A smack for Stack
The lieutenant governor deserves the rebuke
With an opioid epidemic to confront, a huge budget hole to plug and other important issues on his desk, it’s a shame that Gov. Tom Wolf had to take time out of his schedule last week to spank his supposed partner, Lt. Gov. Mike Stack. However, it had to be done, and Mr. Wolf gets two thumbs up for doing it.
About two weeks ago came news that Mr. Wolf asked the state inspector general’s office to investigate reports that Mr. Stack had a record of verbally abusing his state police security detail and other state employees. On Friday, the governor evidently ran out of patience.
He took the extraordinary step of pulling the lieutenant governor’s security detail and putting restrictions on the staff working at Mr. Stack’s taxpayer-funded residence at Fort Indiantown Gap. From now on, housekeepers and maintenance employees will work at the lieutenant governor’s home only at arranged times and with supervision.
“I do not delight in this decision,” the governor said in a letter to Mr. Stack. The hardworking taxpayers of Pennsylvania, on the other hand, may delight in the prospect of Mr. Stack and his wife, Tonya, also described as having been verbally abusive to state employees, living more like average folk.
The taxpayers are sick and tired of their money being used to fund amenities for their spoiled representatives. Money not used to pamper Mr. Stack can be applied to enhance state police protection in a troubled municipality, fund programs and services needed by disadvantaged residents, or used to spur economic development.
At a news conference April 12, Mr. Stack admitted he and his wife (she didn’t attend the event) had been rude at times to state troopers and other employees. He blamed his misbehavior — the occasional “Stack moment,” he called it — to stress and a proclivity for speaking his mind in front of employees who are around so much they felt like part of the family. Asked about reports that he ordered the troopers driving him to use their sirens and lights in non-emergency situations — just to get him places more quickly — he said he was sorry if he gave his security detail the impression that he was telling them how to drive. The apology fell flat, especially the part about not telling the troopers how to drive. Last year, it was Mr. Stack who tried to push through language in a budget bill that would have allowed security details to use their flashing lights at will. Mr. Wolf’s office had to step in then, too, to kill the legislation and put Mr. Stack in his place.
At the administration’s behest, Mr. Stack also repaid the taxpayers $1,800 of the $4,200 he billed for overnight stays in Philadelphia even though he owned a home there. Though he repaid the money, Mr. Stack maintains it was appropriate to have billed the taxpayers for those stays because his belongings were at the house in Fort Indiantown Gap and he considered that his residence at the time.
Mr. Wolf didn’t choose Mr. Stack as his running mate; the Democratic voters elected them independently with the expectation that they would work as partners. However, the partnership looks more and more like a parent-child relationship of which Mr. Wolf has tired. Who could blame him?
It’s time for Mr. Stack to exit state government. In the meantime, Mr. Wolf can’t fire Mr. Stack, just tighten the screws like he did Friday in what was a fine “Wolf moment.”