Barton J. Weidlich
Weidlich visits coincided with no-bid job
Pittston businessman/convicted felon Barton J. Weidlich swiped his Luzerne County security pass more than 100 times in one month last year, gaining night and weekend access to the courthouse, a county annex and a sheriff's department locker room, according to records obtained by The Citizens' Voice.
The bulk of the activity in the records, which span from March 11, 2008 to April 8, 2008, coincide with a $2,276 no-bid construction job Weidlich's JPW Construction Management Inc. performed for the sheriff's department.
Weidlich swiped the security pass 70 times between March 11 and March 19, including 19 times on two weekend days, according to the security records. Weidlich submitted an invoice for the job, which involved the installation of two bearing walls, two doors and a dead bolt locking device, on March 20.
Weidlich continued to use the special security access into the second week of April, despite not having another construction job until December 2008, when Clerk of Courts Robert Reilly paid him $662 to install an "employee only door."
Former County Manager/Chief Clerk Sam Guesto authorized the security pass for Weidlich, who spent 68 days in prison for a March 1995 cocaine arrest in Parsippany, N.J., without requiring him to undergo a background check required for county employees.
County solicitor Vito DeLuca said he was unsure if Weidlich's visits to the courthouse, the annex and the sheriff's department, which happened as late as 7:46 p.m. and on at least three weekend days, were supervised.
"I would suspect unless those offices are manned at those odd hours and those weekend hours, there would have been no one there," DeLuca said. "The problem is, we don't know the answer to that question."
Weidlich's JPW Construction Management Inc. received more than $53,000 from July 2006 to December 2008 for 21 separate construction jobs, but the only record of activity on his security pass appeared to be contained to March and April 2008, security chief Basil Soroka said.
DeLuca said he met with Soroka on Thursday and encouraged him to preserve the activity records of security passes issued to other non-employees.
"Until we are able to sort this all out, none of those records are to be deleted," DeLuca said.
Federal prosecutors charged Weidlich last Friday with intimidating a witness in the ongoing Luzerne County corruption probe. Weidlich, a confidant of Guesto, testified last month before a federal grand jury, after federal agents seized Guesto's county records from a building Weidlich owns in Pittston.
DeLuca said he and current County Manager/Chief Clerk Doug Pape were continuing to discuss reforms to the security system, including authorizing passes only for employees and granting day passes for vendors or contractors on an as needed or emergency basis.
"We want to make sure the only time a non-employee has access to one of our buildings, especially without supervision, is when the department head shows an absolute necessity for that to be the case," DeLuca said.
