John Campbell, elected three years ago as Harrisburg, Pa., city treasurer on his junior college graduation day, has gone from boy wonder to criminal defendant.
Campbell, now 26, faces charges of theft from the nonprofit Historic Harrisburg Association while he was its executive director, Dauphin County District Attorney Ed Marsico said Tuesday.
Marsico's office charged Campbell with theft by failure to make required disposition of funds received and a charitable organizations act violation. The charges, filed before Magisterial District Judge Barbara Pianka, allege that Campbell wrote 10 checks totaling more than $8,000 to himself over roughly seven months.
"We uncovered an email that Mr. Campbell allegedly wrote. In that email he made an admission he had taken money from the association to pay for educational expenses as well as medical expenses," Marsico told reporters.
Marsico said prosecutors have no reason to suspect the theft of any city money. Harrisburg's finances are still fragile, even though the state's capital city last year survived a brush with bankruptcy and began to implement a state-approved recovery plan.
Mayor Eric Papenfuse, by executive order, named Paul Wambach interim treasurer. Wambach, whom Papenfuse described as a "conservator" in a mid-afternoon press conference, retired in December 2012 after 20 years as city treasurer.
"Once John Campbell resigns, and we fully expect John Campbell will resign, the City Council will have 30 days to appoint a permanent replacement," said Papenfuse.
The council was expected to discuss the matter Tuesday night.
Papenfuse also asked city auditing firm Maher Duessel and City Controller Charles DuBrunner to ramp up their scrutiny of city accounts "to ensure there are no improprieties."
According to Marsico's office, association board members in late July irregularities in the bank account for "Lighten Up Harrisburg," a fundraising endeavor to replace broken lights citywide. Campbell left the association in April to become development director for Equality Pennsylvania, a gay and lesbian advocacy group.
Attorney Adam Klein is representing Campbell, who is expected to turn himself in later this week, Marsico's office said in a statement.
Klein, a partner in Harrisburg firm Smigel, Anderson & Sacks LLP, said Tuesday afternoon that he and Campbell have just begun studying the legal documents. "We just received the information and haven't had an opportunity to go over the documents. We're going to hold off on any commentary until a more appropriate time," Klein said.
Campbell, running unopposed, was elected to a four-year term as treasurer in November 2011, the day he graduated with an associate's degree from Harrisburg Area Community College. He took office the following January.
"I can't tell of anybody who has a better graduation gift than I had," Campbell told cheering supporters on election night at the Midtown Scholar Bookstore near the State Capitol.
Pennsylvania's 49,000-population city was on the brink of bankruptcy at the time, saddled with more than $600 million of debt, much of it from bond financing overruns related to an incinerator retrofit project.
The recovery plan state-appointed receiver William Lynch's advisory team crafted in 2013 helped Harrisburg avert a Chapter 9 filing. The City Council filed for bankruptcy late in 2011, but a federal judge nullified the filing.
The recovery plan hinged on the sale of the city's incinerator to the Lancaster County Solid Waste Management Authority, and a long-term lease of parking assets from the city and the Harrisburg Parking Authority to the Pennsylvania Economic Development Financing Authority.
It also includes four years of balanced city budgets and other measures designed to bolster Harrisburg's tattered reputation in the capital markets.
Incinerator and parking bond sales for both closed in late December.
"We are saddened by the alleged actions of our former executive director as outlined today by the district attorney. We will seek full restitution of the missing funds," Historic Harrisburg Association said in a statement. "We are committed to ensuring that every dollar given to [Lighten Up Harrisburg] will be used for its intended purpose."
