Matthews Lied? Golf-Tango-Foxtrot-Oscar-Hotel!

Commissioner Castor has heard a lot of "truth fabrication" in his many years in the District Attorney's office. Probably too many to count, always starting with "I didn't do it", leading. Well, it looks like things are being perpetuated, at least for him, in the commissioner's office.

To refresh your memory, back in July, there was a unionization letter sent out to the private mail and phone calls made to the unlisted phones of (some) county employees. This letter/call was not so well received by many, as they felt it violated their privacy insofar as the union should never have gotten their private information.

If you remember, Cmmsr. Matthews spouted off about the letter, admonishing acting human resources director ( and deputy county solicitor) Carolyn Carluccio for sending such a harshly worded letter out. Well, it had come to Commissioner Castor's attention that Carluccio had, in fact, run the letter by King James prior to sending it out (from the Evening Bulletin):

Mr. Castor [...] spoke with Deputy Solicitor Carolyn Carluccio, the acting human resources director, on July 30 after hearing about the letter going out. He asked her about its origins and recalled her saying that after Mr. DeAngelo composed it, she read it to Mr. Matthews over the phone and said the commissioners' chairman had approved it.

Mr. Castor said Ms. Carluccio told him Mr. Matthews called her back the following day and reported that Mr. Hoeffel, who does not oppose unionization, reacted negatively to the letter. By that time, Mr. Castor said he learned, it had already gone out to department heads and could not be stopped from reaching employees.

The plot thickens:

At a publicly televised county commissioners' meeting on Thursday, Aug. 21, Mr. Matthews and Commissioners' Vice Chairman Joe Hoeffel, D, both criticized the letter and said such a message should not have gone out without their approval. Mr. Matthews called the language used in the letter "disconcerting" and said there is no official county position on unionization even though he is personally opposed to it for county staffers.

And, now it seems that there's a cover-up in progress:

Subsequent efforts by Mr. Castor to ask Ms. Carluccio for information on the matter have been blocked administratively. The deputy solicitor wrote to Mr. Castor that he must go through County Solicitor Barry Miller to get answers from her.

"I have been recently instructed that all requests for information from any commissioner be directed to the solicitor, Barry Miller, under whom I work," she wrote to Mr. Castor in an e-mail. "I am happy to respond to your requests with Mr. Miller's approval."

And:

Mr. Castor said he believes this procedure contradicts protocol and is too bureaucratic. He said also the refusal of Mr. Matthews and Ms. Carluccio to divulge greater detail were effectively "tacit admissions" of their respective complicity in the matter.

"The public needs to know whether their commissioner lied to them," he said. "And my effort to get to the bottom of that has been stymied. I know what Carolyn Carluccio told me and it is stunning that an elected county commissioner is not permitted to gather information from a member of the commissioners' staff. It certainly appears as though a cover-up is in progress."

Well, King James? Are you ready to let your office "come clean" or will you continue to deceive the people who put their trust in your leadership when they voted for you back in November?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but if the work of the people is done by those we elect to do it, who are paid by our tax dollars to do it, and there is an ethics question, does not "the people" have a right to transparency in their county government? If so, then why do any of our three county executives, Mssrs. Castor, Hoeffel, or Matthews have to get permission from an underling, Mr Barry Miller, to speak with a county employee? Or, does this only apply to Cmmsr. Castor?

With a reputation of being a straight shooter, why is Deputy Solicitor Carluccio a party to this deceit? Is there pressure from above to keep her mouth closed? Is it possible that her job has been threatened if she chooses to be a "whistle-blower"?

Egregious is a word that comes to mind.

The clock is ticking, J-Rex-the credibility gap is widening. The web of deceit you have been weaving since January 7th is starting to unravel. And boy, I can hardly wait until the bottom drops out.

All quotes in this report are from a news story in the Evening Bulletin, "Castor: Matthews Approved Letter", by Brad Vasoli. )Click on the link to read the entire article)