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1 SCRANTON CITY COUNCIL MEETING
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5 HELD:
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7 Tuesday, February 17, 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 (Pledge of Allegiance recited and moment of reflection
2 observed.)
3 MR. MCGOFF: Roll call, please?
4 MS. MAGNOTTA: Mrs. Evans.
5 MS. EVANS: Here.
6 MS. MAGNOTTA: Mrs. Gatelli.
7 MS. GATELLI: Here.
8 MS. MAGNOTTA: Ms. Fanucci.
9 MS. FANUCCI: Here.
10 MS. MAGNOTTA: Mr. Courtright.
11 MR. COURTRIGHT: Here.
12 MS. MAGNOTTA: Mr. McGoff.
13 MR. MCGOFF: Here. Dispense with
14 the reading of the minutes.
15 MS. GARVEY: 3-A. AGENDA FOR THE
16 ZONING HEARING BOARD MEETING HELD ON
17 FEBRUARY 11, 2009.
18 MR. MCGOFF: Are there any comments?
19 If not, received and filed.
20 MS. GARVEY: 3-B. APPLICATIONS AND
21 DECISIONS RENDERED BY THE ZONING HEARING
22 BOARD MEETING HELD ON FEBRUARY 11, 2009.
23 MR. MCGOFF: Are there any comments?
24 If not, received and filed.
25 MS. GARVEY: 3-C. TAX COLLECTION
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1 COMPARISON REPORTS RECEIVED FROM THE SINGLE
2 TAX OFFICE ON FEBRUARY 13, 2009.
3 MR. MCGOFF: Are there any comments?
4 If not, received and filed.
5 MS. GARVEY: That's it for Third
6 Order.
7 MR. MCGOFF: Thank you, Mrs. Garvey.
8 Announcements? Mrs. Gatelli?
9 MS. GATELLI: Yeah. I have a few.
10 I know that there was an article in the
11 paper the other day, I read from
12 Commissioner Munchak asking about the real
13 estate tax bills. It's funny, I asked
14 Mrs. Garvey to do that last week, also, as I
15 hadn't received my real estate taxes yet. I
16 since have received them. I believe they
17 came last Thursday, which would have been
18 the 12th, and I asked if there would be an
19 extension for people to pay their taxes by
20 the end of February and you can get a
21 discount being that we got them two weeks
22 late I thought there would be a two-week
23 extension, but I was told that there will
24 not be extension, but the office is open
25 Saturday from nine to noon for the whole
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1 month of February, so anyone who is
2 interested in paying their real estate
3 taxes, the Single Tax Office will be open
4 from nine to noon on Saturdays for the month
5 of February.
6 I'll just repeat the upcoming
7 events. Chad Lewis' benefit is this
8 Saturday from 6 to 10 at Holy Rosary. The
9 one for Joseph Noones is the 28th and the
10 Clarion at 8:00, and the one for Mr. Chapman
11 is March 7 from 1 to 5.
12 Also, I got my gas bill this week,
13 as I'm sure all of you did, also, and inside
14 of it was another rate increase. They want
15 to raise the rates starting in March,
16 March 29, 2009, which isn't very far away,
17 so you can file a formal complaint before
18 May 29, 2009, so I guess you will get a
19 rebate maybe if they don't get it approved,
20 send a letter for a formal complaint, and I
21 would just ask my colleagues that we'll have
22 Mrs. Garvey file this complaint on behalf of
23 city council to represent the taxpayers
24 against this raise. I don't know if it will
25 matter, but I think we have to at least
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1 challenge it as we have in the past with the
2 electric rates and things of that nature
3 that we have fought. Unfortunately, we
4 don't have Mr. Malino anymore. He was our
5 advocate for fighting the utilities, but
6 since his passing no one stepped up to the
7 plate to be our advocate by the City of
8 Scranton, so we will send a letter on behalf
9 of council and file our complaint. And I
10 think that's all I have.
11 MS. EVANS: I'd ask everyone to
12 please remember in your prayers all those
13 who have died this past week, particularly
14 Margaret McHale Cawley, mother of former
15 State Representative Gaynor Cawley, and all
16 her dear family and friends she leaves
17 behind.
18 Also, the Upper Hill Ecumenical
19 Committee invites you to dine at Friendly's
20 in Dunmore tomorrow evening from 5 to 8 p.m.
21 A percentage of all food receipts from 5 to
22 8 p.m. will be donated to the St. Francis of
23 Assisi Kitchen to feed the poor and homeless
24 of our community. Enjoy a great meal and
25 support a great cause tomorrow, February 18,
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1 at Friendly's in Dunmore.
2 Also, the Northeastern Pennsylvania
3 chapter of the friends of the NRA will host
4 their annual banquet on Saturday, March 28,
5 at Genetti Manor in Dickson City. The event
6 begins at 5:00 p.m. and tickets are $40
7 each, $75 for couples and $25 for those
8 under the age of it one, and that's all.
9 MR. MCGOFF: Mr. Courtright?
10 MR. COURTRIGHT: Yeah, just two
11 things. I, too, would like to send my
12 condolences to the Cawley family, a great
13 family actually. I have been asked to read
14 this for the next two or three weeks, it's a
15 press release, and it says, "We want you for
16 the new alumni directory. West Scranton
17 High School would like to introduce the West
18 Scranton alumni directory, the most
19 comprehensive directory West Scranton High
20 School ever published. The contents of the
21 directory will be divided into four
22 sections, biographical, geographical, class
23 roster, and most importantly the
24 introductory section showing the schools
25 history and events. All efforts are being
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1 made to contact West Scranton High School
2 alumni via phone, e-mail and mail to verify
3 biographical information.
4 West Scranton High School has a
5 contract with Alumni Research, Incorporated,
6 to collect and compile the information into
7 a hardbound library, quality volume in an
8 on-line community. This directory is made
9 able to West Scranton High School Alumni
10 only and is a limited edition press run and
11 offer only one time.
12 Alumni Research, Incorporated, is in
13 the process of contacting those who have
14 provided current telephone numbers and
15 addresses to verify biographical
16 information. Please help alumni to keep in
17 touch with you. If you are interested in
18 replying and you have not received any
19 communication from Alumni Research
20 Incorporated, you may call 1-800-299-1230.
21 1-800-299-1230, and I have been asked to
22 read this for the next two or three weeks so
23 I will do so, and that's you I have. Thank
24 you.
25 MR. MCGOFF: I have one thing that I
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1 would like to make mention, it's the Ryan
2 Mason Mehalchick Memorial Fund. Ryan
3 Mehalchick was a one-year-old son of Mark
4 and Diane Mehalchick who died in his sleep.
5 Mark and Diane are residents of Dunmore, but
6 Mark has a number of -- I know Mark and
7 Diane have a number of friends in the
8 Scranton area. Mark is very active in the
9 running community.
10 Also, Ryan's grandmother is known to
11 many people in the area, Dolly Mehalchick,
12 who worked for the County Drug and Alcohol
13 Council, and also Ryan's great grandmother,
14 Delores D'Renzio who is a long-time resident
15 of South Scranton, so I'd just like to make
16 the announcement of the creation of this
17 fund. It's going to be to benefit
18 children's activities and areas for children
19 throughout the community. They are starting
20 in the Dunmore area where they live, but the
21 Ryan Mason Mehalchick Memorial Fund you can
22 access it or contribute to it care of First
23 National Community Bank, 102 East Drinker
24 Street in Dunmore, 18512. And anything that
25 you could do to assist in that fund would be
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1 appreciated by many.
2 MS. GATELLI: Yes. I just wanted to
3 say to my fellow council members that
4 Mr. Nardone from the Times Leader asked me
5 if we could prepare a list of announcements
6 that we make every week that he would be
7 able to publish them, and I think we have
8 asked ECTV to run them on the screen, so I
9 have made a short list of the ones I
10 announced, if the other council members
11 would, and we can give them to Kay after the
12 meeting she can compile them and give them
13 to the media and then they can be advertised
14 accordingly.
15 MR. MCGOFF: Also, one other thing,
16 last week during caucus a list of proposed
17 projects for the stimulus package was
18 presented to us and compiled by us, I don't
19 know if I'm preempting anything, but I would
20 -- if you didn't mind I was going to read
21 through them and if there is anyone that has
22 any suggestions for other projects we would
23 be certainly glad I think we would be glad
24 to entertain ideas that other people may
25 have, but these will be presented to the
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1 mayor for his consideration for the money
2 that hopefully we will receive from that
3 stimulus program, and these are in no
4 particular order. It's not a priority, you
5 know, from top to bottom just a listing of
6 things: Main Avenue curb sidewalks and
7 lighting from Jackson Street to Luzerne
8 Street; Keyser Avenue storm water plan; East
9 Elm Street water project on East Mountain;
10 Cane Street drainage and paving; complete
11 renovations to city hall to properly house
12 juvenile detective office at OECD;
13 construction of a lighted sports complex
14 with ASA regulation field; basketball
15 walking trail -- basketball court walking
16 trail to replace South Side Sports Complex;
17 repairs to Parker Street Bridge an
18 elimination of flooding on Parker Street;
19 repairs to Rockwell Avenue and Lackawanna
20 Avenue Bridges; repairs to Crisp Avenue,
21 damage called by flooding; street leveling
22 and curbs in Oakwood Estate; road repair and
23 redirection of storm water on Ridgeview
24 Drive; sewer and road repair on North
25 Cameron Avenue and Merrifield Street; road
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1 repair at the corner of Marvin and Wells
2 Street. The road has collapsed several feet
3 into the ground.
