“The investigation reveals how quickly a small-town government can collapse under the weight of personal conflicts and vendettas, and raises the question of whether taxpayers are best served by Pennsylvania’s more than 2,500 cities, towns, townships, and boroughs that sorely lack critical oversight of their workings.”

This statement is trash. There is tons of oversight on local government and they are severely restricted in what they can and can’t do by state law. Between the Pennsylvania sunshine act and the laws for financial reporting it’s pretty hard to hide shit.

I’m not a resident of tioga, but what is depicted as “personal conflicts and vendettas” looks like a good old power struggle between city staff and council. This happens from time to time, and they can be messy.