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By Sheena Delazio sdelazio@timesleader.com
Staff Writer
Sheena Delazio on Facebook   |   @TLSheenaDelazio on Twitter

and Sherry Long slong@timesleader.com
Staff Writer

With the recent theft conviction of a former Luzerne County Community College associate dean, some might say a cloud is hanging over the Nanticoke institution.

The college has been mentioned dozens of times in the last year in connection to the county corruption probe and, most recently, the theft trial of Peter Paul Moses.

Moses, 59, of Terrace Street, Wilkes-Barre, was charged in September 2008 with taking more than $17,000 and two laptop computers from the school.

He was convicted Friday of four counts of theft, but still maintains his innocence.

“I believe this was an isolated incident at the school,” said county minority Commissioner Stephen A. Urban. “It wasn’t covered up and it was turned over to law enforcement.”

LCCC President Tom Leary points out that several new procedures enacting a “checks and balances” system have been adopted to ensure an employee theft will not be able to occur in the future.

Now a college security guard accompanies the cafeteria manager on a daily basis taking all the receipts, cash and checks to the finance office. Once the revenue and paperwork arrives in the finance office, there is a daily accounting system undertaken to review the receipts with the revenue to ensure all is appropriately accounted for. There is also a weekly accounting study done to further ensure all money has been properly received, Leary said.

An armored truck service is utilized on an as-needed basis to transport all money, not just revenue from the cafeteria, to the college’s bank for deposit.

Leary said these policies were not adopted as a direct result of Moses’ arrest, but rather came after Leary had a chance to review existing policies after being hired as president.

He emphasized he believes the college’s administrators and other staff members will continue working together striving to make the college a better place and a role model for other area facilities.

“I think we have proven to the community that we offer a quality education at a most reasonable cost, we do it in small classes and we are one of the fastest growing colleges in Pennsylvania…I have great confidence in our staff and our employees. I do not anticipate we will have any problems in the future,” Leary said.

Urban said he and fellow commissioner, Maryanne Petrilla, have worked hard to appoint members of the board of trustees at the college who are qualified and have the best interest of students in mind.

“It’s a good place for the children of residents of Luzerne County and surrounding counties to get the first two years of college,” Urban said. “I believe in the last year and a half we’ve made significant changes.”

Those changes began when Luzerne County commissioners replaced former trustee president Ross Scarantino in May 2008.

Scarantino, who was also the Pittston Area School District superintendent, was sentenced in October to 13 months in federal prison for accepting $5,000 in exchange for the awarding of a district contract.

“We improved the quality of the members of the board of trustees and those are the people that are there to ensure young adults get an education and to look out for the interest of the taxpayers,” Urban said.

The appointment of board members is one positive approach the school has taken over the past few years.

The college is currently in the process of constructing the Joseph A. Paglianite Culinary Institute, which will house state-of-the-art equipment and a restaurant, and expands the college into downtown Nanticoke.

Urban said he was told by a contractor that the bidding on the culinary arts building was “by invitation only” and that he decided to take action.

Urban said he asked for a bid in writing from the contractor, faxed it to LCCC President Thomas Leary, and ultimately extended the bidding process. It’s a time where an incident was brought to his attention regarding LCCC and both commissioners and Leary acted.

“We want to see nothing by competition (at LCCC) and trustees caring about the school, its reputation, and who have the best interest of students,” Urban said.

The college’s Health Sciences Program is slated to move into the former Kanjorski Center by January.

LCCC constructed phase one of the Public Safety Training Institute to train emergency responders and truck drivers. Officials are working on phase two now and hope to complete the additional three phases in the next few years.

LCCC was also under scrutiny when the FBI took records from the college in May and August 2009. Officials were not able to disclose exactly what information was requested.

In August 2009, Moses filed a whistleblower’s lawsuit against the college, alleging he was falsely accused of committing the thefts because he reported wrongdoing of several college officials. Moses alleges he was targeted for termination after he tried to expose improprieties in the awarding of contracts and the hiring of an employee at the school.