4 Additional lighting in neighborhoods
5 and in high crime areas or and high crime
6 areas; curb and sidewalk projects in the
7 city neighborhoods; city street paving;
8 Scranton Sewer Authority upgrades mandated
9 by EPA and DEP; and repair of underground
10 lighting problems at the Spruce Street
11 projects and 81 off-ramp into the City of
12 Scranton.
13 Those are once that were presented
14 by council members, and I as I said, if
15 there is anyone that has any other
16 possibilities or ideas for projects that
17 could be included we would be -- we would
18 welcome the opportunity to put them with
19 this list, and that is all I have. Fourth
20 order. Citizens' participation. Andy
21 Sbaraglia.
22 MR. SBARAGLIA: Andy Sbaraglia,
23 citizen of Scranton. Fellow Scrantonians,
24 as we all know the state is 2 1/2 million
25 dollars in debt. It's been really, really
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1 put out. They want to close our School for
2 the Deaf, okay? But look at what they are
3 planning for the Connell Building? They
4 have five million to put into that, another
5 four million they put into it and now they
6 are looking for another million. Do you
7 wonder why this state is in debt? I mean,
8 they don't make sense at all, mean, a man
9 buys a building he should be able to fix the
10 building. They shouldn't ask the City of
11 Scranton to -- well, the taxpayers. Why
12 should all of the taxpayers have to pay the
13 to fix his building, same with the 500 block
14 of Lackawanna Avenue when the debt is
15 climbing in the city? I don't know what
16 it's going to be next here, but 2 1/2
17 million and close the School for the Deaf,
18 but then spend millions to fix up the
19 Connell building shows you where the
20 priority is in this administration in
21 Harrisburg. It's just too bad that they
22 care about -- well, let's look at it. Where
23 money goes, money gets.
24 Okay, let's get into Boscov's.
25 Boscov's sold off where Nissan is, that used
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1 to be the Montgomery Ward garage. He sold
2 that off from the mall project. He also
3 sold the leases, $22 million he got for the
4 leases at Boscov's. We got very little from
5 it. In fact, we got almost nothing from it.
6 Now, you said he pays $200,000 in the city,
7 but you didn't subject what we are paying
8 for his debt from that $200,000, so what
9 does that mean? He is giving the city
10 nothing? This man took the mall -- the last
11 time I checked the mall was on the books for
12 a 1 million I think 200,000. He went and
13 got it reduced to 400,000. I asked how he
14 did it and they said there is no record.
15 All there is what it was and what it is.
16 Now, when you start looking at some
17 of the other things, he is suing the
18 theatre. Okay, he is suing the theatre.
19 All of these things he is doing for himself.
20 Some people pointed out that he may be
21 generous, but I bet he is writing it off his
22 income tax. When he takes it out of his
23 pocket that's generous. When he writes it
24 off his taxes that isn't generous, it's just
25 a tax right off. Well, we got to look into
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1 those things. If it was Boscov himself I
2 would say let him sink, but we are not
3 talking about Boscov as himself, we are
4 talking about probably thousands of people
5 and three million or what we are going give
6 them, which we probably will be because I
7 don't see how we cannot give them, for them
8 sinking the 90 employees he says he has in
9 this area.
10 And like I said before, what the
11 heck, we lost millions at the Hilton Hotel,
12 we got lots of money. Somewhere along the
13 line though they will catch up with
14 everybody, but most of us will be out of the
15 area, maybe even dead by then. But like I
16 said before, Boscov hasn't been fair to us
17 as taxpayers. He has been fair to himself
18 mand there is no question about that,
19 because when he went and reduced his taxes
20 on the mall that reflected us. When he sold
21 the leases for $22 million and we got very
22 little out of it, that effected us, too.
23 And then to find out we are paying for a
24 loan that was even another slap in the face,
25 but like I say before, for Boscov's I would
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1 let him sink, but for the sake of the 90
2 employees I say vote for the three million.
3 It's a small price to pay for keeping a
4 family together, maybe a roof over their
5 heads and whatever else that may come out of
6 it. Thank you.
7 MR. MCGOFF: Thank you,
8 Mr. Sbaraglia. Ozzie Quinn.
9 MR. QUINN: Ozzie Quinn, Taxpayers'
10 Association. First of all, the debt in the
11 City of Scranton is soaring. It's
12 $159 million of principle, and I learned
13 like when Mr. Martin was here, you know,
14 these attorneys. I know that one law firm
15 out of Philadelphia, Baylord, Spaar and
16 Engersol, Henders, they have made $239,772,
17 okay? They have yet to pay and they are
18 going to have to pay Hourigan, Kluger and
19 Quinn and Goldberg.
20 This is a lot of money. Now, how
21 can we ever get out of debt if we keep on
22 spending this money for lawyers? Now, what
23 the city administration is doing is
24 infantile, you know. These people, you
25 know, taking a Machiavellian attitude, you
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1 know, these people are suffering. They have
2 families these firefighters and police, and
3 the taxpayers can't afford it, and if you
4 can do anything get them to the table and
5 separate this here thing, will you? We
6 support the firefighters and the police. We
7 would be insane if we didn't. The other
8 thing is this here, you hire two new housing
9 inspectors, and I don't know if any is going
10 to be in the Hill, from my understanding
11 none of them are, but that's not what want
12 to ask you tonight. I found out that the
13 housing inspectors actually don't do the
14 housing inspection. Maybe Judy you is
15 answer this, there is contract with
16 Mid-Atlantic Company who does the housing
17 inspections?
18 MS. GATELLI: No, they are
19 underwriters, Ozzie, and they do inspections
20 for electrical service and plumbing and
21 things like that.
22 MR. QUINN: Yeah, that's what I'm
23 saying. Yes.
24 MS. GATELLI: Yes, I believe there
25 is.
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1 MR. QUINN: Yes.
2 MS. GATELLI: I believe they do it.
3 Mr. Fiorini is involved with that.
4 MR. QUINN: So saying that we have
5 housing inspectors is a -- -
6 MS. GATELLI: Well, they are
7 underwriters. Besides an inspection you
8 need an underwriter's tag when you do
9 certain things.
10 MR. QUINN: Because none of the
11 inspectors are qualified.
12 MS. GATELLI: Well, they can't be
13 underwriters and be housing inspectors.
14 MR. QUINN: Do you know -- do you
15 know that the former director of your job,
16 okay, is working with Mid-Atlantic?
17 MS. GATELLI: Yes. Yes, I do know
18 that. I do know that.
19 MR. QUINN: You know, how can you --
20 how can you ever stop this corruption. It's
21 unbelievable. How can we ever get out of
22 it? Nobody -- some of these people houses
23 were condemned and they never knew that
24 Mid-Atlantic was around.
25 MS. GATELLI: Well, they wouldn't
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1 inspect their house, Ozzie.
2 MR. QUINN: Well, they have to if
3 you are going --
4 MS. GATELLI: Well, it's an
5 underwriter. It's a whole different thing,
6 different from house inspectors. A house
7 inspector is not an underwriter with the
8 utility company.
9 MS. FANUCCI: You need both.
10 MS. GATELLI: So it's a whole
11 different ballgame.
12 MR. QUINN: Do they go into the
13 house with the inspectors?
14 MS. GATELLI: I don't know that
15 answer.
16 MR. QUINN: You know that because
17 you -- did you ever go in with them?
18 MS. GATELLI: I never in with an
19 underwriter.
20 MR. QUINN: Well, how did you condemn
21 a house?
22 MS. GATELLI: They usually come in
23 later and inspect the work --
24 MR. QUINN: That's not what I know.
25 MS. GATELLI: -- from the utility
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1 company.
2 MR. QUINN: That's not what I know.
3 That's not what I know. Because the
4 inspectors do not know -- I know these
5 people who were just hired, they are good
6 people, but they don't know diddly about
7 housing inspections. Come on, Judy, you
8 know that. Thank you.
9 MS. GATELLI: Well, I wouldn't say
10 that about them. I guess Mrs. Fowler and
11 Mrs. Gillette are here to defend themselves.
12 MR. MCGOFF: Thank you, Mr. Quinn.
13 Bill Jackowitz.
14 MR. JACKOWITZ: Bill Jackowitz, South
15 Scranton resident and member of the
16 Taxpayers' Association. Be courteous to
17 all, but intimate with few and let those few
18 be well tried before you give them your
19 confidence. George Washington said that.
20 Okay, free swimming. I talked with
21 Mr. Dougher from Parks and Recreation and he
22 assured me that everybody who will be paying
23 $3.00 to use the pool and use the slide this
24 year. There will be no free swimming. The
25 mayor is not offering free swimming to
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1 anyone, so the most important aspect in my
2 opinion of Nay Aug Park is the pool and the
3 slide. Well, guess what? You are going to
4 pay $3.00 to use it just like we have in the
5 past.
6 We are starting the Free Swim
7 Program. Anyone who would like to make a
8 contribution, "Kids Swim Free," 1416 South
9 Webster Avenue, Scranton, Pennsylvania,
10 18505. We are going to start early because
11 money is tight this year, although I guess
12 the mayor doesn't realize that because he is
13 still going to charge $3 for everybody to
14 use the pool and slide. So, again, there is
15 no free swimming by the city, but there will
16 be free swimming sponsored by the Taxpayers'
17 Association.
18 The Connell building, I see where
19 they want another $1 million for the Connell
20 building. When is going to stop? When is
21 it going to stop? How many more millions of
22 dollars of taxpayers' money, again, I
23 emphasized this before and I guess I will
24 have to emphasize it again. There is a
25 difference between private money and public
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1 money. Public money is my money. Public
2 money is your money. Private money is the
3 person who owns that building's money. They
4 are the ones that are going to reap the
5 profit. They are ones that are going to
6 make the profits. They are the ones who are
7 going to buy a car and the -- not the
8 taxpayers. The only thing the taxpayer is
9 going to do is suffer the loss if it fails.
10 When is it going to stop? Millions and
11 millions of dollars. We got $30 million
12 plus tied up in the 500 block of Lackawanna
13 County and it's a mess and it's been a mess
14 for five years. It's still a mess.
15 There is more potholes, and I don't
16 know, I don't think that project is ever
17 going to finish. I can't wait for it to
18 finish because I really want to see where
19 those 30 plus million dollars was spent. I
20 really do.
21 Now, there is a nasty rumor
22 circulating and I would like to get this
23 clear if I can tonight about people not
24 paying parking tickets. Is that true? Mrs.
25 Fanucci, is that true?
23
1 MS. FANUCCI: I was waiting all day
2 since, obviously, you have been frequenting
3 the wonderful website.
