Since Fayette County’s incumbent Democratic commissioners are “getting things done,” which has led to the region’s highest unemployment rate and the second-biggest population loss of the state’s 67 counties, one of our neighbors in the patch asked a very interesting question:
“Where would Vince Vicites or Vince Zapotosky work if they didn’t hold elected office?”
We doubt that it would be the private sector -- you know, the place where Fay-Penn Economic Development Council keeps saying there are 400 good-paying jobs that can’t be filled. Where those jobs are, however, continues to be the Fayette County equivalent of a CIA secret.
Our guess is that either or both of the Vinces would cash in some political chips and resurface in some public sector (i,e., “government”) position. A quick review of their work history shows that they appear to be born and bred for feeding at the public trough.
Here is Vicites’ work history, taken straight from his campaign website:
1983-87, Administrative Officer, Department of Auditor General
1987-88, Assistant Director of Personnel, Carlisle Hospital.
1989-95, Director, Fayette County Solid Waste Management Department.
1996-present, Fayette County Commissioner.
That gives Vicites a grand total of one year (1987-88, working for a hospital) of non-government employment, in the last 28 years. It is well worth noting that when he came back to Fayette County in 1989, it was by decree of former county Commissioners Fred Lebder and Bob Jones, who hired him in a county job as Solid Waste Management director.
Two years later, in 1991, Vicites was running for county commissioner on a ticket with -- drum roll, please -- Fred Lebder. What an amazing coincidence!
But an even more amazing coincidence is that once Vicites won election as commissioner in 1995 on his second try, one of the first things he did was eliminate the high-profile job he’d held as Solid Waste Management director. Those duties suddenly weren’t important enough to warrant their own county department (which had consisted of Vicites and a secretary), so they were folded into the job of county manager.
Some cynics here in the patch think the political system gave Vicites the Solid Waste Management job to help grease the skids for his ascension to county commissioner. Since the job no longer required a full-time department head once Vicites was elected, that theory gives us pause.
Zapotosky’s work history isn’t as easily quantified as Vicites because less of it is available on the Internet. But we do know this much: He held staff positions with former U.S. Reps. Austin Murphy and Frank Mascara. That wouldn’t be newsworthy if the mantle had passed peacefully from Murphy to Mascara in a friendly manner. But the men were bitter political rivals toward the end, with Mascara challenging Murphy for the seat the latter had long held.
Of Zapotosky, we can document this much: He was paid $60,098.68 back in 2002, as “field representative coordinator” for Mascara. That’s a nice chunk of change for nine years ago -- and a $10,000 jump from the $46,999.96 Zapotosky was paid in 2001 for holding the same position.
If you want to verify, check it out yourself at this link:
http://www.legistorm.com/person/Vincent_E_Zapotosky/54858.html
We also know that after Mascara lost his seat in redistricting in 2002 -- and Zapotosky lost his $60,000-a-year government job -- Zapotosky surfaced as a candidate for Fayette County commissioner the next year, in 2003.
After losing in that race, Zapotosky landed a job as director of administrative services at the Douglas Education Center in Monessen, which he held until winning a commissioner’s spot on his second try in 2007. So the 47-year-old can at least lay claim to having worked a few years in the private sector in his adult working life.
Showing posts with label Zapotosky. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Zapotosky. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Doublespeak
When Fayette County Commissioners Vince Vicites and Vince Zapotosky voted last year to raise the salaries of all county row officers, including the commissioners, by 3 percent a year for the next six years, the Herald-Standard newspaper lauded and supported the move.
Here are some excerpts from their editorial, titled “Fair Wage -- Pay Raise for County Officials Backed” and published on Aug. 6, 2010:
“Things are not great here in Fayette, but we're not in such a bad shape that a fairly standard 3 percent increase should be seen as inappropriate.”
“The economy is in bad shape and some people are struggling across the county, but we don't think a 3 percent raise is exorbitant. We're not talking about a 20 percent jump in pay here.”
“It's important that our public officials are paid fairly. They deserve to be compensated with a respectable wage. There's no way of getting around the fact that you get what you pay for, and if we want to make sure that decent, intelligent people run for public office, then we have to pay them accordingly.”
The newspaper thus firmly put its stamp of approval on what actually does amount to a 19.4 percent pay raise for county elected officials over the next six years. No matter how bad the economy gets, the Fayette County commissioners and row officers are going to get regular 3 percent raises for more than half of a decade.
Given the newspaper’s official stance as concerns Fayette County officials, everyone in the patch -- even 99-year-old Stutta Bubba in House 222 -- is confused over the newspaper’s Thursday editorial.
