Abertis-Citi to release Turnpike Reform Manifesto in Pennsylvania, while PTC lambasted

Abertis-Citi teamed to run the Pennsylvania Turnpike concession if Governor Rendell gets support from the legislature next month will be releasing a Turnpike reform manifesto next week. Speaking from a car phone on the Pennsylvania Turnpike which kept losing signal - and provoked exasperated curses for the Turnpike's "outdated" technology - the concessionaire's chief lobbyist Jim Courtovich told us the group is releasing a Turnpike reform manifesto. This will lay down a set of rules that would govern the way the concessionaire company and its employees do business and deal with the public and officials.

"This rule book will make clear that under the lease it really will be a new era for the Turnpike, that there will be a clear break from the corrupt and disgraceful conduct you see now," said Courtovich. "This will commit the company to comply fully with the law and the terms of the lease contract, to abide strictly by ethical principles, to promote and do business solely according to merit and value. Our operation will be transparent."

The concessionaire will post to their website all communications with legislators and officials, Courtovich says.

"We want to underline that we will remove politics from the operations of the Turnpike. The Turnpike will be operated in cooperation with the legislature and other officials, obviously, but those dealings will be open and proper. There won't be the backroom deals for jobs and contracts any more," says Courtovich.

Vince's villainy centerstage

As the state legislature meets to consider the Turnpike lease, the Commission's record of patronage and corruption will be going centerstage. The second week of September will see the beginning of the corruption trial of the Turnpike Commission's lead patron Senator Vincent ('Vince') Fumo, and the wife of the chairman of the Turnpike Commission, Ruth Arnao. They are accused by prosecutors at the US Department of Justice of stealing about $3.5 million from the state and from several 'community organizations' set up by Fumo.

The court documents show how the two in addition to misappropiating state funds and misusing state employees, routinely and continuously extorted money from businesses and individuals, and laundered it through their community organizations, so-called, and used it for their personal benefit.

Fumo employed private detectives at state expense to pry into private lives of old girlfriends and political opponents, to gather dirt on them. He used state funds to pay for servants at his several homes, to drive him in state cars and do all manner of personal chores, behaving like a third world potentate.

Name any villainy, 'Vince' (Fumo) was into it, say Harrisburg insiders.

Fumo faces 139 counts and Arnao 45 counts of fraud, conspiracy, tax evasion and obstruction of justice in US District Court in Philadelphia.

In the federal indictments the current Turnpike chairman Mitchell Rubin is described as a "ghost" employee put on a state retainer of $30k/year for five years as a payoff from Fumo.

Former associate executive director, Michael Palermo was an even more highly paid Fumo crony. He is described in the USDOJ trial memorandum as a beneficiary of $45k/yr who just looked after Fumo's weekend retreat or "farm" on the Susquehanna River. (see nearby) As a "consultant" to the Turnpike for no known work Palermo was paid $10k a month by the Turnpike before that.

Pike TV on the "Family Tree"

The Commonwealth Foundation's "Pike TV" which is campaigning for the lease has a new video up today on the Turnpike's "Family Tree" highlighting the patronage appointments and big spending of the Turnpike family. With Al Capone era music in the background it starts with CEO Joe Brimmeier as "the globetrotting chief who hired a web of family and political friends." He heads up "Harrisburg's most entrenched and patronage polluted bureaucracy," the video says.

Rubin's no-work contracts with the state are mentioned and then his spending of $12,000 for 12 meals in Nantucket and New York.

Defendant Fumo is called the state capital's "original godfather" and the Turnpike Commission's "patron saint."

Pasquale T Deon a casino investor like chairman Rubin, and another Turnpike Commissioner, is described as involved in bid rigging at SEPTA, the Philadelphia rail transit agency.

The video goes through a number of patronage appointments at the Commission.

"Much has been written about the corruption, scandal, and abuses of the Turnpike Commission," says Matthew Brouillette, president of the Commonwealth Foundation.

"But the full-length books, news articles, and editorials have not given the public a visual of just how bad things are at the Commission. So our 'Pennsylvania Turnpike Family Tree' gives the public a real look at the patronage, nepotism, and cronyism at the Turnpike Commission.

"We’ve only scratched the surface. Indeed, because of repeated denials by the Commission of critical information we’ve requested under the Right to Know Act, we really can’t expose all of the abuses and misuses of our toll dollars," said Brouillette.

"With the patron saints Bob Jubelirer (Republican) and Vince Fumo (Democrat) finally gone from their positions of power, we can finally put the Commission out of the business of lining the pockets of politically connected and selected friends and family."

http://www.turnpikefacts.com or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdi3ahbKnrw

see http://www.tollroadsnews.com/node/3709

for the Turnpike response

TOLLROADSnews 2008-08-28