4 MR. JACKOWITZ: No, I do not go on
5 the website.
6 MS. FANUCCI: Well, okay.
7 MR. JACKOWITZ: I don't own a
8 computer. I don't even own a computer, but
9 people have been calling me and I said I
10 would bring it up.
11 MS. FANUCCI: From what I gathered I
12 did go to figure out what was going on,
13 parking tickets were -- I do owe two right
14 now. I do owe two parking tickets, so I am
15 guilty of that, but parking tickets in 2000
16 were under my name and my husband's name at
17 the time and he -- they were paid from what
18 I gathered. I mean, it's not like they
19 weren't paid, so it seems to be a lot of
20 hype.
21 He said that even when you settle --
22 he went in to pay that it didn't go on the
23 link as whatever, you paid them, but --
24 MR. JACKOWITZ: Okay, I appreciate
25 your candor, but there were also other names
24
1 mentioned of other influential people in the
2 City of Scranton. President McGoff, can you
3 check that out, please, because if people
4 have not been paying their parking tickets
5 for the last eight to nine years,
6 influential people within the City of
7 Scranton, that's a lot of lost of revenue
8 that as been lost to the City of Scranton.
9 Some of this stuff is up to like 17, 18
10 hundred dollars in back parking tickets, so
11 if that's true I think we as citizens need
12 to know this and the people who have not
13 paid their parking tickets need to start
14 paying these tickets and also have some
15 fines and penalties assessed to them for
16 being late, just like we do with homeowners,
17 so/SOERBGS can you please do that for me,
18 Mr. McGoff?
19 MR. MCGOFF: It's not that I'm
20 reluctant to, it's just that what you are
21 asking me to do is actually to investigate
22 what might be a criminal activity.
23 MR. JACKOWITZ: Exactly. But, I'm
24 not asking you to investigate it, I'm just
25 asking you to look into the matter.
25
1 MR. MCGOFF: Well, that's
2 investigating and, like I said, I'm not
3 reluctant to but what I think what we are
4 looking at if you are serious this is
5 something that should be done through the
6 District Attorney's Office.
7 MR. JACKOWITZ: I agree with you.
8 MR. MCGOFF: Okay.
9 MR. JACKOWITZ: I'm pretty sure it's
10 going to be done that way. I was just
11 asking you if you were going to assist or
12 cooperate in the matter?
13 MR. MCGOFF: I will try.
14 MR. JACKOWITZ: Okay.
15 MR. MCGOFF: To what extent I can.
16 MR. JACKOWITZ: Okay. I will take
17 that for what it's worth. Thank you. Also,
18 speakers at council meetings, you know --
19 well, I'll finish it later. Got cut off by
20 the bell. The bell ringer got me again.
21 MR. MCGOFF: Thank you,
22 Mr. Jackowitz. Mike Dudek.
23 MR. DUDEK: Good evening, Council.
24 My name is Mike Dudek, 608 Depot Street,
25 Scranton. I live down there in the Plot.
26
1 Last week I spoke to you about the need to
2 keep the Scranton State School for the Deaf
3 open, I think we all accept that. This week
4 I'm going to explain to you how and why as
5 city council you should take the lead in
6 helping to keep it open.
7 The newspaper reports that Senator
8 Mellow and Representatives Smith and Kevin
9 Murphy are greatly involved in it. However,
10 it's just like playing bridge. You pick up
11 your hand and you count your cards and you
12 assess the situation. They are not the most
13 powerful people that you can get to do this.
14 Believe it or not, you are the five of you.
15 As a city council there are two
16 basic responsibilities that you have, one is
17 to pass legislation for the city, and
18 Mrs. Gatelli pointed out the other one when
19 she pointed out how she was going to have
20 council write a letter supporting people
21 with their gas or their electric bills,
22 that's city council. That's an example of
23 city council using it's voice in public
24 protest. That is the second and most
25 valuable function, and I'm suggesting that
27
1 city council create a committee of the
2 whole, and the membership of the committee
3 of the whole would be Mrs. Evans and Mrs.
4 Gatelli, Miss Fanucci, Mr. Courtright and
5 Mr. McGoff.
6 Now, Mr. McGoff is the president of
7 city council so I don't think, unless he
8 wants to, I don't think he should be the
9 president of this particular committee, he
10 should hand this one off to someone else
11 unless he wants it, okay, because this is a
12 committee of the whole that would report to
13 the president.
14 And the committee of the whole would
15 spur a fundraising drive to help keep the
16 school open, and my way of doing would be to
17 approach Channel 16 because they have the
18 capability of making one wonderful
19 ten-minute stories about anything they want
20 to and in a ten-minute take they could do a
21 wonderful story about the Scranton State
22 School for the deaf, with that tape one of
23 you or two of you or three of you could
24 approach the management of the world
25 champion Philadelphia Philly's, ask them to
28
1 see this tape, and ask them to help support
2 a fund drive here. Ryan Howard got what,
3 $54 million for three years for batting 251
4 last season. Fifty-four million and he hit
5 251. I think they can probably come up with
6 a few dollars for us.
7 Now, it might be a problem
8 approaching the Rooney family of the world
9 champion Pittsburgh Steelers because western
10 Pennsylvania has their own school for the
11 deaf, and that's a private institution, but
12 I would try it.
13 Now, take a look at say all of you,
14 if you find somebody in the City of Scranton
15 who is really into theatre who is close to
16 an actress named Marlee Matlin, you ever
17 hear of her? The deaf actress, deaf and
18 dumb, what if she were to find out that the
19 governor of the State of Pennsylvania wants
20 to close the first ever school for the deaf
21 ever built anywhere in the world? I think
22 ballistic would be a good way to describe
23 what would happen there.
24 There are many different ways we
25 could do this. Also, as a city council
29
1 working together as a committee of the whole
2 you could approach the leaders of this
3 community, the movers and the shakers of
4 this community to help spur a fundraising
5 drive. I think we would probably need in
6 the neighborhood of a million and a half to
7 two million dollars to put together to start
8 an endowment for the school to keep it
9 together, but if we do something like this
10 it will certainly show the governor that the
11 community wants this school open.
12 There is nothing to stop the
13 governor from closing this school because I
14 haven't really seen that, what can I put it,
15 community anger, community upset about it.
16 He could get away with doing it if we just
17 let it happen, and just having two
18 representatives and a state senator that's
19 not enough. It's just not enough to do it.
20 We have to be the people in that
21 Verizon commercial that you see, the guy
22 with his Verizon phone and he shows all the
23 people behind him, we have to do that, and
24 we to do it by raising the fund in a
25 communitywise drive, but I'm asking council
30
1 to appoint itself as a committee of the
2 whole to get it started.
3 MR. MCGOFF: Thank you, Mr. Dudek.
4 Lee Morgan.
5 MR. MORGAN: Good evening, city
6 council. The first thing I have, 5-C, I
7 would just -- I would like the council to
8 vote "No" on that. And on 7-C I would like
9 the council to vote "No" on that.
10 You know, I sat through these
11 meetings tonight, but when we started to
12 talk about the city's alleged indifference
13 to having a contract with the police and
14 fire, it's just ashame that it took this
15 long for somebody to decide to have some
16 dialogue, at least in this chambers, and I
17 mean I know that the election is coming up.
18 But, you know, it's just no excuse for this
19 thing to have gone this far because there
20 were statements made from this side about
21 PEL and OECD years ago and asking this
22 council and previous councils, let's come up
23 with an agreement.
24 But I do have to say this there is
25 one person who decided to start this fight,
31
1 and he is the mayor's office and then, of
2 course, the people who are his supporters,
3 not just on this council, but other
4 councils, didn't realize in my opinion that
5 they had an obligation to the community in
6 general to make sure that this battle never
7 got to the point it's reached now, and now
8 that the battle is burning, now that the
9 battle is just beginning to -- it looks like
10 the fire they had if Australia because this
11 thing is starting to burn completely out the
12 control, and now the city may not have the
13 funds to fight this battle because now the
14 unions have been joined by people that
15 understand what's going on here. And the
16 people that are the ones that are going to
17 be hurt the most are the people that you all
18 represent, they are the people in the
19 neighborhoods, and you failed every single
20 one of them.
21 I mean, I'm glad that tonight we saw
22 that there was a little bond here between
23 council. There has been some communication
24 and some understanding, but that needed to
25 happen a long time ago. I think that this
32
1 council and this mayor have forgotten who
2 they represent, just like our national
3 government has now that we find ourselves in
4 an economic meltdown and everybody is losing
5 all their assets.
6 I think this council needs to really
7 take good hard look at what it wants to
8 accomplish and, you know, we are talking
9 about the government stimulus program, you
10 know, Mr. McGoff, my idea for the stimulus
11 would be to start a curb and sidewalk
12 program and maybe you should go to the labor
13 unions and maybe some private contractors
14 and try to create a fund that will continue
15 to fund itself by going to people in the
16 neighborhoods and asking them if they would
17 like to contribute and maybe we can begin
18 real infrastructure in this city and curbs
19 and sidewalks, and maybe we should start
20 somewhere like on Loomis Street over on West
21 Side across from St. Ann's Street, all
22 right, because you know something, and I
23 just picked that out of my head, I really
24 don't care where we start.
25 But, you know, we have wasted a lot
33
1 of time with the Connell building and giving
2 people money and now we are starting to talk
3 about a replacement for the South Side
4 Sports Complex, why are we replacing assets
5 we already own and can we could anything for
6 the average person in this city besides tax
7 them into total oblivion and have just
8 elected officials who don't do their jobs?
9 Thank you.
10 MR. MCGOFF: Thank you, Mr. Morgan.
11 Joe Talimini.
12 MR. TALIMINI: Looks like a fun night
13 tonight. We have a problem again with the
14 storm sewers, I think everybody on this
15 council knows what they are. That's the
16 place where the water is supposed to drain
17 down. Nobody seems to know which streets
18 belongs to who, whether it's PennDOT or
19 whether it's DPW, but the other day as you
20 well know our building is undergoing major
21 reconstruction right now, I took a walk down
22 on the corner of Olive and North Washington,
23 and the only thing that's lacking is a
24 concrete wall over that storm drain because
25 I put a yard stick down there and I came up
34
1 with 20 inches of sludge, and a whole about
2 that big for the water to drain through.
