,
6 e-mails and prayers to my mother and me in
7 the last three weeks. I will never forget
8 your kindness and your support. You know,
9 one friend reminded me recently that God
10 never gives us more than he knows we can
11 handle, and I hope that is true for all of
12 us, and again, I am very happy to return to
13 these noble chambers.
14 Now, to respond to some earlier
15 questions regarding the authorities of the
16 City of Scranton, I am sure many are well
17 aware that these are autonomous bodies whose
18 membership is appointed by the mayor of
19 Scranton. They cannot be dissolved by city
20 council, for example, as long as the
21 authority itself is carrying a certain level
22 of debt. As for their attendance, or let's
23 say the idea that their meetings should be
24 conducted in council chambers, I absolutely
25 agree with that so much so that on two prior
96
1 occasions as a member of the two different
2 councils I have asked the authorities to do
3 just that so that they would be more
4 accessible to the taxpayers of the city.
5 Now, I know that at one time they
6 replied that there are many meetings held
7 here, zoning, planning, etcetera, and it
8 would be difficult to coordinate their
9 evening nights with those that are already
10 on the calendar for council chambers and,
11 yes, I do agree, I think the provisions
12 certainly could be made, you know, if
13 everyone just made some adjustments and it
14 would be the most beneficial thing for the
15 people of Scranton. Perhaps, in the future
16 that request can be made again and we can
17 hope that the authorities will be more
18 amenable.
19 Prior to my absence, I asked
20 Attorney Minora to draft legislation to
21 prevent the Scranton Tax Office from using
22 city tax collections to augment it's
23 operating budgets whenever it exceeds it's
24 annual budget. A request must be made to
25 the city business administrator and
97
1 legislation must be approved by city council
2 in order to provide additional funding.
3 Attorney Minora has drafted this legislation
4 and I would like to see it included on next
5 week's agenda.
6 Earlier I asked my colleagues to
7 review it as soon as possible in order that
8 at least one local governing body will have
9 taken formal action to address the problems
10 evidenced at the Scranton Tax Office. I
11 don't believe we require the agreement of
12 the county, it is dealing in it's own manner
13 with it's tax office payables nor do I
14 believe council requires the input of the
15 school district since it is our
16 responsibility alone to oversee city tax
17 dollars.
18 Again, prior to my absence, I had
19 already sent letters to the county
20 commissioners, school board and mayor asking
21 for a joint request for an investigation of
22 the Scranton Tax Office by state and/or
23 federal authorities. To date, I received no
24 response. However, I was informed that the
25 county commissioners will conduct a meeting
98
1 of representatives of the local taxing
2 bodies to discuss the issues affecting the
3 tax office perhaps later this week. Beyond
4 a possibly decision to hire a tax office
5 controller to oversee the day-to-day
6 operations and a discussion of estate
7 mandated centralized tax collection office
8 in Lackawanna County, I hold no great hope
9 that the governing bodies will jointly
10 request an investigation of the tax office.
11 Also, I have seen no action taken on
12 the fact that City Solicitor Patterson must
13 serve as solicitor to the tax rather than an
14 attorney appointed by a tax collector. No
15 action has been taken against the numerous
16 violations of state law that occurred under
17 Mr. McDowell who to this day refuses to
18 answer a subpoena and speak to city council
19 publically. No action has been taken on
20 $2 million in lost monies, yet, we paid for
21 a report, not a forensic audit and we
22 continue to pay for the services of this
23 firm.
24 The tax office officials like to say
25 that no one ever spoke about the problems at
99
1 the tax office. They know that is not true.
2 It was discussed here at city council at
3 more than one meeting in more than one year,
4 but this is what happens when you are not
5 part of the club, the team, the inner
6 circle. Wrongdoing, whether legal or
7 illegal, goes on. Some politicians plan it
8 and other politicians go along with it and
9 anyone who questions it, exposes it or
10 attempts to fix it is wrong, is not a team
11 player or is a troublemaker.
12 Well, I don't know about anybody
13 else, but I am fed up. I'm fed up with the
14 negligence, the failure to act, and the
15 political fear and repercussions of stepping
16 on toes. Money is missing, state laws were
17 violated, and someone has to be answer for
18 this. Could any one of you, any one of us,
19 do this at our job and get away with it?
20 Could you get a promotion afterwards or tell
21 me could you walk away while your business
22 complacently a financial loss of $2 million?
23 A year ago, I composed a letter to
24 the district attorney requesting an
25 investigation of the Single Tax Office.
100
1 Because the announcement of a forensic audit
2 was made, I didn't send a letter, but I did
3 save it and one year later the mess
4 continues.
5 Although, it seems the state has a
6 role in this matter since it's regulations
7 govern numerous policies and procedures of
8 the office, it appears that an investigation
9 should be conducted first by the district
10 attorney at his discretion. Therefore, I
11 will be sending a letter to the Lackawanna
12 County District Attorney requesting an
13 investigation of the Scranton tax office.
14 Should Mr. Jarbola choose not to
15 investigate, as he did over one year ago, I
16 will present this matter to a higher
17 authority.
18 MR. COURTRIGHT: I get my turn to
19 interrupt you now.
20 MS. EVANS: Absolutely.
21 MR. COURTRIGHT: I called the
22 District Attorney's Office last week and I
23 asked about this, and I guess way back when
24 this first started he wanted to do some
25 investigation and he was told by all three
101
1 taxing bodies that they didn't want to do
2 the investigation. The FBI came in, he is
3 saying they found no criminal activity, so I
4 asked, you know, now is he interested in
5 looking at it to see if there is anything
6 criminal. He told me that if someone could
7 present to him some kind of a criminal
8 wrongdoing that he would be happy to
9 investigate it.
10 So I haven't talked to you because
11 you have been off and I didn't know you were
12 going to bring it up this evening.
13 MS. EVANS: I'll certainly include
14 that in the letter because I think
15 $2 million in missing tax monies certainly
16 constitutes wrongdoing. I don't remember
17 though, perhaps someone else does, I don't
18 remember city council ever agreeing or
19 publically taking a vote to say that we did
20 not wish an investigation.
