StopLouBarletta.com

So Lou Barletta was recently named as “Mayor of the Year”.  I find that amusing, for many reasons.  Besides being a complete idiot, with a long and well documented record of failure, Barletta also has a history of mismanaging finances, both his own and the City of Hazleton’s.  And while I’ve covered, in some detail, the scandal surrounding a questionable personal loan made to Barletta, I’ve yet to talk about how the city of Hazleton, under Lou Barletta’s leadership, severely mismanaged and misused city money.

The following links are to State Auditor General Reports, conducted in 2006.  The reports detail how Barletta and the Hazleton City Council repeatedly acted in violation of State law in terms of how they used the City of Hazleton Aggregate Pension Fund and the Nonuniformed Pension Plan,  funds used for the city’s police, firemen, and other city employees pension plans.  Here are the reports….

city-of-hazleton-aggregate-pension-fund-audit-report
city-of-hazleton-nonuniformed-pension-plan-audit-report

Now, as you can imagine, the reports are long and wordy.  They are not very thrilling reads, although I do suggest you at least skim through the reports.  Now, here are some highlights from the reports, quoted exactly as they appear…

• “During the years 2003, 2004, and 2005, the city improperly used proceeds from this special municipal penison tax, in the total amount of $1,426,656, to fund post-retirement health care benefits for police officers and firefighters who retired after January 1, 1999.” -City of Hazleton Aggregeate Pension Fund Audit Report (page 12).
• “As a result of the improper expenditure of special municipal taxing authority funds for post-retirement health care benefits and unused leave buy-backs, the funds were not available to pay authorized pension plan expenses or for investment purposes in accordance with Act 205.” -City of Hazleton Aggregate Pension Fund Audit Report (page 13)
• “In March of 2003, two police officers with less than 20 years of service were improperly granted pension benefits in violation of the Third Class City Code and a collective bargaining settlement agreement dated March 28, 2000.” -City of Hazleton Aggregate Pension Fund Audit Report (page 14)
• “Benefits in excess of the Third Class City Code are still being provided to certain retired and active nonuniformed employees.” -City of Hazleton Nonuniformed Pension Plan Audit Report (page 11)

Now, is this the type of leadership that Lou Barletta intends to bring to the United States Congress?  And while I understand that the City Council shares in the responsibility for these blunders, Lou Barletta, as Mayor of Hazleton, is also responsible.  And if he can’t properly manage a city’s finances, how in God’s name is he expecting to bring more money to the district than a 12 year incumbent?

Mayor Lou Barletta is a failed, weak leader.  He claims that he will bring change to Washington DC.  However, looking at his track record, I find that claim nothing more than a pipe dream.  Time and again, Barletta has failed as a leader.  Clearly, Lou Barletta should not be elected to the United States Congress.

-Dan Cheek
www.StopLouBarletta.com
StopLouBarletta@gmail.com

This entry was posted on Monday, July 28th, 2008 at 8:45 am and is filed under Lou's Leadership Flaws . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.