3 After that I took a walk around the
4 block, went down Wyoming, I went further
5 down Washington Avenue, don't we have some
6 means whatsoever to extract the sludge and
7 things?
8 MS. GATELLI: Yes, we do.
9 MR. TALIMINI: I mean, do they ever
10 use it?
11 MS. GATELLI: Yes, they do.
12 MR. TALIMINI: When?
13 MS. GATELLI: Every day.
14 MR. TALIMINI: Where do they use it?
15 They sure don't use it in our area?
16 MS. GATELLI: Well, we'll report that
17 for you.
18 MR. TALIMINI: Well, it would be very
19 nice because, you know, with all of this
20 construction going on and we have a pile of
21 snow this high three days after the snow
22 fall. It's just melting now because there
23 is no place for it to go, which knocks out
24 two parking space in that area, there are
25 limited parking spaces.
35
1 I don't know how to tell them, but
2 the rainy season is coming in soon and
3 unless that sludge is removed we are going
4 to have a hell of a mess once again down on
5 Olive Street, all the way down to Providence
6 Road, the kids are going to be hiking over
7 the railroad tracks to get home from school,
8 etcetera, and it's a nice condition.
9 I don't know what to say about this
10 intransigeance on the part of the mayor. I
11 will say one thing, he is a very urealistic
12 mayor and it seems that we have some lead
13 councilmen within the same position, but I
14 don't think there is any real intransigence
15 on this police and fire deal. It's about
16 time that everybody grew up here. I mean,
17 if you want to pat yourself on the back
18 that's one thing, but don't do it at the
19 expense of the taxpayers because this city
20 needs to reign in it's spending. I mean, we
21 have supported lawyers, I'm sure there are
22 lawyers all over the world who would like to
23 move to the Scranton because of the bucks
24 they can make here.
25 You know, it's time take a good look
36
1 in the mirror, a real good look in the
2 mirror and see if you are really doing your
3 job. I know you are limited in what you can
4 do, but then again, there are those of you
5 who have access to that office downstairs
6 and nobody else has. And I asked Mr. Martin
7 the last time he spoke to the mayor
8 face-to-face and he said he never has.
9 That's ridiculous.
10 I mean, if this man wants to keep
11 his job the least he could do is represent
12 the people, not himself and his own
13 self-interests, and I'm not going to hammer
14 on this thing eternally, but until this guy
15 starts doing something maybe it's time for a
16 change. Thank you very much.
17 MR. MCGOFF: Thank you, Mr. Talimini.
18 Jim Stucker.
19 MR. STUCKER: Okay. Right across the
20 street from where Courtright therapist's
21 thing is or where the post office is
22 handicapped people can't get to the mailbox.
23 MR. COURTRIGHT: Why, Jim?
24 MR. STUCKER: On account of people
25 parking in front of the mailbox.
37
1 MR. COURTRIGHT: Jim, they are
2 allowed to pull up there and put the stuff
3 in the mailbox.
4 MR. STUCKER: Yeah, but there's
5 people -- there's people trying to get to
6 the mailbox, handicaps, they can't because
7 of the cars parked in front of the mailbox
8 right in front of it.
9 MR. COURTRIGHT: Okay.
10 MR. STUCKER: All right. And a lot
11 of holes out there. I mean, I was riding my
12 bike today first time, I had it out today.
13 MR. COURTRIGHT: Your scooter?
14 MR. STUCKER: No, my pedal bike, and
15 they got to start fixing the holes in the
16 road, Parrot Avenue, South Side, Moosic
17 Street, Greenridge, a lot of holes in
18 Greenridge really bad. I'm afraid someone
19 is going to bust their tire.
20 Now, in front of my building on
21 Jefferson Avenue one of our handicapped
22 signs is down, somebody -- a big truck must
23 have took it, took it and bent it off and
24 broke it to the bottom, it's laying on the
25 sidewalk up there so, because we have
38
1 problems. Lots.
2 And I talked to Mayor Doherty and he
3 said you got -- Courtright's got a lot of
4 money.
5 MR. COURTRIGHT: The mayor said I had
6 a lot of money?
7 MR. STUCKER: Yeah.
8 MR. COURTRIGHT: I'll trade him, how
9 about that. He could have my money and I'll
10 take his.
11 MR. STUCKER: I was walking -- I seen
12 him walking up to the building today here,
13 this building, and I talked to him and he
14 says he had to be in a hurry he had to go to
15 meeting today. So he told me thank you very
16 much for donating money for me, 25 bucks.
17 MR. COURTRIGHT: Oh, you are welcome,
18 Jim. You are welcome.
19 MR. STUCKER: Yeah.
20 MR. MCGOFF: Well, thank you, Jim.
21 MR. STUCKER: Our sidewalks are
22 really getting bad. Really, really bad.
23 Especially in front of Tink's and in front
24 of Judge and Jury. They are really bad. I
25 was with a guy today they fixed the guy's
39
1 pipe today, he had a sewage busted, so Judge
2 and Jury is not doing their jobs, they are
3 not doing the sidewalks, they're not
4 cleaning them, they are not picking up the
5 butts, and I'm not going to do it. I do it
6 for Danny Sheeley once in awhile, I pick up
7 the garbage for him.
8 MR. MCGOFF: We'll have to look into
9 that, all right?
10 MR. STUCKER: Yeah, because I have
11 been looking for a side job. I'm getting
12 bored sitting around.
13 MR. MCGOFF: Well, good luck.
14 MR. STUCKER: We need more cops.
15 MR. MCGOFF: Absolutely.
16 MR. STUCKER: We got to get them in
17 South Side, they are all over.
18 MR. MCGOFF: All right, Jim.
19 MR. STUCKER: Greenridge needs a lot.
20 MR. MCGOFF: Thank you very much.
21 MR. STUCKER: Would you put a -- I
22 don't know his name, you should write a
23 'tition and go to the house, go to house t
24 house and have a petition wrote up and have
25 the sidewalks done and the streets cleaned.
40
1 We need a sweeper out there.
2 What about that house on Moosic
3 Street, are they going to rip that down? I
4 was there the other day and they didn't do
5 nothing with it?
6 MR. COURTRIGHT: Thought you said it
7 was Greenridge Street, Jim.
8 MR. STUCKER: On Greenridge, yeah, by
9 McGinty's.
10 MR. COURTRIGHT: You are right. They
11 should ripe it down. They boarded it up
12 though.
13 MR. STUCKER: Yeah, I seen the
14 boards, yeah. They got to do something with
15 that.
16 MR. COURTRIGHT: You are right.
17 MR. STUCKER: There's a lot of houses
18 they should tear down.
19 AUDIENCE MEMBER: Next.
20 MR. MCGOFF: Please.
21 MR. STUCKER: So that's all we can
22 do.
23 MR. MCGOFF: Jim, thank you very
24 much. Marie Schumacher.
25 MS. SCHUMACHER: Good evening. Marie
41
1 Schumacher, resident and member of the
2 Taxpayers' Association. First, I'd like to
3 report, because nobody on council answered
4 when I asked several times, I did a
5 Right-to-Know and Yanni's did repay their
6 loan to OECD.
7 Then last week at the caucus on the
8 KOZ's, I believe it was you, Mr. McGoff,
9 said the KOZ might be preferable to not
10 collecting any taxes at all. The only
11 reason I believe that property where the Mt.
12 Pleasant Development is going in would be
13 eligible for an extension is because it runs
14 next to the small parcel at the end, at the
15 corner of Linden and whatever that other
16 street is because it is a KOZ. That
17 property where Mt. Pleasant is actually
18 going to be built paid to the city and the
19 school last year $15,638.63 in taxes, and it
20 is on the books to be billed for taxes for
21 this year. It is currently not a KOZ, so we
22 would get property taxes from that parcel,
23 just so everyone is aware. It's not an
24 extension of an existing KOZ it's really the
25 expansion of a very tiny KOEZ to include
42
1 20.63 additional acres.
2 Three, the Ice Box. Mrs. Gatelli,
3 several weeks ago you said forget about that
4 $600,000, that council had given it away,
5 turns out it was on the agenda one time and
6 it is tabled and it never came back to the
7 agenda, so I see no reason since council has
8 not take any action why you can't have this
9 the solicitor review that contract which if
10 it was reported correctly in the
11 Times-Tribune at the time $600,000 was due
12 and payable the day that the DPW moved out
13 and I think the city could use that
14 $600,000.
15 MS. GATELLI: I'll have Attorney
16 Minora investigate that.
17 MS. SCHUMACHER: And then next --
18 MS. GATELLI: It was 20 years ago,
19 but --
20 MS. SCHUMACHER: I'd like to amend
21 Governor -- or President Reagan's -- going
22 back to my California days, trust and verify
23 was his motto, I'd like to say trust, verify
24 and get it in writing. Several years ago
25 Mrs. Fanucci swore to Andy Sbaraglia that
43
1 the 408 Cedar Area Avenue property had been
2 appraised, I did a Right-to-Know and found
3 out through OECD the property had never been
4 appraised.
5 MS. FANUCCI: I don't think I swore.
6 That's a little drastic.
7 MS. SCHUMACHER: Okay.
8 MS. FANUCCI: I didn't swear.
9 MS. SCHUMACHER: You just
10 misreported. Okay.
11 MS. GATELLI: Well, sometimes, Mrs.
12 Schumacher, sometimes --
13 MS. SCHUMACHER: But we take -- it's
14 my time. It's my time, excuse me.
15 MS. GATELLI: You can have your time.
16 MS. SCHUMACHER: No, because Mr.
17 Minora won't --
18 MS. GATELLI: But sometimes we report
19 what we are told.
20 MS. SCHUMACHER: I understand that,
21 but it would be nice to trust -- you trust
22 those people too much. Get it in writing.
