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1 SCRANTON CITY COUNCIL MEETING
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5 HELD:
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7 Tuesday, January 13, 2009
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9 LOCATION:
10 Council Chambers
11 Scranton City Hall
12 340 North Washington Avenue
13 Scranton, Pennsylvania
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CATHENE S. NARDOZZI, RPR - OFFICIAL COURT REPORTER
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2 CITY OF SCRANTON COUNCIL:
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MR. ROBERT MCGOFF, PRESIDENT
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6 MS. JUDY GATELLI, VICE-PRESIDENT
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MS. JANET E. EVANS
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9 MS. SHERRY FANUCCI
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MR. WILLIAM COURTRIGHT
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12 MS. KAY GARVEY, CITY CLERK
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MS. SUE MAGNOTTA, ASSISTANT CITY CLERK
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15 MR. AMIL MINORA, SOLICITOR
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1 MR. MCGOFF: Prior to beginning the
2 meeting, I have a proclamation to present.
3 MS. GATELLI: Mr. McGoff, is giving
4 me this opportunity to present this
5 proclamation to Eric Shrive. Eric Shrive is
6 one of my students at West Scranton High
7 School, and I'm very pleased to be able to
8 give him this proclamation.
9 WHEREAS, the COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF
10 SCRANTON is desirous of honoring 'ERIC
11 SHRIVE", son of Dennis and Jane Shrive and a
12 member of the 2009 class of West Scranton
13 High School;
14 WHEREAS, "ERIC" was chosen to the
15 U.S. Army All American Team, being on ly the
16 second player from the Scranton/Wilkes Barre
17 area to earn Army All-American status,
18 giving him the opportunity to lay in the
19 most highly regarded high school football
20 game in the county, the highest honor a high
21 school football player can receive; and.
22 WHEREAS, "ERIC" is two time
23 Times-Tribune All Region selection, a first
24 team Lackawanna Football Conference Division
25 I all Star, received first team All-State
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1 honors from The Associated Press, and was
2 selected to play in the Big 33 Game; and
3 WHEREAS "ERIC" having received more than 30
4 scholarship offers from college football's
5 finest programs and named as one of the top
6 recruits in the class of 2009 will be
7 suiting up for the Penn State Nittany Lions;
8 and.
9 WHEREAS, the teachers, students and
10 administrators of West Scranton High School
11 are very proud of "Eric" and all his
12 accomplishments both on and off the field;
13 and;
14 NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that
15 on Tuesday, January 13, 2009, Scranton City
16 Council wishes to congratulate "ERIC
17 SHRIVE", and his Parents, Coaches and
18 Teachers for their outstanding achievement
19 and wish him much success in all his future
20 endeavors.
21 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the
22 Proclamation be made a permanent part of the
23 Minutes of this Council, as a lasting
24 tribute to "ERIC SHRIVE".
25 MR. MCGOFF: Roll call, please?
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1 MS. MAGNOTTA: Mrs. Evans.
2 MS. EVANS: Here.
3 MS. MAGNOTTA: Mrs. Gatelli.
4 MS. GATELLI. Here.
5 MR. MAGNOTTA: Ms. Fanucci.
6 MS. FANUCCI: Here.
7 MR. MAGNOTTA: Mr. Courtright.
8 MR. COURTRIGHT: Here.
9 MR. MAGNOTTA: Mr. McGoff.
10 MR. MCGOFF: Here. Prior to
11 beginning of the meeting, I would like to
12 address the issue for which I would assume
13 many of you are here and that has to do with
14 the proposal to look at raising the salaries
15 of the mayor, controller, and members of
16 council. A little bit of background I think
17 is necessary to fully understand what has
18 taken place. In the Fall of 2008 during a
19 caucus discussed the possibility of looking
20 at the salary of the mayor, which most
21 council people agreed was woefully low in
22 comparison to other cities of comparable
23 size in the State of Pennsylvania. We
24 discussed it to some extent what we were
25 going to do, we took a look at the Home Rule
6
1 Charter and asked Attorney Minora to give us
2 an opinion on what needed to be done in
3 order to look at that possibility.
4 Attorney Minora reported to us that
5 according to the Home Rule Charter the only
6 time that these salaries can be adjusted
7 upward is in the election -- prior to
8 February 1 in the election year of the
9 mayor, which would put us in 2009. So, any
10 consideration of raising the salary of
11 either the mayor the controller or city
12 council would have to be done by February 1
13 of this year.
14 With that, when we returned in
15 January, Attorney Minora was asked to put
16 together a draft of legislation that would
17 allow us to discuss the possibility of
18 raising the salary of the office of the
19 mayor. He returned that to us during the
20 week, this past week. It included a
21 consideration of raises for all three
22 offices with dollar amounts attached.
23 Those dollar amounts that were
24 attached were arbitrary. We had never
25 discussed in council amounts for either --
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1 for any of the three positions that were
2 under consideration. They were put in there
3 as arbitrary numbers so that we could then
4 discuss the possibility of looking at or the
5 possibility of raises in those three
6 positions. There was nothing set in stone,
7 as I said, we had not asked -- or we had not
8 asked or we had not given any specific
9 amounts to either -- to any of those
10 offices.
11 I might also say that at no time was
12 either the mayor or the controller involved
13 in these discussions as to the raises. And
14 at this time on behalf of Mrs. Novembrino
15 she asked that this be read into the record
16 and this would be I guess an appropriate
17 time: It says, "Dear council members, it
18 has recently come to my attention that a
19 salary increase will be considered for
20 myself as city controller. This subject was
21 never discussed with me and at this point I
22 would not wish to be considered for any
23 increase. I would consider an increase at
24 some future date, but at a time when the
25 city's economic climate hasn't improved and
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1 all outstanding union contracts have been
2 settled. Respectfully, Rosanne Novembrino."
3 (Whereupon the audience applauds.)
4 MR. MCGOFF: When I received the
5 draft from Attorney Minora, I asked Mrs.
6 Garvey that it be placed on the agenda. The
7 intent of placing it on the agenda was that
8 if, in fact, we wanted to do something with
9 that we would have enough time for three
10 readings, give people enough opportunity to
11 talk on the subject, and if it were going to
12 be -- if any changes needed to be made they
13 could be done during the course of that
14 time.
15 The decision to place that item on
16 the agenda with those dollar amounts was
17 entirely mine as president of council. That
18 is one of the things that I am asked to do,
19 to determine what goes on the agenda, and so
20 I thought that given the responsibility that
21 we have and since this responsibility occurs
22 only once every four years, that it was
23 necessary for us to place it on the agenda
24 to give council an opportunity to discuss
25 the legislation.
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1 I think that in many cases there has
2 been some misinformation. This has never
3 been voted on. It has actually never been
4 discussed by council dollar amounts. We
5 have never actually discussed the idea of
6 raises for city council. We have never
7 discussed raises for the controller, and we
8 have never discussed a set dollar amount for
9 any raise for mayor. This was to be our
10 opportunity to do that. It was supposed to
11 be our responsibility to do that.
12 I think that the reaction has been
13 somewhat misinterpreted in our intent. I
14 understand that people have strong feelings
15 on it and what we had hoped to do was to
16 discuss in a rational way the possibility or
17 at least look at what is in the Home Rule
18 Charter our duty to look at these salaries.
19 With that said, at this time I would
20 like to make a motion to remove, and I don't
21 know what the item is --
22 MR. MINORA: 5-C.
23 MR. MCGOFF: I would like to make a
24 motion to remove Item 5-C from tonight's
25 agenda.
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1 MS. GATELLI: Second.
2 MR. MCGOFF: On the question. All in
3 favor?
4 MS. EVANS: No, we have -- I'm sure
5 several of us on the question have --
6 MR. MCGOFF: That's why I was
7 waiting.
8 MS. EVANS: Mrs. Gatelli first stated
9 at a council meeting in November 2008 that
10 she felt the salary of the mayor should be
11 raised. When Mrs. Gatelli raised her issue
12 again in December I listened, but felt it
13 was not wise. When a discussion was held in
14 caucus prior to last week's meeting in which
15 council members were seriously considering a
16 pay raise for the mayor, I informed those
17 present, Mr. Courtright, Mr. McGoff, and
18 Attorney Minora that I would not be voting
19 for a salary increase for the mayor.
20 Additional pay raises, as Mr. McGoff
21 indicated, were not discussed.
22 And now I say to you tonight, I
23 would not vote for a salary increase for the
24 office of mayor, controller or city council
25 and this comes as no surprise since I fought
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1 hard to cut pay increases given by the mayor
2 and to cut spending each December and my
3 council colleagues refused my budgets and
4 amendments. In fact, I have been the only
5 council member not only to impose pay raises
6 even to our own employees, the city clerk,
7 Mrs. Garvey, and council solicitor, Amil
8 Minora, but also to propose cutting their
9 salary.
10 Attorney Minora drafted the
11 amendment, but he did so at the council
12 president's direction. I had no knowledge
13 that city council and the city controller
14 would be included to receive raises in this
15 amendment. I am aware the Home Rule Charter
16 states that these salaries may be increased
17 on February 1 of this the year in which an
18 election will be held to fill any or all of
19 these positions for a full four-year term,
20 hence, the opportunity is, in fact,
21 available every two years. However, it does
22 not state that all three salaries must be
23 increased.
24 Since I was never a party to any
25 discussion of council or controller raises,
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1 either publically or at caucus, I do have a
2 question, who suggested the arbitrary dollar
3 amounts as the salary increases?
4 MR. MCGOFF: Since we did not discuss
5 any dollar amounts, I believe it was looked
6 at -- or cities of comparable size were
7 looked at and a dollar amount that was
8 within that those parameters was placed in.
9 And again, they were --
10 MS. EVANS: Who authorized that to be
11 done?
12 MR. MCGOFF: I guess by directing
13 Attorney Minora to do that --
14 MS. EVANS: Yes, but who directed
15 Attorney Minora?
16 MR. MCGOFF: Actually, I would say I
17 did.
18 MS. EVANS: You told him to look at
19 other cities and plug in these figures.
