Misericordia Univeristy to hold occupational therapy sensory play group

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Outdoors with Tom Venesky: An easy winter… so far

<p>Attorney Peter Moses was looking forward to his appointment as Wilkes-Barre&#8217;s assistant city attorney. Until the thought of it gave him a migraine.</p><p>It &#8220;was not worth the headache,&#8221; Moses said, explaining why he passed on the appointment. Considering the job would have entailed dealing with a lot of headaches, it&#8217;s probably all for the best he bowed out.</p><p>New Mayor Tony George picked Moses for the post even though Moses is, reportedly, a deadbeat. Informed city resident Matthew Ford told the city council Moses owes $9,988 in back taxes, including $1,950 to the city he wished to serve.</p><p>That didn&#8217;t seem to bother George, but it apparently gave the council pause because not one of the five members brought up Moses&#8217; appointment for a vote at the Jan. 14 meeting. Maybe George felt sorry for Moses because he couldn&#8217;t pay his bills. Or perhaps the new mayor was able to relate to Moses&#8217; predicament because he, too, ran into an embarrassing situation when reports surfaced that his campaign finance reports were riddled with errors.</p><p>Since that didn&#8217;t stop George from getting the mayor&#8217;s job, maybe he thought a little thing like unpaid back taxes shouldn&#8217;t stop Moses from representing city officials in legal matters. It&#8217;s not like he was going to be advising the city&#8217;s tax collector or controller.</p><p>Also, Moses is more well known for defending hardened criminals than for handling municipal matters. Considering a lot can happen in four years, maybe Mayor George was being proactive in wanting a criminal defense attorney onboard.</p><p>Since it didn&#8217;t work out, the mayor and city attorney Tim Henry, who vouched for Moses, now look silly. What was expected to be a simple consent in appointing George&#8217;s pick for assistant attorney turned into a mini brouhaha.</p><p>At the council meeting, Ford charged it was a conflict of interest for Henry to be advising council on a mayoral appointee when he also serves as assistant city administrator. Ford went to the meeting armed with a draft complaint to the state Supreme Court&#8217;s Disciplinary Board against Henry whom he accused of failing to inform the council that, under the city charter, it could remove Moses.</p><p>Before deciding he didn&#8217;t need the &#8220;political tension&#8221; between the council and the mayor, Moses had taken the council&#8217;s not welcoming him with open arms in stride and said he looked forward to working as the city&#8217;s assistant attorney.</p><p>Why wouldn&#8217;t he? The job pays $52,500 and there are no set hours. So if it was a slow week at City Hall, and the city didn&#8217;t need its two attorneys to handle any legal issues, Moses would still have received his average $1,000 weekly pay. And he would have been free to take care of those back taxes.</p><p>Better yet, the job comes with about $15,000 in benefits. When I called Tyler Ryan, the mayor&#8217;s administrative assistant, to find out what those benefits were, she didn&#8217;t get back to me before my deadline. I&#8217;m sure she will, though, because Mayor George has promised transparency under his administration.</p><p>For now, I&#8217;m forced to guess those benefits, in addition to no set hours, include health care coverage. Why shouldn&#8217;t city taxpayers pay for this coverage for a part-time city attorney? It&#8217;s not the assistant city attorney&#8217;s fault some taxpayers don&#8217;t work for generous public sector entities and have to pay the lion&#8217;s share of their own coverage.</p><p>What other benefits might the assistant city attorney get? Black Friday off with pay? Why not? Luzerne County employees get to enjoy that manufactured holiday on the house. What&#8217;s fair is fair.</p><p>Is it possible the job with no set hours also comes with paid sick and personal days off? Who knows?</p><p>And to think Attorney Moses turned all of this down when all he had to do was take an Excedrin to deal with the on-the-job headaches.</p><p>The Times Leader tried to reach Moses for comment but had no luck. Mayor George simply said Moses requested to have his name withdrawn and he complied.</p><p>George didn&#8217;t have to do that because Moses was a shoe-in. City attorney/assistant administrator Henry made it clear George didn&#8217;t need the council&#8217;s blessing to appoint an assistant attorney. The part of the resolution that said on the advice and consent of the council must be a joke, although the council members didn&#8217;t find it funny that they were expected to rubber stamp this appointment when no one asked for their two cents.</p><p>Council Chairman Bill Barrett argued the council didn&#8217;t even see Moses&#8217; resume. Oh, Bill, weren&#8217;t you listening? Pete didn&#8217;t have to prove anything to you. Your advice and consent were nothing more than a formality.</p><p>Maybe Moses didn&#8217;t have the right stuff for the job. Look at city police Lt. Marcella Lendacky. She didn&#8217;t cave when Mayor George named her the city&#8217;s new police chief even after some police officers warned him in an anonymous letter if he did name her, morale would plummet at police headquarters.</p><p>Now it&#8217;s up to city attorney Henry to choose another new assistant attorney.</p><p>I&#8217;m sure there will be no shortage of attorneys who would like the job. No set hours for a $52,500 salary plus $15,000 in benefits?</p><p>Those prone to headaches need not apply.</p><style>
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<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>Betty Roccograndi</p><p>Zeroing In</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Betty Roccograndi is a Wyoming Valley resident and an award-winning journalist. Her column appears every Sunday in the Times Leader.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Zeroing In: If you’re prone to headaches, don’t bother applying for Wilkes-Barre’s assistant attorney job