By Dick Miller
WE.CONNECT.DOTS: Is there a major patronage scandal erupting in Gov. Tom Corbett’s administration on the eve of the November election?
Ron Tomalis may have been his best recruiting effort for a cabinet member when Corbett took office in January of 2011.
Corbett had great difficulty filling his cabinet, likely due to low pay and a need to be thick-skinned. He ended up populating that “august” body with large contributors and “umpteenth” choices. For example, it is known that he went through a dozen candidates before settling on a non-descript for Secretary of Labor and Industry.
Enter Tomalis,
A private-sector consultant in public education, Tomalis is a proponent of charter schools and reigning in spending at local school districts. Corbett, sharing these beliefs, appointed Tomalis to the powerful post of Secretary of Education, against the wishes of most district superintendents in the state.
Tomalis does not have a PhD, has never taught a classroom nor run a school system, common credentials of his predecessors and desired traits for the next job he seeks.
Recently, Tomalis resigned the secretary’s post and a salary of nearly $140,000, for no apparent reason. Corbett immediately hired Tomalis back as a consultant to the Department of Public Education – at the same salary.
Turns out, as the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette first learned in digging out the story, Tomalis has his sights set on becoming Chancellor of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PSSHE). This is the highest paying job on the public dole in the Keystone State at $327,500-a-year.
Tomalis, unfortunately, could not immediately transition to the more lucrative job. As Secretary of Education, he was a voting member of the PSSHE board of directors, which made hiring him directly a no-no. Now, past this conflict, he is one of three finalists for the PSSHE post.
The new post still carries no job description, even though Tomalis is in his fourth month of drawing the salary. Only last week general services attached a nameplate to his office door in the DPE building.
When the Post-Gazette’s Right-to-Know request yielded Tomalis’s work sheets, there was scant evidence of productivity or interaction during the last three months.
Corbett insists that Tomalis is not a “ghost” employee. The new Acting Secretary of Education, Carol Dumareq, first refused an interview with the Post-Gazette wanting to approve the reporter on the story. After the P-G rebuffed that demand, she reluctantly agreed to a sit-down.
Her responses, described as “ambiguous,” shed little light on what Tomalis does in his current job.
Blood is in the water. Now the Pittsburgh Tribune Review is prints unfavorable stories, even though it is likely to endorse Corbett for re-election. Many Republican legislators had already abandoned a joint campaign with Corbett because of his low poll ratings. Now some also want a full investigation of Tomalis.
This week the matter landed in the lap of Attorney General Kathleen Kane, a Democrat, sort of. Will she show concern for the voters’ right to know before November 4?
She refuses to acknowledge an investigation is underway, showing more regard for the subject’s rights than voters’ need to know in a timely manner.
Is Kane also on the hot seat? Corbett hired her sister when he was Attorney-General and now Kane has hired the governor’s daughter. She has shown little interest in erasure of millions of emails once on the computers of Corbett loyalists when he was A-G. Kane has disappointed even those Democrats who would accept a middle-of-the-road approach.
Bottom Line: Corbett was elected in large part to his relentless prosecution of Harrisburg politicians for no-work or using public resources for campaign purposes while serving as Attorney-General. Now, as Governor, Corbett may learn that the political prosecution sword has two blade edges. Much of that will be up to A-G Kane, which is why it is too early to bet on it.
