O’Brien avoids Diaz question

Luzerne County Recorder of Deeds James O’Brien had a brief response when asked if he is a friend of former county budget/finance chief Sam Diaz

“I am a Christian. I am friends with everyone,” O’Brien wrote in an e-mail response.

Diaz never put O’Brien’s Avoca pub on a back-tax sale and county officials want to know why.

Diaz oversaw the county’s tax claim office from 2006 until he recently left to take another job outside the county.

O’Brien owes $17,855 in back taxes on his Avoca pub, dating from 2003 through 2007. Properties are typically auctioned after back taxes have gone unpaid for two years, county officials say.

Several people who know O’Brien and Diaz verified as sources that the two were good friends.

O’Brien was also among the Pittston Area School Board members who voted in 2007 to hire Diaz’s daughter, Kelli, as a teacher, according to two school board members.

Diaz could not be reached for comment Wednesday. The phone number listed in the phone book was disconnected, and several county officials said they did not have his new contact information.

County minority Commissioner Stephen A. Urban has said he wants answers on why Diaz never put O’Brien’s property up for tax sale. Urban said Diaz has complained that other properties had been pulled from tax sales for no reason.

Urban said Thursday that he is disappointed that two other county officials – court administration employee Sam Guesto and purchasing director Greg Hunsinger – are listed as owing 2007 taxes in the county’s tax claim office.

Guesto owed $832.84 in taxes and penalties for a property on East South Street in Nanticoke.

In an e-mail response, Guesto said he recently checked all of his properties to make sure he didn’t miss any taxes, and did not notice that the school taxes were owed on the Nanticoke property.