DiBileo: I'm what city needs right now

Gary DiBileo said he was urged not to do it.

Some supporters of his unsuccessful 2005 bid for mayor, Mr. DiBileo said, suggested running for city council rather than taking on Mayor Chris Doherty again. He thought about it, but his heart said run for mayor.(I believe that we can find many examples of this on the DD site ... they want Janet for Mayor not you ... I do believe that early posting on that site question your ability to be a strong leader ... they thought Janet would be a stronger leader than you)

“I want to be mayor because I’ll be a great mayor,” he said. “I’ll be the type of mayor the city needs right now, which is someone that can unify the people and stop the divisions.”

The divider, he said, is Mr. Doherty, who governs with a “his way or the highway” mentality.

Mr. DiBileo’s critics say his record in public life is thin. In four years as a city councilman, a former colleague says, he rarely offered anything constructive. In five years as a school director, two former directors say he waffled on the one major initiative he strongly supported, the new Scranton High School.(Gary is the candidate that will tell you what you want to hear ... and take two steps from you and then tell the next person what they want to hear contradicting what he just said to you ... that's the way he is and that's the way he will always be ... he wants to be the guy everyone likes ... and he is a likable guy ... but he does not want to make the right decisions he wants to make the popular decisions and many times the right decision is not at all the popular decision ... he won't be able to do that!)


“Gary is very quiet,” former fellow school Director Mary Kay DelRosso said. “He doesn’t prefer controversy.”

The suggestion irks Mr. DiBileo, a 53-year-old West Scranton insurance agent.

He’s shown he can make the tough decisions required of a mayor just by running for the office again, he said.

“This is not an easy undertaking,” he said. “If I didn’t have the courage to make decisions I would not have made the tough decision four years ago to enter the race against a candidate who was, at the time, considered unbeatable.”

He came within “an eyelash” (574 votes) of beating Mr. Doherty in the May 2005 Democratic primary election. Because he won the Republican nomination via write-in votes, he got a second shot at beating the mayor that fall, but lost by more than 2,500 votes.(Simply deciding to run for office does not prove that you can make a tough decisions it requires to be Mayor ... you couldn't make tough decision while on City Council ... why would you be able to make them as Mayor?  Nobody said running for Mayor or any office is an easy undertaking ... especially now that every move you make is under the watchful eye of Joe Pilchesky ... but you don't have that worry do you Gary ... Joe likes you ... but remember don't dare go against his queen ... because then he will throw you under the bus and vote Doherty just to get back at you.  I think that how you started out your campaign tells us a bit about you ... you are not self assured as you would have announced early ... but you waited until very late in the game to let people know ... why because you were not sure of yourself or you ability to win.)

If he fails a third time, he said, his political career is probably over.

That career started in October 1994 when he was sworn in to replace future city council ally Janet Evans on the school board after she resigned to take a district teaching job. Elected to a full term a year later, he strongly advocated the new high school as chairman of buildings and grounds.

Controversial at the time, his backing of the new school, he said, was proven right.

“I think it’s perhaps the biggest catalyst to economic development that our area has seen,” Mr. DiBileo said.

The school is widely seen as a plus now, but angry opponents defeated every school director who advocated it in the spring 1999 primary election except Mr. DiBileo, who won a Republican nomination. That meant tough sledding for re-election.

Mrs. Delrosso and former school Director John Brazil, both school advocates defeated in that election, credit Mr. DiBileo.

“He was an advocate for the school, although he didn’t show up for the groundbreaking (ceremony),” Mr. Brazil said. “There was some disappointment with that ... He was the only one who supported it who didn’t show up for it.”

The suspicion was Mr. DiBileo feared political fallout.

Not so, he said. He skipped the groundbreaking to coach his daughter’s soccer team.

