10-11 - BONUSGATE - Wrong!
The last sentence of this article is blatently wrong and shows a lack of investigation on someone's part. Either the Grand Jury or the Reporter who wrote the article. Has anyone out there tried to deal with PennDOT directly? Crazy stupid statement there.
By David Pierce
Pocono Record Writer
October 10, 2010
Pocono taxpayers spent nearly $10 million last year to staff, house, feed and transport the 10 state lawmakers who represent parts of Monroe and Pike counties.
More than half of that multimillion-dollar total was racked up by Sen. Robert Mellow, D-22, who as Senate Democratic minority leader supervises more than 90 employees who make a combined $5.6 million, according to records obtained by the Pocono Record through Right to Know Law requests.
WHAT LAWMAKERS SPEND
Mike Carroll, D-118
Salary: $78,314
Mileage: $2,330
Staff salaries: $146,867 (four employees)
Staff mileage: $496
Per diems: $5,542
Meals: $0
Lodging: $0
Annual district office rent: $15,480 for two offices
Total: $249,029
Mike Peifer, R-139
Salary: $78,314
Mileage: $1,149
Staff salaries: $135,680 (five employees)
Staff mileage: $357
Per diems: $3,912
Meals: $140
Lodging: $0
Annual district office rent: $11,400
Total: $230,952
Mario Scavello, R-176
Salary: $78,314
Mileage (gas, oil): $1,209
Staff salaries: $267,776 (eight employees)
Staff mileage: $0
Per diems: $4,616
Meals: $208
Lodging: $0
Annual district office rent: $18,000
Total: $370,123
John Siptroth, D-189
Salary: $78,314
Mileage (gas, oil): $589
Staff salaries: $179,275 (eight employees)
Staff mileage: $0
Per diems: $3,793
Meals: $0
Lodging: $0
Annual district office rent: $19,200
Total: $281,171
David Argall, R-29
Salary: $78,314
Mileage: $1,775
Staff salaries: $593,574 (14 staffers, nine in district)
Staff mileage: $1,367
Per diems: $6,133
Meals: $440
Lodging: $0
Parking and tolls: $2
Annual district office rent: $36,160 for six offices
Total: $717,765
Lisa Baker, R-20
Salary: $78,314
Mileage: $0
Staff salaries: $401,773 (eight employees, six in district)
Staff mileage: $1,597
Per diems: $0
Meals: $375
Lodging: $690
Annual district office rent: $32,468 for two offices
Total: $515,217
Lisa Boscola, D-18
Salary: $78,314
Mileage: $0
Staff salaries: $440,568 (10 staffers, six in district)
Staff mileage: $0
Per diems: $3,260
Meals: $0
Lodging: $0
Annual district office rent: $58,476 for three offices
Total: $580,618
Patrick Browne, R-16
Salary: $78,314
Mileage: $0
Staff salaries: $584,158 (14 staffers, 10 based in district)
Staff mileage: $1,926
Per diems: $2,206
Staff meals: $329
Constituent meals: $350
Personal meals: $175
Staff parking, tolls: $691
Lodging: $0
Annual district office rent: $42,960 for four offices
Total: $711,109
Robert Mellow, D-22
Salary: $78,314
Mileage: $1,793
Staff salaries: $5.6 million (96 employees, 15 in district)
Staff mileage: $599
Per diems: $2,934
Parking and tolls: $300
Meals: $0
Lodging: $0
Annual district office rent: $67,167 for two district offices
Total: $5,751,107
Raphael Musto, D-14
Salary: $78,314
Mileage: $0
Staff salaries: $386,638 (seven staffers, six in district)
Staff mileage: $0
Per diems: $0
Meals: $0
Lodging: $0
Annual district office rent: $19,988 for one office
Total: $484,940
Notes: The legislator and staff salaries are for 2009. Most other listed expenses, including per diems and mileage, cover the first quarter of 2010 for the Senate and early 2010 through April 12, 2010, for the House. Records obtained through Right to Know Law requests to the chief clerks of the Pennsylvania House and Senate.
Welcome to the Pennsylvania state Legislature, which combined employed more than 2,900 people last year - the most of any legislative body in the nation, according to a National Conference of State Legislatures' survey.