21 MR. COURTRIGHT: Yeah, I don't
22 think -- I don't think it was us. I think
23 it was the administration and maybe the
24 school board and the county, if I'm not
25 mistaken, not us, because we all know we
102
1 don't have too much power here, but anyway,
2 I did ask him, and again, I hadn't spoken to
3 you in quite awhile so --
4 MS. EVANS: I'm glad to hear all of
5 that and it is very interesting because I
6 remember at the time the DA was quoted in
7 the paper as saying he wouldn't conduct an
8 investigation because he felt there was no
9 wrongdoing and that ended that. And I
10 couldn't understand how one determines the
11 absence or presence of the wrongdoing
12 without ever having looked into the
13 situation.
14 MS. FANUCCI: I think it was after
15 the FBI though, right, when they came in and
16 the performed --
17 MS. EVANS: No, this happened before
18 the FBI. As soon as that money was
19 discovered by Mrs. Vitale.
20 MS. FANUCCI: Oh, that's a
21 misunderstanding.
22 MR. COURTRIGHT: I'm thinking if you
23 send a letter to him I'm sure he would give
24 you a call or something because he was more
25 than happy to discuss it with me.
103
1 MS. EVANS: Well, I'll send him the
2 letter regardless and if he wants to discuss
3 it I will be happy, but I would really like
4 to have a written response from him for the
5 record.
6 And, finally, I just wanted to wish
7 all of the mothers a very Happy Mother's Day
8 and to my mother especially Happy Mother's
9 Day, Mom, I really love you, and that's it.
10 MS. GATELLI: As long as we are
11 talking about the Single Tax Office, I was
12 discussing the situation for several weeks
13 with Attorney Minora and I understand that
14 the mayor can initiate litigation to compel
15 the distribution of money that's held in the
16 tax office, it's called a declaratory
17 judgment, and it would bring all parties
18 into the Court to decide the disbursement of
19 the funds. It's imperative that the city
20 gets their funds. I still believe that the
21 majority of the funds do belong to the City
22 of Scranton, so I would make a motion that
23 we send a letter to the mayor requesting
24 that he initiate litigation to compel the
25 distribution of money held by the Single Tax
104
1 Office.
2 MS. FANUCCI: I'll second that.
3 MR. MCGOFF: On the question?
4 MR. COURTRIGHT: On the question, you
5 know, I have to agree with you. I think
6 that's the only way it's going to get
7 resolved. I think we could be going on and
8 on and on if something isn't brought to a
9 head so if they are brought into Court they
10 will have to distribute the money to whoever
11 the Court says, you know, so --
12 MS. EVANS: But that's -- and I agree
13 with this, and I'm going to vote in favor of
14 it, but that's half of the issue.
15 MS. GATELLI: Right.
16 MS. EVANS: We want our money.
17 MS. FANUCCI: Right.
18 MS. EVANS: But the other half is how
19 this happened and where is the missing
20 money, and we can't continue to just to walk
21 away and say, well, it's such a mess, we
22 can't fix it or, you know, I don't think I
23 want to get involved in that because it
24 involves too many political parties -- not
25 parties, but individuals. And, you know, I
105
1 really think the people deserve an answer.
2 Somebody needs to get to the bottom of this
3 instead of sweeping it under the rug, so,
4 yes, I want the money and Mrs. Gatelli is
5 doing a wonderful thing.
6 MS. GATELLI: And maybe it will
7 force it all to a head.
8 MS. FANUCCI: And also we don't want
9 to spend half the money trying to receive
10 the money because of the investigation.
11 MS. EVANS: Right.
12 MS. FANUCCI: I don't want to have to
13 end spending more than we are going to get
14 trying to find out how, you know, we can get
15 the money, but other than that I think it's
16 a great idea.
17 MR. COURTRIGHT: I think what Mrs.
18 Gatelli's motion does is this, I'm sorry,
19 Bob. If they said, okay, you, the county,
20 you have to give one million, you the city,
21 the school district, you have to give a
22 million to conduct this investigation, then
23 I think all three tacking bodies would be
24 hesitant to come up with a million bucks,
25 but in the Court they will have to do the
106
1 investigation.
2 MS. FANUCCI: Right.
3 MS. EVANS: But do you think like the
4 Attorney General would say, "We are charging
5 each entity $1 million for the state to
6 investigate this"?
7 MR. COURTRIGHT: No.
8 MS. FANUCCI: No, not with the
9 Attorney General.
10 MR. COURTRIGHT: Not if it was
11 criminal.
12 MS. FANUCCI: I think if we did it
13 ourselves, I think that's what --
14 MS. EVANS: Well, I don't think we
15 should be doing it ourselves. I think this
16 should be done by the district attorney. If
17 or whatever his reasons he declines then it
18 should move onto a higher authority and
19 these are, you know -- these are state laws
20 that govern that office and the state should
21 take an interest in what's going on there
22 when $2 million is missing.
23 MR. MCGOFF: I'd like to take a vote
24 on the motion made by Mrs. Gatelli. All
25 those in favor signify by saying aye.
107
1 MS. EVANS: Aye.
2 MS. FANUCCI: Aye.
3 MS. GATELLI: Aye.
4 MR. COURTRIGHT: Aye.
5 MR. MCGOFF: Aye. Opposed? The
6 ayes have it and so moved.
7 MS. GATELLI: Thank you. The tax
8 office meeting at the commissioner's office
9 is Friday, May 8, at 2:00 p.m. I will be
10 attending that. I will be a little bit
11 late, but I will be attending that and I
12 will bring the report of what happens at the
13 meeting back next week unless the reporter
14 is there and reports it ahead of time.
15 I had Kay call someone from PennDOT
16 and they told her that the parking signs on
17 state roads is still under the jurisdiction
18 of the city, so I'll contact Mr. Brazil
19 about the parking signs on Moosic Street.
20 Also, Jefferson Avenue is not a state road,
21 so if, Mrs. Garvey, if you could send the
22 mayor a letter requesting that we get
23 Jefferson Avenue paved.
24 I also have another motion tonight
25 to send another letter. At this time I
108
1 would like to send it to the governor and
2 Robert Mellow supporting keeping Scranton
3 State School for the Deaf open. I
4 understand that Senator Mellow is changing
5 his mind on that issue. Most of us that are
6 sitting here attended the rally for the
7 School for the Deaf, and I would like to
8 make that motion that we send that letter
9 again. I know we sent in the beginning, but
10 I think we need to send the letter again, so
11 I'll make that motion.
12 MR. COURTRIGHT: Second.
13 MR. MCGOFF: On the question?
14 MS. EVANS: Yeah, that's what I was
15 going to say. We had sent that letter
16 before and I think it was approved by four
17 of us.
