SnapGlow.TV: Modern Gems Galore! For example, he said he did not know who owned the building before Brad Inc.
"I did not own it. I'm not sure of the exact ownership going back that far," Mellow said. "I can only kind of give you the exact ownership as of 2001 or 2000, but prior to that, you know, that's over 20 years ago. I'm not really certain who owned it."
As it happens, the owners were the Giordanos. Gabriel Giordano worked in the Peckville office, dealing with constituent services.
The Giordanos did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Mellow said Brad Inc. was set up by Pat Mellody, a lawyer, on behalf of the owner of the building at the time and Diane Mellow.
When he was asked who decided his wife should play a role in Brad Inc., Mellow said he was unsure.
"I would assume that it was probably Pat Mellody who must have talked with her because they were friends," he said.
At the time, Mellody was chair of the Democratic Party in Lackawanna County. He died in 2002.
When told that her ex-husband said she played an active role in forming Brad Inc., Diane Mellow replied: "Nonsense."
Mellody never discussed the formation of the company with her, she said. She learned about it from her husband, who asked her to sign some ownership documents, she said.
"I just signed what he put in front of me," she said in an interview.
Diane Mellow said she never received company correspondence. She pointed out that the registered mailing address of Brad Inc. was the same as that of Sen. Mellow's district office.
She also said she paid nothing for her share in the company. Sen. Mellow said he didn't know how much his wife paid because he wasn't a party to the transaction. "As to what was brought into it, I can't answer that question because I don't know," he said.
Every month, Diane Mellow said, the senator would give her $350, which he said came from Brad Inc. This was a fraction of the rent receipts each month.
After an initial interview, Sen. Mellow declined to respond to written questions seeking additional financial details of the 2001 deal.
When the General Assembly passed the Ethics Act in 1978, it created the State Ethics Commission to interpret the law. Public officials frequently ask the commission about possible conflicts.
In 1989, a state representative from Erie named Italo S. Cappabianca asked the commission if the law would allow him to rent a district office, using taxpayer money, in a building he owned. He would pay the prevailing rates.
The commission said no.
Mellow said he saw no ethics problems when his wife was an owner. Once he acquired a stake in the property after the divorce, he said, he realized he had a "problem," reported it, and began taking steps to sell the property.
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