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WILKES-BARRE — The missteps Tony George made as a candidate for mayor followed him to City Hall and he’s the first to admit it.

He blamed himself for the blunders contained in his campaign finance reports and a criminal investigation by the Luzerne County District Attorney’s Office, which concluded last October he was sloppy, but not deceptive. A little more than four months into his four-year term, George takes responsibility for a less-than-stellar start.

“Actually, my main problem when I first started, I tried to do everything at one time. Since then I slowed up,” George said. “But I had too many things on my plate and I tried to push through everything and I found out you can’t push through everything.”

With an almost equal force there’s been pushback from city council, employees and the public in reaction to his unapologetic and unwavering focus on fixing what he sees are the numerous problems facing the city.

“I know you make six people happy, you make two dozen mad. That goes with the job,” George said last Tuesday while meeting with the Times Leader Opinion Board.

Frank Sorick, his Republican opponent in the mayoral race last November, stood with the mad crowd. He gave his Democratic challenger a poor grade.

“This is what a bad mayor is,” Sorick said.

Although it’s only May, Sorick spoke nostalgically about the previous office holder Tom Leighton, a frequent target of criticism hurled by Sorick, president of the Wilkes-Barre City Taxpayers Association, from the audience section of the city council’s chambers.

“For all his shortcomings, he tried to do the best he could. He always showed up and listened to what I had to say. I had his cell phone number and he always called me back,” Sorick said.

Not so for George, Sorick said. The new mayor does not attend city council meetings and is only available during office hours, Sorick said. “Tony George is not listening to the city’s public and that is not the way to run a city,” he said.

“Law and order”

George, 64, was no different from others in making changes upon taking office on Jan. 4. As new mayor, he fired or demoted people brought on by Leighton, reassigned duties, created new positions and policies to uphold his campaign promise of reestablishing “law and order” in the county seat and it’s largest city of approximately 41,000.

Despite the puzzling nature of some of them, they were not changes made for the sake of change. “Everything I do has a reason,” George said.

He has dismissed complaints by the police union about his choice of Marcella Lendacky as the city’s first female police chief. The union is upset because of her efforts to bring “structure” back to the mostly male department of more than 80 personnel, George said.

The Police Benevolent Association sent George, who served as police chief under Mayor Tom McGroarty, and city council members a 13-page letter stating “many (officers) have no confidence in her” and that morale had “plummeted” while she was interim acting chief until her predecessor Robert Hughes, retired in March. The PBA has filed five complaints of unfair labor practices with the Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board, and is attempting to reinstate Kyle Rogers, who George said he fired for pointing a loaded gun at other officers in the roll-call room last December.

“They’re saying that morale is low. Morale is low when people have to do what they’re told to do,” George said. “When they do what they want, everybody’s happy, but that doesn’t help the city. My main focus is the city, not the employees.”

Lendacky said she’s seen things settle down since the start.

“I think it probably wasn’t the smoothest transition, by and large, for the city,” she said. The mayor has the interests of the citizens and city at heart and the changes in the department are pointing it in the right direction, she added.

There have been insinuations about impropriety on the mayor’s part, but Lendacky dismissed them, saying it’s “absolutely something he wouldn’t be involved with.”

The mayor’s decision to reshuffle the plan for mutual aid ambulance response, placing Luzerne-based, for-profit Trans-Med Ambulance as the primary backup, rankled the fire fighters and paramedics who fear he plans to get rid of the public service the city has provided for more than 40 years.

The move doubles the number of ambulances dedicated to the city to four, two each from the city and Trans-Med, George said. It also fits in to his “law and order” policy by having Trans-Med ambulances parked in high-visibility locations.

“You see an ambulance parked there, you think, ‘Geeze a cruiser’s going to come.’ So that’s a deterrent. So that serves two purposes,” George said.

The city ouncil opposed his change to the mutual-aid plan in place for approximately five years, and last month passed a non-binding resolution to keep the status-quo. The mayor wasn’t there to answer questions or justify the switch.

George announced earlier this year he would not attend the public meetings so as not to detract from council business.

“You don’t see President Obama going to the House or Senate, ‘cause they’re congressional meetings and it’s for the Congress,” George explained.

“When I was on council, everyone was focused on the mayor, nothing on council and the focus should be on the council,” he said.

The current council, with three new members, differs from the group George served with. He was often the lone dissenter in 4-to-1 votes for Leighton’s projects. The opposition George has been getting doesn’t bother him as long as it’s not personal or harmful to the city, he said.

“If they’re doing it just to get back at me ‘cause, you know, they don’t like me or because they all backed the other candidate, I don’t know,” he said. “But if it doesn’t hurt the city, let them bash me I don’t care.”