18 MS. FANUCCI: I abstained.
19 MS. EVANS: And I don't believe we
20 got any response to that, did we?
21 MS. GATELLI: No, I don't think we
22 did, but it seems like they are changing
23 their minds, some of them. I just want to
24 reiterate our position.
25 MR. MCGOFF: I think it's a good idea
109
1 to reaffirm what we believe.
2 MS. GATELLI: It's an important
3 issue and the status of some people's
4 opinion has changed, so I think we should
5 reiterate our concerns of the School for the
6 Deaf.
7 MR. MCGOFF: All in favor signify by
8 saying aye.
9 MS. EVANS: Aye.
10 MS. FANUCCI: Aye.
11 MS. GATELLI: Aye.
12 MR. COURTRIGHT: Aye.
13 MR. MCGOFF: Aye. Opposed? The
14 ayes have it and so moved.
15 MS. GATELLI: I'd also like to know,
16 I know they talked the this evening about
17 the fire on Monroe Avenue and that our
18 firemen were not called to the fire and they
19 called the outlying areas, I would like to
20 know the procedure when there is a call and
21 there a multi-alarm fire. I always thought
22 it was policy to call the outlying districts
23 to help us in a fire and not to call people
24 that are (a) on vacation or (b) home sick,
25 so I would just some clarification on that
110
1 if we can send a letter to the chief and
2 Dave Schreiber so we will get two different
3 opinions on that. I don't want people to
4 think that our firemen aren't being called
5 when there is a fire and a multi-alarm fire.
6 I don't think that would be fair to them for
7 people to think that they are not standing
8 up to their responsibility when that
9 happens, so I would just like to answer,
10 please.
11 Janet already talked about the
12 authorities being autonomous. We really
13 have no jurisdiction to make rules or
14 regulations for the authorities. There is
15 the Municipal Authorities Act that governs
16 all of the authorities. If I'm wrong,
17 Attorney Minora, please correct me.
18 MR. MINORA: You are not.
19 MS. GATELLI: I don't think that we
20 have any jurisdiction to make any rules for
21 them, although, we can make suggestions.
22 MR. MCGOFF: Just let me -- I believe
23 that at one point in time we did send a
24 letter to the authorities requesting that
25 they have meetings in chambers. I'm pretty
111
1 sure that we had done that.
2 MS. EVANS: We had done that.
3 MR. MCGOFF: Without response.
4 MS. EVANS: And our previous council
5 had done that as well and we have never had
6 success.
7 MS. GATELLI: No. As far as the
8 crime in south Scranton, it's no secret that
9 there is crime in south Scranton. I have
10 been saying that for the three years I have
11 been sitting up here. All of sudden finally
12 everyone is agreeing that, yes, there is
13 crime in South Scranton, and that's why we
14 are focusing our attention with Elm Street
15 Program and trying to get Community Justice
16 Program running in gear, which we have for
17 the last several years. We have torn down
18 30 properties. Connell Park when I first
19 sat here was full of drug dealers. Anyone
20 that lives up there knows that that is a
21 fact. I used to walk there every day with
22 my husband at 6:00 in the morning before
23 work and we had to stop doing it because
24 they were dealing drugs right in front of us
25 as we walked around the park. I stopped
112
1 going there because I was afraid. Never
2 took my grandchildren there because it just
3 was not a conducive place to be.
4 Now it is a conducive place to be.
5 Anyone can take up a ride up to Connell Park
6 and see what has transformed there. There
7 is a playground, there is a football field,
8 and there is a dog park which is very, very
9 successful. I know you complain about how
10 much it cost and it doesn't -- it didn't
11 cost as much as the people who came here and
12 say it cost. It was expensive, and there
13 were many speakers that came here week after
14 week wanting a dog park and then when we had
15 one they talked against it. So some people
16 just are never happy, but the people near
17 Connell Park are very happy.
18 A lot of trees were taken down, we
19 have new sidewalks and curbs around the
20 park, the neighbors can actually see into
21 the park because all of the brush was taken
22 down and there are no more drug dealers at
23 Connell Park, so that is the goal and that
24 is the part of the reason that we are doing
25 a lot of our work in South Scranton. There
113
1 is crime there. We are not afraid to say
2 there is, but we have some good policemen
3 and they are trying to keep a handle on
4 them. It's very difficult in the year 2009
5 to stop drugs from coming into your
6 community. It's everywhere. It's all over
7 the country. Drugs are a problem. Ask
8 Mrs. Evans and I, we work in schools and,
9 unfortunately, there is lots of drugs and
10 lots of kids are on drugs.
11 So we are going to have crime, we
12 are going to have drug crimes in our
13 community, but as long as we have programs
14 in place like our Community Justice Program
15 and we have a good community development
16 police officer to walk the neighborhood and
17 to become friendly with the neighbors that
18 is fighting part of the battle and we will
19 continue that and I wish that other
20 neighborhoods, I have offered before for
21 other neighborhoods to start a Community
22 Justice Program. I believe the Hill has
23 one, also, and we just got a new officer,
24 Kyle Kemp, and him and Carol Gillette and
25 Mrs. Harrison are doing a superb job taking
114
1 care of the housing, abandoned cars, and
2 those different aspects of quality of life
3 issues. So as much as you say things about
4 South Scranton there are some people working
5 very hard there and they should be
6 recognized for their hard work.
7 As far as NCC, people keep bringing
8 up NCC, I will continue to support the
9 Draconian measures against the slumlords. I
10 worked here much years ago for Mayor Connors
11 and that was one of the top priorities was
12 slumlords that didn't pay their taxes, so I
13 have that in my craw and I won't give it up.
14 If anyone has trouble paying their taxes,
15 they can call, they can setup a payment
16 program, absolutely we will help the
17 property owner, the single family homeowner
18 who lives in our community, but the
19 slumlords and the drug houses, no way. I
20 won't go for that at all.
21 As far as the contention of my
22 lawsuit, I will be paying for whatever
23 personal part of the lawsuit I will have to
24 pay. I would like Mrs. Garvey to get a list
25 of the lawsuits that Mr. Pilchesky has filed
115
1 against various people in the city and the
2 cost of those frivolous lawsuits. I was
3 sued first by Mr. Pilchesky. I did not
4 initiate the lawsuit.
