HARRISBURG — With the assistance of his taxpayer-paid staff, Rep. Bill DeWeese led a life of privilege while a Democratic leader in state House, three of his former aides told a grand jury.
DeWeese, a former House speaker and majority and minority leader, used his legislative staff to run his personal life, his former chief of staff Michael Manzo said. They balanced his checkbook, paid bills, picked up dry cleaning, bought condoms, made sure lobbyists would take him to dinner and arranged dinner dates from a list of women, Manzo said.
“Bill’s staff was there to serve his personal needs as much as his political needs and his policy needs,” Manzo testified in November 2008.
DeWeese had some quirky demands, said Manzo and two other former staffers, Kevin Sidella and Scott Brubaker: His state-paid driver had to show up with the state car recently waxed; aides withdrew his money from ATM machines because he didn’t know how to use them; and he’d ask for “a small coffee in a big cup,” or “a sandwich cut in four” pieces, they said.
“Bill is obsessive. He has to have everybody around him doing something. He will hand you a cup and say, ‘Get me 12 M&M’s’ — ridiculous requests,” Sidella testified in June 2008.
Requests for such things as a “small salad in a big bowl” were part of what Brubaker in December 2008 called the “daily nuttiness that he put his immediate staff through.”
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Tags: Bill DeWeese
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