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Lane split on Interstate 81 North causing heavy congestion between Wilkes-Barre and Pittston

Lottery Numbers for Wednesday, Oct. 14.

As someone who frequently attends meetings, I would be understating the obvious to say that since the inception of home rule the county government has been more dysfunctional and had more cronyism than the commission form.The primary example of this is the current county council majority ceded its authority as the governing body of the county government to county Manager Robert Lawton, rendering those members as an advisory board that rubber stamps resolutions and ordinances as a mere formality.The 2014 final audit was only recently completed when the deadline was June 30 as stipulated in the home rule charter. Where is the accountability by council? The audit is the responsibility of the county council as they willingly pass it off to the county manager to complete as the current majority can&#8217;t or won&#8217;t work with the auditors to ensure that the audit is completed by the deadline.The improvement of our local economy by reducing the debt and improving economic development has been shamefully ignored by those on council who would rather focus on giveaways of county properties like Moon Lake Park and the former Valley Crest nursing home or pet projects that don&#8217;t help the crisis the county faces such as backyard chickens and bike paths. Instead of giveaways and pet projects, the council should be implementing policies that would reverse the decay of our communities due to overtaxing of the homeowners&#8217; properties while values drop every year.The County Redevelopment Authority, which I served on, voted to remove blighted properties from its mission statement, which is the very purpose by which Redevelopment Authorities are allowed to be created. The same members who dwell on giveaways and bike paths appointed the board members who removed blighted properties from the mission statement instead of assisting the municipalities to help them eliminate the blight while assisting local builders and homeowners staying and investing in their homes and small businesses.I could give numerous other examples, but I think the $16.9 million deficit and the massive transfer of cash from local banks validates the woeful disregard of your tax dollars and lack of confidence in the future which affects the survival of the county. As of now the county has no feasible plan to bring economic growth that would sustain the operations of the county and pay down the $360 million debt.If you want competence and a knowledgeable person who attends and offers alternative solutions and who wants to help the people of Luzerne County instead of the connected, then I sincerely ask for your vote.Mark RaboCandidateLuzerne County CouncilHazleton

Letter to the Editor: County council candidate Mark Rabo says he will help the people, not ‘the connected’