Lt. Gov. Mike Stack Forced to Hitch Rides to Work

Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. Mike Stack. Photo: Jeff Fusco

Late last week, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf pulled the state police detail assigned to Lt. Gov. Mike Stack and scaled back staffing at the Northeast Philadelphia native’s taxpayer-funded residence just outside of the capital, the Inquirer reported.

As a result, State Police troopers will no longer chauffeur Wolf’s second-in-command in a black-and-white, and both housekeepers and state maintenance employees may report to the Fort Indiantown Gap residence only at prearranged times.

Stack was driven to speaking engagements in Luzerne and Montgomery counties by his chief of staff, Matt Franchak, over the weekend, and he bummed a ride to the Capitol from a staffer on Monday.

“I do not delight in this decision, but I believe it is a necessary step to protect commonwealth employees,” Wolf wrote in a statement hand-delivered to Stack on Friday.

The decision to supervise workers at Stack’s house was clearly made for their own benefit. The lieutenant governor is currently under investigation by Inspector General Bruce Beemer following reports that Stack and his wife routinely verbally abused members of their protective detail and staff working at their residence.

Listen Mr. Stack — you aren’t in Pennsylvania’s rough-and-tumble 5th Senatorial District anymore. They might be able to handle your name-calling in Port Richmond and Tacony, but these state employees are putting their lives at risk for you and cleaning your dirty dishes.

“I recognize, as does my wife, that certain behavior while dealing with the staff of the lieutenant governor’s residence and the Pennsylvania State Police Executive Detail who protects us, is unacceptable and were symptoms of a larger problem,” Stack said in a statement released Friday night. “Today, in meeting with Gov. Wolf, I apologized directly to him for any embarrassment this situation has caused, discussed with him some of the reasons for what has occurred, and reiterated our commitment to addressing the causes forcefully and fully.”

Are these “symptoms of a larger problem” just code for Stack being a Philly hothead? The 53-year-old declined to go into detail during a shameless attempt to sweep the issue under the rug after news broke of Beemer’s probe last week, calling his purported outbursts simply a “Stack moment.”

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