Lines of communication

Beth Gilbert joined the council this year and has been in office just as long as George. She said she felt that the council and the public would benefit hearing from him directly. He appeared once when he presented his proposed amendments to the $51.5 million balanced budget left him by Leighton for 2016, which the council voted to leave unchanged.

“I think there could have been more communication,” she said. “We went head-to-head on the budget. We went head-to- head on the ambulance issue.”

Gilbert said she thinks the council and the mayor are feeling each other out at this point, and that the lines of communication will improve over time. “It’s natural for people to disagree,” she said.

Apart from the business at City Hall, she said she’s noticed changes in her jurisdiction of District C and can’t say whether she or the new mayor’s administration is responsible. “I’ve seen a great improvement in my neighborhood,” Gilbert said. She said she participated in cleanups and has seen more people coming out and doing the same in front of their houses.

From the county’s southern end, Hazleton Mayor Jeff Cusat has paid attention to what’s been happening in Wilkes-Barre. Like George, Cusat is new to the office and said their first 120 days have been similar. They haven’t met yet but have talked on the phone.

“I think we’re facing a lot of the same issues,” said Cusat, a Republican. Both are dealing with “unfavorable councils” and “bad budgets knowingly put in place,” he said. “We’re both in the situation where layoffs could be looming,” Cusat added.

One significant difference is Cusat goes to the council meetings. “I do attend them because I promised the people I would,” he said. He compared his questioning by council to a grand jury inquiry and said he understands why George would not want to undergo a similar grilling.

The public wants to see the results or the “end game” as opposed to “the process” it takes to arrive at that point, Cusat said.

He advised George to “stay his course” and follow through with his vision for the city. “I have a plan. I surrounded myself with people that I thought are the best for the job,” Cusat said.

Cusat said he and George were elected for the same reasons, for their visions “for the future.”

Long-term goals

Fixed in George’s sights is ensuring the city, its residents and visitors are protected and safe. The list of goals grows as he expands to a larger view.

Flood protection along Solomon Creek in the city’s southern neighborhoods takes a close second to “law and order,” and replacing the North Washington Street bridge in the North End follows, the mayor said.

His administration has been able to move the bridge higher up on PennDOT’s list of projects, but George said he still wants to see it be given a higher priority.

“You don’t have a bridge for 10 years. It’s a major access to the (Hollenback) firehouse and (Wilkes-Barre General) hospital,” he said.

The flood-protection project hasn’t gotten the attention it demands, he said. George described the repairs made to the wall channelling the creek through the city as a “Band-Aid” approach.

He said he’s had contact with federal legislators and their aides and asked the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to visit.

“I want them to see how bad that wall is,” he said. “You can tell them all you want.”

City finances and labor contracts could move up on George’s list of priorities over time.

He sought to raise taxes to cover a perceived revenue shortfalls in Leighton’s budget and likely will revisit it when he writes his first budget for 2017.

“I’m working on ways now, ‘cause these people they had a right to complain when I tried to raise it 20 mills,” he said. “But we’re not going to be able to keep everybody we have.”

The city reported a surplus of approximately $5 million at the end of the first quarter, but that did not leave George at ease. The largest payments owed by the city for pensions, debt service and a $3 million tax anticipation note are still pending.

“Everything’s due in November,” he said. “So if we don’t budget until November, we’re bankrupt in November.”

Any new jobs he considers adding in parking enforcement or housing inspections will be revenue producing, “because they pay for themselves,” he said.

Among the projects he said he has in the works is an outreach to the Hispanic community, with students from Wilkes University assisting in filling out forms for business applications and building code inspections. He’s been in touch with the Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Commerce about common goals of building up neighborhood businesses.

“I’m starting a small business roundtable, trying to get everybody in different areas involved and see what they need,” George said.

In some stores, businesses and offices hang “I Believe” signs from the campaign by Leighton to rekindle optimism in the city that was in crisis-mode when he took office in 2004.

When asked what his slogan is, George responded: “I do it.” It’s worked both ways – he’s been able to make changes, but not without some backlash. “That’s what my problem is,” he said. “I try to do too much at one time.”

Wilkes-Barre Mayor Tony George dubbed the slogan for his administration as “I do it,” a shift from the “I Believe” campaign of his predecessor Tom Leighton that’s led to criticism for some of the changes he’s made in the first few months in office.
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/web1_TTL050416tony-george1.jpg.optimal.jpgWilkes-Barre Mayor Tony George dubbed the slogan for his administration as “I do it,” a shift from the “I Believe” campaign of his predecessor Tom Leighton that’s led to criticism for some of the changes he’s made in the first few months in office.

By Jerry Lynott

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Reach Jerry Lynott at 570-991-6120 or on Twitter @TLJerryLynott