Yesterday, I told you that Bethlehem Mayor John Callahan and State Representative Jenn Mann both were able to get their hands on tickets to this year's Super Bowl. Yes, other elected officials from Pennsylvania were there, too, including Governor Corbett. But my focus is on locally elected officials. I want to update you with some additional information.Callahan actually returned my call this morning, something that never happened before. He told me that he paid for the trip himself. I asked how much, and he demurred, telling me the amount is irrelevant. But in response to some additional questioning, he acknowledged that he only paid the face value on the ticket, not its actual market price.
Although Callahan acknowledged that he did not get this ticket as a result of some lottery or as a season ticket holder, he declined to tell me who hooked him up. He claims that's "irrelevant" but I consider this information as important as knowing the identity of a campaign donor or lobbyist.
I also spoke again to Jennifer Mann's press aide. Like Callahan, he acknowledged that she only had to pay face value.He also told me that Mann got her tickets from the Steelers, which did make some tickets available to politicians in both parties.
Asked whether she wold be reimbursing taxpayers for the day of work she missed on Super Bowl Monday, when she missed roll call, I was told she was "on leave." But apparently, she just put herself on leave, so doesn't she owe the residents of her district a day's pay for the time she spent not representing them? I was told she works weekends and nights, and made it back to Harrisburg that afternoon.
In Wisconsin, home of the Packers, Ashwaubenon Village President Mike Aubinger is one of the elected officials who turned down two $900 face value tickets that were being offered to the rest of us for $8,500 each. He did not feel comfortable receiving preferential treatment. "I don't accept anything from anyone anywhere," he said.
Callahan and Mann appear to have a different view. They exploit the status of their offices to gain special treatment.
Will you ever relent in your ongoing efforts to repeatedly try to tear down Ms. Mann and Mr. Callahan. Angle takes money from the illegal alien jail people. You say its bad and quickly follow with something about someone else.
ReplyDeleteBeating a dead horse would be considered a mercy killing compared to what you are doing on this topic.
i trust Callahan sanitized his phone after talking to you
ReplyDeleteWhere are you getting these pics? Halarious
ReplyDeleteLocally? What is is absolutely relevant is that Scarnatti took free ticket, free airfare, and free hotel from Marcellus gas producer and there is a track record of special treatment.
ReplyDeleteBernie -
ReplyDeleteMann has run for a number of different offices while being a state legislator at the same time. She surely owes the taxpayers of her district for the time she spent campaigning for those other offices.
If she's not paying up on that, I doubt she'll be fair with the taxpayers for a one-day event like the Super Bowl.
I suppose the tax payers of Bethlehem will get more of the same today, his slight of hand hocus pocus as he delivers the State of the City message. All the taxpayers have to do is look around them, look at at the snow, the condition of the streets, police presence etc. Oh Yeah how about borrowing $16 Million to balance the budget. Hmmmm odd way to balance huh? I think I'll try that with my checkbook. Great job Mayor and you too City Council!!!
ReplyDelete"Will you ever relent in your ongoing efforts to repeatedly try to tear down Ms. Mann and Mr. Callahan."
ReplyDeleteWhen I discover that two locally elected officials received face value tickets for the Super Bowl as a result of connections, I'm going to write about the preferential treatment.
The simple reality is that Mann and Callahan display an arrogance and disdain for the voter, and perhaps I would write less frequently about them if they were a little more ethical.
Callahan's trips, his brother-in-law, his fiscal stewardship of the City and that parking deck deal, all cry out for scrutiny. Mann is a consultant with a state vendor. So yeah, I've noticed them.
"What is is absolutely relevant is that Scarnatti took free ticket,"
I linked to that and mentioned it in my story yesterday, bit S cranti is NOT a LV pol, and I did not break that story. Callahan and Mann are local, and I did break this story.
In Wisconsin, where officials took face value tickets for the Super Bowl, it was big news in several papers. It has been mentioned in Piittsburgh papers for some of the officials out that way. So this is certainly something considered newsworthy.
I'll 2nd the 9:09 Anonymous...
