The Tom Knox and friends (featuring Dwight Evans) Bob Brady Smackdown will commence at 10 a.m. Tuesday in room 676 of City Hall.
A group of voters staked by Knox are challenging Brady for not listing his city pension on his financial disclosure form. Brady's campaign at first said it was an oversight, a mistake, but attorney Stephen Cozen backtracked last week and said Brady purposely left the pension off his SFI because "government mandated payments" aren't required to be included.
The challenge also points out that Brady failed to list a non-paying job he holds as "part-time administrative assistant" with the local carpenters' union. That role provided a more than $13,000 pension in 2005, according to the challenge. The carpenters' union has given $45,000 to Brady's congressional campaign coffers since 1998.
Luzerne County Judge Patrick J. Toole Jr. will hear the legal wrangling over whether pensions are required to be listed among the other arguments. Subpoenas went out for both Brady and campaign spokeswoman Kate Philips to testify. Philips was quoted in the media saying the ommission of his pension was a mistake.
Others called to testify, according to the Inky's Marcia Gelbart, include City Controller Alan Butkovitz, a record keeper from the city's pension plan and a carpenters' union representative. Says Marcia:
City Controller Alan Butkovitz. He has been called regarding any discussion or other communication with Brady regarding his 2005 success in knocking a challenger, Paris Frazier, from the ballot. As part of that case, Butkovitz argued that Frazier, a retired sheriff's office employee, had not disclosed his city pension.
"I've probably talked to Brady and everybody else in the world since then," Butkovitz said yesterday. "I don't carry a little notebook with me about all the political gossip that happens with me in my life."
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