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Dancing raisins and dissolving egg shells

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Letter to the Editor: Wyoming Monument ceremony serves as reminder of patriots, past and present

<p>Beth Gilbert took a principled and, quite possibly, lonely stand.</p><p>The question that her Wilkes-Barre City Council colleagues likely must weigh at Thursday night&#8217;s meeting is this: Will any of them stand with her?</p><p>Gilbert, a first-term councilwoman, recently repeated her objection to Mayor Tony George&#8217;s proposal to move a half-dozen of the city&#8217;s checking accounts to Dunmore-based First National Community Bank. She cited concerns about &#8220;the overall reputation of the bank,&#8221; which has been fined for violating the Bank Secrecy Act.</p><p>Gilbert and others also have noted that Louis A. DeNaples, a bank director for FNCB and owner of multiple area businesses, already profits from city agreements, including its disposal of garbage at DeNaples&#8217; Keystone Sanitary Landfill in Lackawanna County. Ambulance company Trans-Med &#8211; also a business to which DeNaples reportedly has connections &#8211; recently became the city&#8217;s primary provider of backup ambulance service.</p><p>For anyone familiar with Frank Capra&#8217;s classic movie &#8220;It&#8217;s A Wonderful Life,&#8221; the city&#8217;s continued ties to DeNaples might begin to make Wilkes-Barre seem more like &#8220;Pottersville&#8221; &#8211; a fictional town whose residents live under the thumb of a single fat cat.</p><p>Wilkes-Barre &#8220;shouldn&#8217;t do business with someone of such questionable character,&#8221; Gilbert said earlier this year.</p><p>In support of her stance, she might want to read aloud to her council colleagues from the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_DeNaples" target="_blank">Wikipedia entry on &#8220;Louis DeNaples.&#8221;</a> Specifically, the section on legal issues, going back to 1978. Or she might care to refer them to The (Allentown) Morning Call&#8217;s online archive of <a href="http://articles.mcall.com/keyword/louis-denaples" target="_blank">articles related to DeNaples</a>, which run the gamut from the probe surrounding his acquisition of a casino license to his relationship to a sitting congressman.</p><p>Or she might reference the Times Leader&#8217;s <a href="https://www.timesleader.com/archive/287882/news-local-news-1030622-shareholders-settle-suit-against-fncb-board" target="_blank">coverage of an FNCB shareholders&#8217; lawsuit</a> against the bank&#8217;s parent company for questionable loans made to insiders.</p><p>In the end, of course, Gilbert&#8217;s protests might not sway her colleagues&#8217; votes.</p><p>Mayor George&#8217;s administration has promoted the switch in banking institutions as a money-saving maneuver. On paper, FNCB offers the better deal.</p><p>We want our elected officials to be good stewards of the public&#8217;s money, pinching pennies when they can.</p><p>Sometimes, however, being a good steward involves taking into account more than the bottom line. In this instance, Wilkes-Barre&#8217;s council members can signal they intend to consistently act in a highly ethical manner, and they expect the city&#8217;s business associates to do the same.</p><p>In light of the public corruption scandal that swept Northeastern Pennsylvania in recent years, isn&#8217;t that the message every public official should convey?</p><p>Beth Gilbert should not stand alone on this principle.</p><style>
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Our Opinion: In choosing bank, Wilkes-Barre Council members can make statement