43
Pa. city council member resigns
Twelve people have been charged in the investigation into bonuses given to state lawmakers’ employees.
NEW CASTLE, Pa. — An ex-employee of Mike Veon, a former state representative who’s now charged in a scandal involving misuse of taxpayer money, is resigning from his New Castle City Council seat.
Chet Orelli, who has been on the five-member city council for 21‚Ñ2 years, said his last council meeting was Thursday.
He is moving to Cincinnati to take a job there, he said.
Orelli said the council will have to appoint another person to fill the remainder of his four-year term.
Orelli said he’ll also leave the staff of state Rep. Jaret Gibbons, D-10th, where he was policy adviser. He had worked for Gibbons for 11‚Ñ2 years.
Orelli, who worked in Veon’s Beaver Falls office, was caught up in the scandal that resulted in his ex-boss’s being charged with theft, criminal conspiracy and conflict of interest by the state attorney general’s office.
Veon, who was House minority whip, and 11 others were charged in July. Lawmakers used their employees to do campaign work, then paid them bonuses out of taxpayers’ money for that work, Attorney General Tom Corbett is charging. Millions of dollars were paid out in a bonus scheme that was alleged to involve, among others, Michael Manzo, the chief of staff of Democratic House Majority Leader H. William DeWeese; Jennifer Brubaker, director of the Legislative Research Office for the House Democratic Caucus; and her husband, Scott Brubaker, former director of staffing and administration for the House Democratic Caucus, Corbett said.
Orelli was given immunity to testify before a grand jury about “extensive campaign work he did while employed by the taxpayers as part of Veon’s legislative district office staff,” according to a presentment from a grand jury that began meeting in Harrisburg in August 2007. Orelli testified before a Pittsburgh grand jury, which began meeting in June 2007.
Gibbons said Thursday that when he hired Orelli, he didn’t know details about his work for Veon, who was defeated in the 14th District in the November 2006 election.
He said he did not know details until the grand jury presentments were released in July. He said he did not ask Orelli to leave his staff.
“That was on the recommendation of the attorney general,” he said, who asked no action be taken against lawmakers’ staffers who testified to the grand juries.
He said the resignation “was in the best interest for him and for us.”
He also said the work Orelli did for him was “nothing but exemplary,” and the “foot soldiers” who did the campaign work were only following orders.
“They did what they were told.”
Orelli said Thursday he was never told the $10,000 in bonuses he received was for campaign work.
Orelli said he is not leaving because of the bonus scandal, but only because of the opportunity in Cincinnati. He declined to give details about his new job.
Orelli said he has not been ordered to pay back the money but has volunteered to do so. He has not done so yet, he said Thursday.