It was recently revealed the Harrisburg School Board has agreed to settle with ex-superintendent Gerald Kohn. Kohn had sued the School District in Fall of 2010 after Mayor Linda Thompon's appointed School Board of Control ended his employment contract in a 5-2 vote. With that move, one of Thompson's campaign promises was fulfilled.

Kohn insisted his termination was improper and based on Thompson's personal vendetta against him. At the time he said, "I think that the reasons that it's being done are just wrong." Mayor Linda Thompson has always contended her call for the Kohn's dismissal was not based on vindication or personal history, but rather on Kohn's failure to raise the performance of the Harrisburg School District during his tenure.

The lawsuit filed in 2010 included ethical claims against Linda Thompson and attorney James Ellison. Thompson requested she be dismissed because of the “high public official immunity under Pennsylvania law.” Judge William Caldwell had denied her motion, and she remained in the suit with a federal civil-rights conspiracy claim against her.

No details of any proceeding settlement have been disclosed.

by Tara Leo Auchey

photo by Natalie Cake

In 2008, the City of Harrisburg was offered $215 million for a 75 year lease of its parking system, which included parking garages and meters. Locally, this deal was dubbed the "Frydman Deal," so named after Jacob Frydman, co-owner and prominent personality of the private equity firm that put the offer on the table.

The City of Harrisburg's mayor at the time, Stephen Reed, praised the Frydman Deal as the perfect remedy for the City's debt problems, primarily caused by a botched public project---the Harrisburg Incinerator retrofit.

Many of the same professionals, that is advisors and attorneys, who worked on the financings for the retrofit were also principle in conducting the business of the Frydman Deal. In order to get the deal sealed, two boards needed to give approval---the Harrisburg Parking Authority (HPA) and the Harrisburg City Council.

The HPA Board approved the deal in a 3-2 vote despite a very strong indication that board members hadn't thoroughly read or understood the complex contract put before them for vote. In fact, in subsequent testimony in front of Harrisburg City Council, Joe Link, Parking Authority Board Chairman and City Engineer, notified Councilors that he approved the deal based on the information given to him by the professionals and Mayor Reed. "I accepted what he had told me, and that was a good part of the basis that I used for making my recommendation," Link stated.

During his January 2012 testimony in Federal Court, attorney Andrew Giorgione corroborated Link's sentiment about Reed's authoritative approach to getting things done. "You didn't tell him to. He told you what to do."

In 2008, Harrisburg City Council, however, was not as easily swayed by Mayor Reed's insistence. City Council rejected the deal in a 7-0 vote.

In a recent meeting of the Harrisburg Receiver William Lynch, the Receiver's Financial Advisor, Steven Goldfield, and the HPA staff, Goldfield declared, that after reviewing the Frydman Deal, "[We] used that as our guiding light of what not to do."

by Tara Leo Auchey

by Natalie Cake