Posted: Wednesday, 29 April 2009 10:52AM
Clean Up This Political Cesspool
Steve Corbett Reporting
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
American taxpayers pump millions of dollars in public funds through the Wyoming Valley Sanitary Authority.
U.S. Rep. Paul Kanjorski as well as Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell have worked to improve the Luzerne County wastewater facility that serves about 97,000 customers and helps maintain clean water in many communities.
Executives at WVSA are as duty-bound to uphold the public trust as any elected or appointed public official.
So when they discover a crime, you’d think they would act quickly to call the law.
But that’s not what happened in February, according to several sources, including one high-ranking WVSA official.
Sources say that a politically connected worker allegedly stole about $7,000 from the authority. When questioned by WVSA officials, including the executive director, the solicitor and several members of the board of directors who comprise the personnel committee, the worker admitted the theft, according to sources.
Instead of calling police, though, the inner circle decided to let the worker repay the money. Then officials allowed the employee to quietly resign, sparing the worker any legal consequences and sparing the authority the embarrassment of a scandal.
Most board members never learned of the cover-up, the authority source said.
Until now the deal has remained a very dirty little secret.
Critics wonder if WVSA officials had the power to cut the deal in the first place.
WVSA money, after all, is drawn from public funds.
The WVSA source said that officials did not want to ruin the worker’s life and ordered that the money be repaid as soon as possible. The employee, in a tearful confession, agreed to quickly come up with the cash, the source said.
Authority officials had the power to cut the deal because they did just that, the source said.
What do federal and state officials, including Kanjorski and Rendell, have to say about that decision?
I’ll let you know as soon as I get an answer.
I also wonder what FBI and IRS agents think about this peculiar Northeastern Pennsylvania brand of public service?
Investigators from those agencies charged with the massive ongoing public corruption investigation have already netted two former Luzerne County president judges, the top county court administrator, a county probation official, the Pittston Area school superintendent, and a Wilkes-Barre Area school board member.
Do WVSA officials really expect that nobody will make a scene once word leaks out about their deception to cover up a crime? They must believe just that, because no WVSA board member or any other public official for that matter has come forward to express outrage at this conspiracy of silence that government officials have sealed with secrecy.
Too much is at stake to keep quiet.
Questions have also arisen about how much money the WVSA spends each year. Questions have arisen about car allowances, meeting allowances and high salaries.
When I recently asked the authority solicitor who exactly funds WVSA, he offered a startling answer even by Northeastern Pennsylvania standards.
“I don’t know,” he said.
An accounting of every penny spent at WVSA is long overdue.
We need to look at benefits, perks, and, above all, audits from the past decade. We need to make sure that this multi-million dollar repository for waste is being overseen properly and that tax dollars are being spent for the right reasons.
Based on reports of the crime and subsequent whitewash, responsible oversight is in short supply.
Frankly, it’s time to cut the crap.
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Corbett
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