ReplyDeleteThe City Council should have an easy job this year just denying all what the Mayor wants because "there is no MONEY". Why can't they get a report every month - the Profit & Loss for instance and look before they vote again! Get those 2 City Council rubber-stamp men out of City Council and put new fresh people in of the opposite party to counteract the "MAYOR". I watched most of them flip flop the last council meeting on the Super Majority Vote of the Zoning Hearing Board because the Mayor spoke and he didn't want it to pass. Not our Karen! She is the only one who stayed firm and she is the only one that even asks questions and will stand up to the Mayor. Get some more WOMEN in there. They know how to balance budgets and households.
Mayor John Callahan is arrogant and slick. All you have to do is look at him and to really listen to what he says and you can tell that. Wake up Bethlehem and City Council and get him out NOW!!! Our city is in bad shape and two more years of Callahan will really put us under. You can do it, you can do it, you can do it.......
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking of giving out "ASSFINDER" awards, to elected officials who couldn't tell their ass from a hole in the ground. Any nominees?
ReplyDelete"The simple reality is that Mann and Callahan display an arrogance and disdain for the voter"
ReplyDeleteUgh, no, it's not...the simple reality is that you're chasing a non-story.
How does paying face value for a Super Bowl ticket display disdain for the voter exactly? Shouldn't your complaint be with the league and the teams and people who allow the Stub-Hubs of the world to scalp and mark-up tickets to such ridiculous levels?
No you'd rather take cheap shots at elected officials who paid for - not got free, remind you - but paid for tickets.
Oh, and as far as the "work she missed", should she be paid extra by the people when working on week-ends?
I normally enjoy your writing, Bernie, and applaud the eye that you keep on our elected officials...but you're way off on this one my friend.
"He claims that's "irrelevant" but I consider this information as important as knowing the identity of a campaign donor or lobbyist."
ReplyDeleteI assume you will make a story on the $3000 Angle received from GEO? Or at least take a look into the validity of the story?
CASEY I WOULD START WITH STOFFA
ReplyDeleteI don't get the complaint about Mann. She got the ticket legitmately, paid for it and paid her own way. She missed a roll call (which happens). What am I not getting here?
ReplyDeleteIt is relevant!! The mayor of Bethlehem makes what about 70 to 80 Thousand dollars a year and lives pretty posh neighborhood.I make more than him and I could not afford to go to the Superbowl!! And it is not because I do not manage my money right. Besides it is next to impossible to get a ticket unless you are tied to a corporation or a businessman. It is time for people of Bethlehem to stand up to this guy he has ruined Bethlehem and lied about everything, he just hoped that he would have gotten elected and let the next guy dig the city out. He needs to go but certain members of city council need to step up to the plate and say NO to him.
ReplyDeleteAsk Jennifer Mann about going to the stanley cup and world series and how she got those tickets.
ReplyDeleteGood work Mr. O'Hare.
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ReplyDelete"I don't get the complaint about Mann."
ReplyDeleteShe used her office to secure a face value ticket that would cost the rest of us much more, if we could get one at all. She blew off the people she supposedly represents while she was in Texas, missing a Roll Call for a day of House work.
If you support preferential treatment or classicism, then you'd have no complaint.
"I assume you will make a story on the $3000 Angle received from GEO? Or at least take a look into the validity of the story?"
ReplyDeleteAs I explained several times yesterday, I wrote about Angle's campaign finance several weeks ago, and condemned his "pay to play" practices, along with those of several other pols. Had I known about GEO at the time, I would have included it. I did not, but have no intentions of resurrecting a story published several weeks ago just to add that detail.
The information is accurate and I would condemn it like I tend to condemn contributions from prospective vendors for anyone.
What I don't like about that story is that Angle was isolated. His campaign finance was scrutinized bc some Dem operative dropped it on a reporter's desk. he reporters did not do the work they are supposed to do and look at the campaign finance for everyone, not just Angle.
"the simple reality is that you're chasing a non-story.
ReplyDeleteHow does paying face value for a Super Bowl ticket display disdain for the voter exactly?"
That's interesting because the papers in Wisconsin and Pittsburgh were all over this practice.
Paying face value demonstrates disdain for the voter bc the voter has no opportunity to get face value tickets. Preferential treatment is given to Mann and Callahan and other pols. They use their office for perks not available to the rest of us.
And I'd like to see proof that hey paid for these tickets themselves and paid their own way to Texas.