Size doesn't begin to tell the entire story. Most staffers are major-party employees, assigned to either the Democratic or Republican caucuses in the House and Senate and performing what critics call duplicative work. Some work for individual legislators, while others are assigned to "nonpartisan" officers in each chamber.
"What are these people supposed to be doing?" asks Barry Kauffman, executive director of Pennsylvania Common Cause/PA. "Are they political workers dressed up as state employees? There ought to be some kind of audit of what the work of the Legislature is and how to accomplish it."
Pocono legislators justify their staffs, district offices and travel allowances as necessary to ensure passage of informed legislation and to provide critical personalized service to constituents.
A spokeswoman for Mellow said his legislative staff size as listed in Senate documents is misleading because most staffers work for all 20 Democrats in the 50-member Senate, not just for him.
"Yes, he is in charge of the entire Democratic caucus, but there are 19 other members," said Lisa Scullin. "They serve all of the 19 members."
Scullin said 25 of the 96 staffers listed on Mellow's 2009 payroll actually work directly for the senator, who is retiring after nearly 40 years in the Senate.
Of his district staff, 10 are based in Mellow's Harrisburg office and 15 work in his district, which includes the Mountain region of Monroe County and all of Lackawanna County.
Other big spenders
Mellow isn't the only big spender in the Senate. Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi of Chester and Delaware counties had a 90-person payroll of $5.57 million for the 30-member Republican Senate caucus. Combined, the Senate Democratic and Republican leadership payrolls last year totaled more than $11 million.
No firm figure of total House and Senate staff payrolls is available. But a 2008 U.S. Census Bureau survey of legislative branch expenses - everything from legislator and staff salaries, to office equipment and building costs - was placed at $319 million, second highest in the country after California.
Staff figures provided to the Pocono Record for the two Senate leaders don't include employees who report to the chief clerk, who is the Senate's fiscal officer, or to the secretary of the Senate, who oversees the introduction, status and publication of bills. It doesn't include the bulk of employees who work directly on staffs of the 50 senators.
A similar leadership supervisory structure for employees exists in the House.
Individual staff levels for the 203-member House appear to be smaller than those assigned to the senators. Representatives of the Poconos have four to eight staff employees each, while some local senators have staffs as large as 14. (Some totals may include employees who left their jobs and were replaced by new workers.)
It's up to each elected official to negotiate with party leaders about his staffing needs. Rep. Mike Peifer, R-139, says his five employees constitute a small staff for a large geographic district that includes a tiny portion of northern Monroe and parts of Pike and Wayne counties. Each House district represents about 60,500 residents and each Senate district represents about 245,000 people.
No accounting for size
Legislative staffing size doesn't appear to based on any formula - not on district geographic size, volume of constituent requests, seniority or by an equitable division of resources, though party leaders may take those factors into account.
Sen. David Argall, R-29, just elected to the Senate in 2009 following a long House career, already has one of the largest staffs among Monroe County's delegation.
Argall, a Schuylkill County resident who is running for Congress this fall, has 14 staffers earning a combined $593,000. Argall replaced the late Sen. James Rhoades.
"When Sen. Rhoades was killed his staff remained in place and they were assigned to me," Argall said. "I kept Sen. Rhoades' office in place."
Sen. Raphael Musto, D-14, of Pittston, has the smallest Senate staff of Monroe's delegation, according to payroll documents.
Musto calls himself frugal but says his seven listed employees might not account for everyone who works on district issues.
"Some of the staffers may be in leadership," Musto said, referring to the Democratic caucus.
Mellow's spokeswoman, Scullin, says total Senate staff spending has declined since 2008, with "a hard 10 percent" spending reduction being imposed for this year.
Rep. John Siptroth, D-189, who had eight staffers listed last year, said the jobs are not high-paying. "These are $10-an-hour jobs," he said.
Scathing grand jury findings
A grand jury issued a damning report in May charging that hundreds of legislative workers could be fired without hurting the effectiveness of state government.
