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WILKES-BARRE — Some residents Thursday night spoke against the appointment of Pete Moses as assistant city attorney and council’s refusal to vote on the matter put it back in the hands of Mayor Tony George.
The mayor’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.
Afterward city attorney Tim Henry said, “I’ll have to confer with the mayor and we’ll go from there.”
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’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’s advice and consent, according to Henry.
City resident Matthew Ford, who also attended the work session, opposed Moses’ appointment and Henry’s role giving advice to council. Ford said Henry had a conflict of interest, working for George’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’s Disciplinary Board.
“What he’s doing is criminal right now and we need an independent counsel to advise this city council of their legal opinions,” Ford said.
Henry defended his role, saying he misled no one and there was no conflict.
“Mr. Ford couldn’t be more incorrect on his analysis of what happened Tuesday night,” Henry added.
Ford leveled accusations at another one of the mayor’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.
“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’ll have there,” Ford said.
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.
Lendacky said she had “no idea” what Ford was talking about. Raup called his allegations “nonsense.”
Sorick explained why he identified his source to Ford.
“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,” he said. “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’d be willing to swear on a stack of a million Bibles under oath, take a lie detector test because that’s what was told to me.”
Only Councilwoman Beth Gilbert answered Ford’s question if any council members thought it’s “troubling to you if in fact these allegations are true?”
Gilbert asked if subpoenas were appropriate at this time.
“If it is a serious issue it should be addressed. I don’t know if it should be addressed at this meeting but in the near future maybe,” Gilbert said.
Council Chairman Bill Barrett confirmed that council has investigative powers and asked Ford for specific information to back up his allegations.