23 That's what I'm saying. Also, the UDAG
24 funding, when that -- when all that's a
25 consolidation of the UDAG funding Mrs. Evans
44
1 -- or no, excuse me, it was Mr. McTierney
2 asked about that, whether that would still
3 have to come back before council,
4 Mrs. Gatelli you said, "Oh, yes."
5 MS. GATELLI: Yeah, we all said
6 yeah.
7 MS. SCHUMACHER: Attorney Minora
8 said, "Oh, yes."
9 Did you get it in writing? No. And
10 the mayor has been giving away UDAG funds
11 without coming through council. It's wrong
12 and you need to get it in writing.
13 There is another one, Alexander's.
14 Alexander's. Mr. Courtright when it came up
15 that it was really not a loan, a quarter of
16 a million dollars loan on top of buying that
17 small parcel kiddy-corner from Alexander's
18 for $273,000 that that was not going to be a
19 loan to Alexander's that if they hired eight
20 people within three years, and by the way
21 they didn't have to make any payments for
22 the first three years, so if they hired it,
23 in fact, became a grant and the loan was
24 forgiven. You reported, Mr. Courtright, and
25 lead all of us, I believe, at least you lead
45
1 me to believe that that had been changed.
2 You said you met with Lori Reed, the
3 assistant OECD person, and that that was --
4 you told her that council did not want that,
5 I felt that that was taken care of and it
6 was out, but now through Right-to-Know where
7 are finding out that that very clause still
8 is in the contract, so two more years if
9 they've got the requisite eight employees
10 that will turn into another grant.
11 And that segways into Boscov's. I
12 just have a couple of comments on the
13 Boscov's. Oh, come on. That was too quick.
14 Mrs. Gatelli --
15 MS. GATELLI: I took about 10
16 seconds, Mr. Minora.
17 MS. SCHUMACHER: I'll take three
18 seconds to read this then, if I may.
19 MR. MCGOFF: Please.
20 MS. SCHUMACHER: Remember the risk,
21 the collateral for this loan is future CDBG
22 funding meant to help low and moderate
23 income persons. If this loan defaults, it
24 these people who will have to absorb the
25 loss which represents almost a full year's
46
1 CDBG grant money. Two, remember what
2 message this sends to successful businesses.
3 You are rewarding a business that made bad
4 decisions and using money that could be used
5 to help successful businesses expand. And,
6 finally, keep in mind that the Bosov's 22
7 stores which are owned by Boscov's and not
8 leased are pledged as collateral for the
9 county loans to the state and lien also has
10 been offered on their inventory to the state
11 to cover those -- the county loans, and I'll
12 be back next week I hope. Thank you.
13 MR. COURTRIGHT: Thank you, Mrs.
14 Schumacher. Mr. Ellman.
15 MR. ELLMAN: Ronnie Ellman, homeowner
16 and member of the Taxpayers' Association.
17 Boy, you thought last week was bad when I
18 told you I fell through my garage roof, this
19 week started out the same thing. Miss
20 Rosie's cat was sick and it looked terrible,
21 so I threw him in the car and went to
22 Mr. Gadd in Old Forge, and $425 later I
23 found out the cat was constipated. You
24 know, there's all kinds of problems and I
25 got a $350 gas bill and here I had to fix
47
1 the cat.
2 You know, if anyone wants to know
3 what's going on in this city you need to
4 talk to a cab driver. I talked to one now
5 and then, they know more information than
6 all of the police and the firemen and
7 everybody that works for city. They just
8 seem to know all of these little things that
9 are never in the paper and never on TV.
10 It's very interesting what goes on. I won't
11 get into it. They will tell you a lot of
12 things that -- well, maybe I better not,
13 crimewise that aren't in the paper that
14 surprised me.
15 One guy was telling me that
16 somewhere along the way something was just
17 lost the after the election with
18 Mr. Doherty, and I have talked to a whole
19 bunch of people in the administration. This
20 morning I phoned everybody in the Licensing
21 Bureau and all I got at 8:30 all I got was
22 one recording after another and nobody is in
23 their office at 8:30. That's -- I mean,
24 everybody. Finally about 9:00 I got
25 Mr. Moletsky?
48
1 MS. GATELLI: Oleski.
2 MR. ELLMAN: Yeah, I finally got him
3 on the phone. I got this nightmare next
4 door to me that I have been complaining
5 about, you know, I know things can't be done
6 overnight and they are doing something, but
7 you can spend 100 billion dollars on South
8 Side and you are not going to achieve your
9 goals. I sat here two years ago when
10 everybody was attacking Tony's and Mary's,
11 the neighborhoods were what changed, the
12 people changed. That little bar didn't
13 change, you know, it was the same way it was
14 for three years. The absentee landlords are
15 just ruination of this town like the one
16 next door to me.
17 MS. GATELLI: Right on, Ron. I'm
18 with you.
19 MR. ELLMAN: They gutted the house a
20 little bit yesterday and they had 25 or
21 30 feet of wood and trash out on the
22 sidewalks for the garbage men to pick up, so
23 they didn't pick it up this morning, of
24 course, so I don't know, about a couple of
25 hours later the DeNaple's truck come and
49
1 there is three guys that took three men to
2 pick it up, but that's what goes on and
3 there is no permit in the window to be
4 working on the house, you know. I don't
5 know. They got a big sign advertising his
6 business in the backyard and they tell me
7 they can't do nothing, they have to catch
8 him doing something. I don't know.
9 I guess I understand that, but there
10 is two brothers own this house and they just
11 don't care what goes on as long as they get
12 some rent out of place. It's for sale, of
13 course, nobody wants to buy nothing, but it
14 seems to me the only way a taxpayer has to
15 fight something like this is ask your
16 property to be reassessed because they are
17 diminishing my property. They are running
18 the whole neighborhood trying to run the
19 business from a house, and I have talked to
20 a couple of neighbors they just don't care.
21 I've never seen such empathy. It's like
22 nobody votes, they just don't care. The man
23 across the street told me is too old, he
24 doesn't want to get involved, and the people
25 down the street said they don't know what to
50
1 do and, you know, it just senseless. It's
2 just senseless. It's ashame. I don't know,
3 I won't tell you all my problems, I'll go
4 home and see how my kitty is doing.
5 But, I saw something on TV a couple
6 of weeks ago that when Mr. Cuomo was
7 elected, I'm not sure to which office, it
8 just showed a little couple of seconds of
9 him talking, he got up and said, "Not
10 everyone in this city is sharing in it's
11 splendor and glory."
12 And that certainly is true for this
13 city. You know, I talked to people that
14 they're just hurting and they don't have
15 just no future here. My two boys are
16 talking about, both of them, one might go to
17 Atlanta, the other one said -- they don't
18 want my house, and my house looks good since
19 the fire and it's worth some money and
20 neither one to stay here, you know, they
21 don't care about the house or nothing. If
22 you don't keep people here like Mr. Miller,
23 you know, there is not going to be any
24 future. You can't have a bunch of these
25 kids that are hanging around the mall
51
1 running the city.
2 MR. MCGOFF: Thank you Mr. Ellman.
3 MR. ELLMAN: Thank you.
4 MR. MCGOFF: Mr. Dobson
5 MR. DOBSON: Good evening, Council.
6 Dave Dobson. Scranton resident and member
7 of the Taxpayers'. On our caucus tonight
8 with Mr. Martin, those employees that are
9 going to be left out in the cold, a thought
10 occurred to me, I was involved with the
11 union negotiations and representing people
12 years back and if they settled that contract
13 under those terms and somebody was turned
14 out in the street for medical care by both
15 the union and had no recourse, they could
16 probably sue for failure to represent. They
17 could actually sue the unions, so the union
18 isn't locked into monitoring their
19 responsibility to them. They can't back out
20 of it or they'll pay the bill some day, and
21 I'd like to once again mention the Scranton
22 School for the Hearing Impaired and the
23 medical school, did anything go out on the
24 medical school last week?
25 MS. GATELLI: Yeah, we sent the
52
1 letters.
2 MR. DOBSON: Great. And keep up the
3 heat because there is no reason why after we
4 were guaranteed money it should be passed
5 back down to us and have the carpet pulled.
6 Last week, there was a business
7 conference on Sno Mountain, and I didn't see
8 whether anybody from the city was involved,
9 but I noticed that there was a manufacturer
10 of solar panels looking to relocate into
11 this area, and it would be awfully nice to
12 see the former Murray plant area turned into
13 some type of manufacturing for that. I got
14 the impression over time that some of our
15 representatives in that area don't really
16 understand manufacturing, so they gravitate
17 more towards office complexes and so forth,
18 and that's great, but unless we continue to
19 manufacture this country is finished.
20 Another thing I would like to
21 mention is compensation from the state for
22 501-C's. I think we should keep the heat on
23 that and get to our local representatives or
24 state representatives. The bill died in
25 Congress the last time and it's way past due
53
1 that we be compensated for 501-C's. We in
2 the city have an ungodly amount of them and
3 there is no reason for them to be up in the
4 middle of the country anyway, the hospital
5 or whatever. Everybody would be dead by the
6 time we got rushed there.
7 I seen an editorial on ECTV in the
8 Scranton Times and I would just like to say
9 that, of course, I stood up for Scranton
10 Today and fought and fought and fought, but
11 at this point and being an election year I
12 don't see the value of closing down ECTV at
13 this time. These people are basically out
14 on a limb every day, they are doing their
15 jobs and trying and anything that if
16 anything it's been the failure of the city
17 to provide what money they promised. You
18 know, it's just wrong to -- if they pull the
19 carpet on ECTV or pull the plug on them now
20 we are probably looking at Spring of 2010 or
21 something until we see somebody else getting
22 involved and getting up unless somebody
23 knows something that I don't, which they may
24 possibly know, but at this point in time
25 it's just going to maybe possibly end public
54
1 access TV for quite sometime.
2 And the lot that was bought off
3 Alexander's, the ice was terrible on that
4 and that contractor should be responsible or
5 the city for removing the ice on that lot.
6 There is no reason for those sidewalks to be
7 in that kind of condition. I mean, it was
8 terrible Buono Pizza was cleared, which is
9 their obligation, and it's a city-owned lot
10 and nothing was done to it. Absolutely
11 nothing. We could hold the skating rink
12 right there if we want to.
