Lutes plans campaign for commissioner
Former policeman Brian K. Lutes of North Union Township, running for Fayette County commissioner as an independent candidate, said he favors a smaller and less intrusive government – and that with a second vote he could easily slash $2 million from the general fund budget. Lutes, 34, said he decided to make a second run for commissioner – he also ran as an independent in 1999 – because not much has changed in the county during the past two administrations.
“I’m not happy with the way things are in the county,” said Lutes. “I think a lot of people aren’t happy as well. …Despite all the rhetoric, not much has changed in the past eight years. We’re still number one in every bad category that there is.”
In his first run for the office, Lutes ran as a member of the Save Our Country political body. This time he’s running under the All American Alliance banner. Independent candidates get to pick a maximum three-word name for their political body, and Lutes said there’s no significance to the name switch.
This November’s race will also feature independent candidate Michael J. Cavanagh, the younger brother of outgoing two-term Commissioner Sean M. Cavanagh. Rounding out the field are the four traditional nominees of the two major parties: Democrats Vincent A. Vicites and J. William “Bill” Lincoln, and Republicans Joe Hardy and Angela M. Zimmerlink.
Lutes, who said he finished seventh out of nine candidates in the 1999 general election, added that several people told him his finish wasn’t too bad for a first-time candidate. He noted that he plans to build on that showing this time around, in a candidacy based on his experience as a working person.
“I think I bring real-life experience to the table, as someone who gets up and goes to work in the morning, who sweats, who uses my hands — as opposed to someone who sits at a desk all day pushing papers around,” said Lutes. “In my experience as a police officer, I got to see the true life in Fayette County as it happens every day. I know the truth because I saw it first-hand.”
If elected, Lutes pledged to abolish the Fayette County Housing Authority and the Fayette County Airport Authority and to “bulldoze” the Great Meadows Amphitheater, putting all of their assets on the private enterprise auction block; and to abolish the Fayette County Health Center Authority and put its lone building under the county Building and Grounds Department.
Lutes would also abolish countywide zoning and the court constables, and would abolish the Fayette County Bridge Department in favor of bidding out that work.
“Government should be as small as possible. It should protect you from others while leaving you alone,” said Lutes. “I want government out of our lives as much as possible.”
Lutes worked as a police officer in Everson and Dawson boroughs, and served as a deputy Pennsylvania state constable in 1991.
Lutes said he spent the summer with family in North Carolina and is now “basically traveling on business with a company.” He wouldn’t divulge the nature of that business but his nominating papers list his occupation as “customer service representative.”
Lute said that he and his family were among those who proved basic unfairness in the county’s real estate assessment system, and noted that they are still part of a lawsuit that is seeks court redress for tax overpayments under the flawed system.
Referring to the two times that he was cited for disrupting commission meetings – charges that failed to stick as the matters moved through the court system – Lutes said that he’s the only candidate who’s been “persecuted and prosecuted” by county government in recent years.
“These people were trying to put me in jail for political activity. It was like going to a meeting with Fidel Castro or something,” said Lutes.
Also on his agenda, Lutes said, are using inspectors of elections to conduct door-to-door voter identification verifications, changing the compensation paid to tax collectors only if the difference is returned to taxpayers via a tax cut, eliminating the county’s affiliation with Fay-Penn Economic Development Council, and making personnel changes in some key county positions.
Lutes provided the following key planks to his platform, noting that it is not a comprehensive list of all he would do:
? Make sure that constables are at the polls as required by law.
? Eliminate the useless voter fraud committee.
? Rescind pay raises for elected officials and give them to the courthouse staff.
? Eliminate each commissioner having his own secretary.
? Eliminate F.A.C.T. bus program immediately.
? Increase budget for public defender office, using money from eliminating FACT and the commissioners’ office staff.
? Abolish visitor searches at courthouse.
? Issue refunds for all who overpaid their property tax under the flawed 1958 assessment system.
? Surcharge all past commissioners for the costs of issuing refunds.
? Terminate chief assessor Jim Hercik immediately.
? Rescind all properties being taxed at 100 percent of assessed value and reduce it to 50 percent.
? Terminate Building and Grounds director Jack Frith immediately.
? Alternate day/evening meetings.
? Return to rotating location of evening meetings.
? Terminate county solicitor Joe Ferens immediately.
? No call-in required to speak at meetings.
? Allow comment on agenda items as they come up, not just in the beginning of the meeting.
? If a time limit is placed on citizen comments, allow others to give some or all of their speaking time to another.
? Post copies of the state and federal Constitutions, along with the Declaration of Independence, in all county facilities.
? Require all actions taken by the commissioners cite the section of the County Code that permits that action to be taken.
? Dismantle the Keystone Opportunity Zone (KOZ) as it is not in line with the Constitution.
? Dismantle the Workforce Investment Board immediately.
? Work to eliminate the School to Work program in the schools.
? Adopt resolutions to influence federal and state lawmakers to follow the Constitutions.
? Find out who bought the bonds in the county bond issue and reveal that information to the public.
? Suspend all tax sales in the county until all who are owed refunds get them and until I’m ensured that all properties being put up for tax sale actually owe the taxes.
? Reduce the costs of copies of documents to 5 cents each.
? Expose the true costs of the bond issue.
? Work to stall the current path of the Brownsville-to-Uniontown stretch of the Mon-Fayette Expressway and reopen the Green Route.
? Expose all political or familial connections between employees at the courthouse and elected officials.
? Make district attorney a full-time position, raising the pay from $64,000 to $75,000 per year.
? Immediately stop the searching of people entering the courthouse.
? Abolish the courthouse security ordinance as it is not needed because all crimes are covered in the crimes code of Pennsylvania.
? Establish a policy of requiring any commissioner who has received a campaign donation from a vendor to publicly state that they have received such donation, before any contract is awarded, and to abstain from voting or even discussing the issue.