"Cars for Cash" (LAG TOWING) is what raises my ire more than anything in regards to Tony George. How can a Council member and former Chief stand by for a decade as this criminal empire roared. WHERE WERE YOU, TONY?
This is not negative! Do you know what is negative?
What is negative is that hundreds (thousand?) had their cars stolen because they did not "matter."
... because they were poor
... because they were women
... because they were black
... because they had no power
... because they couldn't help someone politically
Tony and I had a conversation about police bribes.
He said they were $50 per car.
Did he do anything with this info?
He was totally impervious to the pain and corruption around him.
He shouted at meetings but actually helped no one.
This is the truth folks.
I hope you strongly consider this with your vote.
WHAT I HOPE YOU CONSIDER IS HOW TONY GEORGE and OTHERS SIMPLY DO NOT SEE CRIME AROUND THEM. It is the "BYSTANDER EFFECT ON STEROIDS."
HIS RECORD SPEAKS FOR ITSELF.
HE DOES NOT WANT TO BE BOTHERED.
Unpaid Frank Sorick outdid the paid Tony George in spades in terms of public works. This is one area Frank was not involved in but I will soon point out where he he help people. He helped a lot of people at his own personal expense.
Checklist
Visted victims
Me: Many times
Tony George: NEVER
Bought used cars/ made victims whole
Me: Bought several used cars for victims
Tony George: NEVER
Filed Criminal complaints regarding auto theft
Me: Filed for victims (the DA of course covered for the scam)
Tony George: NEVER (as a former police chief)
Paid off outrageous storage fees
Me: Paid Several for victims
Tony George: NEVER
Responsible for FBI taking action
Me: See letter. I initiated everything (a lonely quest)
Tony George: He only rode thae bandwagon once it was started.
Senta Boyer getting new car
Courtesy Citizens Voice
W-B towing contractor: No receipts for towed vehicles
By Andrew Staub (Staff
Writer Citizens Voice)
Published: January 1, 2012
Wilkes-Barre's
towing contractor has no record of what he charged or why he towed vehicles for
nearly all seven years he's been on the job.
LAG
Towing normally does not keep records after customers pay for impounded
vehicles, said Thomas Ford, the company's attorney. The business, which pays
the city $50,050 annually for exclusive towing rights, only started keeping
receipts after The Citizens' Voice filed an open records request for detailed
reports more than six months ago.
The
request asked for documentation dating back to April 2005, when Wilkes-Barre
hired LAG Towing. The company's owner, Leo A. Glodzik III, provided 116
receipts from Aug. 1 to Nov. 29, but did not release any documents from before
July 22, the date of the records request.
Mr.
Glodzik only began keeping receipts and tow reports upon Mr. Ford's advice, the
attorney said in a letter accompanying the documents.
With 76
months of receipts unavailable for review, Mr. Glodzik has offered just a
snapshot of his pricing practices under the city contract. Some receipts do not
specify charges, but Mr. Glodzik made at least $19,926 over the four months and
averaged $171.78 a tow, including storage and labor costs.
That
places Mr. Glodzik within his fee schedule, which states he can charge anywhere
from $125 to $175 depending upon the circumstances of the tow.
Bob
Kadluboski, who held the city contract before LAG Towing, has long insisted his
successor has charged more than his fee schedule specifies and said he has
receipts to back up the claim.
The
owner of City-Wide Towing obtained an LAG towing receipt dated Dec. 16 that
indicates Mr. Glodzik charged a city woman $650 after her vehicle was impounded
after an accident on Park Avenue.
Mike
McGovern, a former tow truck driver who works as an attorney concentrating on
the towing industry, said Mr. Glodzik's assertion that he has receipts for just
four out of 80 months "doesn't pass the smell test."
The
practice amounts to "bad business," Mr. McGovern said. Receipts might
be necessary for tax purposes and detailed invoices could be useful for
defending claims the towing company damaged someone's vehicle, he said.
The lack
of receipts also raises questions of whether Mr. Glodzik always charged his
stated fees, Mr. McGovern said.
"It
raises a suspicion that he's been overcharging. That's obvious," Mr.
McGovern said. "It just raises suspicions that all of a sudden, noise is
being made about towing fees and he only has receipts from (Aug. 1)
forward."
While
Mr. McGovern said many municipalities set caps on tow charges and require their
towing contractors to provide monthly invoices, Wilkes-Barre's contract with
LAG does not include such stipulations.
"Shame
on the municipality for not having some methodology in place for reviewing
their contract," Mr. McGovern said.
Mr.
Glodzik can charge whatever he would like for city-directed tows, provided the
prices are "reasonable and according to the standards of the
industry," according to the contract.
Mr.
McGovern said he's not sure how contractual language requiring
industry-standard prices can be applied practically and expressed surprise the
contract permits Mr. Glodzik to set his own prices.
"That's
what the contract says? Geez," Mr. McGovern said. "That's not a
contract at all."
Neither
Mr. Glodzik nor Wilkes-Barre Mayor Tom Leighton returned telephone messages
seeking comment about the records.
Mr.
Glodzik has become a focal point of public criticism in recent months,
especially from Mr. Kadluboski and Mark Robbins, a Forty Fort man Mr. Glodzik
towed last year. Mr. Robbins believes LAG Towing's prices leave poorer
residents susceptible to an "economic death spiral."
Mr.
Robbins points to the case of Senta Boyer, a 41-year-old city resident who said
she must walk from her home near Hazle Street to work at a furniture store off
Kidder Street after the city had her car impounded Oct. 27 because of expired
tags.
The next
day, LAG Towing told MS. Boyer she had to pay a $250 towing fee and a $50
storage charge, Ms. Boyer said. With no insurance and a part-time job paying $9
an hour, Ms. Boyer said she couldn't afford the fee.
"I
pretty much bawled my eyeballs out all day long," Ms. Boyer said, adding
her long walk inflames her arthritis. Since
the end of October, storage fees have inflated the impound bill to more than
$3,000 for a 1997 Ford Taurus, Mr. Robbins said.
Mr.
Robbins, who agreed to pay the fee, tried to retrieve the car from LAG Towing's
Carey Avenue shop on Thursday, but refused to pay when Mr. Glodzik insisted he
pay in cash and declined to allow Ms. Boyer to see the car first, Mr. Robbins
said.
Contact
the writer: astaub@citizensvoice.com
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