5 As you remember, there were items on
6 the Internet with guns and heads blowing
7 off. I'm going to keep repeating it as long
8 as you keep talking about it, I am going to
9 keep talking about what happened to me and
10 what happened to these chambers when the
11 people were threatened by innuendoes on a
12 website.
13 Now, if you think that's okay for
14 people to do that then that's your opinion.
15 I don't think it's okay to be bullied. I
16 don't think it was okay to shut down these
17 chambers because people were scared and the
18 DA advised me to have people wanded for the
19 safety of me and my fellow council members
20 and for the safety of the people that come
21 here. If you think it was a joke, it wasn't
22 a joke and I'm sick of hearing about it.
23 And Mr. and Mrs. Pilchesky have been
24 coming here every week taking my picture,
25 for the home audience that doesn't know
116
1 that, and kibitzing with everyone in the
2 gallery. My opinion is it's to intimidate
3 me and stare at me. Well, I'm not
4 intimidated. I am going to keep on fighting
5 for my city as long as I take my last breath
6 and a bully like those people aren't going
7 to stop me.
8 I was scared in the beginning, I'll
9 admit it. I was really scared. My family
10 wanted me to leave, my children were afraid,
11 but I'm not a quitter, and I never was and
12 I'm not going to quit for the people of the
13 City of Scranton. I'm fighting for 28 years
14 for my neighborhood and nobody is going to
15 stop me. If I win or lose this election
16 I'll still be fighting for the people of
17 South Side. I'll never give up fighting for
18 my city, and that's all I have. Thank you
19 for listening.
20 Happy Mother's Day, also, before I
21 forget. To the people that have a mother
22 that's still alive please treasure your
23 mother. I don't have a mother anymore, mine
24 has been dead since 1984, and I really miss
25 her very much. I do have a lovely
117
1 mother-in-law and I would like to wish her a
2 Happy Mother's Day, and I'd like to wish my
3 mother Happy Mother's day in heaven. Thank
4 you very much. Happy Mother's Day, Sherry
5 and Janet.
6 MS. FANUCCI: Thanks.
7 MS. EVANS: Thank you. Can I just
8 say one thing before you start because it's
9 connected to what Judy was talking about and
10 maybe Bill Courtright can take care of it, I
11 think every one of us received this
12 notification by a West Scranton resident
13 about drug activity in West Scranton that
14 they have witnessed.
15 MR. COURTRIGHT: I don't have that.
16 Maybe it's in my box.
17 MS. GATELLI: It's in your mailbox.
18 MS. EVANS: And if that could be
19 passed along to the proper source so that
20 they can take a look at what's going on.
21 They give the exact location.
22 MR. COURTRIGHT: I'll take care of
23 it. Thank you.
24 MS. FANUCCI: Actually, that was my
25 first thing, so thank you, Janet.
118
1 MS. EVANS: Sorry.
2 MS. FANUCCI: That's okay. The
3 second thing, we had a Stu Renda come in
4 today, actually most of the audience who is
5 still here did attend. I had Stu come in to
6 give me some figures on what was claimed to
7 be not only the health care or the amount of
8 health care that was paid out and the
9 contributions for the fire and police to the
10 health care, but also on salaries, and week
11 after week, month after month, year after
12 year, we hear how there wasn't a cost of
13 living increase given to the unions, the
14 fire and police unions, I should say. It
15 wasn't that it wasn't given, we were in
16 arbitration. That's why it wasn't given.
17 They were battling it out. They are not
18 going to get it when you are in arbitration.
19 It's not like, you know, we said, okay, you
20 can't have it, they were fighting it out.
21 It was year after year.
22 But my problem is us as taxpayers
23 paid that whole time that we are in these
24 arbitration awards, which was 1991, right,
25 until -- when did we file bankruptcy '92?
119
1 He is giving me all different angles in the
2 back there, but anyway, ever since we filed
3 for these awards and filed for these -- they
4 were fighting for their contracts, we still
5 paid health care, the same amount of health
6 care per person all those years. If we
7 paid -- if our contribution was $3,000, it
8 was $3,000 from the city the entire time.
9 The problem is that that's how much it cost
10 us. When it went up to four we still paid;
11 five, we still paid. Their contribution did
12 not go up in any way until the last two pay
13 periods. That is why when they start coming
14 up here complaining about their actual
15 contribution that I wanted to get the
16 numbers straight.
17 We heard everything from it was
18 $3.74 or something in the beginning for
19 single per week. It was three dollars and
20 seventy some cents. It did go up now, but
21 that was only for the last two pay periods,
22 but that entire time the city was still
23 paying for them the amount of money that the
24 health care was going up. Just like you at
25 home, your health care is going up, it's
120
1 skyrocketing, you are paying $400, $500,
2 $600 for your health care, the city is still
3 paying that for them. That to me should be
4 considered a raise. It should be considered
5 a raise. When you are getting your health
6 care for the same amount for years and years
7 and years and not having to contribute any
8 more to your health care that is considered
9 a raise.
10 Some of the salaries, 80,000,
11 79,000, 77,000, 76, 73, 71, 71. Now, I'm
12 not reading like it's 71,900 and 78, 69.
13 Over 50, I just want to say over 50 there is
14 61 employees who get over $50,000 a year.
15 This is just in one of the awards, I don't
16 want to say both the fire and the police
17 because I didn't go through them, but the
18 highest paid we have an $80,000, we have a
19 $70,000, 60,000, 57,000, these aren't small
20 numbers. We are not talking about $35,000 a
21 year. Base salary, oh, absolutely, but at
22 the end of it all we are not talking about
23 small numbers.
24 This is what needs to be out. This
25 is what people don't realize. We are saying
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1 for years and years that, you know, well,
2 yeah, there was not a cost of living
3 increase. Well, when an arbitration award
4 comes down and it's given to the fire and
5 the police, which happened numerous times,
6 they got the cost of living increase because
7 they got the money. The award gave them the
8 money.
9 So why are we having this argument
10 now? Why? Because we gambled it out in
11 Court. We decided let's take the bull and
12 let's run, let's go to court. So we get
13 there and the Court says, okay, now this is
14 what you have to deal with it. Here you go.
15 You are going to get three people on an
16 apparatus, opposed to two, we are going to
17 change shifts and we are changing manning.
18 Now, last week we claim they come up
19 and say, "We don't have enough guys, this is
20 all a farce. We can't do this, we don't
21 have enough guys."
22 Stu Renda comes in tonight the first
23 question -- or maybe the third question, I
24 said, "Stu, do we have enough guys?"
