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<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; The call came shortly after noon from an annoyed Mayor Tom Leighton.</p><p>He left a voicemail message for a reporter who phoned earlier for comment on the press release issued Wednesday morning by mayor-elect Tony George, accusing Leighton of violating the city&#8217;s administrative code by failing to notify the council of bills more than 45 days past due.</p><p>&#8220;Now listen, I&#8217;m returning your call as promptly as possible &#8216;cause I was with WNEP and now I&#8217;m going to be tied up with CNN on this news release that you&#8217;re calling me on. So then I probably&#8217;ll have to go to MSBC (sic) and probably the Bloomberg Report and then CNN Live. I&#8217;m going to be tied up with this big press release you&#8217;re calling me on. But try to reach me. I&#8217;ll do my best to break from Connie Chung or Ted Koppel if I&#8217;m with one of those two. But give me a call.</p><p>&#8220;Just another bullet he&#8217;s trying to fire but again he missed the target. See ya.&#8221;</p><p>Nearing the end of his third, four-year term Leighton is preparing to leave with a bang, firing back at what he dismissed as another off-the-mark missive from his successor. The transition from one to the other has not been smooth, made all the more bumpy by George&#8217;s releases and further evidence of the contentious relationship between the Democratic mayor and councilman, now mayor-elect.</p><p>Neither could pinpoint a single incident that has led to the public rancor.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s just we disagree on a lot of things,&#8221; George said.</p><p>Their relationship goes back years when George was on the police force and Leighton a council member for 12 years prior to becoming mayor in 2004. When he first took office, Leighton did not keep George on as police chief and still holds a grudge for being left with what he said was a $10.8 million debt from the previous administration of Tom McGroarty.</p><p>Leighton, 55, admitted liking George, 64, and described him as a &#8220;nice guy.&#8221; But the niceties stopped when it came to George and government finances.</p><p>A leader has to have confidence and competence, otherwise that person is setting himself up for failure, Leighton said. &#8220;I&#8217;m hoping he has both,&#8221; he said of George.</p><p>The debt&#8217;s been paid off. The city established a credit rating and is in better shape for the next mayor compared to when he moved into the fourth-floor office at City Hall, Leighton said.</p><p>&#8220;The man should appreciate me and thank me for the job I&#8217;ve done and what I&#8217;m leaving him,&#8221; Leighton said.</p><p>The mayor&#8217;s $51.5 million balanced budget for 2016 approved by four of the five council members &#8212; George cast the lone opposition vote &#8212; is fiscally sound and should be left alone, Leighton warned.</p><p>&#8220;There&#8217;s a great plan in place. He just needs to follow it,&#8221; Leighton said.</p><p>But George attacked next year&#8217;s budget as having unrealistic revenue projections. He also blasted this year&#8217;s budget and the $1.3 million surplus as of Oct. 31.</p><p>&#8220;Wilkes-Barre is running on fumes and the numbers confirm it,&#8221; he said in a Dec. 4 press release.</p><p>George attached a copy of 10 pages of overdue bills to support his case and challenged the mayor to present &#8220;the real facts&#8221; to the citizens of the city.</p><p>&#8220;I call on Tom Leighton today to pay ALL outstanding bills. Then tell us there&#8217;s a surplus. Right now, Leighton is running a shell game,&#8221; George said.</p><p>He followed up five days later with another release containing the overdue bills and a letter to Leighton with a deadline of the close of business last Friday to explain in writing to the council why it was not notified of the unpaid bills, as required by the administrative code.</p><p>George said he suspected Leighton was holding off on the bills in order to make payroll.</p><p>Leighton repeated his concern about George&#8217;s understanding of government finances. Fourth quarter bills often go unpaid until the first quarter of the new year when revenues come in, a practice that&#8217;s been in place since before Leighton took office, he said. He asked George how he will do things differently when faced with the same situation.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s obvious Mr. George has no idea how he&#8217;s going to run the city,&#8221; Leighton said.</p><p>He lamented he gave George too much credit for his knowledge of city government. He changed his opinion to say, it&#8217;s &#8220;very limited.&#8221;</p><p>He again brought up George&#8217;s mistake-laden campaign finance reports, saying the forms are &#8220;simple&#8221; to complete.</p><p>George filed amended and corrected versions. The Luzerne County District Attorney&#8217;s office investigated, concluding there was no criminal wrongdoing.</p><p>Given that context, Leighton doubted George wrote the press releases on the city finances. &#8220;This is not his doing,&#8221; he said.</p><p>He was just as dismissive of George&#8217;s supporters, saying many of them are from McGroarty&#8217;s administration. He also said George is under pressure from people calling in favors he owes them.</p><p>Three people were promised the same job by George, Leighton said. The mayor declined to identify them or the job and said the answers should come from George. Leighton insisted it was true and heard it from others, he said. &#8220;There&#8217;s no secrets in City Hall,&#8221; he said.</p><p>George countered that Leighton was repeating rumors about the job.</p><p>&#8220;I go on facts,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Let me know, too. Ask him because I don&#8217;t know what he&#8217;s talking about.&#8221;</p><p>George admitted making mistakes on his campaign finance reports and said he was vindicated by the district attorney&#8217;s investigation.</p><p>If Leighton wants to keep raising the reports, George said he could do the same for the investigation of thousands of gallons of fuel unaccounted for by the city.</p><p>&#8220;I could say it&#8217;s as simple as knowing how much gas you use,&#8221; George said.</p><p>The district attorney&#8217;s office decided not to file criminal charges in the fuel probe, basing its decision on the practice of city employees and the mayor fueling up their private vehicles at the pumps at the Department of Public Works. The city allowed them to do so rather than purchase municipal vehicles. The practice has been discontinued and the city has installed a new system to account for which employees and municipal vehicles use city fuel.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Leighton </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/web1_TTL101515wbbudget1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Leighton </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/web1_George_Tony-2.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">George </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/web1_George_Tony-2.jpg</photo1><caption1>George </caption1><photoCredit1></photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Jerry Lynott</p><p>jlynott@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Jerry Lynott at 570-991-6120 or on Twitter @TLJerryLynott</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Transition from Tom Leighton to Tony George somewhat bumpy