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First reported on timesleader.com at 12:37 p.m. on Wednesday, November 18.

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

Luzerne County Human Resources Director Doug Richards was fired Wednesday after he refused to answer Commissioner Chairwoman Maryanne Petrilla’s questions about his involvement in a New York City consulting company that worked for the county.

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Richards

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County minority Commissioner Stephen A. Urban said he fully supports the termination and noted that he had unsuccessfully called for Richards’ firing in the past for his involvement in questionable debit card spending.

Commissioner Greg Skrepenak, a strong supporter of Richards, was not at the courthouse Wednesday and could not be reached for comment on numerous attempts.

Richards, who had been paid $71,000 for the position he held for four years, would not discuss how Continental Consultants Group Inc. ended up working in the county. A federal grand jury is investigating the county’s use of the company.

Richards was escorted out of the building before noon Wednesday, and sources say that federal agents searched Richards’ office Wednesday afternoon and removed boxes of documents. Richards had attempted to take records with him before he left the building, but county officials would not allow it, sources say.

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

Invoices for Continental Consultants filed in the controller’s office contain instructions that the company’s checks were to be delivered to Richards and, in one instance, former county employee William Maguire.

Checks would normally be delivered directly to the contractor or vendor.

A fax from Richard’s office attached to one of the invoices said, “Please send check to Doug Richards, or call 825-1509 for pickup.”

The phone number is for the county Human Resources Department.

Attached to another invoice was a fax, also from human resources, telling the controller’s office that William Maguire would pick up the check for Continental at the controller’s office. Maguire, the county’s former emergency management municipal coordinator, has pleaded guilty to accepting $1,400 from a contractor in connection with supporting a contract on the Housing Authority, where he was a board member.

Maguire could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

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 – without public Board of Commissioners approval – then used that contract to pay county retirees who continued to work as consultants, even though that work had nothing to do with the flood cleanup program, records show.

It’s unclear what Continental was paid for the county contracts because its fee was included with the payments to retirees and flood workers.

Continental received $807,770 from May 2007 through July 2008. The company’s two-page contract with the county said clerical personnel would be paid 1.19 percent of the employee’s hourly rate, and field personnel would be paid 1.33 percent.

The company was hired to process payroll, provide workers’ compensation coverage and withhold and file all payroll taxes on behalf of the employees.

County Workforce Investment Development Agency Director Richard Ammon, who signed the April 2007 contract, appeared before a federal grand jury in Scranton last week to present information about the contract and answer questions, three sources say.

Ammon declined to discuss the topic of his grand jury testimony but said the decision to hire Continental came from the county Human Resources Department.

Confronted Tuesday, Richards said he knew nothing about the grand jury investigation and was surprised to read about it in the newspaper. Richards said he did not select Continental, but he would not say who did or discuss the circumstances on how the company ended up working in Luzerne County.

When the issue was raised in a 2008 news article, Richards had said that he and other senior staffers decided to switch the county retiree consultants from OneSource Staffing Solutions in Wilkes-Barre to Continental for “convenience” because the company had agreed to oversee temporary help hired for the flood cleanup.

Richards said OneSource was not interested in working on the flood program because of the liability and workers’ compensation. However, a OneSource representative said at the time that the company was not made aware of the opportunity to work on the flood program.

Attempts to reach Continental Consultants Group have been unsuccessful.

The only company by that name listed in the New York state corporations bureau does not identify the owners. The company is not at the 250 W. 49th St., Suite 703, address listed on the county contract, according to the current occupant of that address. An answering service provided a different address for the company, but a postal center representative at that location said she has been returning Continental’s mail to the senders because the company has no post office address there.

Richards had contacted Petrilla on Monday night to say he was resigning Dec. 4 to pursue a consulting opportunity in the private sector.

Petrilla said she asked Richards about the Continental contract on Wednesday morning, and he would not answer her questions.

“So in keeping with this administration’s policy of full accountability and zero tolerance, I told him he was terminated,” Petrilla said.

Commissioners have a right to know “what’s going on,” she said.

“Luzerne County officials must meet a higher standard of behavior and accountability. Anyone who can’t meet those standards will no longer work for the county,” she said.