City Confidential Archives - Page 2 of 3 - Scranton Citizen
67
archive,paged,category,category-city-confidential,category-67,paged-2,category-paged-2,ajax_fade,page_not_loaded,,qode-title-hidden,qode_grid_1300,qode-content-sidebar-responsive,qode-theme-ver-16.7,qode-theme-bridge,disabled_footer_top,wpb-js-composer js-comp-ver-5.5.2,vc_responsive
City Confidential / 09.11.2018

Political types can be forgiven for sleeping through most of this week.  The Blue Wave has come and gone.  With several Senate seats still up for grabs, it looks as if the Democratic Party successfully harnessed backlash against President Donald Trump to take control of the House of Representatives. Incumbent Democratic Senator Bob Casey defeated Republican Congressman Lou Barletta.  The scale of his victory was predicted by the polls.  For those of us who were around during his first 2006 Senate race against Rick Santorum, it is remarkable to think how far the underdog from the Electric City has come. Governor Tom Wolfe was easily re-elected...

City Confidential / 03.11.2018

There was no want of talent Thursday as the Scranton School Board selected from a pool of twelve (TWELVE!) candidates vying to fill the seat left vacant by the passing of Carol Oleski.  We're too lazy to type all of the names but the school directors had their work cut out when it came to conducting interviews.  In terms of standards, we know from his comments two weeks ago that Bob Lesh was not looking for another Einstein like Harvard grad Page Gebhardt Cognetti.  In the end, both Paige and BL agreed on Greg Popil for the spot.  Popil previously...

City Confidential / 27.10.2018

John Chrin is feeling the love this week.  The Monroe County Republican challenger to incumbent Democratic Congressman Matt Cartwright received back to back visits from Vice President Mike Pence and first son Eric Trump.  Thursday he landed the endorsement from President Donald Trump.  All the good feeling aside, one observer tells us the physical absence of POTUS may be evidence of lagging poll numbers.  See: Lou Barletta Mayor Bill Courtright still hasn't answered City Council about Pat Hinton's sweetheart deal at Nay Aug Park.  Maybe ol' Billy wanted to pray about it?  He presided over a packed house Tuesday for the 55th annual Mayor's Prayer Breakfast.  Andrea Mulrine of...

City Confidential / 19.10.2018

Will the Scranton School District ever get its act together?  Last week saw the leak of superintendent Alexis Kirijan's June letter alleging harassment and discrimination at the hands of an unnamed School Board member.  The dust is still settling, but Kirijan is rightly angry at whomever leaked it.  Observers are also wondering what procedure - if any - was followed by the district's leaders.  Paige Gebhart Cognetti wants to know whether school directors violated the Sunshine Law when they retained the services of attorney Jarrett Ferentino to investigate the allegations.  Also, this week's Lack of Self-Awareness Award goes to our friend...

City Confidential / 12.10.2018

Scranton School District Superintendent Alexis Kirijan made the news this week and she was not happy.  The Scranton Times-Tribune reports that in June Kirijan's attorney notified the School Board that his client had been sexually harassed by an unnamed school director.  The superintendent is not happy about this public disclosure and wants to know who leaked the information.  We usually take a tongue in cheek approach to the foibles of our friends at SSD, but in the age of #MeToo, there's no place for the kind of behavior Kirijan alleges.  Our hope is someone gets to the bottom of it. Was President Donald...

City Confidential / 05.10.2018

Monday was the Case of Alexis and the No Good, Horrible, Very Bad Day.  Poor Alexis Kirijan.  Even though School Board President Barbara Dixon called a last minute cancellation of the regular meeting (no, BL, we mean Bob Lesh's basement did not flood again), that did not stop Directors Paul Duffy, Paige Gebhardt Cognetti, Mark McAndrew, and Tom Schuster from continuing with their Labor Relations Committee meeting.  The four want Jeff Brazil's head on a platter.  Who can blame them?  Word around town is Brazil was asleep at the wheel while Daniel Sansky funnelled fraudulent bills to Gregg Sunday.  Kirijan took the brunt...

City Confidential / 28.09.2018

The Scranton School District is embroiled in a web of scandal and dysfunction rarely seen in the annals of Lackawanna County politics.  The arrest of one time fleet manager  Daniel Sansky on charges that he defrauded taxpayers by overbilling for work performed at Danny's Auto Body comes as little surprise to those familiar with the findings of Pennsylvania Auditor General Eugene DePasquale in the 2017 performance audit report of district operations.  A teacher phoned yesterday to remind us that this is all the tip of the iceberg. Bob Lesh disputes that he is the "BL" listed in the indictment.  It's a hard case to make...

City Confidential / 31.08.2018

Rosemary Boland, the head of the Scranton Federation of Teachers, wants the sixteen teachers laid off by the Scranton School District back to work when school starts next week. This time, who could blame her? At Monday's Board of Education meeting, directors voted 3-3 on a motion to finalize staff reductions adopted in January. The tie caused the motion to fail and calling into questions whether the cuts would go through and the teachers remain on the unemployment line. Kudos to Robert Casey, Paige Gebhardt Cognetti, Barbara Dixon, and Kate Gilmartin, Mark McAndrew, and Tom Schuster. Regardless of one's opinion on...