Posted on 11/29/2009 6:08:00 PM PST by Born Conservative
Two years after the disclosure that Luzerne County officials spent thousands of dollars on overnight trips to New York City, Commissioner Greg Skrepenak still defends the trips he says were supposed to bring New York-style crime fighting to Luzerne County.
Skrepenak also denies knowledge that two retired New York City police detectives involved with those trips had business ties to county contracts now being investigated by the FBI and the county solicitor. William Maguire - a retired Wilkes-Barre police captain who has agreed to cooperate with federal investigators and pleaded guilty to taking a bribe - organized the New York trips when he worked for the county in 2006 and 2007.
Kingston Township resident Audrey Simpson confronted Skrepenak about the trips at the commissioners' meeting last Wednesday.
"Mr. Skrepenak, you said you went to New York City to study crime fighting. Is that part of the commissioners' job?" Simpson asked.
"Yeah, I thought so," replied Skrepenak, chairman of the board of commissioners from 2004 to 2008. "I still think so."
Skrepenak has acknowledged that several former top aides are talking to federal investigators and could implicate him in the ongoing corruption probe. But he continues to insist he did nothing wrong.
Skrepenak said he wanted to learn about crime suppression in New York, where the city runs the 911 system and one unified police department. Luzerne County runs 911 and dispatches independent police squads.
"Luzerne County has 50 some-odd separate police departments," Skrepenak said. "As you know, it's been a very slow process to try to regionalize that force in some way, shape or form."
In 2007, Skrepenak wanted the county to buy a computer system that would allow law enforcement agencies in the county to share information on crimes, incidents and warrants. But local police couldn't agree on a system, and after Maryanne Petrilla became chairwoman of the board of commissioners in 2008, county officials lost interest in the records proposal, which could have cost more than $2 million.
The first of 10 county-funded trips to New York City came in March 2006; the last trip occurred in October 2007. At least eight county officials went on the various trips, which cost more than $8,700 and were never authorized in public votes by county commissioners.
Commissioner Stephen A. Urban has said Skrepenak and his top administrators wanted to "live like kings" while claiming they were on county business. County officials stayed at the Manhattan Club, a time-share resort which charged the county a daily rate of $208.44 for each room.
The head of security at the Manhattan Club is William Grub, a former New York City police detective who retired in 1991. Skrepenak said he met Grub and John Luongo, a retired New York City police sergeant, through Maguire and the crime-suppression initiative.
Skrepenak said he didn't know this month Grub and Luongo had ties to contracts between Luzerne County and two companies - Continental Consultants Group Inc. and B&M Investigations Inc.
In 2006 and 2007, the county paid B&M more than $50,000 for background checks of prospective employees and an evaluation the county's pre-employment screening process. The county paid Continental $807,770 for staffing services in 2007 and 2008.
Richards's e-mail
Commissioners on Wednesday fired Doug Richards as county director of human resources because he refused to discuss his dealings with Continental and explain why he wanted to resign on Dec. 4. In an e-mail from April 30, 2007, Richards directed Luzerne County Work Investment Development Agency Director Richard Ammon to sign a contract with Continental.
County solicitor Vito DeLuca has determined that Richards generated the contract on his work computer in 2007 to make it look like it came from Continental. DeLuca has not been able to determine who was in charge of Continental.
The county's copy of the Continental contract was never signed by an executive of Continental. But Luongo sent Richards, Maguire and Grub an e-mail on April 29, 2007, which included the text of the Continental agreement, DeLuca said Wednesday.
Luongo also e-mailed Richards a draft of Continental letterhead on April 25, 2007, DeLuca said. The address on the letterhead matched the midtown Manhattan office suite Luongo listed as the address for his security firm, Protection Advisory Inc.
In another e-mail to Richards, Luongo wrote, "I need the mailing address and contact person to send the checks to. We'll have them sent directly to you." Continental's bills to the county included fax messages from Richards' secretary directing the county controller's office to deliver checks for the firm directly to Richards, or in one case, to Maguire.