"What I don't like about that story is that Angle was isolated. His campaign finance was scrutinized bc some operative dropped it on a reporter's desk. he reporters did not do the work they are supposed to do and look at the campaign finance for everyone, not just Angle"
ReplyDeletewow. replace angle with reibman and you'd have a statement true ten years ago
No, that's wrong. Ten years ago, reporters looked at all the campaign finance reports when they were due. They would order copies of them all and there would be stories about all the reports. If someone was one day late, that was a story. Now, they wait four months and write a story based on one report some operative drops at their desk. Although I agree that Angle's GEO contribution is still a story and needs to be told, this is not really "objective" journalism bc all the other pols are ignored until some operative drops a copy on some reporter's desk. There are pols who have filed no report at all. There are other pols, like Jeff Warren, who fled termination reports, leading me to believe he is done.
ReplyDeleteThis is a big deal and if it wasn't for Bernie I wouldn't know about it. I failed to see it in the Morning Call. The liberal Jen and liberal John want you to think they are for the working man and corporations are evil, then every chance they get they suck at the corporate trough and use their influence for their own benefit.
ReplyDelete"No, that's wrong. Ten years ago, reporters looked at all the campaign finance reports when they were due. They would order copies of them all and there would be stories about all the reports."
ReplyDeletebullshit. reibman's reports, and the sensational "pay to play" articles, were never reported in context with what other pols were doing. you have (truthfully) made that same argument about angle this go round.
I saw it myself. I saw reporters fo in and get copies of every report. I saw the stories. So did the rest of us.
ReplyDeleteFace value is just that, the established price for the ticket. If the NFL said that is the set price, that is what it is. If they paid less than face value i have a problem. Market value is only a measure of what people are willing to pay, not fair value. The NFL set fair value and it was met in this case...I really think you are carrying this vendetta too far its really unbecoming.
ReplyDeleteSeamus
Seamus, the NFL does not set FMV. The market does that. The simple reality is that certain elected officials from both parties abused their office for preferential treatment. Locally, those two pols are Callahan and Mann.
ReplyDeleteYou find this criticism unseemly bc one of the offenders is Callahan. I have heard, from several people, that a DC firm funded the trip.
What will his honor do when the Attorney General, Inspector General & FBI conclude their corruption investigations in Bethlehem. Let me predict, "The outlook for the City continues to be good. We've added jobs at the Sands Hotel, 412 has been repaved and the revevelopment of Martin Tower is underway. Outlook is great for the City!"
ReplyDelete"Hopefully when I return to the City after being a guest at ________ (you fill in the federal country club), the outlook will be as favorable."
The new mayors response, "I can't seem to find the mirrors John used."
"It is relevant!! The mayor of Bethlehem makes what about 70 to 80Thousand dollars a year and lives pretty posh neighborhood.I make more than him and I could not afford to go to the Superbowl!! And it is not because I do not manage my money right."
ReplyDeleteHey, here's a novel idea for you small minded republicans ... John's wife has a career and she does extremely well. Yes, a woman contributes to the nice house and the lifestyle. He paid for the superbowl tickets, the airfare, the hotel and went with a family friend ... he took a vacation day from work ... which, lets see, makes it none of your damn business.
"But in response to some additional questioning, he acknowledged that he only paid the face value on the ticket, not its actual market price." ~ Bernie O'Hare
ReplyDeleteSINCE I see NO 'quote marks' I can assume John did NOT say the 'latter' part about the "actual" market value - those are clearly YOUR words to twist this into SOME story !!
BUT more importantly - John is simply 'following THE LAW'-
"Approximately 16 of the 50 states have a law that makes scalping illegal. Seven states—Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania—require a special license to resell tickets. Four states—North Dakota, South Dakota, Ohio and Virginia—leave the issue up to state municipalities.
"In addition to state laws, other laws make scalping illegal in raceways AND the NFL. Those who can enforce the law at races or football games include box office personnel, supervisors, venue managers, ticket agents, security agents, event promoters and seat holders." ~ wiseGEK.com
BY PA LAW- someone selling a ticket above face value WITHOUT a "broker's license" IS breaking the law ... and selling an NFL ticket breaks a 2nd law.
GIVE IT a REST BERNIE - you're NOT even a "reporter" .. you're someone w/ an AGENDA, and very GOOD at 'colring' your story to meet IT !!