25 "Yes, we can do it."
122
1 "Can we count on this new
2 agreement?"
3 "We certainly can."
4 "What is the issue, you know, are we
5 closing firehouses? Again, again, are we
6 closing firehouses?"
7 "No."
8 "Are we getting rid of people, are
9 we laying people off? Are we getting rid of
10 jobs?"
11 "No."
12 So what are we left with? What are
13 we left with? We are left with three more
14 people on an apparatus, so you are getting
15 an extra guy coming into your house that you
16 didn't get before, an extra man, so that's a
17 good thing I would think. I would think
18 that that's a good thing, so why is this
19 shift change so important? Why is this what
20 we are fighting about? Why is the manning
21 what we are fighting about? Is it $800,000s
22 in overtime. Is that something that's
23 appealing? Is that why we are fighting?
24 We hear from everybody, now, I know
25 at that Mrs. Evans also is talking about
123
1 getting numbers from DPW, they signed their
2 contract. They decided what they want, they
3 sat down and they negotiated it, they signed
4 their contract. That is not what we have in
5 front of us. We haven't had that luxury of
6 people sitting down at a table.
7 Sitting here, you know, tonight I
8 have to say election is alive and well in
9 Scranton, Pennsylvania. It was something.
10 In fact, you got your money's worth tonight
11 I have to say. We had just about everyone
12 here and I like the way they're playing down
13 now. It actually benefits us a little bit
14 better. It's not as contentious as it
15 normally is, but I'm certainly not going to
16 stop giving facts. I actually got more
17 threatening e-mails and letters because I
18 was giving out facts of what they made which
19 is sad because Ancherani gets up every week
20 and wants them. He wanted to know.
21 Mr. Ancherani wanted to know. He wanted to
22 know what the cost was. I gave it to them
23 and now it seems that for some reason that's
24 not important.
25 This is not about us and the city.
124
1 This is about what we can afford and what
2 needs to be done. Super firehouses I don't
3 think is a bad idea eventually if it was
4 done the right way, I'm going to say I don't
5 think it's a bad idea. I don't personally
6 want to lose my neighborhood firehouse, but
7 it they showed me stats that would make it
8 more accessible or better and response time
9 better I would definitely look at it. Is it
10 something I believe in right now?
11 Absolutely not. I like my fire station, I
12 like my neighborhood fire station open, I
13 like to know that everyone feels that they
14 are safe right now.
15 But to act like this was all new and
16 brand new when this was in the Recovery Plan
17 that 71 percent of the voters who you tell
18 week after week that they were wrong, they
19 were wrong. In this chambers you are wrong.
20 You will always be wrong in these chambers,
21 but as far as I'm concerned a vote still
22 counts even though most of the time you try
23 to get bullied out of the vote, votes still
24 count and whatever reason the Recovery Plan
25 passed it certainly did pass.
125
1 I'm glad that we got the numbers
2 out, I think that everyone should know
3 exactly what we are talking about. We are
4 not talking about people who are not making
5 any money and certainly did not receive
6 anything from the time this started because
7 they did. I know at home and I know myself
8 I would love to have longevity pay. I would
9 love to get an extra $3,000 in my check just
10 for being part of a team. Unfortunately, I
11 don't. Unfortunately, neither do you. No
12 one is picking up your extra health care
13 costs at home. No one is deciding that it's
14 good for your family to have to fight, fight
15 for what you want.
16 You can't go into your boss every
17 week and get on TV and decide that he is
18 wrong and you are right. Wouldn't that be a
19 wonderful world if we could all do that. So
20 it is my hope that after the next two weeks
21 are over that we can sit down and start to
22 act like civil human beings, stop using this
23 forum constantly as a perpetual use of
24 information that is one-sided and sit down
25 and actually do what we are supposed to do
126
1 which is work together for the City of
2 Scranton, realize that the taxpayers are the
3 people who are footing these bills and to
4 sit down and to what's best for them, not
5 just what's best for our own personal
6 agendas, and that is it all I have. Thank
7 you.
8 MR. COURTRIGHT: I really didn't have
9 much this evening, but after this
10 information was passed over to me, whether
11 it's West Side or any other area of the city
12 if you believe that you have a problems with
13 drugs or gangs or whatever and you would
14 like that information passed on you could
15 just e-mail it to me here at city hall. If
16 you are fearful that your name would get out
17 there somehow if you want to come and see me
18 or e-mail it to me I would be happy to help
19 you.
20 Some of the specific things that are
21 these letters, I don't want to read them
22 because I don't want to tip anybody off, but
23 some of the specifics things are true
24 because I see it with my own eyes. You
25 know, this woman said, I don't know why I
127
1 think it's a woman, it could be a man, they
2 didn't sign it, "There are children through
3 the area that ride their bikes recklessly in
4 the street without helmets and drive after
5 the cars."
6 I have seen that with my own two
7 eyes and, no, you can't get out of the car
8 and do anything about it because you will be
9 the one in trouble. But as far as getting
10 it to the proper people I would be happy to
11 do so. There is some areas here where they
12 are saying there is drug activity and gang
13 activity. I believe, I know these areas
14 very well, I grew up there and I am still
15 there every day. I believe the police know
16 about it.
17 I think what's difficult, and I will
18 make sure, but I'm almost positive they know
19 about these things, this individual states
20 that, you know, sometimes cabs drop people
21 up and they pick up their drugs and they get
22 back in the cab. I do know for a fact that
23 on occasions the police do work with some of
24 the cab drivers, I'm not saying all of them,
25 and I don't want to say anything that would
128
1 jeopardize any type of investigations, but I
2 think what the public doesn't understand and
3 is hard for them to understand, and I feel
4 the same way, is when they see the activity
5 going on in front of their own eyes and they
6 can't understand why the police don't arrest
7 these people right away, it takes time for
8 them to build a case and sometimes they're
9 looking to get a little bit bigger guy than
10 what you are seeing, and I know that's
11 frustrating, but in the long run the way
12 they do it in all honesty is the best way,
13 and in this particular area Officer Jill
14 Foley I think does a phenomenal job and I
15 wish they would put a second officer with
16 her like she used to have, I think she would
17 even do a better job, and according to the
18 newspapers Dave Elliott says that we are
19 going to have them all there by the end of
20 the summer, I would like to see them there
21 before the summer is over.