20 Thank you. Anyone involved in this
21 amendment should be ashamed. It ranks
22 close -- (audience applauds.) It ranks
23 close to some council members removal TV
24 cameras from these chambers and locking
25 citizens out of this building. 38 percent
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1 of Scranton households receive social
2 security. Local unemployment is over 7
3 percent, the second highest in the State of
4 Pennsylvania. Employees nationwide are
5 taking pay cuts and over 20 percent of our
6 city residents live in poverty. The police
7 and firefighters have not received a raise
8 in approximately eight years and no contract
9 settlements are in sight.
10 Significant spending cuts were never
11 made by this council, not in past years and
12 not in December 2008 despite what could be
13 the worst economic setback since the great
14 depression, and now some had the audacity to
15 propose raises. They state they have the
16 responsibility to look at these raises in
17 the Home Rule Charter. Yet, this topic was
18 never raised in the years I have sat on this
19 council or for decades preceding. In the
20 grip of a recession and eight years of union
21 unrest, they suddenly found their
22 responsibility to raise politician's
23 salaries.
24 In response to this growing
25 recession in defense of the taxpayers,
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1 police, and firefighters and in good
2 conscience, I repeat, I would not vote to
3 increase any salaries.
4 Furthermore, I ask my colleagues to
5 forego our salaries during the 2009 and 2010
6 August and Christmas recesses until such
7 time as the recession ends. We should
8 demonstrate our unanimous willingness to
9 exercise fiscal restraint in these troubled
10 economic times -- (Audience members
11 applaud.) -- if we expect to exercise
12 authority over spending taxpayers dollars
13 for job creations, administrative raises,
14 garages, greenhouses, etcetera, and that is
15 all I have to say.
16 (Audience members applaud.)
17 MS. GATELLI: As far as the pay
18 raises are concerned, yes, I did bring it up
19 and, yes, Mrs. Evans, I have an article from
20 November of '07 where you said in the paper
21 that you thought the mayor was underpaid. I
22 assume that we all agreed that we would
23 investigate this.
24 MS. FANUCCI: Yes, we did.
25 MS. GATELLI: So that's what we did.
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1 I had no part at all in what was drafted in
2 Attorney Minora's order, and as a matter of
3 fact, Mr. Burton tried to reach my on the
4 phone and when I called him back he was
5 gone. I called him on his cell phone and he
6 never returned my phone call, that's why
7 there was no comment in the paper.
8 I do realize that there is a
9 recession and I do realize that the police
10 and fire have not have a raise in seven
11 years. The police and firemen all know
12 where we stand on that. They all know that
13 we want them to have a contract. No one up
14 here has ever been against that.
15 The chairman, Mr. McGoff, put this
16 on the agenda. I did not put this on the
17 agenda. I want that to be clear. I did not
18 put in on the agenda. As a matter of fact,
19 I called him, I believe it was on Friday,
20 and asked him not to put it on the agenda
21 because I, too, thought it was a little over
22 the top. I do think that the mayor's
23 office, not Mayor Doherty, this would be for
24 the next mayor that wins the election, that
25 is the point of doing it before an election
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1 so that you are not giving it to a
2 particular person, and I do think when the
3 time is right and things are better, once we
4 have a new president hopefully with the
5 stimulus packages that we can, indeed, give
6 the elected officials that deserve a raise a
7 raise. He is the lowest paid mayor in the
8 State of Pennsylvania and maybe that's why
9 we can't get people to run for office. Only
10 wealthy people can run that can afford to
11 take that --
12 (Audience members become loud.)
13 MR. MCGOFF: Excuse me.
14 MS. GATELLI: Excuse me. Maybe if
15 the salary were better comparable to other
16 cities, the Mayor of Wilkes-Barre makes
17 $80,000, you know, they are lot smaller than
18 us. If we had a decent salary maybe people
19 would be willing to give up their positions.
20 Including some people I know that are very
21 close to me up here that I know would be
22 interested in running, maybe they would be
23 able to run if the salary was, you know, up
24 there that they could leave their jobs.
25 Right now, a person unless they are
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1 wealthy and have another business can't run
2 for mayor because the pay just isn't there.
3 So I do think it is deserving to
4 take a look at it at some point in down the
5 road. Right now, I am not in favor of it
6 and I did ask for it to be removed from the
7 agenda. It was not removed and so I will be
8 voting "No" on the pay raises at this time.
9 Thank you.
10 MR. MCGOFF: Anyone else?
11 MS. FANUCCI: When we had sat down to
12 discuss this we actually all unanimously had
13 said that we thought that the mayor was
14 underpaid. I believe that that is not an
15 issue, we all know that, but I would have
16 liked -- I actually was for it being on the
17 agenda, and I'm going to tell you why. I
18 thought it was a good idea to put it on so
19 we can say that we looked into it and we did
20 our job. I don't believe the intent
21 deserves what is happening out here because
22 I certainly was not going to even vote on
23 this. We didn't -- it was on the agenda --
24 say what you want to say -- (audience
25 members become loud) This is amazing. This
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1 was nothing but a wonderful way to grand
2 stand during election time, and it worked
3 out, it worked out for everyone involved,
4 but I can tell you that I know economically,
5 I know what's going on not only in the
6 state, but in my own home, in everyone's
7 homes out there that this is not -- this was
8 not something that should have been done.
9 I had certainly wished that we had
10 to be able to sit town in caucus and discuss
11 the matters at hand here, but that does not
12 happen with this council. That will never
13 really happen with this council.
14 Unfortunately, everything has to be done on
15 the floor so that the cameras are running
16 and certain people can say what they need to
17 say only when the cameras running. We have
18 no communication behind the scenes.
19 I thought it was a good idea to put
20 it out so we could discuss it. Dollar
21 amounts, really, it wasn't an issue because
22 it wasn't like we were going to -- if you
23 put it on for discussion it was in for
24 discussion. You had to vote it in to
25 discuss it. That's how our policy is. We
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1 want to put it in to discuss it. I thought
2 that was a good idea to do it in front of
3 all of you, but personally was I worried
4 about council, I didn't even really realize
5 that the three were going to on there
6 either.
7 Do I believe that a mayor deservers
8 a raise? I eventually do think that the
9 mayor deserved a raise regardless of who it
10 is, where it is and how it is. I believe
11 that our mayor is very underpaid for our
12 city. Do I think that it's the time to do
13 it now? Absolutely not.
14 When you look in the paper,
15 especially even today, and you see that
16 major corporations are taking pay cuts, I
17 don't think it's feasibly possible, but the
18 idea needed to be discussed. It's our job
19 to discuss it. Just like it's your job to
20 show up here with your cameras and all of
21 you to say what you need to say. It is not
22 any different. This is what it's about.
23 You can be upset, but we still have our job
24 and we still have to look at things with
25 whether we like it or not, whether we agree
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1 or not, but the problem here is that we
2 should be doing that together. We shouldn't
3 be trying to hype everybody up before there
4 is even a reason to do that. We should be
5 able to work as one team so that we can come
6 it a great solution. The solution might not
7 have been any different than all of you here
8 to talk about, it probably would have been,
9 but the fact is the hype had to take all of
10 your time for reasons that weren't really
11 necessary.
12 That is the problem. That was the
13 problem. This was up for discussion between
14 council. This is our job. We want to be
15 able to do our job, but all of this seems to
16 me that maybe, I don't know, it just is more
17 than it was deserved because we weren't even
18 at the stage where this was even really
19 something that was an issue. We are at the
20 stage of discussion, so I thank you for
21 showing up. I thank you for voicing, you
22 know, obviously your opinion and picketing
23 and doing all of the things that you did,
24 but at the end of the day I would have liked
25 the opportunity to do the right thing and
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1 say no, and have voted no, but that doesn't
2 matter now. I believe it's being taken off
3 the agenda.
4 But, next time I will appeal it all
5 of you talk to us, let us talk to you.
6 Don't just play with one person. I mean, to
7 me, this was a one-person show. This was a
8 one-person show and it was not necessary.
9 It was not necessary, but thank you for your
10 time.
11 (Whereupon the audience became
12 loud.)
13 MR. MCGOFF: Please. Please.
14 MR. COURTRIGHT: All right, I guess
15 we are all going to give our rendition of
16 what happened, so I'll give mine. I believe
17 twice, and twice that I was there that we
18 spoke about a raise and the two times was
19 only the mayor. I did not receive the
20 e-mail. As most people up here know, I
21 don't get my e-mails at home because when I
22 first got on council every time I tried to
23 get my e-mails I got a virus on my computer,
24 so I come in here every day and get my
25 e-mails, and I found out from Kay.
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1 Coincidentally from me, coming in
2 here help sometimes because Mr. Minora
3 happened to call on the phone while I was
4 here and I had no clue that we were in for a
5 raise and Mrs. Novembrino was in for a raise
6 and I had no clue the dollar amount, but I
7 asked Mr. Minora if he would mind being on
8 the speaker phone, so he and myself and Kay
9 were on the speaker phone, and I asked
10 Mr. McGoff not to put it on the agenda, and
11 he chose to which is his right to do so.
12 Jeremy Burke did catch up with me,
13 he's got my cell phone so he you are
14 catching me most of the time, and I did tell
15 him that I couldn't see certainly taking a
16 raise now for any of us, you know, and we
17 have such economic problems with they are
18 cutting back in the federal, state and
19 county level.
20 And then recently, one thing, you
21 know, when I was a kid by dad with a truck
22 driver as a Teamster and I used to go down
23 to the Teamster hall meeting and they had a
24 sign in there and I believe it said, "We are
25 not the best because we are the biggest, we
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1 are the biggest because we are the best."
2 And then I see in the paper now
3 where the Teamsters, probably one of the
4 most powerful unions in the world, take a
5 pay cut to keep their jobs.
6 So I never had the intention of vote
7 for the raises, as I guess none of us did,
8 and that's the way it transpired from my
9 side of it. What Mrs. Fanucci says, I'm
10 going to agree with you, do we discuss? No.
