Q&A

Q: You pretty much described this as your dream job. Why is that?

A: "It's my love of the city and being able to do what I've always wanted to do to benefit the city. It's a win-win."

Q: What are some of the things city residents should know about you?

A: "I'm always available by phone, email. The door is always open. I'm open to concerns, advice, suggestions and criticisms ... I'm a lifelong resident of the city. What I did for 32 years (as an insurance agent) was help people protect what they value most and this job parallels that in helping improve the community, protecting the people, their property values and their safety."

Q: How difficult was it to leave Liberty Mutual after all those years? Isn't it a little risky?

A: "I'm 56. The mayor has 3 1/2 years left. I'll be 59 at the end of his term. Hopefully he runs again, wins and keeps me on. The thing I'll miss the most about Liberty is the people I worked with -- I loved them like family. I became friends with some of my clients and they became like family as well."

Q: What have you been doing the first few weeks?

A: "Just getting acclimated. Learning all the nuances, just trying to understand the procedures in place, getting to meet all the people, all the players, all the employees. I'm still trying to get to all the departments. (Outgoing administrator) Greg Barrouk was a tremendous help. He made this transition a lot easier. He's a wealth of knowledge and he'll be missed."

Q: What are your top priorities right now?

A: "To work with the mayor and his agenda and priorities. Clearly, he ran on a 'law and order' platform. What concerns we hear the most right now is the blight in the neighborhoods. We have to continue to help and address that. We have to continue the efforts to make the streets safer. That's what people want ..."

Q: You started the 2015 campaign as mayoral candidate George Brown's campaign manager in the primary, then became co-chair for Tony George in the general election, and now you are Mayor George's top administrator. How did that happen?

A: "Getting involved with George Brown came out of a meeting he and I had in late 2014. He asked me to be his campaign co-chair. We're both from South Wilkes-Barre. We worked on that until the primary, where Mayor George came out the victor. Shortly after that, he approached me and asked if I would be interested in helping co-chair his campaign ... I'm not going to put words in his mouth, but I think he liked how organized I was and what we could do to positively impact his campaign. And the end result was the landslide victory in November. I got to work closely with him in the general campaign and I'm assuming he liked what I brought to the campaign and thought I would be a positive impact in City Hall."

Q: George's campaign slogan was "Law and Order." Is that still the philosophy and how is it implemented?

A: With law and order, he's working closely with Chief (Marcella) Lendacky and the police department to implement initiatives in neighborhoods. We've seen a big crackdown on crime. Part of that is also related to making the neighborhoods cleaner and that's working on some of the blighted properties. The order is making the city try to run as efficiently as possible while still maintaining the idea it's about protecting the residents of the city of Wilkes-Barre."

Q: Who are you going to turn to for advice in doing the job?

A: "Greg Barrouk. Obviously, he is my predecessor. He has a wealth of knowledge. It's just a variety of people and it's a long list of people who said, 'I'm here to help.'

Q: The land where the Hotel Sterling once stood is still vacant. What would you like to see built there?

A: "The city would like to see it developed. We're open to suggestions. I know there are different developers who talked about putting a plan together. It's the entryway to the city and we certainly would like to see a nice development come out of it."

Q: The city police union has made clear their concerns with Mayor George and his new police chief. What could be done to repair the relationship -- or what is being done?

A: "I think it's being repaired. There have been significant strides made to improve communication and the relationship there. I think they are working a lot of it out internally. From my perspective, I've seen a tremendous improvement from what it was perceived to be at the beginning of the year."

Q: Some city residents -- and city workers -- have been critical of the expanded role of for-profit TransMed Ambulance as an EMS provider. How do you think this is going to work out?

A: "The bottom line is, like the mayor said, it's not taking over and replacing the current ambulance operation. It was to enhance it by now having four ambulances in the city -- two that are the city's. TransMed put one on South Main Street by Penn Plaza. They have one by Schiel's (Market) on George Avenue. And they actually have a fifth one on North Main Street."

Ted Wampole bio

Age: 56

Resides: Conwell Street, South Wilkes-Barre

Education: 1978 graduate of Meyers High School and 1982 graduate of King's College with a degree in government

Previous job: Worked as insurance salesman for Liberty Mutual since 1984.

City Hall connections: Interned at City Hall as college senior, ran unsuccessfully for city council in 1987, served two stints on city's fire department civil service board that totaled 11 years.

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