22 I did not -- I purposely didn't
23 speak about crime in the last couple of
24 months because during the last election I
25 was told I was trying to scare people all
129
1 the time, you know, when I would bring up
2 about the crime and the gangs and I had the
3 firsthand information about the gangs and
4 the crimes, some information that even
5 Scranton police officers didn't have, and I
6 turned it over to them to help them, but I
7 was accused of trying to scare everybody.
8 Even during the one state representative
9 race I was labeled -- they said I was
10 labeled as a crime czar, so I specifically
11 did not bring up crime during this election.
12 But the newspaper seems to want to
13 make it an issue, so they call me and they
14 ask me. When they call me and they ask me
15 I'm going to tell them what I think. It
16 offends some people, but when I stated that
17 here on more than one occasion that shifts
18 are running short I did not pull that out of
19 the air. I know people do not like the fact
20 that I have daily sheets from, you know,
21 roll call sheets, but people drop them off
22 to me, all right? I will get there in the
23 morning and they be there, so I was reading
24 from sheets, actual roll call sheets. I was
25 not making any of this up.
130
1 I truly wish that the newspaper
2 would be able to speak to police officers
3 firsthand and let them tell you what's going
4 on, but the officers can't do that, all
5 right? And again, I did not call the
6 newspaper and ask them to make a comment on
7 crime, they asked me a question and I have
8 to answer it honestly and the best of my
9 ability. If they call again I'll answer it
10 honestly and to the best of my ability, but
11 I want everybody to know I don't make this
12 stuff up, you know, and I don't -- and I'm
13 not going to say we only had four guys on
14 shift, it's reality and I wish it wasn't,
15 but it is. And that's it. That's all I
16 want to say. Thank you.
17 Oh, geez, I'll get in trouble. I
18 got all fired up there, I'm sorry, and I
19 wrote it down here so that my wife doesn't
20 yell at me, but I do want to wish my mom and
21 --
22 MS. GATELLI: You would have been in
23 the dog house.
24 MS. FANUCCI: I reminded him.
25 MR. COURTRIGHT: I want to wish my
131
1 wife a Happy Mother's Day, and my wife knows
2 I didn't get her anything yet because every
3 time I've asked her what she wants and she
4 won't tell me, and I have been married a
5 long time, 28 years, so it's difficult to
6 come up with new ideas.
7 MS. EVANS: Jewelry is always a good
8 idea.
9 MR. COURTRIGHT: I'm doing my best.
10 Thanks for reminding me. Happy Mother's Day
11 to everybody up here, too. Thanks for that.
12 MR. MCGOFF: Very quickly, two
13 things. First, one of the responsibilities
14 I guess of the president of council is to
15 okay items for the agenda, and I will
16 guarantee that that motion is placed on the
17 agenda for next week so that we can discuss
18 and vote on it.
19 MS. EVANS: Thank you.
20 MR. MCGOFF: Also, the second thing
21 is over the course of the time that I have
22 been president of council one of the things
23 that I have relied on is that in general
24 that it almost always rely on people
25 exhibiting self-control, even in
132
1 disagreement, even in contention, I can say
2 that from both sides of the dais that people
3 are responsible and do exhibit self-control
4 so that the meetings do go on without great
5 controversy. Unfortunately, we have little
6 recourse. There is little recourse to us
7 when self-control is not exhibited as it
8 occurred tonight, and I really don't like
9 placing the officers that are here in a
10 position where they are uncomfortable and
11 need to exert outside control, but I do
12 thank them for their efforts tonight and I
13 want to apologize for the unfortunate
14 occurrence that took place and, as I said, I
15 think we have been -- or I have kind of been
16 blessed with, you know, people exhibiting
17 self-control and that have contributed to
18 orderly -- even if they are on contentious
19 meetings, and that is all I have. Thank
20 you.
21 MS. FANUCCI: I just want to say
22 Happy Mother's Day to my mom, too, I don't
23 want to be --and, of course, all of my
24 colleagues and Kay and everyone here and
25 everyone out there who are mothers, it's
133
1 definitely a special day, so enjoy.
2 MR. MCGOFF: Yes, and I guess I would
3 be remiss as well, Happy Mother's Day to
4 all.
5 MS. GATELLI: Can I just make one --
6 MR. MCGOFF: Yes, you may.
7 MS. GATELLI: I just wanted to make
8 one announcement that I had forgotten, I got
9 an e-mail and some verbal information that
10 the old Tom and Jerry's on Pittston Avenue
11 is being remodeled during the late hours of
12 the evening. I understand that this
13 Saturday evening they are supposed to open.
14 They are going to open at 2:00 in the
15 morning, but Mr. Jackowitz isn't going to be
16 able to have ham and eggs there.
17 MR. JACKOWITZ: It's not downtown.
18 MS. GATELLI: Not downtown, well,
19 it's close, and it's supposed to be an after
20 hours dance club open from two to five in
21 the morning. It is not zoned for that and I
22 would like to just put the owner on notice,
23 whoever they are, that when they open they
24 will be closed. They are going to be
25 violating the zoning ordinance of the City
134
1 of Scranton. We have been successful with
2 Charlie's Bar, Tony and Mary's, and Chick's
3 Western Bar, so we are not afraid of who
4 they are and we are not afraid of who is
5 going there, and I would like to send a
6 letter to Mr. Wallace, I know he knows about
7 it because I did already speak to the mayor
8 about it, and he was going to inform Mike,
9 but please put it in writing if he can keep
10 his eye there and possibly go out late in
11 the evening to see if there is work going
12 on, and if any of the neighbors see anything
13 to please call us or e-mail us. I do have
14 one woman, she is my Pittston Avenue nazi
15 and she reports to me what's going on in
16 that particular location, but for all of the
17 neighbors to please watch out that would be
18 disastrous for that area if something like
19 that should open, so that's all I have just
20 to let people be aware. Thank you,
21 Mr. McGoff.
22 MR. MCGOFF: Mrs. Garvey.
23 MS. GARVEY: FIFTH ORDER. NO
24 BUSINESS AT THIS TIME. SIXTH ORDER. 6-A.
25 READING BY TITLE - FILE OF COUNCIL NO. 64,
135
1 2009 - AN ORDINANCE - AMENDING FILE OF
2 COUNCIL NO. 49, 2008, AN ORDINANCE "ENTITLED
3 GENERAL CITY OPERATING BUDGET 2009" BY
4 TRANSFERRING $25,000.00 FROM ACCOUNT NO.
5 01.401.13090.4299 (NON DEPARTMENTAL
6 OPERATING EXPENSES-CONTINGENCY) TO ACCOUNT
7 NO. 01.040.00040.4190 (BUSINESS
8 ADMINISTRATION UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE) TO
9 PROVIDE FUNDING TO COVER QUARTERLY PAYMENTS
10 TO THE DEPARTMENT OF LABOR AND INDUSTRY.
11 MR. MCGOFF: You have heard reading
12 by title of Item 6-a, what is your pleasure.