11 I haven't -- I can't think that I have seen
12 two productive caucuses in the last two
13 years. I was on, you know, a council with a
14 different group of people, and some people I
15 say because I was on the three side and not
16 on the two side or vice versa that I view it
17 a little differently, but I think we had
18 quite a few productive caucuses in the past.
19 I think someone had said Mr. Pocius was
20 on the two side, but he had a lot of
21 experience, he knew the rules, he certainly
22 knew how to conduct himself back there so
23 that we had caucuses, in my opinion, that
24 mattered, and maybe it would have avoided
25 some of the, you know, confusion that we
24
1 have out here sometimes. I think I
2 mentioned one time here we made an amendment
3 to an amendment to an amendment at one of
4 our meetings. How does that make us look;
5 right? Very poor, very unprofessional in my
6 opinion. And if they want to say that I'm
7 on one side or the other or I'm the three
8 side or the two side, you know, that's fine,
9 you know, I'm a big boy, I can handle that,
10 but I really think, you know, we need to
11 discuss everything, and if we don't agree,
12 we don't agree. I mean, that's the way it
13 goes, but there is no communication in my
14 opinion at this council. Very little, if
15 any, and if we are ever shake the reputation
16 that we have seem to have now we better
17 start communicating. And that's all I have.
18 Thank you.
19 MR. MCGOFF: Thank you. The motion
20 is to remove the item from the agenda. It
21 has been seconded. All in favor signify by
22 saying aye.
23 MS. EVANS: Aye.
24 MS. FANUCCI: Aye.
25 MS. GATELLI: Aye.
25
1 MR. COURTRIGHT: Aye.
2 MR. MCGOFF: Aye. Opposed? The
3 ayes have it and so moved.
4 (The audience applauds.)
5 MR. MCGOFF: Any announcements?
6 MS. GATELLI: I just have a few.
7 First thing I'd like to say is if we could
8 please just take a moment of silence, I
9 probably should have interrupted Mr. McGoff
10 before, but if we could take a moment of
11 silence for one of our very, very excellent
12 city employees has passed away this week,
13 Mr. Ed Joyce. He did the weights and
14 measures up in LIPS and he was truly a very
15 wonderful person and he has a wonderful
16 family, and I think that as a city employee
17 to the best of his ability did his job and
18 went and above and beyond the call of duty
19 at all times, and I think we should have a
20 moment of silence in his memory. (Moment of
21 silence observed.) Thank you.
22 The Elm Park Church Youth Group is
23 having a spaghetti dinner on Sunday,
24 January 18, at the church at the corner of
25 Jefferson and Linden from noon to three.
26
1 It's $6.00 for adults and $3.00 for children
2 under ten.
3 Also, I was wondering if council
4 would be in agreement to send a following
5 Boy Scouts who have achieved Eagle Scout
6 status from Troop 16 at Hickory Street
7 Church, if we can send them a congratulatory
8 letter: James Moran, grade ten, Scranton
9 Prep; Ryan Caviston, grade ten, Scranton
10 High; Paul Pigg, Jr., grade ten, Scranton
11 high; and Frank Jones, grade 11, Scranton
12 High. If that's agreeable?
13 MR. MCGOFF: Please.
14 MS. GATELLI: The Community
15 Development Police Program will be in effect
16 in the next two weeks, that was the latest
17 that we have gotten from the chief.
18 And tomorrow evening at Smith's
19 Restaurant at 6:00 there will be a South
20 Side Resident's Association meeting and the
21 start of the Community Justice Program for
22 the Year 2009, so any South Side residents
23 that are interested pease attend tomorrow
24 evening, and I would like to notify everyone
25 that the city audit, the exit conference is
27
1 tomorrow at 11:30, and I would ask Attorney
2 Minora if he could attend on behalf of
3 council and maybe Mr. McGoff can attend,
4 too. The rest of us will be working, I'm
5 sure.
6 And if you can ask the auditors,
7 Mr. Minora, if there is something we can do
8 legislation wise to maybe get in this in an
9 expeditious manner next year if they have
10 any discussions on that.
11 MR. MINORA: I'll find out what the
12 hold up was with the audit and see if there
13 is something we can do maybe legislatively.
14 MS. GATELLI: Yeah, maybe
15 legislatively.
16 MR. MINORA: Yes, I can see --
17 MR. GATELLI: I don't think we've
18 heard from the authorities yet about getting
19 their audits done earlier.
20 MR. MINORA: I'm not sure. I
21 understood that there was some problems with
22 the authorities and they are on a different
23 fiscal year, so perhaps we can negotiate
24 with them at best.
25 MR. GATELLI: If you could do that I
28
1 would appreciate it. Thank you. And that's
2 all I have. Thank you.
3 MR. MCGOFF: Anyone else? Mrs.
4 Evans?
5 MS. EVANS: I would like to wish my
6 mother a very happy birthday. My mother is
7 very important to me and I am her caretaker
8 and she is a greater priority to me than any
9 job or any elected office that I could ever
10 seek. You only have one mother and one
11 father. I have lost my father, who was my
12 best friend, I am blessed to still have my
13 mother. And, mom, I love you. That's it.
14 MR. MCGOFF: Anyone else? I'm sorry,
15 were you finished?
16 MS. EVANS: Oh yeah. Thank you.
17 MS. FANUCCI: Nothing. Well, maybe I
18 should something -- maybe I should say
19 something -- do you want to clear up this
20 stuff now or do you want to do it later? I
21 don't want to take up the time, but they
22 probably need to go home, so --
23 MR. MCGOFF: Fourth order. Citizens'
24 participation. Fay Franus.
25 MS. GARVEY: Mr. McGoff, we need to
29
1 do Third Order.
2 MR. MCGOFF: Third Order, I'm sorry.
3 Jumping ahead. I'm sorry, Mrs. Franus.
4 MS. GARVEY: THIRD ORDER. 3-A. TAX
5 COMPARISON REPORTS RECEIVED FROM THE SINGLE
6 TAX OFFICE ON JANUARY 5, 2009.
7 MR. MCGOFF: Are there comments? If
8 not, received and filed? .
9 MS. GARVEY: That's it for Third
10 Order.
11 MR. MCGOFF: Thank you. Mrs.
12 Franus.
13 MS. FRANUS: Fay Franus. Well,
14 there's not too much I can talk about right
15 now, but here is my point, Mr. McGoff, why
16 would you put in on the agenda if you were
17 to take it off the agenda? I mean, don't
18 you think that you should have contacted the
19 fellow council members about this? I mean,
20 Mrs. Fanucci mentioned about everybody
21 getting hyper over something, I can
22 understand what she is saying, but, you
23 Mr. McGoff, caused all of this for yourself.
24 I think what happened here is you wanted to
25 pass this and when Sue Henry brought it on
30
1 the radio everyone was going crazy, and
2 Steve Corbett and all of the negative
3 response you figured I better not put this
4 on. I mean, how do you put something on the
5 agenda and then turn around and take is off
6 without consulting the other council
7 members?
8 MR. MCGOFF: Do you want an answer?
9 MS. FRANUS: Yes.
10 MR. MCGOFF: Well, sometimes you
11 don't, that's why I'm just checking. I was
12 under the impression that we had agreed that
13 this would go on the agenda, that it had --
14 I had talked to other members of council,
15 also, that when it was received from
16 Attorney Minora, when the draft was
17 received, an e-mail of the item was sent to
18 everyone and --
19 MS. FRANUS: But you never discussed
20 it with them personally.
21 MR. MCGOFF: Yes, I did.
22 MS. FRANUS: Well, Mrs. Gatelli said
23 she never heard about and Mrs. Evans said
24 she never talked to you about it.
25 MR. MCGOFF: No, we had -- yes, we
31
1 had.
2 MS. FRANUS: No, we didn't. McGoff,
3 Mrs. Evans said she has never consulted
4 about this at all. Mrs. Gatelli said she
5 had no input whatsoever about this.
6 MS. EVANS: About the county
7 controller and about the city council
8 raises.
9 MS. FRANUS: Right.
10 MS. EVANS: But my concern was I
11 know now Mrs. Gatelli didn't want it on the
12 agenda, Mr. Courtright didn't want it on the
13 agenda, and they voiced that, Mrs. Fanucci
14 did, Mr. McGoff did, but it would seem then
15 that they should have looked to the fifth
16 council member for that opinion which would
17 have told them then on Friday this would not
18 go on the agenda, but that didn't happen.
19 MR. MCGOFF: At no time -- excuse me,
20 at no time --
21 MS. FRANUS: You say -- okay, hold
22 my time.
23 MR. MCGOFF: I will hold her time.
24 Please hold it. At no time did anyone on
25 council tell me in our discussions in caucus
32
1 that they did not want this to be
2 considered.
3 MS. FRANUS: I find that very, very
4 hard to believe, Mr. McGoff.
5 MR. MCGOFF: Well, as hard it is to
6 believe --
7 MS. GATELLI: Excuse me, he is
8 saying in caucus not --
9 MS. FRANUS: Yes.
10 MS. GATELLI: Not after.
11 MS. FRANUS: I understand that, but
12 I can't even imagine Mrs. Evans in caucus
13 saying she would agree to a raise for anyone
14 since the firemen and policemen haven't
15 gotten one in eight years. There is no way
16 you can ever tell me. Mrs. Evans, did ever
17 you ever agree to this in caucus?
18 MS. EVANS: No. What I said was I
19 would not be voting for an increase for the
20 mayor because the city unions had not
21 received a pay increase in a close to eight
22 years and how could you even look them in
23 the eyes and at the same time propose a
24 raise for someone else.
25 MS. FRANUS: Mr. McGoff, you really
33
1 caused a fire storm here. I think before
2 you put anything on the agenda anymore of
3 such fire dynamics you should pick up a
4 phone, not through an e-mail from Mrs.
5 Garvey, pick up a phone and call these
6 council members and speak with them and get
7 their opinions. Had you done that you would
8 have saved many people a lot of grief
9 tonight, and you get everybody in an uproar
10 and now they are against these council
11 people telling them don't vote for this one,
12 don't vote for that one, because they are
13 going to raise your taxes because of the pay
14 raises when this isn't even true. I mean,
15 it's a disgrace what you put people through.
