News

Luzerne County government

By Jennifer Learn-Andes jandes@timesleader.com
Luzerne County Reporter
Jennifer Learn-Andes on Facebook   |   @TLJenLearnAndes on Twitter

Managers in three Luzerne County departments lost their ability to collect $575 a week in on-call pay because Commissioner Stephen A. Urban and Controller Walter Griffith successfully blocked a vote Wednesday to authorize the stipends.

Read more Luzerne County Government articles

click image to enlarge

Luzerne County Commissioners Stephen A. Urban, Maryanne Petrilla and Thomas Cooney listen to public comment Wednesday.

PETE G. WILCOX/THE TIMES LEADER

Select images available for purchase in the
Times Leader Photo Store

In other business

Among the other issues discussed at Wednesday’s commissioner meeting:

• Two employees who were recently furloughed will return to work – Angela Schnelly and Rosemary Zondlo. Schnelly was hired as a mailroom clerk for $19,500 a year. Zondlo, the former county phone operator, will be a clerk typist in Veteran Affairs at $25,800 per year.

• Commissioners announced that the county will move out of the leased West Hazleton annex. Those workers will relocate to a Hazleton building occupied by the office of District Judge Joseph Zola.

• Jackson Township taxpayer Ed Chesnovitch told Commissioner Chairwoman Maryanne Petrilla that he believes she should pay additional costs to redo property tax bills because commissioners did not publicly vote when they stopped the Homestead tax break. The break was restored, requiring new bills.

• Dallas Township property owner John Newman pressed county officials to beef up the collection of overdue property taxes. County officials said they are still studying options to privatize the county tax claim office.

• County Workforce Investment employees Angelo Salvatore and Marie Kay expressed concerns about the potential loss of jobs in their office. The job training services handled by their office are being publicly advertised by the Luzerne/Schuylkill Workforce Investment Board, which means an outside agency may be chosen to handle those duties.

County officials were frantic because these supervisors oversee on-call union workers who handle night and weekend emergencies in the Children and Youth, Mental Health/Mental Retardation and Area Agency on Aging.

Joe DeVizia, head of the Human Services Department that oversees these county government branches, said he does not know what will happen, because supervisors may not provide the service without compensation. The law requires supervisor clearance on at least some matters handled by the three departments, particularly for people placed under psychiatric care against their will, he said.

The on-call pay for managers had been in place for years but was put on the county Salary Board agenda for ratification because Griffith had refused to pay it without the board’s approval.

The board authorizes the pay of county employees.

The three commissioners and county controller always sit on the board, while row officers and the president judge get a fifth vote on pay in their offices.

A tie vote occurred because there is no fifth vote in human services branches.

Commissioners Thomas Cooney and Maryanne Petrilla voted to pay the on-call stipend.

Urban said he doesn’t believe managers should receive extra pay to handle off-hour emergency calls. Unionized caseworkers are already paid $435 to $585 per week to be on call, he said. If supervisor assistance is required, managers should receive nothing extra or be paid a small stipend for actual time spent assisting – not a flat weekly rate, he said.

He requested a copy of manager job descriptions in the three departments and a report on the number and type of calls handled in off hours.

Griffith said many county managers respond to county matters beyond business hours without additional on-call stipends. While the law may require supervisor approval, Griffith said he does not believe the law requires supervisors to be paid weekly on-call stipends. He also wants to know if staffing and caseload levels would allow managers to be scheduled to work evenings and weekends, if there is a high volume of off-hour demands.

“We’re giving them a pager and paying them just in case when something may not happen. That’s a real stretch for the taxpayers,” Griffith said.

Petrilla said she is concerned about the ramifications of failing to provide supervision in “life-and-death situations.”

“These are situations that require certified experts to deal with children who may be getting abused in the middle of the night. It deals with people from Aging who may have some very serious issues with abuse,” Petrilla said.

On-call payments to county employees totaled more than $260,000 last year for both management and union workers in several departments, Griffith said.

Human services representatives noted the state covers about 90 percent of the cost of on-call pay in their three impacted departments, but Griffith and Urban argued state funding is still tax money.

County Solicitor Vito DeLuca cautioned the board to consider the ramifications of rejecting the on-call pay for the human services departments, particularly the liability.

“The larger issue here is you will possibly not have qualified people by statute or by regulations to make decisions on a number of different matters,” DeLuca said.

Griffith and Urban also voted against on-call pay for probation services managers. These managers are paid $100 to $200 per week.

That vote passed because Cooney and Petrilla received a third vote from county President Judge Thomas Burke.

Jennifer Learn-Andes, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 831-7333.