Crooked politicians getting help with their legal bills -- from you
Unless local officials are treated differently what I take away from the report a public official indeed may use public money to defend him or herself. However if they were to be officially "indicted" or "charged" public taxpayers money would cease going forward from that point on. If found guilty they could be forced to repay taxpayers those former costs here in Pennsylvania.
Maybe Why Allentown's Mayor Is No Hurry To Resign
According to 'The Reading Eagle' (08/27/2015), "Mayor Vaughn D. Spencer so far has racked up about $900,000 in legal bills from the city-paid lawyers defending him against city charter and ethics complaints."
Remaining Questions Are:
Under Allentown's charter who approves this kind of spending? Council, the mayor himself, or who?
Is council powerless? They can't simply remove someone from office who hasn't been found guilty of anything.
If the council takes him before the ethics committee wouldn't we have to pay for his legal representation?
Where will Allentown come up with nearly a million dollars as is the case in Reading?
Is it likely taxpayers will be reimbursed if found guilty?
Will someone even pursue reimbursement? If so who?
Is there a damn thing any of us can do about this except bitch and moan?
I tend to think not.
I'm utilizing the comments to clarify what I posted.
ReplyDeleteThere's no indication the City Of Allentown will or will not use funds, but from what I can determine it would not be illegal to do so. Therefore I'm not sure what Susan Wild said at the council meeting was correct.
If someone has creditable expertise or can provide a link I am of this opinion.