“Vat’s vis dis stuff?” proclaimed Stutta Bubba. “I am old lady from old countary, and I learn English as second language, dis is true. But does Herald-Standard tink I am stupid?”
From underneath her babushka, Stutta Bubba pulled out a neatly folded copy of Thursday’s editorial, entitled, “Legislative staffers to get raises.” It was critical of the Pennsylvania House Republicans and Senate Democrats for deciding to lift a pay freeze for their legislative employees.
The fact that House Republican staffers haven’t had a pay raise in three years doesn’t matter to the Herald-Standard, which now says, “To this, many Pennsylvanians would say, ‘Welcome to the club.’ They haven’t been getting any pay raises either, and that’s not likely to change in the foreseeable future.”
Maybe if the House Republican leaders had decided to guarantee 3 percent raises for their employees for the next six years, like Vicites and Zapotosky did, the Herald-Standard would see things differently. (It might help, too, if House Republican leaders decided to throw a little money into the Redstone Foundation pot to operate Fayette TV, but that’s another blog post.)
Although the House Democrats and Senate Republicans have made no decision on granting their employees a pay raise for the first time in three years, that didn’t stop the Herald-Standard from doing what it does best these days: speculating. Absent any facts, the newspaper speculated that they probably will, following the pattern of “theft from Pennsylvania taxpayers” set in motion by the House Republicans and Senate Democrats.
Accusing somebody of theft is a pretty serious thing, isn’t it? The newspaper might want to take a refresher course in the laws of libel, but then again, that class has been failed in that building before.
On Thursday, the Herald-Standard held this chest-thumping position: “The fact is, pay raises are problematic these days in a Pennsylvania economy that is more used to seeing pay freezes, pay cuts or -- worse -- pink slips.”
But just eight months ago, their position, at least as concerns something done by Vicites and Zapotosky, was comparatively demure: “Things are not great here in Fayette, but we're not in such a bad shape that a fairly standard 3 percent increase should be seen as inappropriate.”
Which side of their mouth will be speaking tomorrow?
Here are some excerpts from their editorial, titled “Fair Wage -- Pay Raise for County Officials Backed” and published on Aug. 6, 2010:
“Things are not great here in Fayette, but we're not in such a bad shape that a fairly standard 3 percent increase should be seen as inappropriate.”
“The economy is in bad shape and some people are struggling across the county, but we don't think a 3 percent raise is exorbitant. We're not talking about a 20 percent jump in pay here.”
“It's important that our public officials are paid fairly. They deserve to be compensated with a respectable wage. There's no way of getting around the fact that you get what you pay for, and if we want to make sure that decent, intelligent people run for public office, then we have to pay them accordingly.”
The newspaper thus firmly put its stamp of approval on what actually does amount to a 19.4 percent pay raise for county elected officials over the next six years. No matter how bad the economy gets, the Fayette County commissioners and row officers are going to get regular 3 percent raises for more than half of a decade.
Given the newspaper’s official stance as concerns Fayette County officials, everyone in the patch -- even 99-year-old Stutta Bubba in House 222 -- is confused over the newspaper’s Thursday editorial.
“Vat’s vis dis stuff?” proclaimed Stutta Bubba. “I am old lady from old countary, and I learn English as second language, dis is true. But does Herald-Standard tink I am stupid?”
From underneath her babushka, Stutta Bubba pulled out a neatly folded copy of Thursday’s editorial, entitled, “Legislative staffers to get raises.” It was critical of the Pennsylvania House Republicans and Senate Democrats for deciding to lift a pay freeze for their legislative employees.
The fact that House Republican staffers haven’t had a pay raise in three years doesn’t matter to the Herald-Standard, which now says, “To this, many Pennsylvanians would say, ‘Welcome to the club.’ They haven’t been getting any pay raises either, and that’s not likely to change in the foreseeable future.”
Maybe if the House Republican leaders had decided to guarantee 3 percent raises for their employees for the next six years, like Vicites and Zapotosky did, the Herald-Standard would see things differently. (It might help, too, if House Republican leaders decided to throw a little money into the Redstone Foundation pot to operate Fayette TV, but that’s another blog post.)
Although the House Democrats and Senate Republicans have made no decision on granting their employees a pay raise for the first time in three years, that didn’t stop the Herald-Standard from doing what it does best these days: speculating. Absent any facts, the newspaper speculated that they probably will, following the pattern of “theft from Pennsylvania taxpayers” set in motion by the House Republicans and Senate Democrats.
Accusing somebody of theft is a pretty serious thing, isn’t it? The newspaper might want to take a refresher course in the laws of libel, but then again, that class has been failed in that building before.
