A Defense For Deputy Whistle Blower

A front page Express Times story reports that Northampton County Sheriff Randy Miller is so besieged by LTCF applications that he's stopped checking references. But instead of being concerned about this serious public safety problem, the Deputy who has disclosed this failure is under suspension without pay, glaring down the barrel of an imminent felony prosecution.

This news first surfaced two weeks ago when County Council and West Easton Borough Council candidate Tricia Mezzacappa's application was anonymously leaked to my attorney, Rick Orloski. Amazingly, Mezzacappa listed Orloski and Executive John Stoffa as references. Neither was contacted. Both would have panned her.

Though a Pennsylvania State Trooper told Shortell that the failure to check these references might in and of itself be contrary to law, the Deputy who blew the whistle is in trouble.

That's the way government works. No good deed goes unpunished.

But before criminal charges are filed, I'd like you all to know that Mezzacappa publicly advertised her application nearly a year ago. In an email to the Sheriff, she demanded an explanation for the time that had elapsed since she had filed her application. To give the impression that she's really important, she cced a number of people: Easton Mayor Sal Panto, State Rep. Bob Freeman,  Assistant County Solicitor Jill Mancini and Easton Police Chief Carl Scalzo.

On June 12, 2012, Sheriff Miller answered her email, and copied all of those people.

Tricia Mezzacappa

[redacted]

West Easton, PA  18042

RE:  License to carry a concealed weapon

                Ms. Mezzacappa I have received your e mail and I have looked into the situation.  I have been informed by my staff that your license to carry a concealed firearm has been approved and you should be receiving it today or tomorrow.  I checked into the situation and why it approached the 45 days as prescribed by section 6109.  The Northampton County Sheriff’s department takes the issuance of a license to carry a concealed firearm an important task and conducts an investigation as required by section 6109.  The burden of the investigation and issuance is on my office, not any other agency.   It appears from my calculation it was about 38 working days from the time of application to the time of issuance, and I apologize for your inconvenience but you always retained your 2nd amendment rights to carry a firearm, open carry, and the sheriff's department would never infringe on this.   We are usually quicker than that but the workload in our office gets very hectic which delays the issuance. There has also been an unusual number of application and investigations this year; they are up 70% from 2011. 

If you have any questions or your permit does not arrive this week please give me a call at my direct number,  610-559-[redacted]  

Randall Miller

Randall Miller

Sheriff

County of Northampton

So thanks to Tricia Mezzacappa, there was a public disclosure of her LTCF application last June. Under these circumstances, I believe a criminal prosecution is unwarranted against the Deputy who obviously was trying to point out a problem. Rather than violating the public trust, he was upholding it.

CACLV Whistleblower Backed By LC Controller

Back in June, as reported in The Morning Call, a former homeless shelter employee, Elisa Castillo, sued Community Action Center of the Lehigh Valley (CACLV). She contends her termination is a retaliation for reporting that Allentown's Sixth Street Shelter was padding the caseworker hours for one of its supervisors. What I've just discovered is that Castillo has an unlikely ally, the Lehigh County Controller.

Before Castillo's lawsuit was filed, Lehigh County Controller Glenn Eckhart audited the Sixth Street Shelter to see if it had, in fact, inflated caseworker hours charged to Lehigh County in 2011. (You can find the audit here under General Reports for 2012, #12-03). Using four different tests, the Controller concludes that the caseworker hours submitted are "inconsistent" with the actual documented client contact.

That's a polite way of saying that Sixth Street Shelter, an arm of the CACLV, was padding its hours.

Eckhart's audit includes a strident response from the Sixth Street Shelter's Director, Marsha Eichelberger. She claims the County was actually under-billed, so there. She also takes a shot at Castillo, referring to her as a "disgruntled former employee who was terminated for just cause." She never bothers to address the finding that caseworker hours were submitted for one employee that were not actually worked.

Where I come from, that's called stealing.

Alan Jennings, CACLV's Executive Director, was a lot more conciliatory. "It's embarrassing," he told me. "I'll be the first to say it." Jennings added that his administrative costs are only 8% of CACLV's entire budget. He also offered to compensate Lehigh County.

Allentown's Controller passed on auditing the Sixth Street Shelter, by the way.

Jennings is obviously unable to discuss the lawsuit filed by Castillo, but questioned whether one had really been filed. "I haven't seen it," he told me, noting that CACLV has yet to be served.

The lawsuit, which has been filed, is below.
Whistleblower Complaint v. CACLV