CLARION, Pa. (EYT) — Lieutenant Governor Mike Stack visited Clarion Borough on Thursday during the town’s 64th annual Autumn Leaf Festival.
(Photos and video by Daniel Pesina)
Stack met with constituents, Clarion University students, and toured ALF with Senator Scott Hutchinson, Clarion Chamber of Business and Industry Executive Director Tracy Becker, Clarion Borough Police Chief William Peck IV, and other local officials.
Stack even found time to stop for a quick bite to eat at a festival vendor where he had a cheesesteak – a specialty in his hometown of Philadelphia.
The Lt. Governor tweeted during his visit, “Finally got to see the legendary Clarion Autumn Festival with Senator Scott Hutchinson. Already fall here and beautiful.”
Stack is also stumping in support of Governor Tom Wolf’s Pathways to Pardon program.
“We in Pennsylvania and in America have always been second chance people and we all have made mistakes, so we have this program, Pathways to Pardons, that gives people with a criminal record a second chance. They may have been at a bad time in their life, or substance abuse,” Stack said during an appearance in front of the Clarion County Courthouse.
“But, we shoot ourselves in the foot by not giving these people a chance to get a job or be involved as volunteers,” Stack said. “We are trying to get the message out to people that they should try and seek a pardon.”
The program is mainly aimed at people who may have convictions for drug-related crimes. The process takes three years, beginning with an application until the time a hearing is granted.
A pardon is the action of an executive official of the government that mitigates or sets aside the punishment for a crime.
The granting of a pardon by the Governor to a person who has committed a crime or who has been convicted of a crime is an act of clemency which restores the person’s civil rights.
In Pennsylvania, the Board of Pardons has the power to recommend to the Governor that a person be pardoned for any state conviction. For summary offenses, a pardon is not needed and persons should consider seeking an expungement at the county level.
Stack is also focusing efforts on the concerns of Pennsylvania’s nearly one million veterans and their families. He chairs the Pennsylvania Military Community Enhancement Commission, and he created the Lt. Governor’s Veterans Task Force to bring together various state agencies to help active duty soldiers and veterans returning to civilian life.
From 2001 to 2015, Stack served as a Senator in the General Assembly, representing Northeast Philadelphia’s 5th District and spearheading legislation to divest Pennsylvania Treasury investment from terrorist countries and to improve the Children’s Health Insurance Program.
Stack earned his law degree from Villanova University Law School in 1992. He is a graduate of LaSalle College High School and of LaSalle University.
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