On Thursday, the Herald-Standard held this chest-thumping position: “The fact is, pay raises are problematic these days in a Pennsylvania economy that is more used to seeing pay freezes, pay cuts or -- worse -- pink slips.”
But just eight months ago, their position, at least as concerns something done by Vicites and Zapotosky, was comparatively demure: “Things are not great here in Fayette, but we're not in such a bad shape that a fairly standard 3 percent increase should be seen as inappropriate.”
Which side of their mouth will be speaking tomorrow?
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Four more years?
The patch was set abuzz with laughter the other day when, upon reading the Herald-Standard’s coverage of a “United for Workers” rally, the following comment from Fayette County Commissioner Vincent A. Vicites actually appeared in print:
With Fayette County ready to "explode with growth in the next decade," Vicites said that it's imperative to ensure that companies hire union workers.
That’s the perfect feel-good prediction for Vicites to foist on the memory-challenged electorate, particularly since nothing even close to that has happened during his first decade-and-a-half as a county commissioner.
Vicites first won election in 1995 and took office in 1996. He has mouthed those same “prosperity is around-the-corner” words in five election cycles now. If Fayette County hasn’t “exploded with growth” in his first 16 years in office, what makes anyone think something would change by giving him four more?
Here is the truth of what has happened during the Vicites era: In the 2000 census, Fayette County’s population dipped below 145,000, a severe enough slip that by law it should have changed from a fourth-class to a fifth-class county. His solution to this dilemma? Get state Sen. Richard A. Kasunic to change the law, so Fayette could remain a fourth-class county even with a fifth-class county population.
In the 2010 census, the population slipped even more. With Vicites, his policies and his cronies in office for the entire decade, Fayette lost another 8.2 percent of its population. It was the third-highest percentage loss among Pennsylvania’s 67 counties -- and the worst in western Pennsylvania.
Everyone in the patch knows that Thursday’s rally had nothing to do with preserving the jobs of union workers or the sanctity of the union movement. They also know it had everything to do with helping grease the re-election skids of Vicites and his nominal running mate, first-termer Vincent “Let’s All Work Together So I Won’t Have To” Zapotosky.
It isn’t surprising that the Herald-Standard gave full throttle coverage to this thinly masked campaign event. Remember, Vicites and Zapotosky are their financial benefactors by virtue of agreeing to help steer $50,000 in county tourism funds to Fayette TV, the station formerly known as HSTV. (Just what is going on with that “tourism” channel, anyway?)
If Vicites truly believes that “it's imperative to ensure that companies hire union workers,” perhaps he should be reminded that the Herald-Standard is one of the biggest non-union employers in his ever-dwindling county.
With Fayette County ready to "explode with growth in the next decade," Vicites said that it's imperative to ensure that companies hire union workers.
That’s the perfect feel-good prediction for Vicites to foist on the memory-challenged electorate, particularly since nothing even close to that has happened during his first decade-and-a-half as a county commissioner.
Vicites first won election in 1995 and took office in 1996. He has mouthed those same “prosperity is around-the-corner” words in five election cycles now. If Fayette County hasn’t “exploded with growth” in his first 16 years in office, what makes anyone think something would change by giving him four more?
Here is the truth of what has happened during the Vicites era: In the 2000 census, Fayette County’s population dipped below 145,000, a severe enough slip that by law it should have changed from a fourth-class to a fifth-class county. His solution to this dilemma? Get state Sen. Richard A. Kasunic to change the law, so Fayette could remain a fourth-class county even with a fifth-class county population.
In the 2010 census, the population slipped even more. With Vicites, his policies and his cronies in office for the entire decade, Fayette lost another 8.2 percent of its population. It was the third-highest percentage loss among Pennsylvania’s 67 counties -- and the worst in western Pennsylvania.
Everyone in the patch knows that Thursday’s rally had nothing to do with preserving the jobs of union workers or the sanctity of the union movement. They also know it had everything to do with helping grease the re-election skids of Vicites and his nominal running mate, first-termer Vincent “Let’s All Work Together So I Won’t Have To” Zapotosky.
It isn’t surprising that the Herald-Standard gave full throttle coverage to this thinly masked campaign event. Remember, Vicites and Zapotosky are their financial benefactors by virtue of agreeing to help steer $50,000 in county tourism funds to Fayette TV, the station formerly known as HSTV. (Just what is going on with that “tourism” channel, anyway?)
If Vicites truly believes that “it's imperative to ensure that companies hire union workers,” perhaps he should be reminded that the Herald-Standard is one of the biggest non-union employers in his ever-dwindling county.
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