Wednesday, May 8, 2013

HOUSE HUMAN RESOURCES: INCOMPETENT OR GHOSTS?

Ah, the sweet smell of reform in the State Capitol!  Those "Gate" trials and the prosecution of the Orie sisters sure cleaned things up in Harrisburg.

Or have they?

Based on a very well-done bit of investigative reporting by Philly's Channel 29 reporter Jeff Cole, looks like State Representative J.P. Miranda is going to be facing an indictment very, very soon.  (Channel 29 5/7/2013)

Miranda was caught red-handed by Cole for keeping a ghost employee on staff.  This same practice led to charges against Bonusgate defendant Mike Manzo in 2008 after he hired his lover (and former Miss Rainy Day), Angela Bertugli (Post-Gazette 2/9/2010).  The grand jury presentment for the John Perzel prosecution in 2009 also went into great detail about the practice of hiring illegal ghost employees like former State Representative Sue Cornell (Patriot-News 11/24/2009).

Miranda was just elected in 2012, and yet immediately started his career in the House breaking the law by hiring a campaign aide to a $36,000 a year no-show job (with very good benefits worth tens of thousands more).  So much for the House of Representatives' vaunted reforms that were to keep such practices from ever happening again.  What the heck are the Human Resources staff (some of whom are paid in the six figures) even doing to let this kind of egregious abuse happen right under their noses in this age of "reform"?  There were months worth of unsigned time sheets in the Miranda situation ... were they merely for show or are the HR employees no better than ghosts, too?

How soon will newly minted Attorney General Kathleen Kane arrest Miranda?  When will the House Leadership ask for the resignations of the ethics compliance and human resources staff who were specifically given the task to never let this type of activity happen again?  We're counting the days.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Aren't you missing the REAL story here? That in spite of all your conspiracy theories and allegations of cover up in the Hershey Trust matter, AG Kathleen Kane just cleared Tom Corbett of any wrongdoing. Yep,that's right, by not proceeding when there was nothing there Tom Corbett was not proceeding BECAUSE THERE WAS NOTHING THERE. Much ado about nothing.
Oh wait, unless it's because AG Kane covered it up as well so that Corbett will win reelection and then she'll be the strongest contender for an open seat in 5 years.
Or maybe there was just nothing there.

Anonymous said...

The entire HR staff is dirty. They allow things to slid all the time. Don't you Lori, Louis, and Shawn? The HR department is a HUGE problem for the democratic caucus. 2 of the main players in HR were hired during the job freeze by Rep. eachus. Shawn being one of those people an he has NO HR background none! As for Louis and Lori they just do what April R. and legal tell them to do. They are a tight group. Wish I was able to testify on just how shady and dirty they are. I even have some papers and document that show how slick they try to be. Things is the legal team in the caucus is a joke. Having Erik Anderson handle HR issues is a joke. It's only a matter of time until they are exposed ....