13 MR. COURTRIGHT: I move that Item 6-a
14 pass reading by title.
15 MS. FANUCCI: Second.
16 MR. MCGOFF: On the question? All
17 those in favor signify by saying aye.
18 MS. EVANS: Aye.
19 MS. FANUCCI: Aye.
20 MS. GATELLI: Aye.
21 MR. COURTRIGHT: Aye.
22 MR. MCGOFF: Aye. Opposed? The
23 ayes have it and so moved.
24 MS. GARVEY: 6-B. READING BY TITLE -
25 FILE OF COUNCIL NO. 65, 2009 - AN ORDINANCE-
136
1 CREATING AND ESTABLISHING SPECIAL CITY
2 ACCOUNT NO. 02.229592 ENTITLED "BILLY
3 BARRETT PARK GRANTS" FOR THE RECEIPT AND
4 DISBURSEMENT OF GRANT FUNDS FROM VARIOUS
5 SOURCES INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
6 LACKAWANNA ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION AND
7 OUTDOOR RECREATION PARTNERSHIP ("LECOR"),
8 DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMIC AND COMMUNITY
9 DEVELOPMENT ("DCED") AND BOUNDLESS
10 PLAYGROUND FOR RENOVATION/REHABILITATION OF
11 BILLY BARRETT PARK.
12 MR. MCGOFF: You have heard reading
13 by title of Item 6-B, what is your pleasure?
14 MR. COURTRIGHT: I move that Item 6-B
15 pass reading by title.
16 MS. FANUCCI: Second.
17 MR. MCGOFF: On the question? All
18 those in favor signify by saying aye.
19 MS. EVANS: Aye.
20 MS. FANUCCI: Aye.
21 MS. GATELLI: Aye.
22 MR. COURTRIGHT: Aye.
23 MR. MCGOFF: Aye. Opposed? The
24 ayes have it and so moved.
25 MS. GARVEY: 6-C. READING BY TITLE -
137
1 FILE OF COUNCIL NO. 66, 2009 - AN ORDINANCE-
2 CREATING AND ESTABLISHING SPECIAL CITY
3 ACCOUNT NO. 02.229591 ENTITLED "JIMMY
4 CONNORS PARK GRANTS" FOR THE RECEIPT AND
5 DISBURSEMENT OF GRANT FUNDS FROM VARIOUS
6 SOURCES, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO,
7 LACKAWANNA ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION AND
8 OUTDOOR RECREATION PARTNERSHIP ("LECOR"),
9 DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMIC AND COMMUNITY
10 DEVELOPMENT ("DCED") AND BOUNDLESS
11 PLAYGROUND FOR CONNORS PARK.
12 MR. MCGOFF: You have heard reading
13 by title of Item 6-C, what is your pleasure?
14 MR. COURTRIGHT: I move that Item 6-C
15 pass reading by title.
16 MS. FANUCCI: Second.
17 MR. MCGOFF: On the question? All
18 those in favor signify by saying aye.
19 MS. EVANS: Aye.
20 MS. FANUCCI: Aye.
21 MS. GATELLI: Aye.
22 MR. COURTRIGHT: Aye.
23 MR. MCGOFF: Aye. Opposed? The
24 ayes have it and so moved.
25 MS. GARVEY: SEVENTH ORDER. 7-A. FOR
138
1 CONSIDERATION BY THE COMMITTEE ON COMMUNITY
2 DEVELOPMENT - FOR ADOPTION - RESOLUTION NO.
3 118, 2009 - AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR AND OTHER
4 APPROPRIATE CITY OFFICIALS TO ACCEPT AND
5 DISBURSE GRANT FUNDS THROUGH LACKAWANNA
6 COUNTY FOR A LACKAWANNA ENVIRONMENTAL
7 CONSERVATION AND OUTDOOR RECREATION
8 PARTNERSHIP PROGRAM ("LECOR") GRANT IN THE
9 AMOUNT OF $22,500.00; AND EXECUTE THE GRANT
10 AGREEMENT RELATED THERETO FOR
11 RENOVATION/REHABILITATION OF THE BILLY
12 BARRETT PARK, 2927 COLLIERY AVENUE AND
13 MCDONOUGH STREET, SCRANTON, PENNSYLVANIA.
14 MR. MCGOFF: What is the
15 recommendation of the Chairperson for the
16 Committee on Community Development?
17 MS. FANUCCI: As Chairperson for the
18 Committee on Community Development, I
19 recommend final passage of Item 7-A.
20 MR. COURTRIGHT: Second.
21 MR. MCGOFF: On the question? Roll
22 call, please?
23 MS. MAGNOTTA: Mrs. Evans.
24 MS. EVANS: Yes.
25 MS. MAGNOTTA: Mrs. Gatelli.
139
1 MS. GATELLI: Yes.
2 MS. MAGNOTTA: Ms. Fanucci.
3 MS. FANUCCI: Yes.
4 MS. MAGNOTTA: Mr. Courtright.
5 MR. COURTRIGHT: Yes.
6 MS. MAGNOTTA: Mr. McGoff.
7 MR. MCGOFF: Yes. I hereby declare
8 Item 7-A legally and lawfully adopted.
9 MS. GARVEY: 7-B. FOR CONSIDERATION
10 BY THE COMMITTEE ON COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT -
11 FOR ADOPTION - RESOLUTION NO. 119, 2009 -
12 AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR AND OTHER APPROPRIATE
13 CITY OFFICIALS TO ACCEPT AND DISBURSE GRANT
14 FUNDS THROUGH LACKAWANNA COUNTY FOR A
15 LACKAWANNA ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION AND
16 OUTDOOR RECREATION PARTNERSHIP PROGRAM
17 ("LECOR") GRANT IN THE AMOUNT OF $22,500.00;
18 AND EXECUTE THE GRANT AGREEMENT RELATED
19 THERETO FOR CONNORS PARK LOCATED AT 515
20 ORCHARD STREET, SCRANTON, PENNSYLVANIA.
21 MR. MCGOFF: What is the
22 recommendation of the Chairperson for the
23 Committee on Community Development?
24 MS. FANUCCI: As Chairperson for the
25 Committee on Community Development, I
140
1 recommend final passage of Item 7-B.
