Of all the antiquated axioms in the American lexicon, “the fix is in” is among the most broadly understood. Just about everyone knows what it means, but I looked up its etymology, anyway.
According to several possibly reliable online sources, the phrase originated in the underworld of organized crime, where it was used to describe bribing officials, rigging prizefights, horse races and other sporting events and manipulating the outcomes of elections and anything else ostensibly decided by chance, performance or votes.
“Fixers” have long dominated politics and public policy in Lackawanna County, which despite recent progress in joining the current century is still undermined by the antiquated machinations of fixers who crave power and control of the public purse.
Every “win” the fixers engineer reinforces public distrust and discourages participation in the processes that impact our lives and livelihoods. Even the appearance of a fix contributes to civic malaise. Why bother if the fix is in?
Every once in a while, a “fix” (or the mere appearance of one) is dragged from the shadows and exposed to public scrutiny. Almost always, local journalists do the dragging. We relish any opportunity to prove our relevance.
Sometimes, such opportunities come gift-wrapped. For professional muckrakers, the “Pandora’s Box” the county Democratic Machine opened with its back-room selection of candidates to replace former Commissioner Matt McGloin is a gift that keeps on giving.
Sunday Times Staff Writer Jeff Horvath has led the newspaper’s coverage of this flowering fiasco with scoop after scoop. His latest — that former county economic development director Brenda Sacco awarded multiple grants to businesses owned by Al Patel — had the Machine spitting cogs before it was published.
Patel is the executive director of the committee that picked Sacco as one of three finalists to replace McGloin. A prior story revealed that Sacco served as a consultant for Patel. These previously undisclosed connections — coupled with the self-sabotaging secrecy of the process — naturally invite suspicion that the fix is in.
While reporting the story, Jeff naturally raised this obvious probability in a text message to Sacco.
“The perception some people might have looking at this and the consulting work is that your advancing as a finalist for the commissioner position is a reward in some way for grants delivered or support for Al’s business ventures,” Jeff wrote.
Sacco replied with a prepared statement: “I am not sure where this false ‘quid pro quo’ theory is coming from but no one could have predicted 2 years ago that Commissioner McGloin would have resigned and created this vacancy. This is obviously a political hit by my detractors to somehow try and discredit my character and qualifications…”
Sacco’s reference to “2 years ago” relates to 2023, when she signed off on the grants to Patel. Her point (I guess) is that she couldn’t “quid” Patel without a known “quo.” This argument might be plausible if political favors had term limits.
After the statement, Paul Walker, Sacco’s attorney, filed a bizarre but amusing preemptive broadside aimed at killing the story and preventing more. Walker filed a petition in county court seeking to intervene in Democratic Commissioner Bill Gaughan and the county’s court challenge to the validity of the county party’s selection process. Sacco claims the county’s legal arguments are meritless and should be dismissed with prejudice.
Walker also alleges prejudice against his client, coordinated by an evil Gaughan-led syndicate of county officials and local reporters. I am not making that up.
“Petitioners (Gaughan and the county) and their agents invited local media, including Jeff Horvath (Scranton Times) and Borys Krawczeniuk (WVIA) into County offices to leak routine grant records from Intervenor’s (Sacco’s) tenure as Director/Deputy Director of Economic Development, alleging unethical conduct. … The documents provided to these reporters… were improperly handed to the press with an accompanying false narrative that the documents somehow evidence unethical conduct or insider dealing on the part of (Sacco)…”
Walker goes on to just shy of libel Jeff as an “agent” of the Gaughan syndicate who sends suggestive texts to Sacco as part of an arcane plot to sully her reputation and further a “false narrative” of “unethical” behavior. He also mischaracterizes a story published on March 27. Walker claims the article described Sacco as a “paid consultant” to Patel and reported that state Sen. Marty Flynn “steered” a state grant to Patel.
The story makes no such claims, so where did Walker get these ideas? No journalist at this newspaper has alleged any criminal activity or even unethical behavior by Sacco, Patel, Flynn, Lackawanna County Democratic Machine Chairman Chris Patrick or anyone else embroiled in this self-made mess.
Is it just me, or do Walker’s accusations on behalf of Sacco read like confessions? The stories Walker cites (and mischaracterizes) are products of local journalism. They reveal facts the public has a right and need to know and would not be available if not for the work of local journalists.
The Machine arrogantly put forward a candidate with connections that if brought to light would obviously invite scrutiny and speculation that “the fix is in.”
Patrick, Patel and the others knew about these connections (and the copious documentation of them) before they picked Sacco. They’re mad now because everyone else knows about them, too. Walker as much as said so in asking for a court order barring the county from “disclosing records, documents and information narrowly relating to (Sacco’s) previous employment as Director or Deputy Director of Economic Development for Lackawanna County.”
What Walker requests is a court-ordered cessation of journalism. There is nothing sinister or unethical about the newspaper’s reporting on this sorry soap opera, or in county officials providing public documents upon request.
The documents speak for themselves. The “narrative” Sacco and Walker seek to stifle was scripted by Patrick, Patel and the rest of the Democratic Machine. Despite Walker’s comically maudlin attempt to rewrite the Sacco saga as a Shakespearean tragedy, it plays like a community theater production of “Evita.”
It’s interesting that Walker’s legal filing and Sacco’s denials push back on accusations that have not been made. With apologies to the Bard of Avon, “Methinks the former community development director and her lawyer doth protest too much.”
CHRIS KELLY, the Times-Tribune columnist, gets paid to break what’s “fixed.” Contact the writer: ckelly@scrantontimes.com; @cjkink on X; Chris Kelly, The Times-Tribune on Facebook.