Jul 13, 2008 5 min read

Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett’s indictment of 12 people with ties to the House Democratic Caucus revealed even more stench in the operation of state government. The investigation, which included grand juries operating out of Pittsburgh and Harrisburg, uncovered the illegal use of millions of dollars of taxpayer funds, state resources and caucus employees for political campaign purposes. Anyone who puts in an honest day’s work and sees the state income tax deduction on his or her paycheck should be outraged at those illegal practices. But they should also know the extent of the arrogance of those in charge:

– Former Democratic Minority Whip Mike Veon, D-Beaver, the biggest fish pulled from the muck by Corbett’s net, like to play basketball on Tuesday nights, along with other House Democrats and certain employees. So the second-most powerful House Democrat had staff take the players’ food orders, purchase the food and even arrange it on Veon’s conference table in his Capitol office. At $100 to $300 per pop, the grand jury found that taxpayers paid more than $22,000 for Veon’s basketball dinners. Does that make you want to choke?

– Veon and his wife wanted to go to Sturgis, S.D., for a vacation, where they wanted to ride motorcycles. But he wanted the motorcycles waiting when they arrived by plane, so he had two staffers drive the bikes to Sturgis, then paid to have the staffers fly home. This cost taxpayers $1,500. So on his Sturgis trip, Veon took us all for a ride.

– Michael Manzo, a native of Beaver County and former chief of staff to House Minority/Majority Leader H. William DeWeese, created what Corbett and the grand jury describe as an “unnecessary, useless, non-productive” job for legislative intern Angela Bertugli, whose main qualification was being Manzo’s mistress. Manzo set the Rices Landing, Greene County native up with an “office” in Pittsburgh and an annual salary that reached $29,103 (plus a $7,065 bonus in 2006). The grand jury concluded that the Pittsburgh Field Office for the House Allegheny County Delegation never existed, after staffers for the chairman of that delegation said they were unaware of its location. If Manzo wanted some action from a former Greene County Miss Rain Day, shouldn’t he have footed the bill from his $151,000 salary as DeWeese’s chief of staff? Or the $20,250 bonus he got in 2006?

– Jeff Foreman, Veon’s chief of staff, got paid $126,204 in 2006 plus got a $14,815 bonus. An attorney, Foreman also operated his own private law firm, billing clients $200 an hour. While often claiming to work a full day for taxpayers or taking “compensatory” time, Foreman also claimed significant hours working for his private practice. Sometimes, the total exceeded 24 hours a day. That’s not even mathematically possible. The grand jury found that Foreman did private legal work while in his Capitol office, while he was being paid a salary, bonus and compensatory time.

We point out these examples right off the bat because they underscore why Pennsylvania so desperately needed a revamped open records law. Maybe now you understand better why the forces desiring to maintain the status quo – until this year’s update, the Legislature was exempt from the law – fought so hard to keep spending a secret.

Were it not for Corbett’s investigation, no one would know about Veon’s basketball dinners or his use of staff to transport his motorcycles, Manzo’s ability to create a job and an office for a paramour or Foreman’s double-dipping. There have been plenty of energized reporters digging through records in Harrisburg since the 2005 pay raise, but none of them turned up this stuff. And no doubt there is plenty more buried beneath the surface, as Corbett is quick to remind us that his work is far from over. He’s still checking out three other caucuses – House Republicans, and Senate Democrats and Republicans – and more could come regarding House Democrats as that probe widens.

Thus far Corbett has documented an illegal bonus program whereby millions were doled out to Democratic House caucus employees for campaign-related work. He’s also found that Veon ran an illegal campaign organization from his offices, performing fundraising, doing opposition research, preparing and distributing campaign mailings, sending bulk e-mail messages and mounting candidate nominating petition challenges.

In short, it appears that Veon headed a sort of legislative Beaver County mafia, with members or former members of his staff at the center of the operation. Their activities as alleged by Corbett are no misdemeanor offenses: Veon faces 381 years in prison and $805,000 in fines; Manzo is looking at 311 years and $660,000; Foreman faces 160 years and $240,000. The other employees, some former and some current, face huge potential prison sentences and fines as well.

The defendants, their attorneys and supporters are likely to remind us that a person is innocent until proven guilty, which is true. But our gut feeling is that with the case Corbett has laid out, he should feel pretty confident about getting convictions.

Transparency in state government, which Pennsylvania surely did not have when these things occurred, makes it harder to pull off these insider shenanigans.