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By MICHAEL McNARNEY mmcnarney@leader.net
Saturday, March 15, 2003 Page: 3A
WILKES-BARRE – Mayor Tom McGroarty should get his facts straight, said
Eugene Pelesh, principal of accounting firm Parente Randolph.
McGroarty, on Thursday night, insinuated a connection between his public
opposition to a proposed methadone clinic in Plains Township and Parente
Randolph’s grim audit of city finances.
Charles Parente Sr. is indeed chairman of the board for Wyoming Valley
Health Care System, which wants to open the clinic McGroarty opposes. But to
connect the dots further is wrong, Pelesh said, adding that Parente hasn’t had
a stake in Parente Randolph in 15 years.
“It’s not my responsibility to know who owns the place,” McGroarty said
Friday.
During Pelesh’s presentation of the city’s 2001 audit on Thursday night.
McGroarty and Pelesh disagreed about Parente Randolph’s conclusions.
When the mayor returned to his office later, he set the Parente Randolph
audit next to a letter he wrote to Charles Parente, and pointed out the
connection.
“Do you think there might be some animosity?” McGroarty asked then. “I
don’t know. I’m just a country Okie, a coal cracker from Pennsylvania.”
Parente is an executive with Pagnotti Enterprises. He did not return a
telephone call seeking comment.
Pelesh said Parente Randolph is owned by 51 shareholders.
“He (McGroarty) puts a spin on it that Parente is for the methadone
clinic,” Pelesh said. “That’s the way he spins everything.”
McGroarty was unmoved.
“Oh. I just saw the names. I didn’t know,” McGroarty said Friday. “That
stuff was all politics.”
Michael McNarney, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 831-7305.