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WILKES-BARRE — A very familiar name will be running for re-election to council.
Bill Barrett said Thursday he will seek a fifth term on the five-member board that controls the city’s purse strings.
The Democrat represents District D that includes the sections of Miners Mills and the Heights, all of Parsons and the East End neighborhoods.
During its annual reorganization Monday, council appointed Barrett, 68, vice chairman for the final year of his four-year term.
“There’s a lot of things going on and we’ve made some progress in some areas,” Barrett said.
Still, he believes the city’s finances need attention.
Wilkes-Barre avoided financially distressed status sought by Mayor Tony George last year under the state’s Act 47 program. This year’s $50.4 million general fund budget approved by council does not contain a tax increase and relies on the sale of a city asset, the Park & Lock East parkade, to the Wilkes-Barre Parking Authority for $1.55 million to balance the plan.
Council approved the parkade sale, but the city can’t continually sell assets to pay its bills and provide services to residents, Barrett acknowledged.
“We are a seven plus square-mile landlocked city,” he said. Wilkes-Barre has no room to expand, he added, but its costs are increasing.
“There’s some things that maybe we can look at” to deal with the financial pressures on the city, Barrett said. One of them is possibly leasing the Municipal Golf Course in Bear Creek Township. “There’s 400 some acres there and golf isn’t cutting it,” he said.
The same goes for the sewer system that runs through the city. Barrett said he’s in favor of long-term leases rather than one-time sales. The city’s financial adviser, The PFM Group, has suggested looking into monetizing the sewer system, selling assets and privatizing services to stabilize finances.
“We don’t need to be in the real estate business. We have to move forward with these hotel projects,” Barrett said.
The city sold prime real estate downtown for the two projects planned by private developers — one on the corner of West Northampton and South Main streets that was announced in 2015; and the other, announced last year, on the former Hotel Sterling property on the corner of West Market and North River streets. To date, there are no new buildings on the sites and the city can reacquire the land through reverter clauses in the deals.
‘Good place with police’
A former city police chief who works as the Director of Safety and Security at Luzerne County Community College in Nanticoke, Barrett was pleased with the current state of labor relations in the Wilkes-Barre Police Department.
“We’re in a good place with the police,” he said.
The union representing officers clashed often with former chief Marcella Lendacky whom Mayor Tony George appointed in March 2016 after he took office. Barrett backed an independent review of the department that led to Lendacky’s retirement last June.
The Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police Association based in Harrisburg issued a report critical of Lendacky’s lack of professional qualifications and management of the department. The mayor conducted a search for a new chief and in November named veteran officer Joseph Coffay to the post.
Meanwhile, the retirement of 16 firefighters last year reduced the ranks of the fire department to 54. The mayor budgeted for 63 this year, but has held off on filling any of the vacancies until there’s a decision on the binding arbitration with the firefighters’ union.
“At some point, he’s going to have to make some personnel hires,” Barrett said of the mayor filling the vacancies. “The safety issue is paramount,” he added.