The grand jury report - prompted by prosecutions of scores of staffers and elected officials for allegedly performing campaign work using taxpayer resources and on government time - called for eliminating the costly partisan party caucus hiring system in which Democrats and Republicans, in both the House and Senate, have dual staffs for nearly every task.
None of those charged include members or staff of Monroe County's six-senator, four-representative delegation.
Tim Potts, executive director of Democracy Rising PA, says the system is riddled with duplication, inefficiency and secrecy.
"There's no reason we have to have four research offices," Potts said. "It can be done by one office and in many states it is done by one office."
The grand jury report places current staffing for the Pennsylvania General Assembly at 2,805.
The House total is 1,918, including 911 working for the majority Democrats, 797 for the Republicans and 210 "bipartisan" staffers.
In the Senate there are 887 staffers, including 403 for the majority Republican caucus, 317 for the Democrats and 167 bipartisan staffers.
Potts, himself a former legislastive staffer, said more research should be assigned to the Legislative Reference Bureau, a nonpartisan state agency, rather than having Republican and Democratic staffs researching the same issues.
"Then if a caucus wants to put a spin on it, let them," Potts said. "At least they're operating by one set of facts."
Duplication abounds
The grand jury report calls for eliminating the party caucus system and combining separate House Democratic and Republican operations for such things as document printing.
The House Republican print shop has an annual operating budget of $3.2 million, grand jurors were told, with the House Democratic caucus print operation believed to cost about the same amount.
The Senate, on the other hand, operates a single nonpartisan print shop used by both Republican and Democratic senators and staffers.
The four Senate and House party caucuses each maintains separate information technology departments.
"Not a single person who testified before the grand jury gave a credible explanation as to why each caucus needed its own IT budget or IT staff," says the report. "To the contrary, the grand jury finds that in fact the IT budget for the Pennsylvania House Democratic and Republican caucuses was an ideal place to hide 'questionable' (i.e. campaign) expenditures from the prying eyes of the taxpayers."
The House Republican caucus maintains a staff of 20 in Harrisburg charged with processing constituent requests for help with Department of Transportation vehicle registrations and other paperwork, according to the grand jury, and PennDOT has a 35-person unit dedicated solely to handling requests from legislators.
The grand jury contends that residents who contact PennDOT directly get faster service.
By David Pierce
Pocono Record Writer
October 10, 2010
Pocono taxpayers spent nearly $10 million last year to staff, house, feed and transport the 10 state lawmakers who represent parts of Monroe and Pike counties.
More than half of that multimillion-dollar total was racked up by Sen. Robert Mellow, D-22, who as Senate Democratic minority leader supervises more than 90 employees who make a combined $5.6 million, according to records obtained by the Pocono Record through Right to Know Law requests.
WHAT LAWMAKERS SPEND
Mike Carroll, D-118
Salary: $78,314
Mileage: $2,330
Staff salaries: $146,867 (four employees)
Staff mileage: $496
Per diems: $5,542
Meals: $0
Lodging: $0
Annual district office rent: $15,480 for two offices
Total: $249,029
Mike Peifer, R-139
Salary: $78,314
Mileage: $1,149
Staff salaries: $135,680 (five employees)
Staff mileage: $357
Per diems: $3,912
Meals: $140
Lodging: $0
Annual district office rent: $11,400
Total: $230,952
Mario Scavello, R-176
Salary: $78,314
Mileage (gas, oil): $1,209
Staff salaries: $267,776 (eight employees)
Staff mileage: $0
Per diems: $4,616
Meals: $208
Lodging: $0
Annual district office rent: $18,000
Total: $370,123
John Siptroth, D-189
Salary: $78,314
Mileage (gas, oil): $589
Staff salaries: $179,275 (eight employees)
Staff mileage: $0
Per diems: $3,793
Meals: $0
Lodging: $0
Annual district office rent: $19,200
Total: $281,171
David Argall, R-29
Salary: $78,314
Mileage: $1,775
Staff salaries: $593,574 (14 staffers, nine in district)
Staff mileage: $1,367
Per diems: $6,133
Meals: $440
Lodging: $0
Parking and tolls: $2
