First in a series of stories looking at issues facing candidates for Scranton mayor and city council. Next Sunday: Scranton finances.
For weeks last summer, Mayor Chris Doherty and a city council led by President Janet Evans sparred in a battle that intertwined the city's finances, its parking authority and an update of its recovery plan.
Before it ended, the stalemate brought the city's mounting financial crunch to a head and forced the mayor to unilaterally cut wages to the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.
The standoff attracted worldwide attention, with national and overseas reporters visiting Scranton to tell the story.
The debacle also brought the ever-present tension between Mr. Doherty and Mrs. Evans to a furious boil and left many Scrantonians wondering if their government could ever solve the endless financial mess in the seat of Lackawanna County.
"Absolutely, I think it developed into bad blood," said Democratic mayoral candidate Bill Courtright, the city tax collector and himself a former councilman who occasionally criticized Mr. Doherty. "Doesn't everybody?"
Mr. Doherty and Mrs. Evans, with eight years in office simultaneously, were both damaged politically, perhaps helping them decide against running again, though neither has admitted that.
The six candidates who want to replace Mr. Doherty think better regular council-mayor contact will avoid a rehash of the kind of feuding that stalemated city government.
"You can't not talk to each other and then hit a crisis and expect that there's going to be a sense of where the vision is, what the priorities are on both sides," Democratic candidate Elizabeth Randol said.
Ms. Randol, Mr. Courtright and fellow Democratic candidates Joe Cardamone and Lee Morgan and Republican candidates Gary Lewis and Marcel Lisi are all promising to work closely with the council.
They expect occasional tension, acknowledging that's natural, because city government is set up with a legislative branch, council, and an executive branch, the mayor, and each with powers to limit what the other does.
"I don't think it's antagonistic by design. I think it's a system of checks and balances by design," Mr. Courtright said. "I think there's always going to be disagreement, there's always going to be discussion, but I don't think it needs to be (antagonistic)."
Mr. Courtright said Mr. Doherty added to the natural tension by rarely explaining his agenda to dissenting council members when he realized he had the three council votes necessary to pass his proposals.
He promised to act differently.
Much of the friction with council, he said, stemmed from the mayor's stance on contracts with the city's public safety unions. Their battle, which went all the way to the state Supreme Court, ended with the firefighter and police unions winning arbitration awards estimated to be $30 million.
"I don't think that anybody, anybody, wants to see that happen again," Mr. Courtright said. "If you don't have this bad blood, then you can concentrate on the issues at hand, not the fighting. I think it was a distraction over the years."
One way emerging during the campaign of conquering the bad blood is having the mayor attend council meetings, a common sight in Wilkes-Barre and other cities. Mr. Doherty, who promised shortly after he was first elected that he would be the "sixth councilman," over the years seemed allergic to council meeting visits.
Mr. Courtright said he won't be so shy about interaction with the council.
"People ask me, 'Will you go to a council meeting?' I say, 'Yeah, why wouldn't I?'" he said. "The mayor's not the end-all of everything, so I'll try to work with them. ... I think we all agree. There's got to be a lot of cooperation between council and the mayor or we're not going to get out of this situation that we're in. ... I don't think it's necessary to be at every single one (meeting)."
Ms. Randol said it's important that the mayor and the council continue to act independently, but there are limits.
"As far as a check and balance goes between city council and mayor's office, it can be an adversarial relationship, but it does not need to be an acrimonious one," she said. "So I don't see a problem with there being disagreements or challenges or differing opinions as far as where city council and how they want to make decisions and how they see the city moving forward and where the mayor sits.
"But I do think that relationship has deteriorated over the past year or two and I think that people, on balance, are tired of the bickering."
The financial crisis brought the tension into "sharper relief," she said, but she was uncertain if the mayor and Mrs. Evans' differences turned "personal," he said.
Obviously, both worked together long enough to resolve the crisis and fashion a new recovery plan, she said, but she sees room for future improvement in the relationship. She called for "regular dialogue back and forth between city council and the mayor's office."
