The Lies

In Leightons 'The Leighton Ledger' which was delivered in yesterdays Times Leader (May 14, 2011) which is a PAID ADVERTISEMENT (and about as accurate as late night ads), Leighton claims "The city has 3 fire stations strategically placed in the north, center, and south of the city". This is another of the dictators half truth half lies. South station is manned about an eighth of the time. This leaves south W-B uncovered for seven eighths of the time.

Plus he claimed, "The Wilkes-Barre Fire Department's average response time to an emergency call is 3:27 Which is significantly lower than the national average." Another half truth from Leighton. He doesn't tell you that 16 men per shift is the national standard and we have been cut to a minimum staffing of 12 per shift. Meaning that the long delay for a second engine risks our safety. It's not just what our response time is, it's how long it takes to get the minimum number of firefighters on scene.

Quotes from our dictator, notice he ALWAYS blames someone else and that shows his leadership skills(or more accurately, his LACK of them):
June 10, 2005 (WNEP) "I wouldn't say I oversold it. I think maybe the media did,"
AKA It's not my fault, it's the medias fault.

June 8, 2005 (WNEP) "I would love to have a fire station in every neighborhood but you have to remember, this is neglect of the past," said Mayor Leighton.
AKA It's not my fault, it's McGroartys fault.

Mar 12, 2010 (Citizens' voice) "You left me with no choice, I'm not failing you, the city administration is not failing you and city council is not failing you. Your union is failing you."
AKA It's not my fault, it's the Firefighter Unions fault.

Oct 18, 2007 (Citizens' Voice political blog) Leighton raised taxes 20 mills when he first took office in 2004, but has not raised taxes since. “I was forced to raise taxes because of past mistakes, because of past debt,” Leighton said.
AKA It's not my fault, it's McGroartys fault.

October 27, 2008 (Times Leader) Leighton said the union contract demands that the city first call out all city firefighters before another community can be contacted for help. He said Luzerne County 911 does the call-out, but the mayor said a lot of time is lost during the process.
AKA It's not my fault, it's the Call Centers fault.

July 16, 2010 (WBRE) About claims by police officers the system is bogged down by technical glitches at times, Leighton said "they're (police) not happy about it because they think we should put more people on the streets."
AKA It's not my fault, it's the Policemens' fault.

October 15, 2008 The mayor blames the hike on health care costs and a million-dollar firefighters’ arbitration award. "By no means am I happy or proud of this budget, but it's legitimate numbers, it's legitimate expenses," said Leighton.
AKA It's not my fault, it's the Firefighters' fault.

May 16, 2010 (Citizens Voice) "We've tried to work with them to help the city," he said. "They have to help. Employees have to help. We've had other unions help us"
AKA It's not my fault, it's the Firefighters' fault.
When mayor was elected he asked all the city unions to help the city financially in their contracts. the fire union did (concessions = approx 3.5 million dollars over 7 years). Mayor Leighton said "By making (these) substantial concessions, the firefighters' union has agreed to become partners with the city in its revitalization plan" The Fire Fighters Union did their part and who gets cut back? And what did the other unions do exactly?

October 15, 2008(WNEP) Mayor Leighton blames the tough economy, increasing health insurance premiums and a recent award of one million dollars to the city's firefighters union for the budget gap. But he promises the financial squeeze won't mean fewer police patrols, or reduced services like salting, plowing and roadwork.
AKA It's not my fault, It's the tough economys', increasing health insurance premiums' and a recent award to the city's firefighters unions' fault.

Oh and he he 'promises' the financial squeeze won't mean fewer police patrols, or reduced services like salting, plowing and roadwork.
What about essential LIFE SAVING Services?

We are paying for the services. Police protection, fire protection, and clean neighborhoods. WE ARE NOT GETTING WHAT WE ARE PAYING FOR! We are experiencing POOR customer service!
Voting for any of the incumbants (basically hiring them for 4 more years) for ANY political position makes sense. Like lug nuts on a birthday cake or a cupcake.



On a side note, The The Lu Lac Political Letter (a local Blog) did an independent poll of his readers to gauge the mayoral Democratic primary election results.

The results were :
Tom Leighton 31%
Charlotte Raup 64%
Nick Punko 8%.

Dan Emplit WBFD
AKA Don Quixote