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<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; Some residents Thursday night spoke against the appointment of Pete Moses as assistant city attorney and council&#8217;s refusal to vote on the matter put it back in the hands of Mayor Tony George.</p><p>The mayor&#8217;s appointment was among the resolutions on the agenda for the regularly scheduled meeting, but none of the five council members took the first step to put it to a vote.</p><p>Afterward city attorney Tim Henry said, &#8220;I&#8217;ll have to confer with the mayor and we&#8217;ll go from there.&#8221;</p><p>Council was asked to give its consent to putting Moses in the job that paid $52,500 a year plus benefits and had no set hours. But at Tuesday night&#8217;s work session Henry advised council even if it failed to get behind the appointment, it was a done deal. The mayor has the legal power to pick his staff without council&#8217;s advice and consent, according to Henry.</p><p>City resident Matthew Ford, who also attended the work session, opposed Moses&#8217; appointment and Henry&#8217;s role giving advice to council. Ford said Henry had a conflict of interest, working for George&#8217;s administration while promoting Moses for the job. He also accused Henry of misleading council on its duties under the city charter and recommended it file a complaint he drafted for the state Supreme Court&#8217;s Disciplinary Board.</p><p>&#8220;What he&#8217;s doing is criminal right now and we need an independent counsel to advise this city council of their legal opinions,&#8221; Ford said.</p><p>Henry defended his role, saying he misled no one and there was no conflict.</p><p>&#8220;Mr. Ford couldn&#8217;t be more incorrect on his analysis of what happened Tuesday night,&#8221; Henry added.</p><p>Ford leveled accusations at another one of the mayor&#8217;s appointments, police Chief Marcella Lendacky. He accused of her leaking information while she was a lieutenant on the police force that appeared in the Wake Up Wilkes-Barre blog. Lendacky passed on information to Charlotte Raup, president of the Wilkes-Barre Crime Watch Coalition, who contacted Frank Sorick, editor of the blog, Ford said.</p><p>&#8220;I find this absolutely outrageous that this person after not being able to contain leaks and stories when she was a member of the department is now in charge, obviously all important police business will be going through her. I question what leaks we&#8217;ll have there,&#8221; Ford said.</p><p>He called for council to use its investigative powers under the charter to subpoena Lendacky, Sorick and Raup and emails and correspondence between Lendacky and Raup.</p><p>Lendacky said she had &#8220;no idea&#8221; what Ford was talking about. Raup called his allegations &#8220;nonsense.&#8221;</p><p>Sorick explained why he identified his source to Ford.</p><p>&#8220;Because a lot of police officers are upset about the morale in the police department and they truly believed Lt. Lendacky was my source from the beginning. I confirmed it, absolutely,&#8221; he said. &#8220;But again I never got that directly from Lendacky. I always got it was from the Crime Watch president who stated it was from Lendacky, and I&#8217;d be willing to swear on a stack of a million Bibles under oath, take a lie detector test because that&#8217;s what was told to me.&#8221;</p><p>Only Councilwoman Beth Gilbert answered Ford&#8217;s question if any council members thought it&#8217;s &#8220;troubling to you if in fact these allegations are true?&#8221;</p><p>Gilbert asked if subpoenas were appropriate at this time.</p><p>&#8220;If it is a serious issue it should be addressed. I don&#8217;t know if it should be addressed at this meeting but in the near future maybe,&#8221; Gilbert said.</p><p>Council Chairman Bill Barrett confirmed that council has investigative powers and asked Ford for specific information to back up his allegations.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Wilkes-Barre city council members Mike Belusko, left, and Tony Brooks joined with the other three members in refusing to support Mayor Tony George&#8217;s appointment of Pete Moses as assistant city attorney at Thursday&#8217;s regularly scheduled meeting. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/web1_citycouncil02.jpg</photo0><caption0>Wilkes-Barre city council members Mike Belusko, left, and Tony Brooks joined with the other three members in refusing to support Mayor Tony George&#8217;s appointment of Pete Moses as assistant city attorney at Thursday&#8217;s regularly scheduled meeting. </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/web1_citycouncil01-1-.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Wilkes-Barre city Councilwoman Beth Gilbert questioned whether it was the appropriate time to begin an investigation and issue subpoenas regarding allegations of leaked police information to a blog. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/web1_citycouncil01-1-.jpg</photo1><caption1>Wilkes-Barre city Councilwoman Beth Gilbert questioned whether it was the appropriate time to begin an investigation and issue subpoenas regarding allegations of leaked police information to a blog. </caption1><photoCredit1></photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Residents speak out against the appointment of assistant city attorney</subheadMeta></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>

Wilkes-Barre council refuses to vote on mayor’s appointment for assistant city attorney