Corbett Might Reduce Involvement in Legislative Corruption Probe

Pennsylvania Governor-elect Tom Corbett says he may step away from his ongoing legislative corruption investigation, as he prepares to take office in January.
Corbett has named eight people to a transition team. The list is mostly made up of longtime Republican insiders, and members of Corbett’s gubernatorial campaign.
Corbett won’t step down as Attorney General until just before the inauguration, and says he’ll keep working at his current job over the next few months.

"The day-to-day work of the Attorney General’s office that comes to my desk in the normal course will continue to come to my desk. I am going to sit down with my first deputy to talk about the status of the bonus investigation, and make a determination about my role with that, after the discussion."

A spokesman says Corbett may remove himself from the legislative corruption probe, due to the fact he’ll be working with lawmakers as Governor-elect.
The Attorney General’s office has filed charges against House Democrats and Republicans, and is now believed to be investigating the Senate Republican caucus.

During a transition press conference Corbett stayed away from making too many new policy announcements. The Republican did say he’d likely overturn Governor Rendell’s moratorium on leasing out more state forest land for natural gas drilling.

"I think it’s 500-thousand acres that are still available. That doesn’t mean all 500-thousand are going to be leased out at one time. Because I see this as something that’s going to go on for decades."


Corbett also named a two-person team charged with raising money for the January 18th inauguration.
The bulk of the event and surrounding celebrations will be privately funded, through individual and corporate contributions.

Controversial Legislative Office Downsized

A special report issued in May by the Grand Jury investigating public corruption in the state legislature detailed how 34 legislative staffers and 35 PennDOT workers spend all their time processing vehicle registration, license renewals and other paperwork for constituents. The jurors argued lawmakers only filed the paperwork to score points with voters. The report prompted Governor Rendell to launch an effort to shut down the PennDOT office. However, the practice remained open, after House Speaker Keith McCall defended it as a valuable constituent service. This week a compromise was reached to scale back the office but leave it otherwise intact. PennDOT will continue to accept individual constituents’ paperwork from lawmakers’ offices, but as McCall’s Chief of Staff Paul Parsells says things are different in rural counties compared to more urban settings and this is a service that makes sense, “If you live in Harrisburg you can get in your car, go right downtown to the riverfront office center, process your paperwork. You can take a publicly funded transit bus down there if you want. In rural Pennsylvania you can’t do that. And many of our members really serve as the front door to state government.” Under the new agreement legislators will not pass along documents from car dealerships or other businesses that already charge fees to their customers. “They estimated it to be approximately 60 percent of the work. And after we evaluated the work we think that might be in the right ballpark. It was a significant amount of work, and it’s work we really didn’t need to be doing,” says Parsells. The PennDOT workers will be reassigned to other departments, but Parcells says the legislative processing offices will stay open. He notes that the office does more than just handle PennDOT work. “This is just one example of the work our legislators do every day. We serve as intermediaries with the Department of Welfare, with the Attorney General, Office of Consumer Advocate, with Treasury. With any agency of the state.” Transportation Secretary Allen Biehler says the change will save a million dollars a year.

Another Bonusgate Defendant Held for Trial

Following a preliminary hearing, a district judge has ordered former state legislator Stephen Stetler, who is also a former member of the Rendell Administration to stand trial for allegedly doing campaign work on state time.
A one-time York County Representative, Stetler ran the House Democratic Campaign Committee before working as Governor Rendell’s Revenue Secretary.
Stetler is facing six counts of theft, conspiracy and conflict of interest for allegedly ordering legislative employees to raise money, conduct opposition research and do other campaign work, while on the clock at their publicly-funded jobs.
Witnesses at the hearing testified about making fundraising calls from the state Capitol, using legislative staffers to do background checks on Republican opponents, and coming in early and staying late in order to rack up “comp time,” so they could go campaign for Democrats.
Stetler is one of six current or former lawmakers to face charges in the ongoing legislative corruption probe. Two have gone to trial already.
One, former State Representative Sean Ramaley was found “not guilty.” The other – former House Democratic Whip Mike Veon – has been sentenced to up to 14 years in prison.