16 So I think next time you do anything you
17 better think twice.
18 You also said you would like this --
19 it may come up later. I hope it never comes
20 up. The economy is not going to change for
21 years. You said you are going to take it
22 off the agenda and we could discuss it at
23 another time. We haven't had a pay raise in
24 council in probably 20 years, so why all of
25 a sudden? All of a sudden the worst time in
34
1 the world you think about giving the people
2 and council a raise and the controller. I
3 mean, something is wrong with your thinking.
4 I mean, I don't even now you justify it.
5 It's either stupidity or arrogance, I don't
6 know which it is.
7 But, for your fellow council members
8 not to know one thing that's going on, that
9 doesn't speak too highly of your job as
10 president of this council, and everything
11 you do any more that appears on the agenda
12 should be looked at, looked at, and looked
13 at again and you should discuss things with
14 your fellow members.
15 And how many times have you come
16 here and Mrs. Evans or and maybe somebody,
17 maybe Billy Courtright or somebody says they
18 didn't hear anything about this until right
19 before they came into council all because
20 you didn't pick up a phone. I'm very
21 ashamed of you.
22 MR. MCGOFF: Sam Patilla.
23 MR. PATILLA: Sam Patilla, city
24 resident, taxpayer and member of the
25 Scranton/Lackawanna Taxpayers' Association.
35
1 We need to make up our minds. This is being
2 done because the mayor needs a raise or if
3 you are doing it because the law says this
4 must be passed before the next mayoral
5 election or because some members want to
6 give an unknown, untested person who might
7 win the mayor's seat $90,000. Not this
8 time.
9 No longer will the police and fire
10 unions be cast into the fire as a cause of
11 this city's problems, economically or
12 otherwise, especially considering the
13 mistakes and failures of their immediate
14 supervisors and members of the city's
15 administration. Not this time.
16 No longer will shampoo girls,
17 department store cashiers, bartenders,
18 landscapers, house painters have crony
19 administration jobs created for them go
20 without question before or police and fire
21 personnel get a raise and/or contract. Not
22 this time.
23 No longer will the mantra of the
24 elected appointed officials be what can the
25 taxpayer, resident and voter do for me, but
36
1 what I can I as an elected appointed
2 official do for the taxpayers, residents and
3 voters of the City of Scranton. Not this
4 time.
5 No longer would the city council
6 take two months off from work and be allowed
7 to use that tired lame excuse, use it or
8 lose it, disturb their responsibilities to
9 the taxpayers and residents and voters of
10 the City of the Scranton. Not this time.
11 No longer will developers,
12 solicitors and outside attorneys be used as
13 a buffer between the city administration and
14 the taxpayers. Not this time.
15 No longer will audits required by
16 law be allowed to go months on end without
17 being completed and submitted in a timely
18 fashion by all department heads, go without
19 question. Not this time.
20 No longer will the homes of the
21 poor, our seniors and minorities be stolen
22 from underneath them simply so a crony hacks
23 can turn a buck and go unquestioned. Not
24 this time.
25 No longer will taxpayer-owned assets
37
1 be sold and the proceeds not placed into an
2 actual public trust. Not this time.
3 No long he will crony hacks be
4 appointed to long-term positions on their
5 authorities within the city, go without
6 question. Not this time.
7 For the word and voices of the
8 people will not only reverberate throughout
9 the corridors of this building, but also
10 upon the very crony pay to play foundations
11 that the Sewer Authority, Housing Authority,
12 Parking Authority, DPW, OECD, PEL, and Parks
13 and Recreation not expand. Not this time.
14 And in closing, Mrs. Evans and
15 Mr. Courtright, I would like for you to
16 relay a message to Mr. Doherty and council
17 persons Gatelli and Fanucci and to all of
18 their crony appointments and crony hacks,
19 tick-tock, tick-tock. The clock is ticking.
20 MR. MCGOFF: Thank you, Mr. Patilla.
21 Andy Sbaraglia.
22 MR. SBARAGLIA: Andy Sbaraglia,
23 citizen of Scranton and fellow Scrantonian.
24 I said at this podium maybe two and a half
25 years ago and I said the mayor's salary is
38
1 very willfully low, two and a half years
2 ago. You wait until the worse time in the
3 economy to bring it up. You are two and
4 half years behind the times. Sometimes I
5 wonder where your thinking process is.
6 Okay, let me go with something
7 that's more relevant. The city is putting
8 out and advertisement for an air filtration
9 system it says for city hall, fire
10 department, police department, and the
11 firemen and public works as per the
12 specifications. Now, have any of yous --
13 have any of you come across a study that
14 says our air in here is bad or has it been
15 bad? But we are about to spend a lot of
16 money to cure a problem that maybe doesn't
17 exist. I don't know. As you know, election
18 is coming up, whether this is another job
19 to-- I don't know, to me it looks like it's
20 one of these pay for play deals unless there
21 is written documented telling her air
22 quality is bad, but look where they are
23 planning to do it.
24 Okay, let's look at the Department
25 of Public Works. Do you realize we don't
39
1 own the Department of Public Works? It is
2 up to the owner to put this filtration
3 system in if it's so needed, but I doubt it.
4 You know what? They figured that when they
5 designed this project they definitely
6 realized that people work on vehicles in
7 there. They would not allow the quality of
8 air to drop low enough to cause problems so,
9 there must be in some kind of an air
10 filtration system already in there to take
11 away the carbon monoxide and so forth in
12 these vehicles.
13 If not, then you wouldn't ask the
14 question why isn't it so? It is the
15 architect's fault? Should we look into the
16 plans to see if it's the architects fault
17 and then hold them accountable for some of
18 these things? But, no, we all just assume
19 that when they put out a bid there is a
20 reason for the bid usually, but this case I
21 hope it's not political, especially if there
22 is no study as to air quality. That's the
23 premise for any kind of deal with this.
24 If you are -- what about the police
25 department, how old is that building? Three
40
1 years, four years old? You are telling me
2 the quality of air has deteriorated so bad
3 in that building? Then I would say, let's
4 go back at the architect again and see what
5 kind of a filtration system he put into that
6 building.
7 As you know, when you do a building
8 you put an air circulating system in. Well,
9 maybe you are not familiar with it, you
10 don't work in construction, but when I
11 worked in construction they always had an
12 air circulating system in there just to
13 circulate the air. Obviously, there must be
14 one in the police department. That's a
15 brand new building, but if there isn't, then
16 again, you have to go after the architect or
17 ask questions why or where is? How are they
18 getting the assumption that the air is bad
19 in these buildings. And you know they
20 didn't go to OECD because that's down there
21 in another building, isn't it?
22 You didn't run down there and make
23 an air test because then you would have
24 stepped on somebody's toes, and you are not
25 going to step on anybody's toes but the
41
1 taxpayers. Since you have been up there
2 that's all you have done is stepped on our
3 toes. You haven't looked at anything out
4 further than your knows. It doesn't stop
5 here, it goes on. You allow them to build
6 all of these garages up, in the end it's
7 going to come back to haunt us. I just wish
8 that we can change the laws down in
9 Harrisburg that we could hold all of you's
10 members monetarily responsible for your
11 decisions. It should be that way. I mean,
12 the Courts should/STHUD be able to say which
13 is monetary and which is discretionary, it's
14 just mistake that was made.
15 But, I look at what you have done,
16 the attack on the old people at a part when
17 we are actually in trouble, the whole --
18 and it was in trouble. Them lawyers knew
19 that when these companies failed. They knew
20 that this country was being tanked out. Why
21 you didn't know, I don't know. I don't know
22 where your eyes and head were, but the
23 warnings were all around us, but yet you
24 went and you passed that.
25 Now, tax increases, maybe I don't
42
1 like them, but I can say some of them are
2 necessary. Well, I thank you.
3 MR. MCGOFF: Thank you,
4 Mr. Sbaraglia. Ozzie Quinn.
5 MR. QUINN: Ozzie Quinn, president
6 of the Scranton Taxpayers' Association. It
7 makes me feel good when you say the there is
8 is lack of communication amongst our elected
9 officials. My God. Geez. What a way to
10 run a city. You know, there is no doubt in
11 my mind, you know, that was put on the
12 agenda, that amending the Home Rule Charter
13 for salaries Friday, it was on the agenda
14 Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and now
15 you are saying nobody knew about it, you
16 took it off. Well, I think you saw that
17 crowd out front demonstrating and three of
18 you changed your mind.
19 Now, when mayor Doherty come on
20 board here in 2002 we were $30 million in
21 debt. Now, you people are really bold that
22 you can now say that the mayor should get a
23 race. We are over $100 million in debt.
24 Now, can you compare him with any mayor in
25 Pennsylvania and say he is worth the mayor
43
1 in Allentown? Come on. He knew he was
2 getting $50,000 and he knew this is on the
3 agenda, and if he was a leader he would have
4 told you to take it off the agenda, but he
5 left it on the agenda. Shame on him.
6 We seen the mayor make a jackass out
7 of himself with the qualifications, we seen
8 him continue to do this, we saw him make a
9 jackass out of himself in regard to the
10 state funding, not knowing that the state
11 funding was frozen, and we see Mrs. Fanucci,
12 who is the chairperson for the Community and
13 Economic Development Office didn't know
14 about it?
15 MS. FANUCCI: Did I tell you I didn't
16 know about it?
17 MR. QUINN: I imagine you didn't
18 tell us. We are the voters. We are
19 taxpayers.
20 MS. FANUCCI: Did you ask me or are
21 you making another assumption?
22 MR. QUINN: You should have made a
23 report.
24 MS. FANUCCI: Ozzie, you are so good
25 at this, but, as you say, everyone --
44
1 MR. QUINN: Shame on you.
2 MS. FANUCCI: You have no idea what
3 you are talking about again, but you are
4 good at that, so keep going.