13 MR. MCGOFF: Thank you, Mr. Dobson.
14 MR. DOBSON: Have a good day.
15 MR. MCGOFF: Any other speakers?
16 MR. KACHUNIS: Good evening. My name
17 is Carl Kachunis. I'm a resident of the
18 lower Greenridge section of Scranton. The
19 reason I'm here this evening is to inform
20 residents of the Plot and lower Greenridge
21 neighborhoods who are victims of the 2006
22 flood about a possible error in their 2009
23 property taxes.
24 In October of 2004, all homeowners
25 in the city who have received application
55
1 for the Act 72 Homestead and Farmstead
2 Exclusion on their property taxes.
3 Depending on when he filed the application,
4 they would have received a letter through
5 the county indicating whether their
6 application was approved or denied.
7 In March of 2005, I received a
8 letter of approval from the county. The
9 Homestead Farmstead Exclusion was not
10 applied to property taxes until the 2009 tax
11 year. When I received my property tax bill
12 this year expecting to get the discount from
13 Act 72, not only was there no discount, my
14 property taxes actually had gone up. I
15 called and visited the Lackawanna County Tax
16 Office and they informed me that I was
17 denied for the Homestead Exclusion.
18 However, I had a letter of approval that I
19 received from the county in 2005.
20 Upon further investigation, the tax
21 office had told me of that assessment on my
22 property had changed in the 2007 tax year.
23 The reason it had changed is because the
24 2007 tax year residents of the lower
25 Greenridge and Plot neighborhood who got
56
1 flood by the Lackawanna County River had
2 their property taxes reduced. That year
3 they only got taxed on the land, but not the
4 improvement. What this did was anyone who
5 was approved for the Homestead Exclusion was
6 now denied.
7 I spoke to some of my neighbors in
8 the lower Greenridge, and found out there
9 were more taxpayers in the flood zone who
10 this also had happened to. However, I'm
11 sure that some taxpayers that do not care to
12 review their tax bill every year may be not
13 aware that they should have received the
14 Homestead Exclusion.
15 The Lackawanna County Tax Office is
16 currently trying to resolve this issue
17 because I was approved for the exclusion and
18 should have received the Act 72 discount on
19 my property tax, but did not because of the
20 flood in 2007. I urge any resident of lower
21 Greenridge and Plot section who were flooded
22 to check to see if the Act 72 Exclusion was
23 applied to their 2009 property taxes. If
24 they were not applied and you were approved,
25 they will request a letter of approval from
57
1 the county. They should call the county tax
2 office at 963-6728, Extension 1623, and
3 inform them of the error. Right now the
4 county is working on the issue. It has not
5 been resolved as of yet.
6 Finally, I have a question, during
7 the last meeting in our neighborhood with
8 the Army Corp of Engineers in 2008, they
9 said the flood protection should be
10 completed as far as the Albright Avenue
11 bridge by the final quarter of Year 2009.
12 In the last several months, the flood
13 control project appears to be at a
14 standstill and is only completed as far as
15 the East Market Street bridge. Does have
16 this a current timetable when the flood
17 protection will be completed in the lower
18 Greenridge Neighborhood. Thank you very
19 much for your time.
20 MR. MCGOFF: Thank you, Mr. Kachunis.
21 Stephanie Gawel.
22 MS. GAWEL: Good evening, Council.
23 I'm going to be a little bit all over the
24 place again, I'm not quite as organized as
25 I'd like to be. All right, I first want to
58
1 start by saying, God bless you and thank you
2 to all the military personnel who are
3 serving this country with honor and courage
4 and sacrifice, but I was also wondering if
5 any of the these organizations can help
6 their semi-military counterparts with
7 fundraising for defibrillators in the police
8 cars. I do want to thank Mr. Courtright and
9 other people of the council for looking into
10 the matter for us.
11 Okay, new subject. I know
12 Mr. Morgan and Mrs. Krake touched on this
13 subject, but I have missed some of the
14 meetings and didn't catch all of it on TV, I
15 would like to know why NCC is collecting the
16 delayed garbage fees? Isn't NCC supposed to
17 be collecting taxes? And there is a
18 difference.
19 MS. GATELLI: They do delinquent
20 garbage fees, too.
21 MS. GAWEL: But why? It's a fee,
22 it's not a tax, and if they are collecting
23 that are they only collecting the 12 percent
24 and do they get the 12 percent late fee
25 instead of the city like it used to?
59
1 MS. GATELLI: I'll check into that.
2 MS. GAWEL: Okay. Thank you very
3 much. Oh, I had my taxes done a couple of
4 weeks ago and in having them done I was
5 talking to the tax person and he informed
6 me, you know, that if we could get the other
7 municipalities to actually collect the right
8 amount in the wage taxes that we wouldn't be
9 in half of the financial situation we are
10 in, maybe we should only collect half of
11 their municipal taxes and see how they like
12 it and, you know, maybe we can get, you
13 know, because, I mean, it's ridiculous.
14 This kid said to me literally we would not
15 be in this situation we are if people would
16 pay their wage taxes the way it should be.
17 The other municipalities don't collect it,
18 you know, the correct amount and this is why
19 we don't get what we deserve so, all right.
20 Onto West Side, on the corner of
21 Main Avenue and Colick Court, which is by
22 Dan Proby's car lot, do you know how long
23 that has been sitting -- that drainage ditch
24 has been sitting their broke, at least a
25 year I'm aware of, probably two. It has a
60
1 pallet over it. It has a horse over it, but
2 it's -- you know, I mean, it's just
3 ridiculous. I don't understand why and it's
4 been like that for really quite awhile,
5 because I work in Taylor and I travel back
6 and forth from South Side to Taylor, so
7 that's the back route that everybody would
8 take so I'm well aware of it, I see it every
9 day.
10 Also, I was wondering did anybody
11 knows what happened to the bronze plaque
12 that had Mayor Schmidt's -- so that like if
13 we ever get a new South Side complex of any
14 kind we can give it back to the proper --
15 you have got that one, Mr. Courtright?
16 MR. COURTRIGHT: We looked into it
17 and they don't know where it is now; right?
18 MS. EVANS: We looked into that year
19 after year dating back to 2003 or four and
20 we received various tales about the
21 disappearance of the sign and,
22 unfortunately, to date it has never been
23 found.
24 MS. GAWEL: Well, I heard you guys
25 mention about in the wish list, I guess I'll
61
1 call it for the stimulus, you had talked
2 about doing a little something in South
3 Side. Now, does that include a baseball
4 field that, you know, you were talking about
5 the record? The wish list you guys had.
6 MS. GATELLI: That was to replace
7 the field.
8 MS. GAWEL: Yeah, but is there going
9 to be a baseball field in the replacement,
10 in other words.
11 MS. EVANS: If there is a replacement
12 there should be an ASA regulation softball.
13 MR. COURTRIGHT: That's softball.
14 MS. EVANS: And there should be a
15 hardball field as well.
16 MS. GAWEL: Yeah.
17 MS. EVANS: And a walking trail.
18 MS. GAWEL: That would be nice.
19 MS. EVANS: And baseball -- well, it
20 should completely replace what has been
21 taken.
22 MS. GAWEL: Yeah, because, I mean,
23 like even now, like, all of a sudden for
24 whatever the reason you've got goalposts up
25 in the middle of it, you know, the other
62
1 complex so it's almost like they did that so
2 the kids couldn't even go down and fool
3 around if they wanted to, you know, because
4 nobody really uses them, you know.
5 MR. MCGOFF: It's used by some
6 football teams, that's why the goal posts go
7 up.
8 MS. GAWEL: Well, most of the time
9 the only thing I see is soccer.
10 MR. MCGOFF: Yes.
11 MS. GAWEL: You know, it's like the
12 mayor took out all of the baseball fields
13 and put in all soccer fields, but, thank
14 you.
15 MR. MCGOFF: Thank you, Mrs. Gawel.
16 Les Spindler.
17 MR. SPINDLER: Les Spindler, city
18 resident, homeowner and taxpayer.
19 Mrs. Gatelli, last week you mentioned a
20 bunch areas that have neighborhood
21 associations. In Tripp Park we also have a
22 neighborhood association along with
23 neighborhood crime watch and we meet the
24 first Tuesday of every month at 7:00 in the
25 Tripp Park Community Center if anyone is
63
1 interested.
2 Mr. Courtright, did you talk to
3 anyone from the Scranton Ford? You said you
4 were going to speak to someone last week?
5 MR. COURTRIGHT: We sent a letter
6 down to licensing and inspections. We
7 haven't got a response, have we, Kay?
8 MR. SPINDLER: Because I know they
9 did them back about three feet, but it is
10 still not enough. I mean, if you walk
11 straight from their sidewalks to where the
12 cars are you walk right in the course they
13 still can move them back a lot farther.
14 MS. GATELLI: There is a police
15 officers here, wouldn't be that be a police
16 matter? A vehicle on a sidewalk? It's a
17 motor vehicle, I don't know that License and
18 Inspection have jurisdiction over motor
19 vehicles? I'd send it to --
20 MS. GARVEY: I sent the letter to
21 Mike Wallace from zoning. That's where it
22 went. I'm sorry, Mr. Spindler.
23 MR. SPINDLER: Mr. Courtright, last
24 week you mentioned about asking CDTV if they
25 could have the replays of the prime time and
64
1 you were told absolutely not.
2 MR. COURTRIGHT: Yes.
3 MR. SPINDLER: That just shows the
4 arrogance of this people. I mean, something
5 has to done with this station. I put on the
6 replay Sunday night and you couldn't hear
7 the few first minutes of Mr. Boscov
8 speaking, the audio was totally off, and I
9 have to put my audio after it came on up to
10 100 and I could barely hear it at that time,
11 and the programming is terrible and, like I
12 said, I'm not the only saying that now, I
13 see where Commissioner O'Brien is also
14 saying that the programming stinks because
15 he is not going to give them any money until
16 the programming is better and I think
17 council should follow in his lead because
18 this station is just a joke. It's not a
19 fraction of what Scranton Today used to do.
