State warned W-B about shortcomings of Call Center lease By James Conmy, Citizens’ Voice Staff Writer 07/31/2002 Mayor Thomas McGroarty may have dismissed a state agency’s warning that the lease the city entered into for the South Main Street call center was not a financially sound document.
Times Leader Posted on Wed, Jul. 31, 2002 State was wary of call-center lease Agency officials thought the deal was so lobsided in favor of the tenant that it refused to loan W-B $1.5 million, documents show. By MICHAEL McNARNEY Mayor Thomas McGroarty pressed ahead without the loan from the Pennsylvania Industrial Development Authority, instead asking for – and receiving – council’s approval for a multimillion-dollar bond issue.
Times Leader posted on Wed, Jul. 31, 2002 McGroarty chose to negotiate contract on his own By MICHAEL McNARNEY “The mayor told CE (Corporate Express, the prospective tenant at the time) to negotiate with him and that the Chamber was ‘out of the deal,’ ” Barrouk wrote. “He clearly did not understand the risk-benefit analysis that must be completed before significant public debt is incurred and was seemingly not overly concerned about the potential harm to the residents of the City if the project failed.”
Back in 1998, when Corporate Express first opened for business (temporarily in what is now Wilkes-Barre Center), I became immediately convinced that ‘the project’ was doomed to failure from the get-go. This is because I heard the reasons Corporate Express took Wilkes-Barre up on their offer were: because their main office (which I believe was in Maryland), acquired a client which provided more calls then their workers could handle (and that were not exactly the makings of a dream customer service job); and here in this area, Corporate Express was able to spend less in wages, because the average pay in this area was lower than in Maryland & the location of their other office. I also know that, at least in 1998 & early 1999 (when I still knew people who were working there), it was mandatory for every Corporate Express employee to work every weekend, with few exceptions made for requesting time off, and no talk at all about workers alternating weekends.
To me, this kind of business does not bring to the area jobs which promote prosperity for those seeking employment, but actually might be responsible for many capable people deciding they must get the heck out of the area in order to find good employment opportunities.