Jersey Mike

By now, most of you are aware that Eric Papenfuse made a pretty heavy allegation against Mayor Steven Reed and John Lavenda at his city-council-candidacy-announcement/press conference at the forthcoming Midtown Scholar Bookstore last night.

And certainly, most of you have likely read the commentary by Patriot News crime reporter Matthew Kemeny on either PennLive or in today’s Patriot News.

Finally, hopefully most of you have noticed the egregious error in Kemeny’s initial report.

Simply by stating that Papenfuse reached out to the FBI- as opposed to what really occurred (and what Papenfuse stated three times in his press conference last night) – The FBI, according to Papenfuse, contacted him to participate in the investigation; Kemeney put a completely different spin on the story.

Which brings us to the next part of what has not-surprisingly become a defensive stance from the Papenfuse camp.

City Spokesman Matthew Coulter issued a statement to all media essentially discounting Papenfuse’s credibility and resorted even to name calling by stating: “Yet again, Mr. Papenfuse has made a fool of himself through his erratic actions, beliefs and conduct”.

So here we have our city spokesman calling a local business owner and property re developer a “fool” and brushed off his actions by calling them “erratic” while at the same time questioning his beliefs.

(Sidebar: blogger Josh Karns wrote a very interesting recap of nearly all of Matt Coulter’s public statements. Read them here)

Ironically, Coulter’s statement that “This is nothing but a publicity stunt for his just-announced campaign” with regard to Papenfuse’s council-run announcement echoes something he said about Mayoral Candidate Les Ford last February. Ford initiated a protest against a gala sponsored by Mayor Steven Reed and Coulter called his protest a “petty publicity stunt” and continued by saying “Someone opposing such a good a noble purpose … represents a disservice to our city’s citizens.”

So let’s catch up here-

Let’s give Papenfuse the benefit-of-the-doubt here and assume that a noble local businessman who’s invested, literally, millions of dollars into his community would not jeopordize everything which he has worked towards simply to spite the Mayor.

So, he had a press conference and launched an allegation that Mayor Steven Reed and his partner John Lavenda have been under investigation by the FBI’s Public Corruption Unit for over fifteen months.

And that he was directly involved in this investigation- painting a picture reminiscent of a scene from Goodfella’s or The Soprano’s- by informing the public that he was asked to wear a wiretap and meet in clandestine locations.

Taking into consideration Eric’s long-standing presence in the community- combined with Coulter and Reed’s de facto argument that anyone who opposes the dually dubbed “Mayor For Life” is simply seeking publicity and is living in a fantasy world-

And pile onto that the notion that, as citizens, we all sort of knew that something has smelled fishy at Harrisburg City Hall- and we can’t quite put our finger on it. The incinerator. Barlow/Covanta. School board fiasco. Harrisburg Senators “contribution” to the Sports Hall of Fame. Bobblehead dolls. Wild West Artifacts. Questionable accounting within the confines of our record books. The Harrisburg Authority debacles. (This list goes on…)

Who’s the one with questionable credibility here?

Could it really be Eric Papenfuse? A person who has put his (and his family’s) name, reputation and business on the line? With zero visible wrongdoing in his history as a citizen and business owner in this city?

Or is it Mayor Steven Reed with the questionable credibility?

Is it really so hard to believe that the Federal Bureau of Investigation could be looking into the actions of our seven term Mayor?

Let’s not forget the lessons we’ve learned over the past year about Mayors in surrounding cities- the Mayor of Baltimore was indicted for accepting gifts and a fur coat. Hartford, CT Mayor Eddie Perez was indicted on bribery charges. And Gulfport, MS Mayor was indicted on charges of funneling money intended for Hurricane Katrina relief to, instead, complete renovations in his home.

So when Eric Papenfuse told the press that the FBI was investigating Reed for his lack of accounting of nearly fifty thousand dollars worth of artifacts purchased with taxpayer money for a failed museum, I don’t have a hard time believing that.

But it appears that what we have here is going to be a battle between the presses. If you believe what you read in the Patriot, you may be leaning towards “Eric is a kook.” But if you scratch barely an inch below the surface of their obviously biased reporting, you may believe that, possibly, Eric Papenfuse isn’t making this up.

Besides. Would Reed even know if he was under investigation?

Does a drug dealer know that he’s under investigation before the task force shows up at his door?

Not likely.