5 MR. QUINN: Shame on you. I want to
6 tell you something, when that bell rings at
7 fire station and when that patrolman in that
8 car gets that radio, and it says domestic
9 problem, okay, their heart and their blood
10 starts pumping? You know, in seven years
11 they get the same paychecks. They don't
12 have to look at the God darn paycheck, they
13 know what they are getting. The only thing
14 they got to look at is maybe the stubs to
15 see if they are getting taxed more. Shame
16 on you people to have the boldness to try to
17 get a raise and then try to wiggle out of it
18 by saying you didn't know anything about it
19 or you didn't agree with it. Three of you.
20 You know who you are.
21 I'll tell you what, we are in
22 serious problems here in Scranton,
23 Pennsylvania. Our debt is over 100 million
24 dollars and I'll bet that the independent
25 audit will prove me right and that's for the
45
1 principle only. Now, I got to look at the
2 big picture as president of the Taxpayers',
3 the county is $222 million in debt and the
4 school board is some $83 million -- or
5 $44 million in debt. We are done for with
6 the statistics Mrs. Evans told you before
7 about 30 percent elderly, 21 percent
8 poverty, 7 percent unemployment and you
9 people want to get a raise and you are
10 saying it was for discussion? Discussion.
11 It was for introduction. Shame on you
12 people.
13 MR. MCGOFF: Thank you, Mr. Quinn.
14 Bill Jackowitz.
15 MR. JACKOWITZ: Bill Jackowitz, South
16 Scranton resident and member of the
17 Taxpayers' Association. Also, a founder of
18 the Legion of Doom. We are doing pretty
19 good these days. Firefighters don't choose
20 fires, police officers don't choose the
21 crime, warfighters don't choose the wars.
22 The orders are given or the alarms sounds
23 they go. On the other hand, politicians,
24 who are public servants, make their own
25 choices. They create jobs, appoint friends
46
1 and family members with no experience or
2 qualifications, raise their own salaries,
3 cancel meetings or just do not show up
4 expecting to be paid by the taxpayers.
5 Remember, the government cannot give to
6 anyone anything that it does not first take
7 from someone else.
8 As far as the amending the mayor and
9 city council and controller's salary, my
10 hope is that you would reduce them. With
11 the amount of meetings that are missed, the
12 fact that the City of Scranton has been
13 distressed for 17 years, the fact that the
14 fire department and police department have
15 not gotten a raise in seven years going on
16 eight years, it's a disgrace. A total
17 disgrace for a public servant, an elected
18 public servant to ask for a money.
19 We have a school teacher, we have a
20 school nurse, we have a retired school
21 teacher, we have a business owner, and we
22 have a state employee. We have a
23 businessman as an owner -- a business owner
24 as the mayor of this city and you mean to
25 tell me you need more money to live on while
47
1 the median income in this city is $32,000
2 household? Per capita income is $17,000 for
3 citizens of this city.
4 You have embarrassed this city.
5 This whole valley is laughing at Scranton
6 City Council, and I'm going to tell you
7 something, it's not because of the Legion on
8 of Doom. It's not. It's because of the
9 elected officials. You know, some people
10 have leadership qualities and some people
11 don't. Our last two past presidents and our
12 mayor -- last two past presidents of city
13 council have no leadership ability. They
14 show that every week. When you allow
15 council members to walk out while speakers
16 are talking, certain speakers, when you
17 allow people to eat and drink up there even
18 though a sign on the door says no food or
19 beverage allowed in here.
20 We have council rules, but the only
21 time council rules apply is when it pertains
22 to a speaker. We have had people arrested.
23 We have had people searched. We have gone
24 on and on and on and on. We have had -- we
25 just had Mayor Connors' son, Zachary,
48
1 appointed to a made-up job. The job was
2 made up in last month by Councilwoman
3 Gatelli, Mayor Connors' son got the job with
4 no qualifications. Councilwoman Gatelli is
5 quoted as saying, "Too much is made of
6 qualifications. Qualifications don't
7 matter."
8 Well, you know something, I once
9 stayed at a Holiday Inn Express so I'm going
10 to apply for a school nurse position because
11 qualifications do not matter. That's why we
12 have a police chief who got a week without
13 pay, we have a fire chief who 92 percent of
14 the firefighters have no confidence in, and
15 we have a public safety director who was
16 just reprimanded by the mayor and
17 qualifications don't count? We want to
18 raise salaries so we can get better
19 qualified people here?
20 You want to raise the mayor's
21 salary, you tell that mayor that Bill
22 Jackowitz said get rid of the distressed
23 city status, get the contract for the fire
24 and police signed and immediately and then
25 Mr. McGoff, President McGoff, if you want to
49
1 give the mayor a raise go right ahead, but
2 not until then. Take a pay cut. Stand up.
3 Be a leader and take a pay cut or find
4 yourself another job, but take a pay cut.
5 Leaders lead by example. Set the
6 example. Give back $10,000 of that $12,500.
7 MR. MCGOFF: Thank you, Mr.
8 Jackowitz. Jean Suetta.
9 MS. SUETTA: How you doing,
10 everybody? What an act I'm following. I'm
11 telling you. Last Wednesday I was going up
12 Greenridge Street, it was raining, you know,
13 the glare on the street, blah, blah, blah,
14 thank God I'm not a good -- a fast driver.
15 I almost killed a person because they cannot
16 walk on the Greenridge Street bridge, it's
17 all ice and all snow. Now, I get nervous,
18 blah, blah, blah, and I called 911 and I
19 told them about my situation. She put me
20 through to the police department and I
21 talked to an officer at the desk and he told
22 me it wasn't an emergency. I said, "What
23 did I have to do, kill somebody for it to be
24 an emergency?"
25 Still as of today the bridge isn't
50
1 cleaned, but where I'm going with this, I
2 don't know, I come down here tonight and the
3 God Damn steps ain't even cleaned on city
4 hall. They are not even cleaned. They are
5 ice.
6 MR. COURTRIGHT: Don't curse.
7 MS. SUETTA: I didn't curse, Jiminy
8 Crickekts is what I wanted to say, but, I
9 mean, the steps aren't even clean at city
10 hall. How am I going to get a bridge
11 cleaned if we can't clean the steps at city
12 hall? Anybody? Anybody can jump in now,
13 you know? What?
14 MR. MCGOFF: I'm not responsible for
15 cleaning them.
16 MR. COURTRIGHT: They clean the
17 center only because it was difficult.
18 MS. SUETTA: You only use the center?
19 You are going to have me cursing in Polish,
20 Bill. You know, and I'm glad you took that
21 other thing off the agenda because our boys
22 deserve a raise, police and firemen. I want
23 to know how to get the bridge cleaned? Can
24 you answer me?
25 MR. COURTRIGHT: I don't know what to
51
1 tell you. I could call down and ask
2 somebody.
3 MS. SUETTA: Call who?
4 MR. COURTRIGHT: I guess you would
5 call Jeff Brazil. You got as much clout as
6 I do, Jean, probably more.
7 MS. SUETTA: If call and report an
8 incident isn't the officer supposed to take
9 care of the incident?
10 MR. COURTRIGHT: They have no
11 control.
12 MS. SUETTA: Listen to the tape, and
13 I didn't even say the "F" word. I was good.
14 MR. COURTRIGHT: I have.
15 MS. SUETTA: Really, I'm getting
16 close to saying it tonight.
17 MR. MCGOFF: No.
18 MS. SUETTA: Nobody is responding to
19 me up there.
20 MR. COURTRIGHT: Jean?
21 MS. SUETTA: What?
22 MR. COURTRIGHT: Let me say this to
23 you, all right, before you yell at me, all
24 right?
25 MS. SUETTA: All right before --
52
1 MR. COURTRIGHT: The officer has --
2 he has nothing to do with cleaning that
3 bridge.
4 MS. SUETTA: Can't he call somebody?
5 Don't they have more clout than me?
6 MR. COURTRIGHT: No, they don't have
7 more clout more than me, if you listen to
8 your scanner, and I know you have one,
9 right? All the time they are saying the
10 roads are clean. This last time they made
11 an announcement over the air, "DPW knows
12 that the roads are bad. All roads will be
13 cleaned in an hour or two."
14 MS. SUETTA: I know.
15 MR. COURTRIGHT: So, no, they don't
16 have anymore clout.
17 MS. SUETTA: I'm not talking about
18 the roads. I'm talking about the sidewalk
19 that the people cannot walk on. They are
20 walking on the road. Bill, how do you think
21 I would feel I killed that person?
22 MR. COURTRIGHT: I don't disagree
23 with you, Jean, but the police department
24 isn't the place to go. You have to go to
25 Mr. Brazil. He is in charge of --
53
1 MS. SUETTA: Give me his number.
2 MR. COURTRIGHT: I don't have it.
3 I'll get it for you. I'll get it for you.
4 I will get you his number, how is that,
5 okay?
6 MS. SUETTA: Are you sure?
7 MR. COURTRIGHT: Yeah, I'm sure.
8 MS. SUETTA: I know you have my
9 number.
10 MR. COURTRIGHT: Jeannie, would I lie
11 to you?
12 MS. SUETTA: Yeah. At least I broke
13 the tension in here.
14 MR. COURTRIGHT: I will get you the
15 number, I promise.
16 MS. SUETTA: Because that bridge is
17 that deep.
18 MR. COURTRIGHT: It's all the
19 bridges, Jean. The Linden Street bridge is
20 the same thing. Lackawanna Avenue is the
21 same thing.
22 MS. SUETTA: Is it DPW or is it
23 PennDot?
24 MR. COURTRIGHT: DPW does it.
25 MS. SUETTA: It hasn't been done
54
1 since the kid was a minnow.
2 MR. COURTRIGHT: I'm not going to
3 win here so I'm not --
4 MS. SUETTA: No, you are not, not
5 tonight, no.
6 MR. COURTRIGHT: I'll get you the
7 number. That's the best I can do for you.
8 MS. SUETTA: You know, that's just
9 like Keen's Floral, they have all the
10 parking in front, clean for their patrons,
11 they have the side of the building, they
12 don't clean their sidewalks.
