When Your City's Longtime Mayor Gets Charged With 499 Criminal Counts of Thievery

Stephen R. Reed, the former mayor of Pennsylvania’s capital city Harrisburg, was charged with hundreds of counts of criminal theft, corruption, bribery, receiving stolen property and other crimes Tuesday morning. Reed served as mayor of Harrisburg from 1982 to 2010—almost 30 years—during which he made a number of questionable decisions with the city’s money. Most notably, he sought a collection of old Civil War relics in an ill-advised quest to turn the city into a museum destination. He also blew hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on a mega-trash incinerator complex that never ended up generating the revenue for the city that he promised.

Both of these stunts figured prominently in the 499-count criminal indictment slammed on Reed Tuesday after a grand jury investigation. These decisions also played huge roles in bankrupting the city. In 2013, Harrisburg became the first city ever charged with securities fraud by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission because of Reed’s lying about the city’s financial health.