Posted: Friday, 18 December 2009 11:35AM
Wise Men or Wise Guys?
Steve Corbett Reporting
Friday, December 18, 2009
Trusting wise men to provide a Christmas miracle is always risky business - especially in Luzerne County where wise guys rule.
But we usually don’t have much of a choice. So we bow our heads and hope that nobody steals the poor box while our eyes are closed in prayer.
We need now more than ever to keep your eyes wide open as county judges come together next week to pick a new county commissioner to replace former commissioner and National Football League bobble head Greg Skrepenak, who resigned yesterday to await federal felony charges.
The next two years of tie-breaker votes will be decided by their choice.
That’s exactly why voters worry that the fix is in.
Candidates must be registered Democrats as of the last commissioners’ election and must compile 10 signatures from voters who endorse their run for office. That means that a favorite son (it’s doubtless that Democrats will allow two women on the board since the chair is already a female) is already being groomed and dressed in the wings by party political bosses who want their boy in the game.
Of course the judges want us to believe that the process will be fair. The judges expect us to trust them now that three of their colleagues are charged with federal felonies in the ongoing federal public corruption investigation. And, of course the process will not be fair.
We still don’t trust them.
Like it or not, county judges must work harder than ever to earn our respect. We even worry that yet another crooked judge might be among the gang that will decide the fate of a very powerful political board.
Whenever there’s money at stake, expect the worst. And in Luzerne County, there’s always money at stake. Politics in Luzerne County has always been a cash and carry business.
People can’t even be blamed for mistrusting the feds who are leading the charge to clean up county government. Never forget that federal prosecutors allowed former Judge Michael Tool to take the bench and rule on hundreds of criminal and civil cases even after he signed a secret guilty plea agreement that will likely send him to prison.
And never forget that defendant and former Judge Mark Ciavarella actually participated in the selection of the last county commissioner who was appointed when Skrepenak’s running mate resigned to take a job at the Greater Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Snake Oil.
With the specter of three gangster judges looming over the holiday selection process, no wonder people are worried. So don’t be surprised if a well-known smiling political hack takes office when the judges emerge from their secret meeting to swear in their choice.
If the new and improved judges are so intent on restoring the public trust, why do they have to meet in secret, anyway? President Judge Chester Muroski said yesterday that the court would follow the time-honored practice of secrecy established by the court in the past.
Muroski knows as much as anybody where past practice got us. Now he wants to continue tradition? We’re not talking about a kiss under the mistletoe here. We’re talking about sacking the community, pillaging the public trust and reducing public service to plunder.
The people deserve better, fresh, new and transparent. How about a little clarity for Christmas?
The interviews for the commissioner’s job will be held in public. So must the actually votes. The people deserve to know what judge voted for what candidate and why.
The applications should be public, as well.
We need to know the names of the ten people required to file an application. We need to know who endorsed who, if only to make sure they are, indeed, qualified, registered Democrats and not unregistered voters who are cousins of the candidate and out on work-release from the county prison.
We need to make sure they’re not unregistered strippers from Vegas who relocated here because they met a county official once and he was a really nice guy. We need to make sure they are not members of the Mafia, although around here, made men from organized crime might very well do a better job policing public service than the made men on the bench.
No, we do not trust you guys just yet. You don’t shed light on public service by conspiring in the dark, looking more and more like the black-robed dictators who put us in this terrible position in the first place.
Too many wise guys are hanging out in the shadows as it is.
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