TimesLeader.com

Election Bureau looks into violations

Investigation of Hazleton school ads to be given to DA’s office.

By Steve Mocarsky smocarsky@timesleader.com
Staff Writer

The Luzerne County Election Bureau is seeking the public’s help in an investigation of two political action committees.

“We’re wrapping up a preliminary investigation and will be turning it over to the District Attorney’s Office,” bureau Director Leonard Piazza said on Thursday.

Earlier this week, the county election board voted to have the District Attorney’s Office look into possible campaign law violations by Concerned Parents of the Hazleton Area and Citizens Who Want Change – committees that ran attack ads against Hazleton Area School Board incumbents Steve Hahn and Carmella Yenkevich before the May primaries.

Hahn and Yenkevich won both party nominations.

Piazza said the committees stand out from any other committees he’s dealt with in the past “and I just have suspicions that something larger has taken place there,” he told the election board on Tuesday.

Some of Piazza’s concerns include that the committees officially formed late in the election cycle – on or about the dates that the committees purchased ads with Hazleton area television stations and a Hazleton newspaper; the committees weren’t structured properly, and they operated using “cash in amounts that exceed the cash contribution limits of campaign finance.”

Piazza said cash donations are limited to $100. The Citizens Who Want Change PAC received a single cash donation of $692.10; the Concerned Parents PAC received a single cash donation of $250, according to Piazza and finance reports.

Nothing could be determined about the committees directly from the people who formed them.

Ronald Edward Harkins II is chairman and treasurer of the Citizens Who Want Change PAC and Joshua T. Turner is chairman and treasurer of the Concerned Parents of the Hazleton Area PAC, according to committee registration statements filed with the election bureau.

Neither of the men returned messages left on their phone voice mail.

The address listed for Citizens Who Want Change – 421 Centre St., Freeland – is the address of The Other Side bar. When asked about Harkins, the bartender there on Wednesday pointed to a man seated at the bar with a beer.

Asked about his PAC, Harkins, who said he lives upstairs, referred all comment to Butler Township attorney Jim Scallion. He refused to answer any questions, including why he formed the committee.

Turner answered the door of the single family home listed with the bureau for the Concerned Parents of the Hazleton Area PAC – 883 Railroad St., Bloomsburg.

Turner also refused to answer any questions and deferred to Scallion.

Scallion on Thursday said it was Turner’s “own personal decision” to form the Concerned Parents PAC.

Asked if Turner was a parent, Scallion said Turner was “a young gentleman moving into this area because his fianc�e is here. He’s also a veteran of two tours in Iraq. Soldiers tend to be more interested in our government. And because he was an interested citizen, he was paying attention to our local politics,” Scallion said.

Elaine Curry, a school board member who in June 2008 co-founded Concerned Parents of the Hazleton Area – a parents group that operates within the school district – said she became aware of the PAC of the same name after she saw a political TV ad paid for by the PAC air on May 18 – the day before the election. She filed a complaint after learning from the election bureau that the PAC was not registered.

The Concerned Parents committee registration form filed with the election bureau is time stamped May 26.

Curry said she received complaints from group members who saw the political TV ad and thought it was the parents group that paid for it.

Scallion said that because of Turner’s intent to someday be a parent living in the Hazleton area, he chose “what was simply a turn of phrase” when he named the PAC.

Scallion said Turner checked to make sure no other group used the name, but Curry said her group has been registered with the state as a nonprofit since June 2008.

Scallion said Harkins has been “part of the local political scene for a long time. He follows every vote and he follows every issue.”

Scallion said Harkins went to the Hazleton Standard Speaker to place an ad and was told he could not because it was not from a political committee. So he went to the election bureau on May 11, filled out a political committee registration form, showed it to the newspaper and then was allowed to place the ad, Scallion said.

Incumbent school board candidate Carmella Yenkevich – a target in the attack ads – said she filed a complaint with the election bureau after she saw Harkins’ newspaper ad on May 15 and learned his PAC was not registered with the bureau. The registration form filed with the bureau for Citizens Who Want Change bears a May 18 bureau time stamp.

Incumbent school board candidate Steve Hahn, the other target in the ads, said he suspects some people who support the proposed Valley Academy Charter School are somehow involved with one or both of the committees.

Hahn said someone who was “not part of the leadership committee but who (is) a vocal and staunch supporter of that effort” threatened him with retaliation in the election if he didn’t support the charter school in an April 15 vote the school board took on approving the charter school.

Hahn declined to name the individual who threatened him.

Hahn abstained on the vote because of a possible conflict of interest involving his employer. He is the Butler Township manager.

Another connection between the charter and the Concerned Parents PAC is former school board member Ken Temborski.

Temborski, owner of Conyngham-based Aggressive Realty, is facilities manager for the proposed school. He is tasked with assessing possible locations for the school and reporting back to the school’s board of trustees, according to school founder Aprilaurie Whitley.

And Temborski on Monday went to the election bureau “and represented the (Concerned Parents) committee. He … paid the late filing fee” of $250, Piazza said, adding that Temborski returned later with Turner so Turner could sign paperwork.

IN THE KNOW?

ANYONE WITH INFORMATION about Concerned Parents of the Hazleton Area or Citizens Who Want Change should call Bureau of Elections Director Leonard Piazza at 825-1715.

Visit www.timesleader.com to view the registration statements and campaign finance reports for Concerned Parents of the Hazleton Area and Citizens Who Want Change political action committees.