Feasibility of having a Lake Township Zoning Board to be investigated by a citizens committee

web1_Keith-Brian-Hayes.jpg

Wilkes-Barre man sentenced to up to 10 years for Sherman Hills shooting

City council members in Wilkes-Barre, Hazleton and elsewhere should be apprised, at least monthly, of how the public&#8217;s money gets accounted for, shifted and spent.Indications are, however, that breakdowns of different sorts between the mayor&#8217;s offices in Luzerne County&#8217;s two largest cities and their respective council members might have left some elected officials feeling as if they were in the dark.In Wilkes-Barre, under the prior administration of Tom Leighton, financial updates didn&#8217;t automatically get distributed as part of the monthly report to city council &#8211; as stipulated by city code. Instead, council members recently <a href="https://www.timesleader.com/news/510758/510758" target="_blank">told the Times Leader</a>, those officials became accustomed to asking for the reports, if and when they wanted to see them. &#8220;We got them on request,&#8221; said council Chairman Bill Barrett.Hard to fathom why a dedicated councilman or councilwoman wouldn&#8217;t want timely information on whether city revenues and expenses are in line with yearly projections. Isn&#8217;t that an essential role of the council: to adopt a reasonable budget and spur city government to stick to it?Current Wilkes-Barre council members should see the city&#8217;s financial data early and often, helping to head off potential end-of-year shortfalls. Better yet, in 2016, couldn&#8217;t the city controller or mayor post that information online, allowing the council&#8217;s members and the public to continually monitor the money?Separately, in Hazleton, newly installed Mayor Jeff Cusat apparently transferred a half-million dollars from an account designated for pension obligations to the city&#8217;s general fund. His explanation: The move is cheaper than borrowing funds, through a Tax Anticipation Note, to pay for the city&#8217;s operations until sufficient taxes stream in this year. All is OK, said the mayor, provided the money is transferred back to the pension fund before year&#8217;s end.City Councilman David Sosar and others rightly questioned why the mayor didn&#8217;t clue in council before flipping $500,000 between accounts.Council President Jack Mundie aptly summed up the situation at Monday night&#8217;s council meeting when he said: &#8220;This decision should have come before this council. Finances are our main job.&#8221;Considering the pressure on certain taxpayers in these cities, and given today&#8217;s technology, there is no excuse for city council members to be out of the loop on money matters. Administrations can, and must, provide easily understandable status reports.

Our Opinion: Wilkes-Barre and Hazleton council members shouldn’t be in dark about city finances