“If I was going to get off that school project, I would have changed my mind long before the groundbreaking,” he said. A Scranton Times story published about a month after the groundbreaking quoted him strongly advocating the school.(Bull*hit Gary ... you were for the school ... you stayed away because you were afraid that you would slip in popularity ... not because you were coaching a soccer game ... it's funny how your story over the years has changed from attending that soccer game to now coaching that soccer game.  You stayed away because you were afraid of Fay Franus .... she was there ... I remember he enjoying the refreshments that were served after the ceremony ... and the "People's Team" ... they were there being their rude selves ... Jimmy Minicozzi, Peggy Paris ... and Bob Marinucci ... all against the school ... there to protest ... and you didn't want to be there for fear that they may confront you ... you didn't want to stand up for what you believed in then and why should I believe that you want to stand up for what you say you believe in now ... your answer is to simply not show up ... be it physically or mentally ... either way you won't show up)

“There was no tougher decision in the last 30 years of the city than the buliding of the new high school,” said former school Director Mark Walsh, who also sat on the board then and later became council solicitor when Mr. DiBileo was its president.

Mr. DiBileo lost that 1999 fall election, then returned to run for council in 2001. In the same election that tabbed Mr. Doherty as mayor, Mr. DiBileo won a council seat.

He shared Mr. Doherty’s desire to attract new jobs, restructure taxes and slow the city’s exodus of residents, he said at the time. The day the new council organized, Mr. DiBileo even backed city Councilman Kevin Murphy for council president. For much of the next two years, Mr. Murphy led the charge for Mr. Doherty’s agenda.

But by June 2002, Mr. DiBileo had joined Councilman Brian Reap to oppose Mr. Doherty’s controversial recovery plan. They wanted to give contract talks with city police and firefighter unions a chance to work in hopes of avoiding years of costly arbitration and contention. Mr. DiBileo offered plan amendments that failed to pass, which Mr. Doherty criticized as costly.

The recovery plan passed when Mr. Murphy and two other councilmen voted for it, but the unions succeeded in getting the plan on the November ballot.

If voters approved the plan, Mr. DiBileo said then, “Whatever voters decide, we’ll have to make it work.” He even said he wouldn’t work to defeat it. After voters overwhelmingly approved the plan, he said city officials had to listen to them and tighten the budget.

With the recovery-plan-centered dispute between the Doherty administration and the unions in its eighth year, Mr. DiBileo takes credit for his initial opposition to the plan and rails against the hundreds of thousands in legal fees spent on the battle.

“We could have negotiated firmly, but fairly and saved ourselves a ton of money and I think when I’m mayor I will be able to negotiate, in a quick fashion, a taxpayer-friendly contract with the public safety professionals,” he said.

The kind of contract that satisfies the plan and lifts the city’s financially distressed status, he said.

Asked how he knows that, he said, “That’s just in my gut that I feel I’ll be able to achieve it

The police and firefighter unions have again endorsed Mr. DiBileo and are working for his election, which feeds a perception he is beholden to them.

“Totally false,” he said, his voice rising. “Taxpayers come first.”

The unions backed him because they know he’ll respect them and treat them fairly, unlike Mr. Doherty, he said. He can eliminate what he says is a recurring deficit of $2 million — Mr. Doherty says it’s $5.5 million — by simply cutting unnecessary administrators hired by Mr. Doherty, though he won’t give details.

“I’m for recovery,” he said..”(And again I say Bull*hit to this ... you know why you will be able to negotiate with them ... because you have already cut a deal with them ... you don't feel it in your gut.  Now I am hoping that no matter who wins will negotiate in a quick fashion coming up with a contract that is fair to all ... but you have already been assured by the unions that this will happen and you know it!)

Mr. DiBileo’s and the mayor’s differences on the recovery plan marked the permanent break in their relationship. Their differences only worsened after Mr. DiBileo became council president in January 2004.

They disagreed on the mayor’s desire for fees at city swimming pools, the sale of the city golf course and the South Side Sports Complex, bidding limits, control of the city Recreation Authority and Mr. Doherty’s borrowing to fill budget gaps.

In a new campaign brochure mailed to city Democrats last week, Mr. Doherty called Mr. DiBileo an “obstructionist” who would slow the city’s progress.

“Gary DiBileo will stifle progress? Are you kidding me?” Mr. DiBileo said, visibly angry.

He said he has proof he is no obstructionist.

“I voted in favor of more than 90 percent of what came down from the Doherty administration,” he said. “I never voted against any economic development that came before City Council.”

