rubin

Former Pennsylvania Turnpike chairman Mitchell Rubin, 58 of Philadelphia pled guilty to an obstruction of justice charge in US District Court in Philadelphia today finalizing a plea bargain. He admitted to misleading investigators about his no-work contracts arranged by his close friend Senator Vincent Fumo and his relationships with Fumo - now serving a 5 year jail term.

Fired Pennsylvania Turnpike chairman Mitchell Rubin has agreed to repay the state senate $150k he received in no-work contracts and to serve six months house arrest and 4.5 years probation. He pled guilty to an obstruction of justice charge.

In US court documents filed today prosecutors say during months of talks he made differing and contradictory claims about his role for five years getting $30k/year on the payroll by his patron then-senator Vincent Fumo.

The US Attorney's office in Philadelphia this morning formally charged Mitchell Rubin with a single obstruction of justice count in line with reports that he has been cooperating with the Feds to help them dig deeper into corruption at the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission.

The three golden rules of “modern” surface transportation planning according to Tom Rubin, veteran consultant in Los Angeles:
 
1. "If you build it, they will come" (only applies to rail)

2. “If you don’t build it, they won’t come" (applies to roads)

3. “If you tear it down, they will quietly go away” (applies to elevated expressways or other intrusive or inelegant road facilities you want to get rid of).

We wondered if Tom R was a brother of Mitchell R of Pennsylvania Turnpike notoriety, but he assures us: no.

Pennsylvania Governor Edward Rendell says in a letter released this morning that he is removing the chairman of the Turnpike Commission, Mitchell Rubin as a commissioner because of his links to corruption. Rubin had asked Rendell for a "leave of absence" from the chairmanship, but instead the Governor today fired him from the Commission.

The Governor gives four reasons in his letter to Rubin:

Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission chairman Mitchell Rubin is under pressure to resign - set to feature in US Court next month as a crony of the high profile defendant Vincent Fumo. Fumo a longtime state senator is about to go on trial accused by the feds of 139 counts of fraud, conspiracy, obstruction of justice and income tax evasion.

Pennsylvania's biggest problem in getting permission to toll I-80 may turn out not to be intricacies of federal highway law and regulations, but simply whether the Federal Government should turn over control of a major interstate to a bunch of crooks to make money out of. A local thinktank in the state capital Harrisburg, the Commonwealth Foundation puts this bluntly in a two-page letter from its president Matt Brouillette addressed to James Ray, Federal Highway Administrator.