Roberts’ letter offers slew of allegations against Mahoney
In a pre-election letter that state Rep. Larry Roberts (D-South Union) sent to Uniontown’s mayor and police chief, the six-term incumbent says he checked with a Harrisburg department concerning challenger Timothy S. Mahoney’s one-time job as Fayette County’s director of weights and measures. In the three-paragraph letter, Roberts also passed on copies of two anti-Mahoney mailings – known in political circles as “fact sheets” – that made a slew of allegations against the Uniontown businessman.
“I received this in the mail and thought I should share it with you,” wrote Roberts to Uniontown Mayor Jim Sileo and Police Chief Kyle Sneddon. “I checked with Harrisburg and they confirmed the information about the Weights and Measures problem. In fact, there is more to that story than what is shown here.
“There is no doubt Mahoney has a lot of influence with city government and I received a lot of reports about him getting special treatment,” concluded Roberts in his letter, which the Herald-Standard obtained late Friday afternoon.
Mahoney confirmed the authenticity of the letter, which his attorney Mark Morrison previously acquired from the city. Mahoney said it proves that Roberts abused his power as an elected official by checking with a state-level office concerning a political foe.
“What gives him the right to check with anybody about me? As far as my job with Weights and Measures, I’ve never had a problem there. I’ve never had a complaint filed against me,” said Mahoney.
Mahoney held that job, which the commissioners abolished in early 2001, for approximately 3.5 years. In it he primarily checked gasoline station pumps and meat scales to ensure their accuracy. He said he recently checked his personnel file in the courthouse and it contained no complaints.
One of the anonymous letters listed “corruption as director of weights and measures” as a charge against Mahoney.
Roberts, contacted Friday at his home, said he checked into the matter because he was told that the county lost a position because of Mahoney’s nonperformance.
“I was told that Fayette County lost a position because he wasn’t doing the job. I was just following up on what was said to me,” said Roberts, who added that he had a long conversation “with the people in Harrisburg” concerning the matter.
Roberts also confirmed that it was he who earlier faxed a Harrisburg official’s 1999 letter to the Herald-Standard “They found out that 21 of 22 pumps were out of calibration, and we lost a position … You’ll have to talk to the commissioners about that. The only one that’s remaining, I guess, is (Vincent) Vicites,” said Roberts.
Mahoney said that in late 1999 and early 2000 he suffered a viral infection that caused him to be off work for six months without pay. He said the commissioners, who then included Vicites, Sean M. Cavanagh and Ronald M. Nehls, gave him approval for that medical-related leave.
“I almost croaked. They (the doctors) couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me,” said Mahoney.
Mahoney said he “gave the commissioners a letter saying that the job was too much for one person, and it would be easier for the state to take it over.” Doing so saved the county approximately $25,000 in salary and benefits, said Mahoney.
Cavanagh, a Mahoney supporter, said that Paul Calvanelli, chief of the state’s department of weights and measures, met with all three commissioners during the period in question and they subsequently eliminated the job because of budget savings.
“The truth is, Calvanelli came and we had meeting. At the time, Tim Mahoney was sick,” said Cavanagh. “It wasn’t enough people to do the job. The state requested to take it over, because it would save the county money and they could do it in a more efficient manner.
“It was our decision as commissioners. It was up to the county to decide whether to let the state take it over or keep doing it ourselves. And with a tight budget, we decided to eliminate the position. Tim was for it.”
Mahoney said that Roberts, by acting on and forwarding letters based on anonymous accusations, proved that he’s willing to use his political power in an unseemly way. He also took issue with Roberts’ claim that he gets special treatment in the city.
“Hogwash. I’ve worked all my life, hard, to get what I’ve got. I don’t need any special treatment,” said Mahoney. “It’s politics. He thinks he has the power to have people checked into. That’s how he’s skated all these years, using scare tactics to intimidate people.
“It’s abuse of power. It’s been abuse of power his whole way through.”
Roberts said he was simply forwarding information to the city that he thought those officials might be interested in.
“I didn’t say that (personal stuff) in any of my letter. Those were the attachments that I forwarded that were sent to me anonymously,” said Roberts. “The city asked me to maintain confidentiality about it, and I did that.
“I gave it to the mayor and the police of chief. They asked me to maintain confidentiality and I did.”
The one-page attachments – one of which is titled, “Just Who Is Tim Mahoney?” – make a lot of allegations against Mahoney. One of them is that “city government is infiltrated with Mahoney’s family members,” while another alleges that “Mahoney employees do not pay child support.”
Similar to “fact sheets” circulated against candidates in many campaigns, the anonymous letters make a lot of personal allegations but offer little in the way of tangible proof to back up any of those assertions.
Mahoney said the contents were so unfounded that Roberts was supposed to write a letter of apology to the city. Asked if he had done so, Roberts said, “I’m not going to comment on that.”
However, Roberts said he thinks he won Tuesday’s primary election, where Mahoney ran an aggressive write-in campaign against him for the Democrat nomination. Roberts garnered just under 2,800 votes but Mahoney’s total won’t be known until the official count is completed in a few weeks.
“We’re waiting for the official count. I expect that we’re going to be a winner,” said Roberts. “My numbers indicate that I’m going to be in the majority. I think I’m going to win, but we’ll wait until the official numbers are in. That would be the appropriate thing to do.”