13 MS. FANUCCI: Where is this?
14 MS. SUETTA: Keen's Floral, and it's
15 been how long since we the storms.
16 MR. COURTRIGHT: We got the tanning
17 place done for you last year, remember?
18 MS. SUETTA: Oh, they are right up
19 to it this year.
20 MR. COURTRIGHT: See, you don't say
21 thanks, though.
22 MS. SUETTA: Yes, I did. Oh, yeah.
23 Keen's Floral don't do nothing, you know,
24 they are supposed to be fined. Get
25 somebody-- pay somebody eight bucks an hour
55
1 to walk around and hand these fines out.
2 You will get a lot of revenue in. I mean, I
3 watch kids walk on the street because they
4 can't walk on the sidewalk going for a
5 school bus.
6 MR. COURTRIGHT: I agree with you,
7 Jean, I'll get you his number and send him a
8 letter. The bell is -- were' done.
9 MS. SUETTA: Am I done?
10 MR. COURTRIGHT: You are done.
11 MR. MCGOFF: Thank you. Bob Gavern.
12 MR. GAVERN: Good evening, Council.
13 Bob Gavern, city resident. I came here to
14 talk about the raise, but since it was taken
15 off the table that's sort of kills what I
16 came here for, but each one of you council
17 members at one time or another said that the
18 police and fire should have a contract that
19 we have had it so long. Now, stand up, keep
20 in what you have said, tell the mayor you
21 will not entertain any of his projects until
22 he hammers out a contract that's fair to the
23 city and the police and fire. That's all
24 I'm asking you to do. Stand up and be
25 accounted for a change.
56
1 My last thing is Comcast. We need
2 more than one company in this city to give
3 us TV, and the problem with Comcast is the
4 elderly on fixed incomes can't afford it.
5 Do something to help the elderly in this
6 town, the taxpayers that pay your salaries.
7 Thank you very much.
8 MR. MCGOFF: Thank you, Mr. Gavern
9 Stephanie Gawel.
10 MS. GAWEL: Hi. Stephanie Gawel,
11 citizen of Scranton. I was coming in to
12 speak about the raises, and obviously, again
13 we have taken them off the agenda, and
14 that's fine, but we truly can't do this
15 until we do take care of our police and
16 firemen. I would ask that you all try to
17 work on the mayor. He needs to settle this.
18 I know you know what needs to be done, but
19 you need to really start pushing him.
20 I also want to know what happened
21 with the grants? I mean, we lost those
22 grants. It's a big headline in the paper.
23 MS. FANUCCI: Yeah, we didn't. Would
24 you like me to answer that now during your
25 time?
57
1 MS. GAWEL: Yeah.
2 MS. FANUCCI: Are you sure?
3 MS. GAWEL: Yeah.
4 MS. FANUCCI: Okay. There was
5 actually -- there was some mix-ups here.
6 One of the -- the independent audit was
7 scheduled by us, city council was in charge
8 of hiring the person for the independent
9 audit. It is being stated in that we are
10 being red flagged because the independent
11 audit has not come through. That is not the
12 case. There was not a red flag on our
13 independent audit. DCED and the
14 administration and PEL have been sitting
15 down weekly, and they are very aware that
16 the independent audit is not in there, they
17 did not sanction us for that, and that is a
18 miss report, so that is not an issue, so
19 that's number one.
20 The other project that we were
21 supposedly red flagged on was the Connell
22 Park project. If you did look on the
23 website, yes, we were red flagged on them.
24 The problem was that it was just
25 miscommunication. The city did all of the
58
1 right --
2 MS. GAWEL: Okay.
3 MS. FANUCCI: In a timely fashion, it
4 was -- it was -- the work was done, it was
5 submitted in time for an extension, only
6 because you can't work on Connell Park this
7 time of year. So, they did file an
8 extension, that was granted. When it got to
9 the state it sat there and didn't come back
10 in time, so that actually was not correct.
11 That was actually a miscommunication. The
12 state -- so those red flags actually have
13 been lifted.
14 MS. GAWEL: Okay.
15 MS. FANUCCI: The other project was
16 the project that we actually all have been
17 aware of that is a problem. Notification
18 has been sent, it has been sent a few times
19 stating that we actually were red flagged
20 because of this project. Nothing has
21 stopped because of it so I was a little -- I
22 actually was a little worried about the hype
23 myself, because when you go on, I mean, I do
24 work for the state. We deal with all of the
25 time, this is not a big deal. Nobody is
59
1 suffering, there is no monies that are held
2 up, nothing has been done. In fact, it will
3 probably be a week or two before this is
4 straightened out, but it was a filing that
5 was filed. It was misfiled. There was a
6 form that was supposed to be done that was
7 not done. The audit was supposed to be done
8 instead of the form, after $100,000 any
9 project that's over $100,000 there's a
10 certain -- there is an audit that has to be
11 attached. That was not done with it.
12 So it actually was just a miss -- it
13 could be cleared up within weeks, so we
14 really are really not suffering. There is
15 nothing in the city that's going to stop.
16 Nothing has been done as far as like, you
17 know, making sure projects are stopped and
18 no funding.
19 MS. GAWEL: I would also -- I am
20 under the impression part of the problem
21 with the settling the contracts is PEL. Can
22 you guys start writing PEL? Can you write
23 the Governor and tell him to get PEL the
24 heck out of here because they are killing
25 us. I mean, they are-- obviously, they are
60
1 not doing their job if it's 17 years later
2 and we are still having the same issue, and
3 maybe if we got PEL out of here and we could
4 then finally settle these negotiations.
5 MS. FANUCCI: I could tell you that
6 we talked about that before, about getting
7 rid of PEL. My fear and from I hear on the
8 state level is they will just bring in
9 another group and start from scratch, and
10 that would be awful, so the only way to get
11 rid of PEL is to actually be -- get out of
12 distressed city. In fact, Mr. Jackowitz was
13 correct. We need to get out of distressed
14 city status so we don't have to deal with
15 this any more.
16 MS. GAWEL: Yeah, but how are we
17 going to do that if we keep doing pet
18 projects for --
19 MS. FANUCCI: Well, that really has
20 nothing to do with it. That not part of it.
21 I mean, the projects on it's own are not
22 really part of what the Recovery Plan is, so
23 that's actually not a, you know, a violation
24 of the Recovery Plan what I'm trying to tell
25 you.
61
1 MS. GAWEL: It's not -- I mean, all
2 of those hires are not part of the --
3 against --
4 MS. FANUCCI: You said the projects.
5 The pet projects. That is -- you are on a
6 different issue.
7 MS. GAWEL: The fire and all of that,
8 but that's what I'm saying. Why doesn't
9 call the governor and going, hey, Governor,
10 like, PEL isn't doing their job because they
11 are letting the mayor hire people that
12 shouldn't be there at this point, people
13 that were supposed to be gone over the
14 Connors' administration and stuff. You
15 know, I mean, can council send a letter, you
16 know, to the governor on our behalf stating
17 something that that effect.
18 MS. FANUCCI: I would imagine we
19 could send a letter to the governor, but you
20 know what the governor is -- it will say
21 that it's out of his hands --
22 MS. GAWEL: I'm going to say against
23 PEL.
24 MS. FANUCCI: PEL is actually an
25 independent company supposedly from the
62
1 governor, so it would actually be to PEL
2 that actually communication should go to.
3 So we certainly can do that.
4 MS. GAWEL: Well, I would think, I
5 mean, two things I have heard. I mean, I
6 have heard, you know, that the governor has
7 quite a little temper so like if you send
8 him a letter and he gets annoyed he might
9 get annoyed enough at PEL to tell them to
10 step in and do their job.
11 The other thing is I also have heard
12 that the local democratic party isn't
13 thrilled with the boy upstairs and maybe,
14 you know, he won't get the favoritism he has
15 been getting lately. Thank you.
16 MR. MCGOFF: Thank you, Mrs. Gawel.
17 Les Spindler.
18 MR. SPINDLER: Les Spindler, city
19 resident and taxpayer, homeowner.
20 Mr. McGoff, you should be ashamed of
21 yourself for even entertaining raises at
22 this time. The way the economy is in this
23 country, our firefighters and policemen
24 haven't had a raise in almost eight years.
25 We are bailing out banks, we are bailing out
63
1 the auto industry and you want more money
2 for cancelling more meetings than any other
3 council before you were on there? You
4 should be ashamed of yourself.
5 And you said you compared to other
6 cities, obviously, you didn't compare to
7 Allentown. Allentown city council, and the
8 City of Allentown is bigger than ours, their
9 city council makes approximately half of
10 what you make. So I have an idea how to get
11 the mayor a raise, you take a pay cut down
12 to the Allentown City Council meeting and
13 there is the money for the mayor's raise.
14 Consider that, Mr. McGoff. No comment?
15 What you take a $6,000 pay cut, Mr. McGoff,
16 to give the mayor a raise?
17 MR. MCGOFF: No.
18 MR. SPINDLER: You said you compared
19 it to Allentown.
20 MR. MCGOFF: Do you want me to
21 comment or, you know, because if I do
22 comment then you yell at me for taking your
23 time.
24 MR. SPINDLER: You said you compared
25 to other cities, obviously, you didn't
64
1 compare Allentown because their counsel
2 makes half of what you make and they are a
3 bigger city, and you should be ashamed of
4 yourself even for entertaining that.
5 Moving on, oh, Mrs. Gatelli, I
6 wanted to say something to her, but she
7 walked out. I'll say it anyway. Mrs.
8 Gatelli quoted last week as far as she could
9 remember city council always recessed for
10 August and December. That's not true. She
11 must have only remember backed as far as
12 when she is on council, because the two
13 councils before her that I have spoken in
14 front of never dismissed for December. They
15 might have dismissed for Christmas week, but
16 that was it.
17 And the council before Mrs. Gatelli
18 was on Mr. Courtright and Mrs. Evans will
19 remember that they even worked the whole
20 summer when the Hilton was in financial
21 distress they worked all summer to bail out
22 the Hilton, so this council has canceled
23 more meetings than any other council before
24 you, and you should take a pay cut and not a
25 raise.