2 MR. COURTRIGHT: Second.
3 MR. MCGOFF: On the question? Roll
4 call, please?
5 MS. MAGNOTTA: Mrs. Evans.
6 MS. EVANS: Yes.
7 MS. MAGNOTTA: Mrs. Gatelli.
8 MS. GATELLI: Yes.
9 MS. MAGNOTTA: Ms. Fanucci.
10 MS. FANUCCI: Yes.
11 MS. MAGNOTTA: Mr. Courtright.
12 MR. COURTRIGHT: Yes.
13 MS. MAGNOTTA: Mr. McGoff.
14 MR. MCGOFF: Yes. I hereby declare
15 Item XX legally and lawfully adopted.
16 MS. GARVEY: 7-C. FOR CONSIDERATION
17 BY THE COMMITTEE ON COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT -
18 FOR ADOPTION - RESOLUTION NO. 120, 2009 -
19 AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR AND OTHER APPROPRIATE
20 CITY OFFICIALS TO EXECUTE AND APPLY FOR A
21 GRANT THROUGH THE PA DEPARTMENT OF
22 CONSERVATION AND NATURAL RESOURCES (DCNR) IN
23 THE AMOUNT OF $50,000.00; IF THE APPLICATION
24 IS SUCCESSFUL, ACCEPTING AND DISBURSING THE
25 GRANT FUNDS FOR THE RESTORATION/RENOVATION
141
1 OF FELLOW'S PARK IN THE CITY OF SCRANTON.
2 MR. MCGOFF: What is the
3 recommendation of the Chairperson for the
4 Committee on Community Development?
5 MS. FANUCCI: As Chairperson for the
6 Committee on Community Development, I
7 recommend final passage of Item 7-C.
8 MR. COURTRIGHT: Second.
9 MR. MCGOFF: On the question? I
10 know it came up before, Mr. Sbargalia had
11 asked and I said I would read it and now I'm
12 not going to find it.
13 MR. COURTRIGHT: It's light --
14 MS. FANUCCI: Lights, sidewalks --
15 MR. COURTRIGHT: Lights, sidewalks,
16 paving and the parking area.
17 MS. EVANS: It's already been
18 finished.
19 MR. MCGOFF: I'm sorry, resurfacing
20 the parking area, removal of old playground
21 equipment, installation of new ADA
22 accessible playground equipment, safety
23 surface, ADA access, security lighting,
24 project acknowledgment sign and other
25 related amenities.
142
1 MS. GATELLI: I think some of those
2 have to be done for the Disabilities Act,
3 you know, they have to be upgraded to
4 accommodate those that are disabled.
5 MR. MCGOFF: Roll call, please.
6 MS. MAGNOTTA: Mrs. Evans.
7 MS. EVANS: Yes.
8 MS. MAGNOTTA: Mrs. Gatelli.
9 MS. GATELLI: Yes.
10 MS. MAGNOTTA: Ms. Fanucci.
11 MS. FANUCCI: Yes.
12 MS. MAGNOTTA: Mr. Courtright.
13 MR. COURTRIGHT: Yes.
14 MS. MAGNOTTA: Mr. McGoff.
15 MR. MCGOFF: Yes. I hereby declare
16 Item 7-C legally and lawfully adopted.
17 MS. GARVEY: 7-D. FOR CONSIDERATION
18 BY THE COMMITTEE ON RULES FOR ADOPTION -
19 RESOLUTION NO. 121, 2009 - AUTHORIZING THE
20 MAYOR AND OTHER APPROPRIATE CITY OFFICIALS
21 TO EXECUTE AND ENTER INTO A CONTRACT WITH
22 THE SEGAL COMPANY TO SERVE AS THE NATIONAL
23 HEALTHCARE CONSULTANT TO THE CITY OF
24 SCRANTON THROUGH THE HEALTHCARE COST
25 CONTAINMENT COMMITTEE AND TO RATIFY ANY AND
143
1 ALL SERVICES PERFORMED BY THE SEGAL COMPANY
2 SINCE APRIL 1, 2009.
3 MR. MCGOFF: As Chair for the
4 Committee on Rules, I recommend final
5 passage of Item 7-D.
6 MR. COURTRIGHT: Second.
7 MR. MCGOFF: On the question?
8 MS. EVANS: Yes. I would be voting
9 in favor of this legislation. I am actually
10 very pleased to see it on the agenda because
11 the Health Care Accost Containment Committee
12 had not met for many years and as a result
13 not only does the city and the employees
14 suffer because they may have been able to
15 establish better health care rates, but it
16 inevitably it's the taxpayers who suffer,
17 and so for whatever occurred all of those
18 years that caused that committee to lie
19 dormant it certainly is I think a good
20 thing, a win-win situation all around, and
21 hopefully they are going be able to get
22 those costs down as had been done years ago
23 under a Health Care Cost Containment
24 Committee, several million dollars had
25 actually been cut and saved, so that's it.
144
1 MR. MCGOFF: Anyone else? Roll
2 call, please?
3 MS. MAGNOTTA: Mrs. Evans.
4 MS. EVANS: Yes.
5 MS. MAGNOTTA: Mrs. Gatelli.
6 MS. GATELLI: Yes.
7 MS. MAGNOTTA: Ms. Fanucci.
8 MS. FANUCCI: Yes.
9 MS. MAGNOTTA: Mr. Courtright.
10 MR. COURTRIGHT: Yes.
11 MS. MAGNOTTA: Mr. McGoff.
12 MR. MCGOFF: Yes. I hereby declare
13 Item 7-D legally and lawfully adopted.
14 MS. GATELLI: Motion to adjourn.
15 MS. FANUCCI: So moved.
16 MR. MCGOFF: Thank you for your
17 participation and cooperation.
18
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3 C E R T I F I C A T E
4
5 I hereby certify that the proceedings and
6 evidence are contained fully and accurately in the
7 notes of testimony taken by me at the hearing of the
8 above-captioned matter and that the foregoing is a true
9 and correct transcript of the same to the best of my
10 ability.
11
12
13
CATHENE S. NARDOZZI, RPR
14 OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER
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