That could mean regular briefings, quarterly visits to council meetings so the public can question the mayor and frequent discussions between council members and the mayor, she said.
"So I certainly see no problem in talking regularly with whoever the council president might be in addition to individual members if there's something that I think it's important for them either to know," Ms. Randol said.
Mr. Cardamone, a community development director under former Mayor Jim Connors, Mr. Doherty's predecessor, sees the mayor-council tension as part of a historic pattern dating to Jan. 1, 1976, the day the city Home Rule Charter took effect.
"I don't think it's dysfunctional, I think it's disagreement and disagreement is healthy," he said. "The unfortunate thing is the first floor (where the mayor's office is) and the second floor (where the council chambers are) are talking, but they're unable to get together in a public meeting once a week."
The charter, he points out, establishes the mayor and council jointly as the city's "governing body."
"I don't really believe that it was meant to be adversarial. I strongly believe that it was meant to be a strong mayor. With that being said, the charter also has the administrative code in it," he said.
It is in the administrative code that he plans to make a decisive change that he thinks will make a difference.
Mr. Cardamone proposes amending the code to require the mayor to attend council meetings instead of saying he "may attend" meetings. If the mayor doesn't attend, dock his pay until he does, Mr. Cardamone said.
"Everybody in the room together at a public hearing once a week is absolutely the fix," he said. "The city will be governed much better. They don't have to get along."
Mr. Morgan, a regular at council meetings for years, said the mayor and council have engaged in a "feud for control" of city government so fierce it is "hard to believe that both groups are Democrats."
"Look, council has an obligation of oversight, but it doesn't have to be adversarial," he said. "Because really they should complement each other. They should work together and try to come up with ideas to help the city move forward. And when you're adversarial with somebody, then you're stifling any kind of discussions, any kind of growth and any kind of free movement of ideas and opinions. And it turns into what we've got. We've got something that's way beyond gridlock."
The feud politically crippled Mr. Doherty and Mrs. Evans, he said.
"It's not necessary for them to get along all the time, but they have to be able to work together all the time. I really believe the mayor should come to council meetings every week if he can," Mr. Morgan said. "I think it shows good stewardship to come to the council and meet the people who live in the city and answer their questions ... and not step away from questions that aren't comfortable."
He promised to foster an "open-door policy" on both sides.
Mr. Lewis said the infighting clearly became personal over the years and, for a while, turned off bankers whose loans the city needed to get it through its financial crisis.
"You can see exactly what council says. They blame the administration. 'This was the administration's budget' or 'This was something that the administration did,'" he said. "The administration turns around and says the same thing. When we ran out of money, Doherty kept saying, 'Council needs to fund their budget.'"
Mr. Lewis promised regular council visits if elected, calling it "sort of an obligation" of a mayor.
"There needs to be a good amount of feedback between the two branches," he said. "I don't think he (the mayor) needs to attend every council meeting, but I don't see anything wrong with going to one a month or providing some sort of update on the state of the city once a month. And on the other side of the coin, council can't have the attitude that we're going to summon you and put you down here at a table while we sit here at the dais and we speak down to you."
The council must realize that its members serve part-time and "don't have their hands in every facet of the city government."
"They have to acknowledge that the administration's role is city management. In my opinion, council needs to act more like a board of directors than a group of managers. ... They should be aware of what's going on, but they don't need their fingers in the details."
With all their fighting, Mr. Lisi said, the current council and mayor have gone "way beyond" the charter's checks and balances.
"It's pretty abnormal," he said. "They're all part of the same party ... so for them to argue the way they do, it's a bit perplexing."
Mr. Lisi sees a council "too harsh on people" who attend meetings and speak, but also thinks mayoral visits would make government "more participatory."
"I think he would get a better insight with the constituents," he said.
Part of the city's financial crisis stems from the discord, he said.
"I would speak with people, what they think the problems are and I would try to get some answers from the people," he said. "It would be more inclusive. ... I think it would make city government more efficient. ... I think it would take some of the animosity out of it."
