Former staffers say LaGrotta not a good boss

Jan. 31, 2008

By PAT LITOWITZ
New Castle News


(Third in a series.)

Kevin Bowser appreciated his boss’ perspective on employee-worker relations.
Treat your employees well, former state Rep. Frank LaGrotta once told him, and they will treat you well in return.

In theory, Bowser thought, the practice was admirable. In reality, it created headaches and complaints among the 10th District’s staff.

“The only thing Frank was guilty of was that he wasn’t the best boss,” LaGrotta’s former chief of staff said. “He probably wasn’t the best supervisor. If you needed time off, take it — that type of person. That’s where his major downfall was.

“He was lenient to all.”

Retired legislative assistant, Mary Ann Shaffer, echoed that sentiment.

“I made a good living because of that man,” she said. “I love my boss, but he’s a lousy boss, though.”

That failure provided the state Attorney General’s Office with the opening it needed to file two counts of conflict of interests against the 49-year-old Ellwood City resident. An alleged neglect of record-keeping also ensnared his sister, Ann Bartolomeo, and niece, Alissa Lemmon.

They are each charged with false swearing for allegedly lying to a state grand jury.

Whatever culpability LaGrotta may have, though, the practices and secrecy of the state’s House Democratic Caucus play a significant role in the matter.

Democrats. Republicans. House. Senate. Those are the images conjured when one thinks of the state Legislature.

Taxpayers know their dollars head to Harrisburg. The annual budget allots funds to run government operations.

Yet the manner in which legislators and their district offices are funded is shielded from public view. Democratic House representatives have their own caucus. The same goes for House Republicans, Senate Democrats and Senate Republicans.

Four group, four separate sets of rules.

“The Right to Know law does not apply to the Legislature,” said Melissa Bevan Melewsky, the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association’s media law counsel.

“The House of Representatives is governed by internal rules,” she added.

Some disclosures are required, but they are limited in scope.

House Internal Rule 14 outlines what is available for public review.

“All monthly reports filed on disbursements made or debts incurred by any officer, member or employee from appropriations made to the House under any General Appropriations Act shall be public information and shall be available for public inspection during regular business hours in the Office of the Chief Clerk.”

The above rule may change with the promised revision of the Right to Know law. The measure has passed the Senate. It’s heading to the House for a vote. If approved there, it will have to be OK’d by Gov. Ed Rendell.

Legislators receive an expense account — $20,000 in the case of House members — in addition to a salary. Those numbers are known.

The variable involves the dollars set aside to run district offices. A district’s size and the member’s seniority provide two parameters of funding. The whims of leadership constitute the X-factor.

Follow the party line, and there’s a financial reward. Buck leadership, lose dollars.

One method of determining who has received what is to review staff salaries. Tomorrow, the Chief Clerk’s Office of the House will release that information.

The use of caucus funds has caught the attention of Attorney General Tom Corbett.

The House Democrats and their leader, Rep. H. William DeWeese, are under scrutiny for paying out $1.9 million in bonuses to staff members. The bonuses are reportedly tied to campaign work.

House employees in Harrisburg enjoy an advantage over their district office counterparts. They receive vacation and sick pay. When the Legislature closes for holidays, they are given those days off.

It’s a different world in district offices, where representatives run their operations in the manner they see fit, from salaries to days off.

Former LaGrotta staff members say their boss had no set policies dealing with such matters as vacations, comp time, counting hours or salary.

“As long as the other two people could cover for you, then everything was fine,” said Bowser, who now works for state Rep. Jaret Gibbons. “As long as the office was open and functioning, it was fine with (LaGrotta to take the day off).

“You can get by with two. It was tough.”

In addition to Ellwood City, LaGrotta had offices in Slippery Rock and Butler.

The one standard: full- and part-time workers each signed a contract. Full-time workers were paid for 37.5 hours a week. Part-time employees received 20 hours a week. Contracts were approved through the House Democratic Caucus.

Using his staff funding, LaGrotta determined pay scales. He was not obliged to offer equal pay to his workers. Technically, a House member can use his entire funding on one person.

Doesn’t happen, but there are no rules against it.

According to LaGrotta, he is under a court-mandated gag order and is not permitted to speak to the media.

With no guidance on days off, in-fighting became commonplace among the employees.

“Several years ago, there seemed to be some dispute among the office personnel,” Bowser said. “What would happen was, one person would take some time off and the other person would complain about it.

“I decided on my own to keep track for a year.”

During that period, Bowser estimated, Carol Barnett took 46 to 47 days off; Terry Shaffer 42 to 43 days; Barb Lopez 26 to 27 days; Mary Ann Shaffer 18 days; and LaGrotta 18 days. Bowser was off 11 days.

“I don’t have the papers anymore,” he added.

Those numbers contradict Terry Shaffer’s claim that he “rarely took time off.”

He noted that in the summer of 2001, he was out of the office six weeks following foot surgery.

“That was the longest period I took off, except for sick days,” he said.

Bowser said Shaffer averaged 30 to 40 sick days annually.

“Terry had a lot of medical problems,” he said. “He needed a lot of time off.”

The New Castle News sought to contact Shaffer for additional comment.

“I am going to suggest that you never contact me again for any reason,” he wrote in an e-mail to The News. “If I hear from you via this method or another, my next message will go to (the publisher).”

He did not offer a reason for the e-mail, except to say “I may be a little naive, Pat, but I’m not an idiot.”

(Tomorrow: State doesn’t find humor in LaGrotta e-mail.)