Editorials

OUR OPINION: REILLY CONTRACT

October 14

County deserves a clean break

Reilly broke no laws by pursuing and obtaining the Luzerne County contract, other than perhaps the laws of common sense and decency.

LIKE A PESKY pimple, Robert Reilly reappeared on the Luzerne County government scene this week, again at the center of an unflattering scenario.

You remember Rob Reilly. The county’s former clerk of courts is among the region’s 30-plus elected officials and business bigwigs implicated so far in an ongoing and wide-ranging public corruption crackdown. He pleaded guilty in July 2010 to a charge of providing false information to a Federal Bureau of Investigation agent, for which he was sentenced to two years probation.

Reilly, who initially had been charged with bribery, was alleged to have helped a business obtain no-bid county construction jobs, including work on a records storage project in Wilkes-Barre. He insisted he never took a kickback, instead characterizing the payments he received as campaign contributions. He vowed to fight the pay-to-play accusation in court; federal prosecutors later altered the charge, which he apparently found more palatable.

In addition to probation, Reilly’s punishment included a $1,000 fine and 50 hours of community service. He also lost his $1,655-a-month county pension, despite hiring a Philadelphia lawyer to try to block the county pension board’s denial of it.

Reilly then could have found a new line of work and simply disappeared off the public’s radar.

Instead, he found a new line of work, hawking cleaning products, and decided to bid on a contract with – you guessed it – Luzerne County government. If you’re thinking, of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world … well, you’re not alone.

Bizarrely, Reilly’s business was awarded the contract in August, though it might not have met all the bid specifications. The facts are in dispute, as is whether any county employees knew Reilly owned the startup firm called Tri-State Chemical.

Reilly broke no laws by pursuing and obtaining the Luzerne County contract, other than perhaps the laws of common sense and decency.

 No one should begrudge the man for wanting to get on with his life and earn an honest dollar. But he – like other people snagged in the corruption cleanup – should be sensitive to the community’s desire for a fresh start.

And that means keeping our county government spotless in both its internal operations and its outward appearance.

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