Federal Investigation of Schools

Corruption investigation Firm, owner have not been charged as subpoena served to WVW School District, Career Center documents reviewed again.

July 29, 2009

FBI probes more Intellacom no-bid work

By Mark Guydish mguydish@timesleader.com
Education Reporter
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KINGSTON – The same company that had been scrutinized by the FBI at Pittston+Area+School+District%22>Pittston Area School District did $242,234 worth of work at Wyoming Valley West School District, where the FBI served a subpoena last week. As was the case in other districts, the company – Intellacom, Inc. – did extensive, no-bid work at Wyoming Valley West.

The Times Leader has also learned that investigators returned to Wilkes-Barre Area Career and Technical Center last week to review more documents. Intellacom did no-bid work there as well.

Records show Intellacom was billing Wyoming Valley West for service and equipment since at least July 2003, with the latest invoices dated August 2008, though the amount paid to Intellacom dropped dramatically in the 2007-08 and 2008-09 school years. That drop coincides loosely with the retirement of August Piazza as superintendent in June 2006.

The invoices from Intellacom totaled $54,696 in 2003-04, $18,278 in 2004-05, $71,751 in 2005-06, and $91,534 in 2006-07. The next two years the amounts were $975 and $5,000.

Investigators took records regarding Intellacom from Pittston Area School District earlier this year as part of a probe that resulted in corruption charges filed against then-Superintendent Ross Scarantino. Scarantino pleaded guilty and has since signed a termination agreement with the school board.

Intellacom and its owner, Anthony Trombetta, have not been charged or accused of any wrongdoing. Trombetta has repeatedly declined comment since the FBI probe began. Besides Wyoming Valley West, the company has done work in three other places investigators have shown up: Pittston Area, Wilkes-Barre Area Career and Technical Center, and Luzerne County Community College.

Investigators first showed up at the Career Center in April, but acting Administrative Director Peter Halesey confirmed Tuesday that they returned for a short time to look at documents on July 21. Halesey said he did not know what records they had reviewed or if they had talked to anyone during their visit.

No charges or accusations of wrongdoing have been made against Piazza, who became Wyoming Valley West Superintendent in 2001 and had worked in the district for nearly three decades before that. Piazza also had been a member of the Pittston Area School Board, the LCCC Board of Trustees along with Scarantino, and the Wilkes-Barre Area Career and Technical Center joint operating committee. Piazza did not return a call Tuesday evening.

Piazza’s son, Jeff, works full-time at the Career Center and also had worked part-time as a chef at Portafino Ristorante in Wilkes-Barre Township. Trombetta owns Portafino, which recently closed. A sign at the restaurant now says it will reopen on Friday under new management.

August Piazza served on the Career Center committee with former Wilkes-Barre Area School Board member James Height and current member Brian Dunn, both of whom have been charged with corruption. Height resigned and pleaded guilty; Dunn has remained on the Wilkes-Barre Area School Board but has not attended meetings. His preliminary examination hearing on the charges was originally set for May 21, but has been continued three times and is now set for Sept. 17.

Records show Intellacom did lucrative, no-bid work at Pittston Area, the Career Center, LCCC and Wyoming Valley West. In each case part of that work included closed circuit television systems sold through a state program called the Pennsylvania Education Purchasing Program for Microcomputers, or PEPPM, which is coordinated by the Central Susquehanna Intermediate Unit. The CSIU awards contracts through a sealed competitive bid process, and school districts can piggyback on those bids.

Intellacom did nearly $300,000 worth of work at Pittston Area under the PEPPM program, but an official at CSIU said invoices for that work were never processed by PEPPM as they should have been. Similarly, Intellacom did more than $190,000 worth of work under PEPPM at LCCC, but LCCC President Thomas Leary said in April that there was no record at the college showing that those invoices had gone through PEPPM. LCCC canceled a service contract with Intellacom in January because of breach of contract, contending the company had sent an invoice for equipment that was never installed.

A large chunk of PEPPM work by Intellacom at Wyoming Valley West was done in early 2007, with the proposal for a security system at the high school submitted and signed by Trombetta in a letter dated Dec. 6, 2006. The purchase order was dated Feb. 9 and the invoice was dated Feb. 20, totaling $81,000. Current Superintendent Chuck Suppon said he was not involved with the project and didn’t recall details of how it was handled. He was working as director of instructional and pupil services at the time. Finance Manager Joe Rodriguez was on vacation Tuesday.

Board member Barry Williams said he had reviewed the Intellacom records after The Times Leader requested them, and that the $81,000 invoice had caught his eye, prompting him to check board meeting minutes. Williams said the minutes showed that the payment was approved by the board at a public meeting.

Williams also said that Intellacom was initially brought into the district shortly after Ken Briggs was hired as technology coordinator. Williams said the district had little in the way of computers at the time, and Briggs was working alone, so several companies were called and Intellacom offered the lowest hourly rate. Although he wasn’t certain, Williams said that work qualified as “professional services,” which means it would not fall under the state law that requires a district to seek bids for any contract or purchase exceeding $10,000.

Williams also said that the district hired another person to help Briggs, and as a result Intellacom was not needed as often for service, but was used more to purchase equipment.

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