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By P. DOUGLAS FILAROSKI; Times Leader Staff Writer
Saturday, February 08, 1997     Page: 2A

WILKES-BARRE — The Wilkes-Barre General Municipal Authority has $70,000 in
its checking account.
   
And if Mayor Tom McGroarty wanted to know this, all he had to do was ask,
authority Chairman John Brislin said Friday.
    “I really don’t understand all this,” Brislin said, referring to Thursday’s
City Council vote asking the authority to disclose its financial records.
Council took the action at McGroarty’s request.
   
The vote followed McGroarty’s remarks that his skepticism toward the
authority increased after PNC Bank refused to tell him the balance of the
authority’s checking account.
   
The mayor said the authority wrote a letter directing the bank to withhold
the information from the mayor.
   
“That’s not the way to get along with me,” McGroarty said.
   
McGroarty has been critical of the authority since it failed to contribute
$100,000 to the city in 1996. The autonomous body, appointed by the mayor and
council to run a municipal golf course in Bear Creek Township, said it could
afford to pay only $70,000 last year.
   
The mayor said he wanted to know if the authority has more money than it
claims, but that the authority asked the bank to deny the city access to its
records.
   
Brislin said the bank asked the authority if it could act on McGroarty’s
request and release confidential client information.
   
“On the advice of our solicitor, we said `no,”‘ Brislin said.
   
Authority solicitor Don Rogers could not be reached Friday to comment.
   
Brislin said the authority invited McGroarty to a Jan. 16 meeting to
discuss finances, but the mayor did not attend, Brislin said.
   
Brislin said the authority would welcome the opportunity to sit down with
the mayor to discuss the authority’s finances.
   
“It’s not like we’re trying to keep anything from the mayor.”