Brad Bumsted has a must-read today on Bill DeWeese's use of his taxpayer-funded staff. (Tribune Review 12/22/09)Apparently, the obnoxious bow ties and the weird bouncy balls were just a fraction of the madness Scott Brubaker described as the "daily nuttiness that [DeWeese] put his immediate staff through."
This article, based on testimony before a grand jury, is far worse than anything Mike Veon was ever accused of. Veon had a commitment to a political philosophy - DeWeese's only commitment was to his own aggrandizement, a life style of the rich and showing off. He knew about the bonuses, constantly blamed others for the very things he was doing and some of these things are very Fumoesqe.
ReplyDeleteDeWeese's line: "our saving grace is that everyone does it..." will be the lasting description of the legislative culture of grandeur and misuse. DeWeese was guilty of misfeasance, malfeasance and extreme weirdness.
Why isn't Bill DeWeese charged for using his staff as his personal servants to do his housework, run his errands and buy his condoms? Who treats people like that?
ReplyDeleteThis is the guy posters on here keep saying "made thins right"? He didn't fire the guilty, he didn't change the process or culture, he grossly and offensively misused his staff ostly fr his purely personal and very wacky benefit. He is just as nuts as he was when he tried o punish none who did business ith his ex wife as a lobbyist. What a hypocrite.
ReplyDeleteBill eWese is the poster boy for what s wrong in Harrisburg. And according to the presentment issued a bunch f his staffers are culpable too. Why no Harrisburg staff included?
ReplyDeleteI find it interesting that the Harriburg press never wrote bout Bill DeWeese's msuse f his office and staff - they all knew. And this article just scatches the surface. Remember, this is the guy the House Democratic caucus made it's leader whle they all knew about his nutiness; and even after he was implicated in corrution (he certainly knew about the bonus) they reelected him to leadership.
ReplyDeleteBill - why didn't you fire Steve Webb, Karen Steiner, Angela Bertugli, Michele Borlinghaus based on the first presenment when ou were still the Majority Leader? Why did you ave Sidella, Andrews, Manzo, Price, and others on your staff (scheduler, district office staff) do oltical work on state time?
ReplyDeleteWhat is never mention is that Manzo went from a $15,000 job on Bud George’s Staff to Chief of Staff of the HDC. What Manzo, Sidella, and Brubaker failed to mention is how they volunteer to perform any personal services and often requested to do it to ingratiate themselves into higher positions.
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, these Giants among ethical Behavior hired many of their own relatives, spouses, and gave them Hugh increases and bonuses but suing the names, reputations, and goodwill of the Legislators Name on that Door.
These same people order others to do chores on their behalf, from hiring girls to work on campaigns and sleep with them. To forcing others to do campaign, work on state time without the proper state comp time.
Now they point fingers at their bosses and elected officials, but it was they that were suppose to advise their Legislators on how to perform and keep their reputations, if DeWeese is guilty of juggling many public, private, and elected duties, his biggest fault was hiring the people that wanted those jobs and would do anything to get them.
Discontented Staffers that were not discipline in their own lives are hypocrites when pointing fingers at other elected officials they came begging for jobs, then let those elected officials down. Rachel Manzo went from $40,000 to $89,000 in two years and not counting her bonuses created and approved by her Fiancée who put his other girlfriend on the Public dole.
Now Manzo wants to talk about personal benefits about others, and Brubaker too along with their spouses, and Sidella, the guy that took a job he claims he knew was wrong from the start. Like I said, these Giants of Ethics know no bounds of Hypocrisy.
"Anonymous said...This article, based on testimony before a grand jury, is far worse than anything Mike Veon was ever accused of. Veon had a commitment to a political philosophy - DeWeese's only commitment was to his own aggrandizement, a life style of the rich and showing off. He knew about the bonuses, constantly blamed others for the very things he was doing and some of these things are very Fumoesqe.
ReplyDeleteDeWeese's line: "our saving grace is that everyone does it..." will be the lasting description of the legislative culture of grandeur and misuse. DeWeese was guilty of misfeasance, malfeasance and extreme weirdness. December 22, 2009 5:02 PM"
Presentments are charges made up by the OAG to make a case for Criminal Prosecution and put in the light to gain the highest publicity at anytime.
Veon has been charged with far worse Presentments, and now veon and DeWeese can challenge them in a Court of Law.