Grand Jury: PA Legislature "Bloated" With Staff

The Grand Jury that spent two years listening to testimony about legislative corruption has issued a scathing report calling for sweeping changes in Harrisburg.
The grand jury’s report charges the “overwhelming majority” of lawmakers with putting personal gains ahead of serving constituents.
The jurors say they’re “appalled” by the amount of staffers assigned to state representatives and senators.
The report quotes testimony from a former House Republican staffer who conducted a study that found only 289 of the caucus’475 staffers were actually needed to conduct legislative work. That passage caught the eye of good-government advocate Tim Potts, who runs Democracy Rising PA.
"That surprised me. I knew there were an awful lot of folks there who didn’t need to be there. But I didn’t know it was that extensive."
As one example, the report points out many legislative staffers spend all their time filling out vehicle and license registration forms for constituents.
The jurors say that’s a waste of tax dollars, and argue it’s only done so lawmakers can win favor with voters.
Potts agrees with the jurors’ conclusion that lawmakers become warped by the system.
"People would come there with the idea that they would serve for a limited period of time, or they were going to accomplish particular things and then leave. And then within about six months you see people change in their attitudes. It’s no longer being there to do the job. It’s simply being there to have the job."
In addition to shrinking staff, the Grand Jury recommends routine independent audits of legislative spending, the elimination of the per diem payments lawmakers receive when they’re in Harrisburg, and legislative term limits. The Grand Jurors also say the General Assembly should shift from full-time to part time.
Many of the suggested changes can only be implemented through a constitutional convention.

Prosecution: Twitter Feed Shows Cott Has No Remorse

An assistant attorney general for Pennsylvania is defending the subpoena his office sent to Twitter, saying the information requested was relevant to Brett Cott’s sentencing.
According to the Office of the Attorney General, the person behind the anti-Tom Corbett blog CasablancaPA isn’t an innocent observer.
A sentencing memorandum claims Brett Cott, who will serve up to five years in prison for his role in the Bonusgate scheme, has used the site “to deflect blame and deny responsibility for his criminal conduct.”
Deputy Attorney General Marc Costanzo said the subpoena was intended to tie Cott to the website and related Twitter feed.

"The reasons for the subpoena were legal reasons that were allowed by law, and had nothing to do with blogs or tweets that were critical of people. We have no interest in that whatsoever."

Cott’s lawyer, Brian Walk, says there’s no evidence connecting Cott to CasablancaPA.
Walk, says the anti-Tom Corbett blog is irrelevant.

"Did they show any evidence that Brett’s connected to that? Has anybody seen that? Because maybe I missed that. And maybe I missed the repealing of the First Amendment."


Dauphin County Judge Richard Lewis said in court that the site wasn’t a factor in his sentencing decision.
The subpoena was made public hours after Corbett won the Republican gubernatorial nomination.
His opponent, Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato, says Corbett is “trying to bully [critics] into silence.”

Cott Attorney: Sentence Too Harsh

The first defendant sentenced in the legislative corruption investigation dubbed “Bonusgate” will go to prison for at least 21 months.
Former House Democratic staffer Brett Cott was convicted of theft, conspiracy and conflict of interest in March for conducting political work with public resources.
Dauphin County Judge Richard Lewis has sentenced him to 21 months to five years behind bars.
Cott also has to pay an 11-thousand dollar fine. His lawyer, Brian Walk, says the sentence is unjust.

"We’re disappointed with the whole case. 42 charges and three convictions, and the kid gets 21 months? 21 months? We’ve got drug dealers that the Attorney General’s office prosecutes that don’t get that much time. We’ve got violent offenders that don’t get that much time."

Lewis told Cott that he and the other House Democrats played with tax dollars “like Monopoly money,” and that the “electoral process suffered an incalculable blow” due to the taxpayer-funded bonuses Cott, former House Minority Whip Mike Veon and others handed out for campaign work.

Deputy Attorney General Marc Costanzo says he’s pleased with the decision.

"I thought the sentencing – sentence – was well within the range that we asked the court to give. And we think the sentence sends a pretty loud and clear message that this kind of activity will not be tolerated, and that you’re going to pay for those crimes."

Veon and former staffer Annamarie Perretta-Rosepink will be sentenced next month.