In the summer of 2005, Mr. DiBileo even voted for Mr. Doherty’s plan to sell off a block of city economic development loans and use the money for further development, but two other council members — his allies Bill Courtright and Mrs. Evans — voted it down.(In a council consisting of 5 members how can 2 vote something down?  I will tell you how ... 2 can vote it down when only 3 are present or when 4 are present it then becomes a tie and well nobody wins in that situation ... so did you vote because that's how you felt or did you vote that way to make yourself look good as if you don't go against the Mayor simply to go against him ... you knew that it wouldn't pass even if you voted for it because there were not enough present at that meeting to pass it even if you did vote for it ... how stupid do you think the people of this town are.)

A month later, when other council members voted to revive the idea, Mr. DiBileo blocked a second vote. After he lost the election, he allowed the second vote with only Mrs. Evans voting no.

Events like that feed the notion that Mr. DiBileo, as president, allowed Doherty critics to sound off at council meetings to energize his mayoral campaign.(You absolutely did do this ... you can deny it all you want but you did it ... Janet did it ... it was quite sad actually ... hell those LoD'ers didn't want anyone in those chambers that were not regular speakers and on your side ... I know that first hand.)

Never before that summer had the council met in August, said John Pocius, a councilman and Doherty supporter who lost his re-election bid that fall. Mr. DiBileo said the August meetings were necessary in case council had to act to save the Hilton Scranton & Conference Center, which was facing financial trouble.

Mr. Pocius disagrees

“That was kind of just to keep the campaign going,” he said. “It was a heated time ... It was kind of like the ‘60s.”.(On this I would have to agree with Mr. Pocius ... because Gary had the right to call a special meeting at anytime and any day to address this issue ... it's funny isn't it ... at that time the LoD'ers, Gary, Bill and Janet kept telling us that the Hilton would be going out of business and we would be left with an empty building .... hmmmm last I knew it was still open ... it didn't close down ... did it have financial troubles ... yes it did ... but did it shut down as the nay sayers predicted ... NO IT DID NOT ... four years later and it's still open .... hmmmmmmmm.)

The criticism of Mr. Doherty only intensified after the close primary, he said.

“That council never achieved anything that was productive,” Mr. Pocius said. “When you have the presidency, it’s up to you to build consensus.”

Mr. DiBileo argues he errs on the side of free speech. When speakers talked inappropriately, he gaveled them down. Mr. Doherty’s supporters also spoke, he said.

He claims meetings are “more like a circus” now.(They are not more circus like now ... they have carried on in the circus like atmosphere that you, Janet and Bill not only created but encouraged ... and now it's something that cannot be brought back to a level of respect ... The then "Council Three" created and encouraged the disruptive behavior that exists in chambers to this day!)

“I treated everybody with respect and dignity,” he said. “I couldn’t help the fact that more speakers were against the administration than in favor of it.”

His willingness to listen is one of his most important strengths, he said. He’s not laid back, he’s thoughtful, which should not be mistaken for indecision, he said.

“I hear other viewpoints and I make up my own mind,” Mr. DiBileo said.

He stands, he said, for open, accessible government, fiscal responsibility, adequate public safety, reducing the city’s wage tax, ending cronyism and lowering bidding limits. He offers few details on how he’ll achieve his goals. The issues section of his Web site offers six short slogans — he won’t raise taxes 25 percent like Mr. Doherty and he’ll make neighborhoods safe, among them.

As achievements in his elected life, he touts his support of the new high school, his respect for speakers at council meetings, the help he gave many constituents who called with complaints and his votes for all Mr. Doherty’s economic development projects.

He’s been a successful businessman for Nationwide Insurance, running an agency that routinely ranks among the company’s best, he said. He lost last time only because he was outspent more than 2 to 1, not because voters favored Mr. Doherty’s ideas, he said.(What will be will be ... but your achievements ... if you were in total support of the New High School then you would have been there on Groundbreaking day ... and if you were in support of all of Mr. Doherty's economic development plans then you would not be backed by the gang from DD or the LoD and you know it ... they would in fact hate you because of it ... they hate anyone who agrees with the Mayor on any issue no matter how small ... and yes he outspent you but I don't think that is what won him the election last time around ...)
“I believe that people are going to prove this time around that money doesn’t buy elections because money bought the last election,” he said.

Contact the writer: bkrawczeniuk@timesshamrock.com


In conclusion I want to say this ... I love Gary DiBileo as a person ... I just don't want him to be my Mayor.