65
1 Moving on, Mrs. Gatelli introduced a
2 position of assistant zoning officer in the
3 last meeting of the budget. Attorney
4 Minora, I have a question for you, is that
5 legal to introduce something in the last
6 reading? Doesn't everything has to be read
7 three times before it's passed?
8 MR. MINORA: The budget can be
9 amended up until the time it's passes.
10 MR. SPINDLER: So anything can be
11 introduced up until the last minute?
12 MR. MINORA: I don't know how else to
13 answer you other than items can be amended
14 up until the budget is passed.
15 MR. SPINDLER: Thank you. I have a
16 quote from that Doherty newsletter from last
17 from you, Mrs. Gatelli.
18 MS. GATELLI: Don't believe what you
19 read in there, Les.
20 MR. SPINDLER: Well, I'm going to ask
21 you, "I don't know that qualifications
22 necessarily make you a best person for the
23 job."
24 Did you say that?
25 MS. GATELLI: Would you like me to
66
1 explain or wait until motions?
2 MR. SPINDLER: No. I want a yes or
3 no, did you say it?
4 MS. GATELLI: Not in that context.
5 MR. SPINDLER: What other context is
6 there?
7 MS. GATELLI: I'll tell you later.
8 MR. SPINDLER: Anyway, if you just
9 said that I'm torn because I don't know
10 whether I should put my application in for
11 brain surgeon at CMC or rocket science at
12 NASA. I'm not qualified for any of them,
13 but what you said I should get the job.
14 Oh, I have a question, why was
15 Scartelli plowing the DPW parking lot early
16 Sunday morning? Why couldn't our own DPW
17 plow their own parking lot?
18 MS. GATELLI: You want that answer?
19 MR. SPINDLER: Yes.
20 MS. GATELLI: Because I believe we
21 were under an emergency and they hired
22 private contractors.
23 MR. SPINDLER: Three and a half
24 inches of snow we were under an emergency?
25 Wow.
67
1 MS. GATELLI: They hired a
2 contractor.
3 MR. SPINDLER: God help us if we get
4 a blizzard. Something else, three of you
5 passed a budget before seeing the audit and
6 Stu Renda said they were blindsided. How
7 were they blindsided? We knew that the
8 audit was due in May. People were talking
9 about it since May. How does he have the
10 nerve to say we were blindsided? I don't
11 know what he is talking about. And I don't
12 know how you people could have passed the
13 budget without seeing the audit.
14 It's incomprehensibly.
15 Lastly, people constantly come up to
16 me and say how terrible the quality of the
17 sound is on CDTV, and I've spoken about it
18 myself, I have to put my TV up to 100 just
19 to hear what's going on there and other
20 people have had the same sentiments to me,
21 so I said in the past, Scranton Today ran
22 this place, ran Channel 61 on a shoestring
23 budget, did a much better job, we have a
24 microphone up to a speaker here. Great
25 equipment. I guess that's why nobody can
68
1 hear it on the television, and I think we
2 should make changes and get people in here
3 that know what we are doing. Thank you.
4 THE COURT: Peg Paris.
5 MS. PARIS: Good evening, everyone,
6 folks on council. I hope all of you have
7 had a happy holidays, and I'd like to before
8 I go into what I would like to say to have
9 the audience one more time give a round of
10 applause to Mrs. Novembrino who is a true
11 patriot. (Audience members applaud.)
12 Members of council, my friends and
13 neighbors are all here, not because we are
14 against something, it's what we are for. We
15 are for what I refer to always as
16 fundamental fairness. It has to be that
17 way. It can't be all of these privileges
18 for certain few at the expense of all of the
19 rest of us. At election time signs are put
20 on residential lawns and homes for democrat
21 or republican candidates, and after the
22 election the signs for the candidates are
23 removed. Unfortunately, all over this town
24 signs on many more lawns and homes remain
25 and these signs say "For Sale."
69
1 So when they are lost to the
2 taxpayers that have to leave these homes, we
3 have to pick up where they leave off. There
4 is no income taxes coming from those homes.
5 The rest of us have to some way they will
6 find somehow to help make us, bring up taxes
7 to pay for those taxes that are lost.
8 Many of these homes are owned by
9 residents who can no longer maintain it and
10 who are in grave danger of foreclosure.
11 These families simply can't afford the
12 rising cost of fuel, mortgage payments,
13 maintenance, food and insurance, and
14 everything else. How do we get out of that
15 distressed -- how do we get out of this
16 distressed situation that we are in if we
17 continue to think about giving people
18 enormous raises.
19 Now council wants to ask for pay
20 raises. The entire country is in a terrible
21 financial turmoil and you are requesting pay
22 raises or thinking about it. Three members
23 of council, Mrs. Gatelli, Mr. McGoff, Ms.
24 Fanucci, are predictably going to vote for
25 this pay raise because they usually, almost
70
1 always, vote in the self-serving agendas
2 that they are presented with, never giving
3 any consideration to the common sense
4 budgets that are often proposed by Ms. Janet
5 Evans and giving raises for higher taxes,
6 pay raises, and consultation fees, always to
7 benefit themselves.
8 Members of Council, I ask you most
9 humbly do you really need a raise? This is
10 the people's money. We are the bank, you
11 are the employees, and I believe that the
12 bank must and should have an important say
13 in this matter and that you listen carefully
14 to what we have to say. Money is tight in
15 the Scranton area, and for a city still very
16 distressed, all of you have other jobs that
17 I'm sure provide good incomes for those of
18 you, and you live comfortably. Many of us
19 in this city do not. I suggest that you
20 forget about the raise, this very untimely
21 request. I don't think you need it. Make
22 due with what you have like the rest of us
23 have to do.
24 If you pursue these raises, the
25 person who will be up for election this year
71
1 will, I guarantee you, have a very hard time
2 convincing my neighbors, these wonderful
3 people, that they are working for them, and
4 if the firemen and policemen ask for a
5 raise, I ask you this, will you give it to
6 them? Thank you.
7 MR. MCGOFF: Thank you, Mrs. Paris.
8 Marie Schumacher.
9 MS. SCHUMACHER: Marie Schumacher,
10 city resident and member of the Taxpayers'
11 Association. I'm going to pick up where I
12 left off last week. At the December 2
13 meeting I noted that the Impanema Gill had a
14 federal tax lien imposed and asked whether
15 the $40,000 loan to them would be recalled.
16 Is there an answer available?
17 Over your extended December
18 vacation, Rejuvenescence was also in the
19 paper with a tax lien. What impact will
20 this have on their loan? Yanni's Bistro
21 doesn't answer their phone and it appears
22 that the business has closed. Has there
23 $36,000 loan been repaid?
24 Now, I would like clarification on
25 why the administrative code wasn't followed
72
1 in the hiring of the zoning officer?
2 Section 445-10 under zoning officer
3 appointment says: "The zoning officer shall
4 appointed by the mayor. Any full-time
5 zoning officer appointed after the adoption
6 of this chapter, shall require confirmation
7 by the city council."
8 So, I would like an answer on why
9 that did not happen.
10 Regarding Boscov's, on the eighth
11 the sales figures for December retail were
12 well-advertised. They were not healthy, but
13 since Boscov's is a privately held company
14 they don't have to report their sales, but
15 since they owe us $3 million, I would like
16 to know whether we are going to get regular
17 reports on how their sales stack up starting
18 with December '08 compared to '07 so we know
19 whether or not to have a good warm feeling
20 that are loans are going to be repaid or
21 whether we are going to have to eat that
22 money.
23 Now, just for a minute on pay
24 scales, there is a website called pay scale.
25 It's an on-line leader in compensation that
73
1 has been featured on a major television
2 networks and in newspapers across the
3 country. As of 8 January the typical salary
4 for city mayor in the United States ranged
5 from $37,751 to $74,647 with an average of
6 $62,000. When the distressed city status is
7 removed, the firefighters and police have a
8 negotiated contract and executed contract
9 and a percent of our population living below
10 the poverty line is less than 10 percent,
11 might be a better time to increase
12 compensation. Better yet, the mayor's
13 salary should remain at the present level
14 until and unless the wage tax is lowered.
15 While I am unable to quote the
16 figure provided by Mrs. Gatelli during the
17 2009 budget discussions because minutes
18 haven't been posted for over a month, I
19 believe it was about $40,000 in the budget
20 for the solicitation of the programs to
21 increase the number of registered rental
22 properties, and I would like to know when
23 that solicitation will be advertised.
24 I would also like to know what steps
25 Mrs. Gatelli has taken to advance her
74
1 proposal for a Home Rule Charter review.
2 I would also like to request city
3 council set a caucus to receive public
4 comments on the proposed stimulus projects
5 before they are submitted to the NEPA
6 Alliance.
7 New subject, back in 2002
8 Mr. Doherty announced his intention to buy
9 three portable ice skating rinks for $8,000
10 with money left over from $15,000 the parks
11 department received through the state. The
12 park's director, Mr. Scopelliti, said each
13 43 by 75 foot ring would accommodate about
14 32 skaters. The tentative plan was to place
15 the rinks in crowded parks, Tripp Park and
16 Hartman Field. My question, where are these
17 rinks in 2009 and why aren't they being
18 used?
19 Now, Mr. Doherty is recorded in the
20 Times-Tribune as dismissing favoritism in
21 the hiring of Zachary Connors, and defended
22 the hiring as consistent with past
23 administrative practices. I would dearly
24 love to see the list of all unqualified
25 employees hired at the top of the salary
75
1 range, perhaps, you could ask the mayor to
2 provide this list during motions tonight.
3 And then I'll close by noting that
4 the room access by the door to the left of
5 the dais is now being utilized by ECTV.
6 When Scranton Today was carrying council
7 meetings, they were evicted from that room
8 as it was needed for HVAC equipment.
9 Strange how times change. Now I know for
10 sure I'm back in Scranton where everything
11 depends on who you know.
