$35,000 report can’t be located

Luzerne County paid Long Island-based B & M Investigations $35,000 to prepare a detailed report about background-check procedures, but county officials can’t locate this document.

B & M, which is being investigated by federal agents according to a well-placed county source, was contracted to establish pre-employment background check standards for all county positions, according to its county contract.

It’s unclear why the report, if completed, was never distributed to multiple county officials. B & M was supposed to evaluate the county’s current procedures and recommend a new plan that could be used by all departments, the contract said.

County Chief Clerk/Manager Doug Pape said he found no report on file and does not know if it was among documents that federal agents seized from the office of Doug Richards, who was fired as county human resources director Wednesday for failing to answer questions about his involvement with another New York company that did business with the county.

County minority Commissioner Stephen A. Urban said he never received the report and was nev er informed that the county had paid for one.

When commissioners voted to hire B & M in September 2006, the motion did not mention a study or $35,000 payment. It said the company was being retained to “complete pre-employment screening and background investigations for potential new county hires.”

“It was misrepresented in that motion. A substantial part of the contract was left out,” Urban said.

Urban said he never saw the contract because it was only signed by Commissioner Greg Skrepenak, the chairman at the time. All three commissioners usually sign contracts.

Some of the payments to B & M were also made at the start of 2006, before commissioners voted to hire the company, according to invoices.

Urban said the controller’s office should have flagged these payments. He also questioned why Richards and former county budget/finance chief Sam Diaz signed the payment authorizations without a contract.

“At some point you’ve got to rely on the integrity of your staff to do the right thing,” Urban said.

A man named William Grub is security director at The Manhattan Club, a timeshare resort located between Broadway and Seventh Avenue. It’s unclear if this is the same person. He has not returned messages left at the resort and B & M on Wednesday and Thursday.

Skrepenak and other county officials – including Richards – stayed at the Manhattan Club in 2006 and 2007 on trips funded by county taxpayers. Skrepenak, who has failed to return numerous messages this week, has said the trips were to study crime-fighting strategies and computer software.

The Manhattan Club Web site says Grub is a retired New York City Police Department homicide detective who also worked in security management positions at several prominent city hotels.

In addition to the $35,000 for the report, the company received $16,355 to perform background checks – $6,685 to check 35 prospective prison employees and $9,670 for to check 62 other potential hires.

The bills show that B & M charged anywhere from $135 to $200 to perform the checks.

County Prison Warden Joseph Piazza said his facility now does its own background checks because prison workers were trained by the state. The prison also assists the county with background checks for other offices when requested, he said.

Richards was terminated for refusing to answer Commissioner Chairwoman Maryanne Petrilla’s questions about the county’s use of Continental Consultants Group Inc. to oversee outside flood cleanup workers and retirees who worked as consultants.

A source said federal investigators are looking into whether Richards has a connection to Continental. Richards had not been charged or accused of any wrongdoing.

New York State corporation records for B & M and Continental list the same mailing address – the law firm of Miller, Apfel & Curran in Hauppauge, N.Y.

Firm representative Dennis Apfel said Thursday that the firm assisted a client in setting up the corporations, but the firm has no connection to the companies and should not be identified as a mailing address. Apfel said the firm was in the process of attempting to remove its name from the state’s corporation database for those companies.

Invoices for Continental Consultants filed in the controller’s office contained instructions that the company’s checks were to be delivered to Richards and, in one instance, former county employee William Maguire. Maguire was among those charged in the county corruption probe.

Continental was hired without bids or public approval in April 2007 by the county’s Workforce Investment Development Agency to oversee temporary staff hired for a post-flood cleanup program.

County senior staffers then started using Continental to oversee county retirees who continued to work as consultants, but that work was not bid out or publicly approved by commissioners as required.

Continental received $807,770 from May 2007 through July 2008, though that lump sum includes payments to retirees and flood workers. The company’s two-page contract with the county said Continental clerical personnel would be paid 1.19 percent of the employee’s hourly rate, and field personnel would be paid 1.33 percent.

Attempts to reach Continental Consultants Group have been unsuccessful. The current occupants of New York addresses listed by the company deny any knowledge of the business.

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Luzerne County officials say they never saw a document by a New York firm.

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