Lets here from the other side and see what really happen, especialy when they are on teh witness Stand, just like the Ramaley case.
Manzo is doing again and everything to save his wife from charges after he did not act like a man to to her.
Be a Man not a Manzo!
"Anonymous said...Why isn't Bill DeWeese charged for using his staff as his personal servants to do his housework, run his errands and buy his condoms? Who treats people like that?
ReplyDeleteDecember 22, 2009 5:04 PM
Let us see on Cross Examination what Manzo was begging to do for Mike Veon and Bill Deweese to move higher up into the HDC.
We aready have admissions he lied, not just to his bosses but his wife too.
Let us see what the jury thinks of his deeds as rose to power and then let his bosses down, by his own behavior.
The Hypocrites may be the same people that asked to work for him!
ReplyDeleteThe Republicans will be back in control by 2011 at all levels of state and federal governments, this nonsense will end under Republican Leadership that Veon tried to crush in 2005 and Eachus in 2008.
ReplyDeleteNow we have new elected Supreme Court Judge Joan Orie Melvin and the all the other Republican Superior and Commonwealth Court Judges for 10 years, the Courts will be next, and the days of Four star Hotel at the Ritz Carlton and Four Seasons will be over.
First we clean out the House, then Senate, get a new ethical god fearing Governor in Corbett, appoint a new OAG that goes after the Judges Abuses and then pass judicial Reform.
We need to go back to when we can have the elite of the best and brightest citizens picking judges on merit not by the people that are prone to corruption.
God Bless Mike Veon and all his efforts to nail his own colleagues and God Bless him for bringing Mike Manzo into politics.
So Sidella is a bad guy because he took a job he "knew" was "wrong", but what about Tom Andrews doing political work on state time. Didn't he know that was wrong?
ReplyDeleteAnd DeWeese asks why he should be charged after he turned over LaGrotta just because he (DeWeese) did the same thing
Not defending DeWeese, but having staff perform one's personal errands, and devising, implementing, and executing a multi-million dollar funneling of taxpayer dollars for political work are two very different animals.
ReplyDeleteThe Times Leader has an article about grand jury testimony implicating Todd Eachus based on grand jury testimony from John Paul Jones, Rachel Manzo and perhaps others for doing political work on state time. So Veon, DeWeese, Stetler and Eachus - guess the caucus will then be all cleaned up.
ReplyDeleteNo other Representatives (Dem or GOP) ever had staff make calls for funds, or do political work on state time.
Or Senators.
btw, does anyone think Tim Potts ever did political work while on DeWeese's payroll? Or Gene Stilp?
ReplyDeleteAnd DeWeese asks why he should be charged after he turned over LaGrotta just because he (DeWeese) did the same thing
ReplyDeleteDecember 22, 2009 7:26 PM
LaGrotta lost his election hired his reltives begged for a job, then when turned in by his former employee, (not DeWeese), began his turn around implicating all of the Veon Gang.
How has DeWeese's 'district campaign manager' avoided most of these presentments?
ReplyDeleteJim Gerlach is building AG Corbett’s’ very timely and soon to be defective Bonusgate prosecutions into a campaign issue. If Jim Gerlach is triumphant in making this a question, AG Corbett will be susceptible in the Republican T.
ReplyDeleteWe are contented that Jim Gerlach is raising the profile of Bonusgate corruption scandal and how it is being selective and timed to avoid Corbett’s friends.
Jim Gerlach is not able to say just yet, it is a personal partisan prosecution but as the Electorate become informed, the Membership will become more apparent and once one OAG staffer breaks, the Dam of Silence will collapse too.
You can each time tell the winners at the starting gate. You can always tell the winners and you can tell the losers. Who would have put a penny on Eachus, Manzo, Sidella, Brubaker, or Jones?
ReplyDeleteWhy we were so stupid to hire stupid staffers that became dear friends is beyond me as an after thought now? We still recall how these non-employable people came from all over places begging us a favor to hire them.
We did not want to hire them at first, for we saw they were losers. They were filthy in character, they made us sick. One could see them willing to crawl up toilet walls just like roaches.
Yet, in America, government is where you go to find a job when no one else will hire you.
Then after we hired them, they did not tell us everything about themselves, how far they got, how far they are going to get.
They just kept telling us, how they are our dear friends, and want to be our brothers or sisters to do service to the people beyond belief... but they were planning just to be greedy all the time, for themselves, their spouses, fiancées, and girlfriends.
