Airport demands answers

PITTSTON TWP. – The board that oversees the Wilkes-Barre%2FScranton+International+Airport%22>Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport voted Thursday to direct solicitors from Luzerne and Lackawanna counties to ask federal authorities to identify the contractor who allegedly paid kickbacks to a former board member.

Chances that they’ll get an answer appear slim, however.

Heidi Havens, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney Dennis Pfannenschmidt, said the office does not comment publicly or privately to anyone regarding pending cases.

The Code of Federal Regulations, as well as the Rules of Professional Responsibility and policies of the Department of Justice dictate that policy in order to ensure the integrity of investigations, she said.

The board might face an additional obstacle as well, given that one of its members, Lackawanna County Commissioner A.J. Munchak, is a defendant in the indictment that includes the charge, along with former Lackawanna County commissioner and airport board member Robert Cordaro.

The 40-count indictment, filed Tuesday, alleges that from 2003 to 2008 Cordaro and Munchak accepted tens of thousands of dollars from companies that did business with Lackawanna County, including one company that did work at the airport.

According to the indictment, a principal with the firm, which is identified only as “company #1,” paid Cordaro an unspecified amount from December 2003 to May 2004 in order to maintain existing contracts at the airport.

Cordaro and Munchak were arraigned Thursday and pleaded not guilty. Munchak insists he did nothing wrong and has refused to resign as commissioner or from the airport board. He voted along with other board members to approve the motion seeking the airport contractor’s identity.

Luzerne County commissioners Maryanne Petrilla and Stephen Urban said they want to know who the company is because it will affect their decision about continuing to utilize the firm.

“If someone is implicated in this corruption scandal, I’d never vote to do business with them,” Petrilla said. “I don’t think anyone on the board would.”

Petrilla said she also wants to know if the alleged kickbacks that were paid added to the cost of any contract. If that were true she would seek reimbursement from the contractor for taxpayers.

Lackawanna County commissioner Michael Washo, chairman of the board, was more cautious in his comments.

While saying he obviously does not support bribery, Washo said the board needs more information about what transpired before deciding what it should or should not do.

“It would be easy for us to grandstand here and say we’re not going to do this, that or the other thing,” Washo said. “We are not in a position to say what our response will be. To throw out hypotheticals is injurious to the whole process.”

Petrilla, Washo and other board members said they don’t know how the alleged payments were made, but they’re confident there was no corruption with the bidding process for contracts.

All contracts at the airport are publicly bid and are opened by the controllers for Luzerne and Lackawanna counties. Petrilla was Luzerne County’s controller when the alleged kickbacks were paid.

“If it’s a transaction between two individuals, we don’t have any knowledge of that,” Urban said.

Urban said he knows the board faces an uphill battle in convincing federal authorities to reveal the contractor’s identity, but he’s hopeful they’ll make an exception in this case.

“We have to know who this contractor is so we can stop doing business with him if he is here,” Urban said.

In other business Thursday, the board voted to have airport director Barry Centini create a written document that will ensure someone pays for parking for any persons who attend private functions at the Wings restaurant at the airport.

A controversy recently developed after questions were raised regarding who would pay for parking for persons attending a $250 a plate fundraiser at the restaurant for U.S. Sen., Arlen Specter, D-Philadelphia.

Leo Vergnetti, owner of Wings, said he is paying for parking for the event. Washo sought assurances from Centini that the airport had not provided free parking for such events in the past, and that it would not do so in the future.

Centini said the airport has been paid for parking for past events. There was no written document stating the policy, however, because it wasn’t believed it was needed, he said. He said he would create a document now that it’s been requested.

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Board members ask authorities to identify alleged kickback contractor.

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