Annual district office rent: $36,160 for six offices
Total: $717,765
Lisa Baker, R-20
Salary: $78,314
Mileage: $0
Staff salaries: $401,773 (eight employees, six in district)
Staff mileage: $1,597
Per diems: $0
Meals: $375
Lodging: $690
Annual district office rent: $32,468 for two offices
Total: $515,217
Lisa Boscola, D-18
Salary: $78,314
Mileage: $0
Staff salaries: $440,568 (10 staffers, six in district)
Staff mileage: $0
Per diems: $3,260
Meals: $0
Lodging: $0
Annual district office rent: $58,476 for three offices
Total: $580,618
Patrick Browne, R-16
Salary: $78,314
Mileage: $0
Staff salaries: $584,158 (14 staffers, 10 based in district)
Staff mileage: $1,926
Per diems: $2,206
Staff meals: $329
Constituent meals: $350
Personal meals: $175
Staff parking, tolls: $691
Lodging: $0
Annual district office rent: $42,960 for four offices
Total: $711,109
Robert Mellow, D-22
Salary: $78,314
Mileage: $1,793
Staff salaries: $5.6 million (96 employees, 15 in district)
Staff mileage: $599
Per diems: $2,934
Parking and tolls: $300
Meals: $0
Lodging: $0
Annual district office rent: $67,167 for two district offices
Total: $5,751,107
Raphael Musto, D-14
Salary: $78,314
Mileage: $0
Staff salaries: $386,638 (seven staffers, six in district)
Staff mileage: $0
Per diems: $0
Meals: $0
Lodging: $0
Annual district office rent: $19,988 for one office
Total: $484,940
Notes: The legislator and staff salaries are for 2009. Most other listed expenses, including per diems and mileage, cover the first quarter of 2010 for the Senate and early 2010 through April 12, 2010, for the House. Records obtained through Right to Know Law requests to the chief clerks of the Pennsylvania House and Senate.
Welcome to the Pennsylvania state Legislature, which combined employed more than 2,900 people last year - the most of any legislative body in the nation, according to a National Conference of State Legislatures' survey.
Size doesn't begin to tell the entire story. Most staffers are major-party employees, assigned to either the Democratic or Republican caucuses in the House and Senate and performing what critics call duplicative work. Some work for individual legislators, while others are assigned to "nonpartisan" officers in each chamber.
"What are these people supposed to be doing?" asks Barry Kauffman, executive director of Pennsylvania Common Cause/PA. "Are they political workers dressed up as state employees? There ought to be some kind of audit of what the work of the Legislature is and how to accomplish it."
Pocono legislators justify their staffs, district offices and travel allowances as necessary to ensure passage of informed legislation and to provide critical personalized service to constituents.
A spokeswoman for Mellow said his legislative staff size as listed in Senate documents is misleading because most staffers work for all 20 Democrats in the 50-member Senate, not just for him.
"Yes, he is in charge of the entire Democratic caucus, but there are 19 other members," said Lisa Scullin. "They serve all of the 19 members."
Scullin said 25 of the 96 staffers listed on Mellow's 2009 payroll actually work directly for the senator, who is retiring after nearly 40 years in the Senate.
Of his district staff, 10 are based in Mellow's Harrisburg office and 15 work in his district, which includes the Mountain region of Monroe County and all of Lackawanna County.
Other big spenders
Mellow isn't the only big spender in the Senate. Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi of Chester and Delaware counties had a 90-person payroll of $5.57 million for the 30-member Republican Senate caucus. Combined, the Senate Democratic and Republican leadership payrolls last year totaled more than $11 million.
No firm figure of total House and Senate staff payrolls is available. But a 2008 U.S. Census Bureau survey of legislative branch expenses - everything from legislator and staff salaries, to office equipment and building costs - was placed at $319 million, second highest in the country after California.
Staff figures provided to the Pocono Record for the two Senate leaders don't include employees who report to the chief clerk, who is the Senate's fiscal officer, or to the secretary of the Senate, who oversees the introduction, status and publication of bills. It doesn't include the bulk of employees who work directly on staffs of the 50 senators.
A similar leadership supervisory structure for employees exists in the House.