20 Moving on, you know, I thought the
21 mismanagement of the Single Tax Office left
22 when Mr. McDowell left, but I guess it's
23 still being mismanaged. Channel 16 ran a
24 story last week about tax bills being sent
25 to the wrong address, one was even sent to a
65
1 dead person and Mrs. Vitali-Flynn's answer
2 was, "Oh, it could be computer error or
3 something else."
4 Well, computers don't make mistakes,
5 people do, and I can attest to these
6 mistakes, I got one to my house for a Marian
7 Gomez. I have lived in my house for
8 20 years and there has never been a Gomez
9 living there, and I never got that pill
10 under Mr. McDowell either, so I think
11 something has got to could be done here, and
12 I just think it just shows how improper it's
13 being run by -- the one request Mrs. Vitali
14 was asked last week, last year when she was
15 here before council, someone asked her a
16 question and she said it's none of her
17 business. Well, that tells you what kind of
18 business person she is.
19 Finally, Mrs. Fanucci, Mr. Jackowitz
20 stole some of my thunder, but I have here
21 three copies of unpaid bills, of unpaid
22 parking tickets, but what he neglected to
23 say was the 15 parking tickets that you had
24 taken care of. How do I go about that if I
25 get a parking ticket?
66
1 MS. FANUCCI: -- taken care of this,
2 Les.
3 MR. SPINDLER: They were dismissed.
4 MS. FANUCCI: Well, I didn't have
5 anything --
6 MR. SPINDLER: I didn't want to bring
7 out the 15 pieces of paper, so it's public
8 record, and they were dismissed.
9 MS. FANUCCI: And I saw it, and as
10 explained to you what wasn't -- that wasn't
11 me. It was my husband at the time. I mean,
12 I don't know what you want me to say. It
13 was in 2000.
14 MR. SPINDLER: Well, I guess your
15 name was on there. I saw your name on
16 there.
17 MS. FANUCCI: Yeah, well, the cars
18 were under both of our names, but what I'm
19 saying is that I certainly wasn't trying to,
20 you know, cheat the city --
21 MR. SPINDLER: I mean, I can connect
22 the dots. You do everything the mayor says,
23 the mayor's solicitor was Rob Farrell, Rob
24 Farrell's wife is the one that dismissed all
25 your tickets.
67
1 MS. FANUCCI: Is that really what
2 happened, Les? Because I would love to take
3 that -- is that what you are going on record
4 saying right now?
5 MR. SPINDLER: It's public --
6 MS. FANUCCI: Okay, because are you
7 stating that right now?
8 MR. SPINDLER: It's public record.
9 MS. FANUCCI: Are you going on the
10 record as stating that as actual the truth.
11 MR. SPINDLER: It's public record.
12 MS. FANUCCI: Is that what you are
13 stating?
14 MR. SPINDLER: I'm stating that it's
15 public record.
16 MS. FANUCCI: Are you stating
17 personally, you just connected the dots. I
18 don't --
19 MR. SPINDLER: I'm stating it's
20 public record.
21 MS. FANUCCI: I would love, love, to
22 take this up further. I will take this as
23 far as I can. Thank you, Les. Because I
24 didn't do that.
25 MR. SPINDLER: Next thing, Southern
68
1 Union, we are promised to have the building
2 filled by the end of the summer and where is
3 Merrill Lynch? Mr. Donnelly, said Merrill
4 Lynch is going in there, does anybody know
5 where Merrill Lynch is? It's another white
6 elephant.
7 MS. FANUCCI: It's his building.
8 MR. SPINDLER: Next thing, North
9 Scranton Junior High School, a speaker asked
10 last week where is the money going, that's
11 what I would like to now. A year or so ago
12 the governor was here with a big check, does
13 anybody know where that money went to. Why
14 isn't anything being done with that school?
15 MR. MCGOFF: We have asked.
16 MR. SPINDLER: What's the answer?
17 MS. EVANS: I got a letter on that
18 last week from Goodwill Industries.
19 MS. GATELLI: He answered us last
20 week and Mrs. Evans read the whole
21 description of what was going to happen.
22 MS. FANUCCI: It's starting. It's
23 underway.
24 MR. MCGOFF: Thank you, Mr. Spindler.
25 MS. EVANS: Maybe you didn't hear it
69
1 because the television was so low.
2 MS. GATELLI: You can get it from
3 Mrs. Garvey, she'll have a copy for you.
4 MR. SPINDLER: Okay, thank you.
5 MR. MCGOFF: Thank you, Mr. Spindler.
6 MS. GATELLI: But he did answer us.
7 MR. MCGOFF: Any other speakers?
8 MS. ROYCE: Good evening. Bernie
9 Royce, West Scranton. Growing up my
10 step-father also said that too many people
11 took the architecture of Scranton for
12 granted. I recently had a friend visit
13 Scranton. Dan is a district chief of
14 Orlando Fire Department, one of the top
15 ranked fire departments in the country.
16 Overall, he found Scranton beautiful. Dan
17 was truly amazed by the architecture, but he
18 also found the history of Scranton beautiful
19 as well as we drove through Northeastern
20 Pennsylvania. He was particularly impressed
21 by the importance Northeastern Pennsylvania
22 had in America's labor movement.
23 The Latimer of 1897 in Hazleton was
24 the turning point for labor. We have a
25 monument to Don Mitchell from the Anthracite
70
1 Coal strike in 1902 at our courthouse. Our
2 mayor, Terrence Powley, was a leader of the
3 nights of labor. The Avondale mine disaster
4 lead to the first occupational safety laws
5 in our country.
6 As I pointed out these places to him
7 as we were driving through, Dan was truly
8 impressed at the area's impact on labor law
9 and history. Growing up with this history
10 all around us, it is also easy to take this
11 for granted. I believe too many us have.
12 Currently we have a Bishop who won't
13 recognize unions. We have a mayor who
14 wishes to destroy this city's labor legacy.
15 Like most of us, my ancestors were
16 coal miners. My great, great-grandfather
17 died in Scranton's mines. His body was left
18 on his family's doorstep. My family ensured
19 that I had appreciation for the labor's
20 battles that were won for us by our
21 ancestors. Perhaps Chris Doherty's family
22 did not. In this failure, they failed him.
23 Sadly, they also failed all of Scranton.
24 Thank you.
25 MR. MCGOFF: Thank you.
71
1 MR. MILLER: Good evening, Council.
2 Doug Miller, Scranton. Regarding 5-C, I
3 certainly would ask council tonight to vote
4 against this legislation. We want to vote
5 and give $1 million of green grant or
6 whatever you want to call it to bail
7 somebody else out again. You know, I
8 believe the owners of the Connell building
9 have other properties that are worth
10 millions, so I truly think they can handle
11 it themselves.
12 You know, while we were on the
13 subject of grants, I'm going to ask council
14 tonight and put some pressure on you. You
15 know, rather there going and squander grant
16 money on the Connell building or anybody
17 else, would council support funding for the
18 State School of the Deaf? You know, we
19 heard recently that funding was going to
20 come to an end? Would this council support
21 funding fr the State School for the Deaf?
22 You know, this is an issue that I think
23 council needs to look an at because it's a
24 very important issue. You know, this is
25 children, education, it's all important
72
1 stuff.
2 You know, we could go onto the
3 churches, and I think this issue was raised
4 before. You know, we have a Bishop who is
5 going around closing churches left and
6 right, and you know we have families who
7 have been attending these churches for their
8 whole lives, and I would ask council to look
9 out there. There is grant money available.
10 I mean, we could find a million for the
11 Connell building again and let's save some
12 of these churches. You know, I think it's
13 our responsibility to do that.
14 You know, moving onto Channel 61,
15 ECTV. I'm certainly disappointed in the
16 lack of programming, you know, the poor
17 audio, people constantly having a hard time
18 with the station. I certainly don't believe
19 they are delivering on their process that
20 they had in their proposal that they were
21 going to provide all of this educational
22 programming and government meetings and so
23 forth, you haven't seen it. I mean, you
24 turn it on we have Bugs Bunny, you know,
25 what's next the Lion King? I mean, we might
73
1 as well call it the Disney channel, you
2 know, and I think it was Commissioner
3 O'Brien who stated last week that if they
4 don't get their act together they are going
5 to start pulling funding and I think the
6 same needs to be said here on council, that
7 if this continues we need to put a hold on
8 the funding here.
9 A few issues that I have raised in
10 the past. You know, we look at the impact
11 fee that I brought up on KOZ's and
12 nonprofits or any other development that
13 wants to come into this city. I believe the
14 city is losing out on millions, as I have
15 said, and I believe it's time for once this
16 administration becomes creative rather than
17 putting the burden on the taxpayers as
18 always. Thank you.
19 MR. MCGOFF: Thank you, Mr. Miller.
20 MR. RILEY: Good evening, Council.
21 My name is Michael Riley. I'm a citizen and
22 a taxpayer and a resident of Lackawanna
23 County. I'm here to give report cards
24 tonight to all of you sitting here. As a
25 retired educator, my credentials are as
74
1 follows: I have a superintendent
2 certificate, a supervisor's certificate, a
3 teacher's certificate and I would just like
4 to give some grades to all of the people
5 sitting up there tonight.
6 Mr. Minora, I would like to give you
7 a D-minus and ask you to study the
8 constitution and the Bill of Rights.
9 Moving onto Mrs. Fanucci, I remember
10 your very first council meeting, do you?
11 MS. FANUCCI: I certainly do.
12 MR. RILEY: When you couldn't
13 remember how you voted and you had to have a
14 recount and you were like --
15 MS. FANUCCI: That wasn't my first
16 council meeting.
17 MR. RILEY: I believe it was. I
18 believe you were like a deer in the
19 headlights. You had no clue of what you
20 were doing.
21 MS. FANUCCI: The good thing is I
22 moved on. I lived and I learn, baby.
23 MS. GATELLI: You know, I'm going to
24 object --
25 MR. RILEY: It's been all down here
75
1 every since.
2 MS. GATELLI: -- for you violating
3 the Rules of the Council.
4 MR. RILEY: And I'm coming back, you
5 have a grade coming as well, ma'am, if I may
6 continue.