Ammon, who testified before a federal grand jury in Scranton earlier this month, has said the Continental contract was supposed to only be used to hire contracted workers for a flood-cleanup project funded with federal money. Ammon said he didn't know Richards was going to use the contract to pay various county retirees who continued to work for the county as contracted employees with Continental.
Records show Richards went on county trips to New York City in May 2006 and February 2007. Skrepenak explained why Richards was there.
"It was focused on records management because that's all we could do at the time," Skrepenak said. "We were focusing more on a crime center, and we wanted to find out if we needed to employ anybody or any manpower was needed to come along with this initiative, and that's why he went."
Background checking
County checks paid to Continental and B&M appear to link the firms. Copies of the checks, obtained by The Citizens' Voice, appear to bear similar, but illegible endorsements.
Grub is the president of B&M, which is based in Grub's residence in Seaford, N.Y. Grub also worked as the chief investigator for Luongo's Protection Advisory Inc.
"What we found is guys who have 20 years in the police department, they don't make great money with the NYPD," Skrepenak said. "What they do is retire and then move into the security business. And there's a lot of need for security in the New York area and the surrounding metropolitan area."
Skrepenak and Grub both signed a $35,000 agreement in 2006. The contract was for an evaluation of pre-employment screening, but Luzerne County officials have not been able to produce a report on the evaluation.
Skrepenak said he didn't notice that Grub was listed as B&M president when he signed the $35,000 contract. He said he "didn't know specifically who B&M was" and doesn't "look at whose names are on" contracts he signs.
"I just look at the little tab that has my name next to them and I sign them," he explained Nov. 20.
An archived version of the Protection Advisory Web site included an endorsement from Skrepenak, who purportedly lauded Luongo and Grub as "gentlemen of the highest integrity and of the most pleasing personality" and said "their character and work quality measure up to the highest standards."
Skrepenak denied making the endorsement. Grub and Luongo have not responded to requests seeking comment.
Bribe for Maguire
County officials have not been able to produce any records that disclose who did background checks for B&M in 2006 and 2007. Prison employees currently do background checks of all prospective Luzerne County employees.
Records show the county in April 2006 paid Maguire's company, Commonwealth Consulting & Investigations, $2,800 to conduct 12 background checks of prospective prison employees. Skrepenak has said he was not aware of Maguire ever doing background checks at the prison.
"If he was doing them, it should have been at no cost because he was an employee of the county," Skrepenak said Nov. 20.
Maguire didn't list B&M and Commonwealth Consulting as sources of income on annual statements of financial interests. Maguire has not returned calls seeking comment.
Maguire, a Mountain Top resident, served on the Wilkes-Barre police force for 20 years, retiring in 1995, and he also conducted background checks for the FBI. In October, Maguire pleaded guilty to accepting a $1,400 bribe as a member of the Luzerne County Housing Authority.
The bribe allegedly covered expenses from an authority-approved trip to Florida in January 2009. Assistant U.S. Attorney William S. Houser said Maguire was reluctant to ask the housing authority for a reimbursement because of bad publicity over the county-funded trips to New York City.
Attorney Michael I. Butera identified engineer Michael J. Pasonick Jr. as the contractor who allegedly paid the $1,400 bribe to Maguire. Butera represents Jerry Bonner, the chairman of the Luzerne County Housing Authority who has pleaded not guilty to a charge he passed the bribe over to Maguire.
Skrepenak's father owns Big Ugly's, a Wilkes-Barre sports bar located on North Wilkes-Barre Boulevard in a building owned by Pasonick. In August, Skrepenak's father appeared before a federal grand jury in Scranton with attorney Peter J. Moses, who also is representing Skrepenak.
New York tailor
On Nov. 12, federal prosecutors announced Bill Brace, the county deputy chief clerk from 2005 to 2008, is cooperating with the corruption probe and will plead guilty to accepting a $1,500 tailor-made suit from an unnamed county contractor. Brace went to a New York City tailor to be fitted for the monogrammed suit between June 1, 2007, and May 1, 2008, according to federal prosecutors.
Skrepenak said he doesn't know anything about the suit Brace allegedly received. Brace went on the county-funded trips to New York in April and May of 2006 and June and October of 2007.
