Attorney General Josh Shapiro today announced the end of state’s investigation into the Harrisburg incinerator and the actions of former Mayor Steve Reed.
The years-long public corruption probe of former Harrisburg Mayor Steve Reed and his associates ended with a whimper today, as the state released its final report without announcing additional charges.
At a mid-afternoon press conference, Attorney General Josh Shapiro described in damning terms the actions of Reed, whom he described as virtual dictator who drove the city into fiscal ruin.
“A great city—a great city—was badly harmed and continues to be hampered,” he said, adding that much of the blame lies with “a power-hungry mayor willing to ignore the rules to get his way.”
Nonetheless, it was too late for the state to file charges against Reed and his subordinates in relation to the retrofit of the city’s troubled incinerator in south Harrisburg, as the five-year statute of limitations had expired.
“Due to the passage of time, the grand jury could not ultimately recommend charges,” he said.
Almost two years ago, a previous grand jury indicted Reed on nearly 500 corruption-related counts. However, a judge later dismissed most of those counts, saying the state filed them too late, more than five years after Reed left office in January 2010.
This past January, Reed pleaded guilty to lesser charges—20 counts of receiving stolen property after city-owned museum artifacts were found in his home and in a separate storage facility he rented—and was later sentenced to probation.
The 87-page grand jury report offers a history of Harrisburg’s doomed incinerator project, beginning with the city’s sale of the facility to the Harrisburg Authority in 1993 and continuing through the final retrofit financing in December 2007.
In all, the incinerator accounted for $434 million in debt, though only $155.8 million was spent to actually repair and retrofit the facility, Shapiro said. Much of the rest of the money went to pay professionals who issued the debt or to the city and Dauphin County in the form of “guaranty fees.”
Ultimately, the incinerator was sold to the Lancaster County Solid Waste Management Authority to help settle a portion of the accumulated debt.
Shapiro used much of his time outlining the grand jury’s recommendations for reform, such as prolonging the statute of limitations in public corruption cases and giving the attorney general’s office the ability to investigate municipal corruption without a referral from the local district attorney.
Shapiro also said that the commonwealth’s ethics laws should be amended to bar conflicts of interest and the accumulation of power. Reed was able to force through the incinerator retrofit and borrowings, Shapiro said, due to his “grip on power” and control of bodies like the Harrisburg Authority. Meanwhile, the state lacked authority to scrutinize the incinerator project, even while approving bond deals, he said.
“The retrofit of the incinerator was built on a house of cards,” Shapiro said. “Then it all came crashing down.”
Author: Lawrance Binda
