Attendees of the July 1 Scranton City Council meeting heard from residents Joan Hodownanitz, Lee Morgan, Ron Ellman, Marie Schumacher, David Dobson, and others. The topics of discussion at the evening’s meeting were the future of Scranton, the Scranton Action Plan, the Fourth of July, the financial state of Scranton, among some other varied issues.
The topics of discussion at the evening’s meeting were the state of the city, city government transparency, the 2014 city audit, Henry Amoroso, and Amoroso’s Scranton City recovery plan.
Joan Hodowanitz started off her alotted time with a question: “Any idea how much we paid Rossi for the 2013 audit?” Council had no answer. Hodowanitz claimed the city paid $48,000, but that was not for the audit. She said the audit itself cost over $94,000, that the 2014 city audit is suppose to cost over $40,000, and that no one is slated to do it. She said the legislation is forthcoming for the bids for audit. Hodowanitz said that you “can’t underestimate the value of a timely audit,” especially, she emphasized, for a city in distress. She hopes the 2014 audit will be completed before the end of 2015 and won’t cost $94,000.
Scranton City Council members heard several resident’s opinions Thursday evening, February 26, at the weekly city council meeting regarding the recent announcement that the PA Auditor General’s investigation is slated to begin Friday into whether six nonuniform city employees should have received hundreds of thousands of dollars in double pension benefits since 2002. Auditor General Eugene DePasquale is conducting the investigation independent of law enforcement; however, DePasquale stated earlier that he would turn over any criminal evidence that he may discover in the course of his investigation.