Brace, Richards and Skrepenak all spent county funds with debit cards in New York. In December 2007, federal authorities launched an investigation into undocumented debit-card purchases of almost $42,000 in 2006 and 2007. No charges have resulted from that investigation.
The county paid Maguire more than $5,000 in reimbursements for costs associated with the New York trips. Maguire paid parking and lodging charges for himself and for others, including disgraced former judge Mark A. Ciavarella Jr., who had two overnight stays at the Manhattan Club in 2007. Ciavarella and former judge Michael T. Conahan are criminal defendants accused of accepting $2.8 million in a scheme to send juveniles to two for-profit detention centers.
Michael R. Sisak, staff writer, contributed to this report.
mbuffer@citizensvoice.com, 570-821-2073 An archived version of the Protection Advisory Web site included an endorsement from Skrepenak, who purportedly lauded Luongo and Grub as "gentlemen of the highest integrity and of the most pleasing personality" and said "their character and work quality measure up to the highest standards."
Skrepenak denied making the endorsement. Grub and Luongo have not responded to requests seeking comment.
Bribe for Maguire
County officials have not been able to produce any records that disclose who did background checks for B&M in 2006 and 2007. Prison employees currently do background checks of all prospective Luzerne County employees.
Records show the county in April 2006 paid Maguire's company, Commonwealth Consulting & Investigations, $2,800 to conduct 12 background checks of prospective prison employees. Skrepenak has said he was not aware of Maguire ever doing background checks at the prison.
"If he was doing them, it should have been at no cost because he was an employee of the county," Skrepenak said Nov. 20.
Maguire didn't list B&M and Commonwealth Consulting as sources of income on annual statements of financial interests. Maguire has not returned calls seeking comment.
Maguire, a Mountain Top resident, served on the Wilkes-Barre police force for 20 years, retiring in 1995, and he also conducted background checks for the FBI. In October, Maguire pleaded guilty to accepting a $1,400 bribe as a member of the Luzerne County Housing Authority.
The bribe allegedly covered expenses from an authority-approved trip to Florida in January 2009. Assistant U.S. Attorney William S. Houser said Maguire was reluctant to ask the housing authority for a reimbursement because of bad publicity over the county-funded trips to New York City.
Attorney Michael I. Butera identified engineer Michael J. Pasonick Jr. as the contractor who allegedly paid the $1,400 bribe to Maguire. Butera represents Jerry Bonner, the chairman of the Luzerne County Housing Authority who has pleaded not guilty to a charge he passed the bribe over to Maguire.
Skrepenak's father owns Big Ugly's, a Wilkes-Barre sports bar located on North Wilkes-Barre Boulevard in a building owned by Pasonick. In August, Skrepenak's father appeared before a federal grand jury in Scranton with attorney Peter J. Moses, who also is representing Skrepenak.
New York tailor
On Nov. 12, federal prosecutors announced Bill Brace, the county deputy chief clerk from 2005 to 2008, is cooperating with the corruption probe and will plead guilty to accepting a $1,500 tailor-made suit from an unnamed county contractor. Brace went to a New York City tailor to be fitted for the monogrammed suit between June 1, 2007, and May 1, 2008, according to federal prosecutors.
Skrepenak said he doesn't know anything about the suit Brace allegedly received. Brace went on the county-funded trips to New York in April and May of 2006 and June and October of 2007.
Brace, Richards and Skrepenak all spent county funds with debit cards in New York. In December 2007, federal authorities launched an investigation into undocumented debit-card purchases of almost $42,000 in 2006 and 2007. No charges have resulted from that investigation.
The county paid Maguire more than $5,000 in reimbursements for costs associated with the New York trips. Maguire paid parking and lodging charges for himself and for others, including disgraced former judge Mark A. Ciavarella Jr., who had two overnight stays at the Manhattan Club in 2007. Ciavarella and former judge Michael T. Conahan are criminal defendants accused of accepting $2.8 million in a scheme to send juveniles to two for-profit detention centers.
Michael R. Sisak, staff writer, contributed to this report.
Yet another NEPA corruption ping.
Word on the streets is that there have been several FBI agents purchasing homes in the area.
ping
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