HAZLETON - Crime, city finances and the use of river dredge to fill mine lands are the major issues in a council race set apart by an unusual teaming of two Democrats and a Republican.

Councilman Robert Nilles and political newcomer Tom Gabos formed a ticket with GOP taxpayer watchdog Dee Deakos to unseat incumbent Democrat Jack Mundie and four-term Councilman Jim Ferry, who recently switched to the Republican Party.

Ferry is serving his fourth consecutive term on council and switched parties after losing in the primary. He blames his loss on unfair attacks by state Rep. Todd Eachus, D-Butler Township, and local Democratic Party leaders.

Ferry says he wants to continue pushing for more police protection and updating fire department equipment. He believes revenue generated from the $52 Emergency and Municipal Services tax and continued downtown development would pay for it. He also says federal money is available.

Ferry wants to visit Easton to see how its city officials can afford a police force of 46 officers with a population of 26,000. Hazleton has 32 police officers in a city of about 22,800. He touts his involvement with the Pennsylvania League of Cities, and his networking with officials from other municipalities to bring new ideas for problem solving to Hazleton.

Mundie notes that he pushed for increased police patrols, expanded bike and foot patrols and the hiring of more officers. He proposes exploring a plan to generate revenue for more police protection by selling the rights to operate power-generating windmills on city land. He also wants more input on crime fighting from the police themselves.

Mundie said council has supported sound fiscal management during his four years on council, pointing to his recent vote to refinance the city's long-term debt to save as much as $900,000.

Mundie also points to ongoing downtown revitalization projects with the Citiscape project, the intermodal facility and demolition of the Powell and Reinhart properties. He supports the development and/or sale of city land near the airport.

He said he will push for all city boards and authorities to adopt an anti-nepotism policy similar to the one adopted by the Hazleton water authority when he sat on that board.

And Mundie says he's worked to keep an open dialogue with state and Luzerne County officials. He says Mayor Lou Barletta and Rep. Eachus should put aside their differences, and he wants to work with Eachus to "mend some of those fences."

Eachus has lambasted Barletta's plan to use material dredged from East Coast rivers and harbors to fill mine pits and cap landfills on land in the city to enable its development.

Mundie says he still has questions on the dredge issue, such as who would monitor testing of the material. He couldn't predict how he would vote on the plan, but he noted that he seconded Nilles' unsuccessful motion to put the question on the ballot for city residents' input, and said he would do so again.

Deakos, Gabos and Nilles all oppose the plan. Gabos said if there's a possibility that toxins are present in the dredged material, the city shouldn't even consider using it.

Nilles noted that General Electric just settled a $600 million lawsuit with the federal government for dumping PCBs into the Hudson River, which is where some of the dredged materials would likely originate. He also said "the story changed too many times" on which standards would be used for testing the material.

Deakos said the technology behind the use of dredged materials is too new to be trusted. She believes the state test project at Bark Camp in Clearfield County is too small-scale and short-lived to assure safe results.

Gabos said more emergency services tax revenue should be directed to police protection, and he would like to see surveillance cameras installed downtown on Broad, Wyoming and Alter streets to deter crime. He believes Homeland Security grant money could pay for the equipment, which would be wired to the police station.

Nilles says all revenue, rather than a portion, from the tax should go to police protection. He said Barletta's touting his hire of nine new cops in the past year is misleading because two of the first three hires were replacements for officers who left the department. He also said cop hires made later in the year could have been made at the beginning of the year.

Deakos said a council majority supported unwise financial decisions such as laying off police officers to save money. She noted that the police contract required the city to continue paying police salaries and benefits through the layoffs, so no savings were realized while police protection decreased and police morale was eroded.

Deakos proposes hiring dispatchers and clerical staff at significantly lower salaries than paid to police officers so police could spend more time patrolling streets rather than answering phones and doing paperwork. She also said crime should be tracked by computer, as is done in Wilkes-Barre, so police patrols could be more strategically deployed.

Deakos and Nilles both criticized the council majority for approving the borrowing of an additional $1 million in the recent refinancing without demanding from the administration a budget detailing the proposed use of the money.

Deakos said the mayor is not "living within his means," noting that a 2003 audit reported a general fund deficit of $256,049. She said the auditor noted that city revenue decreased by 10.9 percent while expenditures increased by 10.75 percent.

- Small business owner; holds degrees from Wilkes and Lehigh universities; teaches computer finance at Penn State Hazleton; keeps current on government regulations; has been an active attendee at council meetings since the early 1990s.

- Served 16 years on council; eight years on Pennsylvania League of Cities board of directors; Transportation Committee member for National League of Cities and Municipalities; brought back information from league meetings and conferences that benefited the city.

- Considerable business experience with his family's contracting business; owns and operates a garage rental business; would bring fresh ideas and an equal balance to council.

- Has 21 years of business experience with his accounting business; helps people deal with investment, tax and financial matters; manages client investments of more than $4 million; nine years as board member and officer of Hazleton City Authority; degree from East Stroudsburg University; never voted to hire a relative or friend in 12 years of government service.

- Served four years on council and attended council meeting before being elected; volunteer firefighter for almost 50 years; the management of multimillion-dollar businesses to help companies improve their bottom lines.

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