12 MR. MCGOFF: Thank you, Mrs.
13 Schumacher. Joe Talimini.
14 MR. TALIMINI: Good evening, Council,
15 Joe Talimini, City of Scranton. First of
16 all, I'd like to wish a happy birthday to
17 Mrs. Tomko, she is very gracious and a very
18 nice lady, and I wish her many, many more.
19 MS. EVANS: Thank you.
20 MS. TALIMINI: I find it ludicrous
21 that you people even make comparisons to the
22 City of Allentown. They are twice as large
23 as we are, far more progressive than we are,
24 they have a Home Rule Charter as well, but
25 never occurred to anybody, and especially to
76
1 the mayor, obviously, that Allentown has
2 something Scranton is lacking terribly, they
3 have commerce and they have industry. So,
4 make all of the comparisons you want about
5 who is worth what, but until we get commerce
6 and industry in this town, there is nobody
7 worth a dime in this city. Not a one of
8 you.
9 Now, you talk about a possibility of
10 a raise, okay, this is tabled. Are you
11 willing to give back for every meeting you
12 miss or for every vacation time you take,
13 and I don't want to hear the stories about,
14 oh, this such a difficult job. If it's so
15 damn difficult why do you want it?
16 MS. FANUCCI: Oh, you don't?
17 MR. TALIMINI: I just don't
18 understand it. You know, don't tell me how
19 great, you know, and how dedicated you are
20 to the public. Mr. McGoff, you know, you
21 insult my intelligence when you make a
22 comment about responsibility. Do you know
23 what responsibility means? Your
24 responsibility is to the taxpayers of this
25 city, and you people had better learn that,
77
1 because election time is coming up and I
2 guarantee you there is it song that goes
3 around that says, "Another one bites the
4 dust," and I'm hopeful that quite a few of
5 will bite the dust in the very near future
6 because you not doing with the job you are
7 paid for -- excuse me, underpaid for.
8 MR. MCGOFF: Underpaid.
9 MR. TALIMINI: Now, I'll agree with
10 you, the mayor's salary is not up the par,
11 but the mayor is far from being up to par as
12 well. My question to you is a very simple
13 thing, politics is a very interesting game.
14 You are all involved or you wouldn't be
15 sitting up there. We have candidates up
16 there, we have candidates in the audience.
17 If this job is so bad and it pays so low why
18 in the hell would you want it? It makes no
19 sense at all. I'd just love an explanation
20 for that?
21 MS. FANUCCI: I'd love you to give
22 you an explanation.
23 MR. TALIMINI: Oh, I'd love to hear
24 your version.
25 MS. FANUCCI: I'd love to tell you.
78
1 I'd love to tell you. If you seriously
2 think that we get in this business because
3 for whatever reason besides the fact we are
4 trying to better the city, whether it's my
5 version, whether it's Mrs. Evans' version --
6 MR. TALIMINI: Oh, please.
7 MS. FANUCCI: All right. Is that
8 Mrs. Evans' version? But if you think that
9 it's different for any of us for our reasons
10 for being here you obviously you have no
11 idea what you are speaking about. You can
12 come here week after week, we do not -- do
13 you think that any of us would do it for the
14 fun of it? I mean, really you have to be
15 kidding mea?
16 MR. TALIMINI: Lady --
17 MS. FANUCCI: Wait. Wait. Did you
18 ask me a question?
19 MR. TALIMINI: You are on my time.
20 MS. FANUCCI: Did you ask me a
21 question? Oh, so, you don't want an answer.
22 MR. TALIMINI: No, not from you.
23 MS. FANUCCI: Of course you don't.
24 MR. TALIMINI: Not from you
25 especially, please.
79
1 MS. FANUCCI: You want to just keep
2 spewing all your propaganda.
3 MR. TALIMINI: Well, let me tell you
4 something --
5 MS. FANUCCI: Enjoy. Enjoy. You
6 are doing well.
7 MR. TALIMINI: Shut up. It's my
8 turn.
9 MS. FANUCCI: That's right. You are
10 doing well?
11 MR. TALIMINI: Now, enough of you.
12 Every one of you is up there because you are
13 elected. Most of you want to be reelected.
14 MS. FANUCCI: Exactly.
15 MR. TALIMINI: Don't give me this bit
16 that you are so dedicated to this city,
17 because you are certainly not. If you were
18 you would be taking care of the citizens of
19 this city and not your own mayor and your
20 own agendas. Now, there is another little
21 aspect it here --
22 MS. FANUCCI: Wrong again. You are
23 wrong again. I just want to state for the
24 record you are wrong again, but you are used
25 to that and you are good at it, so continue,
80
1 please.
2 MR. TALIMINI: Okay, mouth, get back
3 to your hairdressing and your Irish
4 attitude--
5 MR. MCGOFF: Excuse me --
6 MS. FANUCCI: --and to all of you
7 people out there who are hairdressers and
8 actually stay-at-home mom and actually have
9 other jobs that I guess besides journalism
10 you are not allowed to run for office. This
11 isn't your city. It's not your city. You
12 have no place to be here. It's only for
13 people like him, so please --
14 MR. MCGOFF: Please.
15 MS. FANUCCI: -- don't run. Please,
16 don't tell me --
17 MR. MCGOFF: I understand.
18 Mr. Talimini is out of order.
19 MR. TALIMINI: Don't say Mr.
20 Talimimi, say Mrs. Fanucci.
21 MR. MCGOFF: You were out of order.
22 MR. TALIMINI: I was not out of
23 order. You are out of order, sir. Now,
24 let's get back to this thing. If this job
25 is so bad and it's so lousy why do you want
81
1 to run again and why are these people here
2 who want to run for this office in this
3 city? This dedication nonsense, no. There
4 has got to be an awful lot of aside.
5 Holding office, obviously, has many fringe
6 benefits that the public doesn't know about
7 it or you sure in hell wouldn't be up there,
8 and most of you don't deserve to be up
9 there.
10 MR. MCGOFF: Charlie Newcomb.
11 MR. NEWCOMB: Good evening, Council.
12 I just would like to speak on a few things.
13 I also am very glad that the raises were
14 taken off the agenda and I hope that they
15 are not put on because the country is in
16 serious trouble and I believe everybody
17 knows a circumstances of the taxpayers and
18 the citizens of this city. I would just
19 like to talk about a few different things.
20 Also, in the mayor's budget, I believe,
21 there was supposed to be a $10,000, correct
22 me if I'm wrong with these two people, but I
23 think a $10,000 increase in the salary and I
24 believe it was Mr. Hayes and was it Mrs.
25 Moran or who it was?
82
1 MS. FANUCCI: No.
2 MR. NEWCOMB: Wasn't there a $10,000
3 raise that you wanted to give?
4 MS. GATELLI: It didn't pass.
5 MR. NEWCOMB: I know that, but, I
6 mean, those were the two positions I mean,
7 right?
8 MS. FANUCCI: Yeah.
9 MR. NEWCOMB: Well, that's what I was
10 going to say, just like I'm glad that those
11 weren't given, but I would like to make
12 something clear. I know it was the past
13 council, but if you remember, and I had a
14 conversation on the phone with a few of you
15 council people, the chief of police was
16 given a $10,000 raise -- oh, 13, I'm sorry,
17 and it was the fire chief, too. That's
18 right, I'm sorry, but what we did, when I
19 mean "we" is the people what a lot didn't
20 realize is that for every retired chief of
21 police and firemen if they got, I just use
22 ten, if we -- they would get half of the
23 raise. So these -- I use these things as
24 stupid things that we do, meaning we as
25 people running businesses in the city, so
83
1 for every year that goes by that Mr. Elliott
2 and I believe it's Mr. Davis got the
3 increase in their pay, every retired fire
4 chief that is it alive today and every
5 retired police chief is getting half. So,
6 if they got ten you gave everybody five, so
7 add that up what that's going to cost off
8 the next, you know, hopefully these
9 gentlemen will live a long time, just think
10 how much that would cost us for two raises.
11 MS. GATELLI: Charlie, I just have a
12 question, if the police and fire get a new
13 contract and they get a raise do all of the
14 retired police and firemen get a raise, too?
15 MR. NEWCOMB: I believe they get
16 50 percent. They would get half of any
17 increases later on down the road. That's
18 the way I think it works. I could be wrong
19 but --
20 MS. GATELLI: Thank you.
21 MR. NEWCOMB: -- I believe they would
22 get 50 percent if it goes down the road.
23 MR. COURTRIGHT: Based on when they
24 were hired, I think, right?
25 MR. NEWCOMB: It goes back to their
84
1 years, I'm sure it does. Like, after a
2 certain year when they get hired their
3 health care doesn't go with them, but hired
4 through a certain year their health care
5 goes with them and their spouses, I believe,
6 when they retire.
7 And just for another knowledge is
8 that I know I hear a lot of talk about the
9 mayor, you know, what $50,000, I don't know
10 what my opinion if that is -- in todays'
11 day and age a lot of people I'm sure would
12 be happy to make $50,000 with the economy,
13 but here is what we also have to look at
14 what's happened in the city, and I think
15 it's a terrible thing. I don't know the
16 gentleman from Adam from eve, so this is not
17 a personal attack, but we had a position of
18 our business administrator, which
19 Mr. Krushefski when he left his salary was
20 $85,000. Mr. Renda had a job in the city
21 that was making I believe in the low 30's,
22 now he makes $85,000 and what Mr. -- the
23 other gentleman's salary was. Does it make
24 sense that we pay our business administrator
25 $35,000 more than the mayor who should be
85
1 quote/unquote whoever the mayor is the CEO
2 of the city? So, if anybody thinks of
3 raising a mayor's salary, what I think
4 should be done is adjusting our business
5 administrator's salary, because I'm sure he
6 doesn't have as many job duties as the mayor
7 doesn't answer to everybody, that's an
8 appointed position, as a matter of fact, you
9 don't run for business administrator, even
10 if you reduced his salary by 20,000 he would
11 still be making 65,000 which is more than
12 anybody in this city makes now of the
13 administration, the mayor's administration.
14 I believe the fire chief and the police
15 chief are cl