Wet, rainy today in the Wyoming Valley

Band of brothers reunite in Hunlock Twp.

First Posted: 9/2/2014 After giving his gavel a workout, Luzerne County Council Chairman Rick Morelli threatened to adjourn Tuesday&#8217;s committee meeting if some of his colleagues didn&#8217;t stop making personal attacks.
&#8220;If I hear one more, I am ending this meeting,&#8221; Morelli said. &#8220;Respect each other. That&#8217;s all I&#8217;m asking.&#8221;
One of the most charged statements came after Councilman Harry Haas proposed the county raise money to help fund county-owned Moon Lake Park in Plymouth Township with donations from citizens, public corporations and online crowd-funding sites.
Haas said the idea, which is still under council review, would encourage &#8220;personal responsibility&#8221; to invest in the park instead of relying solely on government funding.
Councilman Stephen A. Urban, a former county commissioner, said he witnessed significant deterioration when he recently visited the park and told Haas he is a &#8220;joke when it comes to Moon Lake&#8221; because Haas did not support investing $1 million in capital funding for park repairs.
&#8220;What are you, some rich kid from the Back Mountain? That&#8217;s what you remind me of. A smart rich kid from the Back Mountain,&#8221; Urban said.
Wendy Cominsky, who owns a Dallas hair salon, loudly burst out an objection from the audience, telling Urban his comments are &#8220;unacceptable.&#8221; She came to the meeting to present a detailed proposal to revive the park and later told council members she was &#8220;absolutely offended&#8221; by the behavior of elected officials.
Councilman Tim McGinley told Cominsky some council members don&#8217;t engage in personal attacks and want to work together, even if they have differences.
Morelli also chided Councilwoman Kathy Dobash, who attended the meeting by phone due to her work schedule, when she made a comment about Councilman Jim Bobeck, an attorney.
Dobash wanted to fine the county manager $100 a day when home rule charter deadlines are missed.
A council majority voted against advancing her proposal Tuesday. Stephen A. Urban tried to treat the proposal as an ordinance, which requires only four of 11 council votes to remain on the table, but Dobash did not have a proposed written ordinance.
Dobash said she didn&#8217;t ask Chief Solicitor C. David Pedri to prepare an ordinance because he represents both the administration and council. Pedri said there&#8217;s no conflict and offered to prepare an ordinance. Urban questioned if Dobash will be forced to pay an attorney on her own to draft the document.
Dobash said she wouldn&#8217;t pick Bobeck as her attorney if she hired one.
Haas asked Dobash if she completed a performance review of county Manager Robert Lawton during his annual evaluation earlier this year.
Stephen A. Urban interrupted, saying he didn&#8217;t complete an evaluation either because it &#8220;means nothing&#8221; and &#8220;goes nowhere.&#8221;
Haas said he was addressing Dobash, not Urban. Dobash said an evaluation form should not be the only way to track the manager&#8217;s performance.
Councilman Stephen J. Urban called for an end to personal attacks, though he looked at Haas when he spoke and not his father next to him. He referenced &#8220;in-fighting,&#8221; &#8220;parochialism&#8221; and council members &#8220;bashing each other.&#8221;
&#8220;We all sit around here with bitter faces. It&#8217;s almost like who can jab who first,&#8221; Stephen J. Urban said.
He said the county is missing deadlines and could mention something about how &#8220;schoolteachers don&#8217;t really have deadlines&#8221; if he &#8220;really wanted to attack people.&#8221; Haas and Councilwoman Linda McClosky Houck are teachers.
Morelli asked Urban to get back to the issue at hand, to which Urban replied, &#8220;Chill out.&#8221;
In addition to advancing Haas&#8217; proposal to seek donations, which will require further analysis, a council majority agreed to proceed with Bobeck&#8217;s proposed council meeting restructuring.
Under the change, which will be up for a vote later this month, council will reduce its committees from eight to three and hold combined council work sessions and voting meetings twice a month.
Council Vice Chairman Edward Brominski announced Tuesday&#8217;s presentation from a Hazleton company interested in timbering at Moon Lake Park was cancelled because the company is no longer interested.

Luzerne County Council attacks criticized