Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Opinion: Wilkes-Barre City Officials Want Glodzik's Records to be Kept Secret

Tow truck owner Leo Glodzik's contract is selectively enforced by Wilkes-Barre City officials so that his towing records can stay hidden from the public.

According to the Citizens' Voice, Glodzik's receipts, which his contract mandates must be kept in an "accurate and running log" with the police* are not being kept. Glodzik says he only needs to keep them if he's asked to, and apparently he hasn't been--but this is not what the contract says. The logs are necessary to enforce the part of the contract which states that Glodzik's fees must be "reasonable and according to the standards of the industry generally." Without the logs, there can be no assurance that Glodzik's fees are reasonable, and if there is no such assurance, the contract is not being followed. I imagine the city would have power to demand Glodzik's records from the police chief, but they cannot do this if there are no records being kept in the first place. Why is only the chief allowed to demand Glodzik's records? And who wrote this language into the contract? Was it Bill Vinsko--Glodzik's Facebook friend and former lawyer?

City officials have dodged Citizens' Voice reporters' questions, and thus seem happy that only the police have the power to demand from Glodzik his records. Therefore, they enforce only the part of the contract that absolves them from having to apprehend Glodzik's records directly from him for public review, yet these same officials seem totally fine with the fact that the part of the contract mandating the log and its necessary clause of ensuring fair prices is not being kept by the police chief. It is clear that the ultimate goal of the city officials, including Leighton and McLauglin, is to protect Glodzik from any scrutiny over his business practices.

Finally, the fact that Glodzik isn't keeping records with police is a sufficient condition for the termination of his city contract. However, the contract only states that failure to follow it means that city officials "could" terminate but not that they must do so. Therefore, Glodzik can violate the contract all he wants, and city officials have no obligation to terminate it. This sort of non-binding contract seems suspicious. Therefore, the people who wrote the contract ought to be investigated.

The Wilkes-Barre City attorney is Timothy Henry and the assistant attorney is William E. Vinsko, Jr. Vinsko is friends with Glodzik on Facebook and incorporated some businesses for him. Bill Vinsko is also friends on Facebook with Wilkes-Barre police chief Gerald (Jerry) Dessoye. Vinsko is also friends with Drew McLaughlin who is on record as stating that the logs the contract mandates are unnecessary because Dessoye can track city-directed tows through internal police department records. But McLaughlin's premise is false. The contract says that logs are necessary so that they can be apprehended from the police chief by people such as the Mayor or reporters or concerned citizens. If McLaughlin really believes that we're just supposed to take his buddy Dessoye's word for it that Glodzik is charging industry standard, then he is either naive or knowlingly misrepresenting the city contract.

Click above photo for larger view
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The contract requires that L.A.G. shall provide the police chief on the 10th of each month:
1. An accurate and running log of all vehicles currently in storage
2. The tows made by the Contractor by the Contractor under this contract for the preceding month
3. A copy of all inventories held
In legalese, "shall" is synonymous with "must"; therefore, the records must be received.

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