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By Steve Mocarsky smocarsky@timesleader.com
Staff Writer
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WILKES-BARRE – Luzerne County President Judge Chester Muroski is confident a deputy court administrator can take on the workload of a furloughed specialty courts director, even though three deputy administrators already are handling the duties of their former boss, Bill Sharkey, who is expected to plead guilty to embezzlement charges today.

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Muroski announced last week that Deputy Court Administrator Peter J. Adonizio will assume the role of facilitator for the mediation of tax assessment appeals.

That job had been handled by Sam Guesto, who was furloughed on Thursday after county Court of Common Pleas judges decided to eliminate the position of specialty courts/alternative sentencing director.

Guesto was one of 27 court employees laid off last week in a move to save the county $2.8 million in salaries and benefits. Judges also reduced three employees’ salaries and eliminated 23 vacant positions.

Muroski on Monday said he had spoken with Adonizio and fellow deputy court administrator Jack Mulroy, and both felt Adonizio could take on the additional responsibility.

The deputies had been covering the office without oversight from Sharkey since he went on medical leave shortly after federal agents served subpoenas on his office in August.

Former county President Judge Mark Ciavarella, who recently pleaded guilty to tax evasion and wire fraud along with former Senior Judge Mike Conahan, had asked the salary board to create the specialty courts director position in January 2008.

Taxpayers had expressed outrage when Ciavarella the following month hired Guesto, the former county chief clerk/manager, to the $81,165 position, in large part due to his involvement in questionable county debit card spending. Many believed the court job was created with Guesto in mind.

Ciavarella had said that Guesto would focus initially on preparing the courts for more than 5,000 expected court-level assessment appeals associated with the county’s reassessment.

In mid-January, after 1,444 court challenges had been filed and 56 settlements had been reached, Guesto said he expected to process up to 20 mediation cases per week, which meant the existing caseload wouldn’t be wrapped up until the spring of 2010.

As of Feb. 6, a total of about 2,000 property owners had filed tax assessment court challenges, and 86 properties had been granted tax reductions. At the pace Guesto predicted, that would add another six months to complete the caseload.

It’s unclear whether Adonizio expects mediations to occur at the same pace as Guesto predicted. He did not return a message left at his home on Monday.

Ciavarella had said setting up a mental health court was to be another part of Guesto’s job, but county commissioners said they couldn’t fund such a court at the time, and none was created.

Muroski said he wasn’t aware of any other duties Guesto was performing, other than scheduling tax appeal mediations.

“My contact with Sam Guesto during my time as interim president judge was almost nil,” Muroski said.

Muroski said the county will incur no additional expenses with the transfer of Guesto’s responsibilities to Adonizio.

Court to fill vacancy

Luzerne County President Judge Chester Muroski said on Monday that an advertisement seeking applicants for a conflict counsel position was necessitated by recent resignations.

Court of Common Pleas judges last week laid off 27 court employees – including Orphan’s Court Conflict Counsel Charles Bufalino – and eliminated 23 vacant positions to save $2.8 million.

Muroski said two or three attorneys recently resigned as conflict counsel and it became necessary to fill at least one of those positions.

No new position is being created, he said.