Posted: Friday, 13 November 2009 11:34AM
Re-examine Big Trips To Big City
Steve Corbett Reporting
Friday, November 13, 2009
Clothes don’t make the man.
You can dress a snake in a $1,500 tailor-made monogrammed suit and it’s still a snake, slithering and crawling through life.
Luzerne County Deputy Chief Clerk William G. Brace, who is expected to plead guilty to accepting such a custom-made suit as a reward from a county contractor, knows how to crawl.
For decades, Brace writhed from one public service job to the next wriggling whatever benefits he could for himself, family and friends in the process. Like a slippery serpent on the move, he slid easily among the other vipers that sank their fangs deep into the public trust.
Although not known as a fashion plate, Brace knew that dressing for success was part of the image he created for decades as a political hustler. In the process he did very well for himself.
Brace worked for the city of Wilkes-Barre from 1970 until he resigned as chief clerk in 2001 to become chief deputy in the county clerk of courts office. County commissioners named him chief clerk in 2005. He resigned in 2008 to become registrar of vital records for the state Department of Health.
Wilkes-Barre officials allowed him to work out of an office in City Hall.
I’ve known Brace every since I moved to Northeastern Pennsylvania in 1985.
During that time he always played the role of an affable fixer, serious when need be and goofy when circumstances demanded a lighter touch. Since he surrounded himself with other goofs, a lot of laughter went around for too many years.
Brace and his pals are no longer laughing. Now he’s just another criminal after heading to New York City to be fitted for a tailor-made and monogrammed suit as a thank-you for his giving up his integrity along with a county contract. Brace will now likely head to a federal facility to be fitted for a prison jump suit.
About two years ago, when news broke of the flagrant misuse of county debit cards, Brace’s name surfaced as one of the county bosses who used the cards. He joined other county political managers who travelled regularly to New York City for what county officials continue to justify as law enforcement training.
Nobody in county government demanded that these big-feeling public employees share what crime fighting techniques they learned or even prove that they attended training with New York City cops.
Former Wilkes-Barre captain of detectives William Maguire was one of the main organizers of those trips. Now that Maguire faces prison after pleading guilty to accepting a bribe while a member of the county housing authority those big trips to the big city must be re-examined.
After much discussion on “Corbett” about what will go down in corruption history as the “debit card debacle,” the U.S. Secret Service launched a formal criminal investigation. Although no charges resulted from the probe, detailed results of the inquiry have not been released.
Federal officials should reconsider their decision to keep secret any and all facts that document how public service misfired and who was responsible. Serious questions remain about whether then-controller and now-county commission chair Maryanne Petrilla competently handled the bookkeeping and the uncontrolled spending by county bosses.
A new investigation should also be launched in conjunction with the current charges against Brace.
Was Brace the only county official to get fitted with new tailor-made duds? Did anybody else on the county payroll get suits?
Are current county employees willing to open up their closets to prove that they bought their wardrobes at Boscov’s and not at some Manhattan haberdashery? Are current public servants willing to stand naked before the people and ask if taxpayers can see the emperor’s new clothes?
While federal agents are at it, they might want to interview any and all New York City police officers who supposedly “trained” the county officials. Even if county bosses did receive training in crime fighting techniques, Brace’s admission of guilty is a great example of the poor quality of the experience.
Did any other current or former county official receive gifts or anything else of value in exchange for any official government decision?
No, clothes don’t make the man. Character makes the man.
Even without Brace’s new getup, enough material witnesses exist to weave threads of intrigue from one end of the courthouse to the other. So we should brace ourselves for more of county government to unravel and even burst at the seams.
Because when it comes to the public trust, in Luzerne County somebody’s zipper is always down.
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