Contact the writer: bkrawczeniuk@timesshamrock.com
Candidates
Joseph Cardamone
Age: 61
Family: Wife, Mary Ellen, sons, Christopher, Kyle and Matthew, daughter, Maria
Education: Graduate, Scranton Technical High School, 1970; bachelor's degree, government administration, University of Scranton, 1980
Experience: Teaching assistant, Scranton Technical High School, 1971-79; manager, G.P. Putnam and Sons/Penguin Books, Pittston, 1981-1989; director of community development, city of Scranton, 1990-93; borough manager, Olyphant, 1994; administrator, Coolbaugh Twp., 1995; administrator, Scott Twp., 1996; manager, Skyview Park Apartments, Scranton, 1997-2002; administrator, New Hope Healthcare, Scranton, 2003-present; substitute K-12 teacher, Northeastern Educational Intermediate Unit, Archbald, 2003-present; member, Scranton Civil Service Commission, 1997-2005, chairman for part of that time; member, Scranton Home Rule Charter Study Commission, 2000
William Courtright
Age: 55
Family: Wife, Mary Kim Mackin, sons, Bill and Patrick, daughter, Lindsey
Education: Graduate, West Scranton High School, 1975
Experience: employee, Trane Corp. 1975-1993, technical service manager when company closed in 1993; former office manager, Allied Medicare Supply; owner, Summit Karate Club, 1980 to present; member, Scranton Civil Service Commission, 2000-2002; member, Municipal Police Officers' Education and Training Commission, 2003-2012; member, Scranton City Council, 2004-2010
Garett Lewis
Age: 27
Family: Single; son of Bob and Debbie Lewis
Education: Graduate, Scranton Preparatory School, 2004; bachelor's degree, accounting, University of Scranton, 2008
Experience: Intern and later consultant, Deloitte & Touche AERS, 2007 to 2012; owner, Iza Analytics, Scranton, consulting agency specializing in distressed debt, 2012-present
Marcel Lisi
Age: 24
Family: Single; son of Joseph Lisi and Petra D'Ascenzo Lisi
Education: Graduate, West Scranton High School, 2006; bachelor's degree, history/political science/pre-law, Marywood University, 2010
Experience: Intern, Sen. Bob Casey, 2007; intern, Sen. Arlen Specter, 2009-2010; intern, Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski, 2009-2010; substitute teacher, Scranton School District, 2010-2011; bread baker, National Bakery, 2011-2012; owner, landscaping business, 2012
Lee Morgan
Age: 53
Family: Single; daughters Fawn and Brittani, sons Lee and Shane Aron
Education: Graduate, Scranton Central High School, 1976
Experience: Truck driver, 1993-present; production supervisor, Rusticraft, 1986-1993; vice president, Scranton-Lackawanna Taxpayers Association
Elizabeth Randol
Age: 42
Family: Single; daughter of Mark A. Randol and Sandra F. Randol
Education: Graduate, Hathaway Brown School, Cleveland, Ohio, 1989; bachelor's degree, philosophy, Washington & Lee University, Lexington, Va., with minors in political science, Russian studies and Buddhist studies, 1993; master's degree, liberal studies, North Carolina State University, 1995; graduate certificate, feminist theory, State University of New York (Binghamton University), 2001; Ph.D. in philosophy, State University of New York (Binghamton University), 2001
Experience: Professor, philosophy, political science and sociology, University of Scranton, 1999-present; director, Jane Kopas Women's Center, University of Scranton, 2001-2006; producer/host, State of Pennsylvania, WVIA, 2004-2008; director, Office of Civic Engagement, University of Scranton, 2006-2008; chief of staff, Lackawanna County, 2008-2009; policy director, Pennsylvania Treasury Department, 2009-2011; manager, Kathleen G. Kane's campaign for attorney general, 2011; director of strategic operations, L.R. Costanzo Co., Dunmore, 2012-present; founder and co-director, Pages & Places Book Festival