Rebuilding Clairton Together
  • Home
  • Welcome
  • Updates Feed
  • About Us (RCT)
    • How this group began
    • Mission Statement & Philosophy
    • Theme Song
  • Calendar of Events
  • Helpful Resources

4 remain on mayor ballot in Clairton 

3/28/2013

0 Comments

 
Judge gives councilor 2 more days to answer primary challenger  
BY PATRICK CLOONAN

Clairton’s Democratic con­test for mayor remains a four­way race, at least for six more days.

On Wednesday, Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Joseph M. James gave Coun­cilman Richard Ford III two days to resubmit his state­ment of financial interest.
 
Mayor Richard Lattanzi’s attorney Glenn A. Smith will have two days to respond and then Lattanzi’s challenge of Ford’s candidacy will be aired before James April 3 at 1:50 p.m.

James considered chal­lenges to municipal ballot positions for the May 21 pri­mary. 
 
Smith contends that Ford failed to disclose all sources of income and names and addresses of creditors to whom he owed $6,500 or more.

“He’s hiding tax debt owed to the city,” Smith said.

“My client reasonably believed payment was made in good faith,” Ford’s attorney Burrell Brown said. 
 
Ford and Lattanzi share the ballot with Councilman Terry Lee Julian and former council candidate Kenneth Barna.

Julian is running for re­election to council in Ward 3. He is challenged by legal sec­retary Levina B. Lasich,
who is seeking to remove Julian from the ballot for mayor and council, claiming that Julian owes more than $34,000 to the city and Clairton City School District.

James tossed that challenge because Lasich did not file it in a timely matter.

Julian said he may take legal action, because docu­ments attached to Lasich’s petition gave incorrect infor­mation
about what he still owes from a venture that went out of business in 1996.


He said the documents should have come through a right-to-know process, not from tax collectors for the city and school district.

Liberty’s Democratic coun­cil contest remains a five-way race, but may prompt a rare plaintiff’s appeal to Common­wealth Court. “My understanding is that we are going to appeal,” attor­ney J. Jason Elash said after James upheld the candidacy of incumbent S. Larry Sikor­ski.

Debbie Helderlein testified.

Elash, a former Liberty solicitor, had borough solici­tor George Gobel as his co­counsel, while attorney Mat­thew D. Racunas and his associate Kristin Mackulin represented Sikorski.

“We have a lot of hot-shot lawyers here,” James joked.

James told Sikorski to sub­mit an amended ethics state­ment to the borough by Friday.
  
“I have to thank Mr. Racu­nas for his excellent work,” Sikorski said.  “He did a tre­mendous job against the whole borough.”

A Dravosburg challenge was averted when Democrat Debo­rah Poppell withdrew her can­didacy for council.

She and former police chief Kenneth Holland quit the race prior to a Wednesday deadline for withdrawals.

Incumbent William J. Snod­grass Jr. challenged Poppell’s Democratic Party registra­tion.

Snodgrass remains on the May 21 primary ballot with fellow incumbents Barbara J. Stevenson and Jay McKelvey and former borough postmas­ter John Palcsey.

Patrick Cloonan is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-664-9161, ext. 1967, or cloonan@tribweb.com.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Cathy White,
    Rebuilding Clairton Together

    Archives

    April 2017
    September 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012


    Categories

    All
    Community Day
    Historical Pictures
    School

    If you would like to receive an email with updates to this page (once daily), enter your email address below and confirm the email sent to you.

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner

    *Important:  Once you enter your address above, you need to confirm the request via the emai that is immediately sent to you from feedburner.  If its not in your email, it may be in your spam box.
    Picture
    Community Calendar

    RSS Feed

Home

About

Contact

Copyright © 2015