When a friend has been disloyal, you hit back. In stead in the coming years, we all will tell a special story.
You see, I have a story too. I had friends once. How we hired some crumb bums and bitches to run our offices in public trust as we concentrated on the work for our constituents. They used our names to get ahead and make their beds full of fleas, and then they gave those bugs to us.
Now as dear friends, we all turned on each other thinking we were saving our lives. Neither of us would sit down and listen to each other’s view on what happen.
I refused, he refused, and then all of our other friends refused. Nevertheless, we thought we wanted it that way. Now we got picked off one by one and still refuse to unite.
Why go on living with a career that was squandered over taking bonuses in a few thousands compared to paying legal fees, losing pensions, and paying fines in the tens of thousands?
Now things went bad for my friends and they went bad for me too.
We all desire these investigations turn out not to be anything. It would be a disgrace to see all these years of work fritter away.
This Is The Epitaphs For What Happen To Legislators & Staffers In Bonus Gate!
You have to credit DeWeese for working his way up from one of the smallest counties in Pennsylvania to eventually becoming Speaker of the House and a Democratic Party leader in Harrisburg for over 20 years.
ReplyDeleteDeWeese did manage to bring hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding to area firefighters, police, civic groups and organizations over the years.
Over the last couple of years, DeWeese did some positive things.
Without his support, there’s no way the legislature would have passed the ground-breaking open records law.
While not perfect, it was a vast improvement over the prior law, enabling residents of the Commonwealth to finally see what had been going on behind closed doors for all too many years.
This was the Bill DeWeese we had been waiting to see.
He was showing promise that after all the years in Harrisburg, he was finally finding how to really represent his constituents in Harrisburg.
He was doing the right thing instead of the easy thing.
DeWeese has ended up a better man and Public Servant after all these years and deserves recognition for reforms.
Anonymous asked: "Why isn't Bill DeWeese charged for using his staff as his personal servants to do his housework, run his errands and buy his condoms? Who treats people like that?"
ReplyDeleteOne sick son-of-a-bitch, that's who.
Why would he need condoms if he's been dating the same woman for three years? LOL
ReplyDeleteEveryone has his or her personal quirks. Husbands and wives get on each others' nerves and drive each other crazy with their "nuttiness."
ReplyDeleteSidella's friends, coworkers and intimate associates could probably make a list of things that drive them crazy. Same goes for anybody reading this blog.
This stuff is just grist for the tabloid mill.
If DeWeese has a failing worth criticizing, it is that he is not a strong manager. He let too many people go their own ways and do their own thing.
It is worth noting that Kevin Sidella (former DeWeese employee) and Sheilah Novasky (longtime chief of staff of DeWeese's Waynesburg office) each was granted immunity for their grand jury testimony.
ReplyDeleteIf they themselves had done nothing wrong, they would not need immunity, would they?
It is a familiar script seen on every popular police show on television: We got you dead to rights, so squeal on the boss to save yourself.
We'll give you one guess as to who Kevin Sidella's direct supervisor was.
ReplyDeleteWas it:
A. Bill DeWeese
B. Steve Stetler
C. Sharon Rodavich
D. Mike Manzo
If you guessed "D," Mike Manzo, you are correct. That would be the same Mike Manzo who sruck a plea bargain for his role in Bonusgate and who was fired by DeWeese before being charged by Corbett.
The same Mike Manzo who struck a plea bargain with Corbett in order to reduce the charges against himself and his wife, who was also charged in Bonusgate.
Sheila Novasky was given free reign in the 50th District over Staff including Sharon Rodavich.
ReplyDeleteNovasky directed the operations and knew she had to have Immunity from her Misdeeds without DeWeese blessing or knowledge.
If there was problem with Rodavich it was under Manzo and Novasky directions, and illegal acts.
One of DeWeese's problems was with the hen house known as his district office in Waynesburg. Again, a lack of strict oversight gave too much power and autonomy to those who worked there.
ReplyDeleteHe never even had an office within that office, and seldom visited there. What's that they say? "When the cat's away ..."
Perhaps DeWeese needed condoms to give to the people who've been trying to screw him.
ReplyDeleteSickening to read that DeWeese's staff were ENABLERS and profited
ReplyDeletefrom that with big salaries and benefits. Makes me ashamed to say that I am from Fayette County.