HARRISBURG - Two years to the day after he left the Senate, former Senate Democratic Leader Robert J. Mellow was sentenced to 16 months in federal prison for misusing taxpayer dollars for political purposes while he was a senator.
Outside of Mr. Mellow's official portrait hanging in a Senate hallway to mark his brief tenure as Senate president pro tempore in the early 1990s, there are few visible reminders at the Capitol of the 40 years the Archbald Democrat spent here as a senator. Friday marked the official end of the 2011-12 legislative session, but neither the Senate or House convened to mark the occasion, and few lawmakers were present.
It was moving day. Cardboard boxes were piled outside the offices of departing senators. Moving carts filled with possessions rumbled over the tiled floors.
"Today's sentencing of former Sen. Mellow is a sad ending to a long career in public service," said Gov. Tom Corbett's spokesman Kevin Harley. "It is a reminder that public service is a privilege, not an entitlement, and those sent to Harrisburg by our citizens must honor that unfailing honesty."
Two Democratic senators issued statements expressing sadness at Mr. Mellow's sentence while emphasizing how efforts have been made to keep political and legislative activity separate since he left the Senate at the conclusion of his final term on Nov. 30, 2010.
"On a personal level, this is a sad and disappointing day for me and many in Northeast Pennsylvania," said Mr. Mellow's successor, Sen. John Blake, D-22, Archbald. "The Senate has changed since Sen. Mellow retired and we will continue to work on reforms to strengthen the public trust."
A continuing effort is made to ensure staffers follow ethical conduct rules adopted by the Senate after both state and federal prosecutions into misuse of tax dollars for campaigning, he added.
"As Democratic Leader, I have made it a priority to try and ensure that there is a bright line separating political activity from caucus legislative actions involving senators and staff," said Senate Minority Leader Jay Costa, D-43, Pittsburgh.
The ethics rules adopted first in 2010 spell out that Senate staffers and resources are not to be used in political or campaign activity, added Mr. Costa.
He said a DVD will be distributed in the next few months to reinforce the training and make it clear that deviation from the Senate rules on political activity won't be tolerated.
Mr. Mellow's sentence calls for him to make nearly $80,000 in restitution to the Senate. Any restitution will probably go for general operations, said Erik Arneson, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, R-9, Chester.
Federal sentencing guidelines called for Mr. Mellow to be sentenced to 18 to 24 months in prison. That guideline range was partly the result of federal prosecutors reaching a plea agreement with Mr. Mellow and his attorneys.
Ernie Preate, a former Lackawanna County district attorney and state attorney general, said he was not surprised by the judge's sentence since they rarely deviate too far from the guidelines.
The judge had to weigh Mr. Mellow's decades of public service against his admission to using $79,806.17 of Senate resources to help himself.
"It's hard to find fault with the judge's opinion," Mr. Preate said. "He struck a middle balance."
David O. Friedrichs, a University of Scranton professor of sociology and criminal justice, said sentencing guidelines remain an imprecise science and will not always serve the ends of justice in everybody's eyes.
"Any formula that you come out with is still inevitably going to be unfair to some," Mr. Friedrichs said. "Many people will feel it is on the low side."
A Capitol activist voiced skepticism the sentence will have a deterrent effect on others.
"The Mellow sentence will have zero impact on the way Harrisburg slithers around," said Eric Epstein, cofounder of Rock the Capital. "All three broken branches of government continue to subsidize cronyism."
Another activist, Tim Potts, chairman of the Majority Party, suggested that state prosecutors, including Attorney General-elect Kathleen Kane, should not back off from prosecuting Mr. Mellow on state charges.
"The taxpayers of Pennsylvania deserve to have satisfaction," added Mr. Potts.
More emphasis needs to be put on how the actions of Mr. Mellow and other state legislative leaders convicted of using public resources for campaigns have a negative impact on democracy, said Terry Madonna, Ph.D., pollster at Franklin and Marshall College.
"It has a distorting effect on the election," he added. "This is an incumbent advantage that is illegal."
Staff writer, STEVE MCCONNELL, contributed to this report.
Contact the writer: rswift@timesshamrock.com