7 MS. GATELLI: Thank you very much.
8 MR. RILEY: Mr. Courtright, you
9 started out well, but when Mrs. Gatelli ran
10 for city council you sided with her and she
11 became council president and that is
12 something that the voters really will not
13 forgive you for.
14 Mr. McGoff, you came before the
15 council at your very first, I would like
16 your attention, sir, and not talking as --
17 are you listening to me? I hope so. When
18 you promised the people that you would be
19 your own person and not be the mayor's mouth
20 piece and what happened is you are a liar.
21 All of this is --
22 MR. MCGOFF: Excuse me?
23 MR. RILEY: -- my opinion only.
24 MR. MCGOFF: No, no. That's not an
25 opinion, that's an accusation.
76
1 MR. RILEY: No, it's not. It's my
2 opinion that you --
3 MR. MCGOFF: Yes, it is, and as an
4 educator you should know the difference.
5 MR. RILEY: And I am asking you that
6 you should know that you failed to live up
7 to what you said you would do.
8 Mrs. Gatelli--
9 MR. MCGOFF: Did that mean I got an
10 "F"?
11 MR. RILEY: "F" minus. Mrs.
12 Gatelli--
13 MS. FANUCCI: Why aren't you doing
14 Mrs. Evans?
15 MR. RILEY: Excuse me, it's my time.
16 MS. FANUCCI: I'm waiting for Mrs.
17 Evans' grade. We all got one.
18 MR. RILEY: Mrs. Gatelli, I remember
19 being at the old Scranton Technical High
20 School in the audience one evening when Mrs.
21 Evans was on the school board and you were
22 being considered for a position as school
23 nurse, you weren't successful that night and
24 the ire and the angst that you have
25 continued to hold --
77
1 MS. GATELLI: Really?
2 MR. RILEY: In my opinion only, if
3 you really are concerned about the people of
4 Scranton you would resign now and don't ever
5 run for office again.
6 MS. GATELLI: Thank you very much.
7 MR. RILEY: Janet, continue to do
8 what you are doing. You get an "A" plus.
9 MS. FANUCCI: Oh, we knew that was
10 coming.
11 MS. GATELLI: Your campaign
12 committee, I guess.
13 MR. RILEY: Oh, and --
14 MR. MCGOFF: No, you left the podium.
15 Thank you. Any other speakers?
16 MR. RILEY: And Mr. Dudek was
17 ignorant before --
18 MR. MCGOFF: Excuse me. You are
19 finished.
20 MR. RILEY: He referred to deaf and
21 dumb. They are hearing impaired.
22 MR. MCGOFF: It's the Scranton School
23 for the Deaf.
24 MR. RILEY: For the hearing impaired,
25 not the deaf and dumb as he called them.
78
1 Shame on you.
2 MR. MCGOFF: Any other speakers?
3 Mrs. Krake?
4 MS. KRAKE: Good evening, Council.
5 My name is Nancy Krake. I have a few
6 remarks. First, we still have the
7 delinquent city real estate in the
8 Treasurer's Office until April 1, which I'd
9 advise everyone to pay with us. It's much
10 cheaper than going to NCC.
11 I would also like everyone to visit
12 our new website that is up, the citizens of
13 Scranton, it's called www.saveScranton.com.
14 And I would like to say that the two
15 inspectors that are filling the new jobs
16 that were created, those jobs were posted
17 and bid and we currently have two very
18 qualified people that have a lot of time
19 with the city, they actually bid into those
20 jobs, so we are lucky to have those ladies
21 there. It will leave openings eventually
22 and the mayor will fill them, but we are
23 very lucky to have them.
24 I would also like to say that
25 Attorney Minora has been paying his parking
79
1 tickets. I have actually waited on him
2 today, so he is doing well there.
3 MS. GATELLI: Mrs. Krake, I just
4 have to ask you a question, was there ever a
5 time when the Treasurer's Office was allowed
6 to waive fees, delinquent fees?
7 MS. KRAKE: The Treasurer's Office
8 has always waived interest or penalty.
9 Never the value of the tax.
10 MS. GATELLI: Who made that
11 determination?
12 MS. KRAKE: In my experience having
13 been there under three different treasurers,
14 it has also been at the discretion of the
15 treasurer.
16 MS. GATELLI: Thank you.
17 MS. KRAKE: You're welcome.
18 MS. GATELLI: I'm sorry to interrupt
19 you, but I did want to --
20 MS. KRAKE: I may need that time in
21 the end, so if you could turn back the clock
22 four years would you still have made the
23 same political choices you did then? Would
24 you have voted for Bush's second term, the
25 term that drove this country into an
80
1 economic crisis?
2 Would you have voted for Governor
3 Rendell's second term? His relentless
4 crusade to downsize and privatize state
5 services has managed to create a huge state
6 deficit and his unconscionable budget cut to
7 Scranton State School for the Hearing
8 Impaired?
9 If you knew then what you know now
10 would you have voted Mayor Doherty in for a
11 second term? Would you have a voted for
12 27 percent increase in your house taxes
13 while the city's wage, current and
14 delinquent tax remain uncollected for eight
15 years? Would you have voted for four
16 million plus in administrative raises and
17 jobs while police and fire have no increase
18 for eight years? Would you have voted for
19 over 200 million in long-term debt that our
20 grandchildren will be paying for? Do you
21 know what you got for that money? Does
22 anyone feel they are better off today having
23 voted Mayor Doherty in a second term?
24 A lot of the folks who are better
25 off, the consultants, the lawyers,
81
1 60 percent of his campaign contributors that
2 don't even live in Scranton they are better
3 off. And, by the way, they can't vote here,
4 we can. In seven weeks you will be able to
5 correct that mistake, the Doherty mistake,
6 and vote all of the people out who've
7 recklessly spent your money and drove this
8 city into debt. Thank you.
9 MR. MCGOFF: Thank you, Mrs. Krake.
10 MR. GERVASI: Good evening, city
11 council. My name is Dave Gervasi, I'm a
12 taxpayer, homeowner and member of the fire
13 department. I just want to get back to the
14 beginning when we started tonight and
15 Mr. Martin was up here, it seemed like a lot
16 of the questions were what happened with
17 that. I was there during the whole time
18 while I was on the negotiating team and I
19 got to give credit where credit is due.
20 Mary Gardier Patterson she was very, very
21 courteous, very, very professional and I
22 think she believed she had the authority to
23 negotiate that contract.
24 Actually, there was two points in
25 the two days where I actually grabbed her
82
1 when things weren't looking too good and I
2 said -- frankly, I did a selfish thing, I
3 just happened to be on vacation for that
4 week, and I was spending my time at the
5 University and things weren't going so well
6 at times, and I asked her straight up in the
7 hallway, I said, "Is this going anywhere or
8 are we just wasting our time again? This is
9 getting ridiculous at points."
10 And she said, "No."
11 She said, "I have been talking to
12 the mayor."
13 Each component after we negotiated
14 it she was talking to the mayor and then a
15 little while later at one brief break that
16 we had our attorney told us that he was
17 informed that they were you talking to
18 people from DCED. So basically when it was
19 all done we shook hands, we had a tentative
20 agreement and, you know, what happened later
21 is what happened, so I just wanted to
22 clarify that, that I think that negotiating
23 team especially, Mrs. Patterson, they really
24 tried and I think they were either mislead
25 or just, you know, lead to believe that they
83
1 did have the authority to negotiate and make
2 those decisions and everybody was
3 disappointed afterwards, so I just wanted to
4 clarify that, and if there is any questions
5 you guys have with my remaining three
6 minutes on any of those particulars I would
7 be happy to answer your questions on the
8 firefighter's side, but that's where we are
9 at this point. No questions? No?
10 Just closing, Mrs. Fanucci, I'm not
11 picking on you, please, I'm not trying to
12 start an argument, but last week when you
13 mentioned I was amusing you, honest to God,
14 I was not saying anything about -- actually
15 I wasn't paying attention to what you were
16 saying. I was having a conversation --
17 MS. FANUCCI: That was my point,
18 Dave. My point is like we are up here and
19 you are out there giggling and having a
20 conversation and, you know, it's not -- it's
21 just not right. So that's why I said that.
22 I was --
23 MR. GERVASI: Just so you know, I
24 wasn't making fun of you.
25 MS. FANUCCI: Oh, I know. I said I'm
84
1 glad I'm amusing.
2 MR. GERVASI: The conversation had
3 nothing to do with you.
4 MS. FANUCCI: I'm glad I'm amusing.
5 MR. GERVASI: Well, you weren't
6 amusing me because I wasn't paying
7 attention. If that bothered you --
8 MS. FANUCCI: I was being sarcastic.
9 I was being sarcastic.
10 MR. GERVASI: I wasn't talking about
11 you.
12 MS. FANUCCI: It's okay.
13 MR. GERVASI: I mean, a lot of
14 people have called me this week.
15 MS. FANUCCI: I'm not one of the
16 conspiracy theories. It's okay.
17 MR. GERVASI: Okay. All I'm saying
18 is that a lot of people called me that night
19 and said, "What did you do to Mrs. Fanucci?"
20 And I said, "I don't know."
21 MS. FANUCCI: Well, that's -- you
22 just explained it. You explained it well.
23 MR. GERVASI: Thank you.
24 MR. MCGOFF: Thank you, Mr. Gervasi.
25 Anyone else? Mrs. Evans?
85
1 MS. EVANS: Good evening. The final
2 2008 tax collections from the Scranton Tax
3 Office were received by city council's
4 office on Friday, February 14 -- or 13, I
5 should say. A comparison to 2007 tax
6 collections was also included. The results
7 are as follows:
8 The real estate final 2007,
9 $13,809,153.21. Final 2008, $13,709,768.
10 89 for a decrease of over $99,000.
11 The earned income tax or wage tax,
12 the final amount for 2007 $19,218,06.58 and
13 the final for 2008, $22,3086,143 for an
14 increase of $3,168,082.49 and in terms of
15 the percentages a 16.48 percent increase.
16 The EMS/OPT/LST tax which is no