Individual staff levels for the 203-member House appear to be smaller than those assigned to the senators. Representatives of the Poconos have four to eight staff employees each, while some local senators have staffs as large as 14. (Some totals may include employees who left their jobs and were replaced by new workers.)
It's up to each elected official to negotiate with party leaders about his staffing needs. Rep. Mike Peifer, R-139, says his five employees constitute a small staff for a large geographic district that includes a tiny portion of northern Monroe and parts of Pike and Wayne counties. Each House district represents about 60,500 residents and each Senate district represents about 245,000 people.
No accounting for size
Legislative staffing size doesn't appear to based on any formula - not on district geographic size, volume of constituent requests, seniority or by an equitable division of resources, though party leaders may take those factors into account.
Sen. David Argall, R-29, just elected to the Senate in 2009 following a long House career, already has one of the largest staffs among Monroe County's delegation.
Argall, a Schuylkill County resident who is running for Congress this fall, has 14 staffers earning a combined $593,000. Argall replaced the late Sen. James Rhoades.
"When Sen. Rhoades was killed his staff remained in place and they were assigned to me," Argall said. "I kept Sen. Rhoades' office in place."
Sen. Raphael Musto, D-14, of Pittston, has the smallest Senate staff of Monroe's delegation, according to payroll documents.
Musto calls himself frugal but says his seven listed employees might not account for everyone who works on district issues.
"Some of the staffers may be in leadership," Musto said, referring to the Democratic caucus.
Mellow's spokeswoman, Scullin, says total Senate staff spending has declined since 2008, with "a hard 10 percent" spending reduction being imposed for this year.
Rep. John Siptroth, D-189, who had eight staffers listed last year, said the jobs are not high-paying. "These are $10-an-hour jobs," he said.
Scathing grand jury findings
A grand jury issued a damning report in May charging that hundreds of legislative workers could be fired without hurting the effectiveness of state government.
The grand jury report - prompted by prosecutions of scores of staffers and elected officials for allegedly performing campaign work using taxpayer resources and on government time - called for eliminating the costly partisan party caucus hiring system in which Democrats and Republicans, in both the House and Senate, have dual staffs for nearly every task.
None of those charged include members or staff of Monroe County's six-senator, four-representative delegation.
Tim Potts, executive director of Democracy Rising PA, says the system is riddled with duplication, inefficiency and secrecy.
"There's no reason we have to have four research offices," Potts said. "It can be done by one office and in many states it is done by one office."
The grand jury report places current staffing for the Pennsylvania General Assembly at 2,805.
The House total is 1,918, including 911 working for the majority Democrats, 797 for the Republicans and 210 "bipartisan" staffers.
In the Senate there are 887 staffers, including 403 for the majority Republican caucus, 317 for the Democrats and 167 bipartisan staffers.
Potts, himself a former legislastive staffer, said more research should be assigned to the Legislative Reference Bureau, a nonpartisan state agency, rather than having Republican and Democratic staffs researching the same issues.
"Then if a caucus wants to put a spin on it, let them," Potts said. "At least they're operating by one set of facts."
Duplication abounds
The grand jury report calls for eliminating the party caucus system and combining separate House Democratic and Republican operations for such things as document printing.
The House Republican print shop has an annual operating budget of $3.2 million, grand jurors were told, with the House Democratic caucus print operation believed to cost about the same amount.
The Senate, on the other hand, operates a single nonpartisan print shop used by both Republican and Democratic senators and staffers.
The four Senate and House party caucuses each maintains separate information technology departments.
"Not a single person who testified before the grand jury gave a credible explanation as to why each caucus needed its own IT budget or IT staff," says the report. "To the contrary, the grand jury finds that in fact the IT budget for the Pennsylvania House Democratic and Republican caucuses was an ideal place to hide 'questionable' (i.e. campaign) expenditures from the prying eyes of the taxpayers."
The House Republican caucus maintains a staff of 20 in Harrisburg charged with processing constituent requests for help with Department of Transportation vehicle registrations and other paperwork, according to the grand jury, and PennDOT has a 35-person unit dedicated solely to handling requests from legislators.
The grand jury contends that residents who contact PennDOT directly get faster service.