County officials hire one, fire one

Luzerne County Commissioners took action on two prominent positions Wednesday, hiring Al Flora as chief public defender and firing Workforce Investment Development Agency Director Richard Ammon.

Commissioners Maryanne Petrilla and Thomas Cooney approved the personnel moves, against opposition from minority Commissioner Stephen A. Urban during Wednesday’s on-the-road commissioner meeting in Conyngham.

Flora, who was first assistant public defender, replaces Basil Russin, who resigned in March after three decades running the office. Russin didn’t want to give up the post but offered to leave as commissioners weighed disciplinary actions over their discovery that he had received $495-per-week in on-call stipends.

Urban said he personally told Flora, one of five applicants for the post, that he would not support him because Flora has been friends with former county judge Mark Ciavarella for years and is representing Ciavarella in the federal charges against him. Urban said he also questioned why Flora never spoke up about juveniles not receiving representation by the public defender’s office in Ciavarella’s courtroom.

“Now we’re rewarding someone who in my opinion should have known better and should have taken some type of action, given the fact that he’s personal friends with Mr. Ciavarella, to ensure that juveniles were being given their rights,” Urban said. “I cannot in good conscience vote for him as chief public defender in this county.”

Flora, 59, of Wilkes-Barre, said he respects Urban for personally voicing his concerns to him in advance but said he doesn’t agree that past problems in the office or his representation of Ciavarella should be held against him.

Defense attorneys have a constitutional mandate to represent their clients, he said.

“The role of a defense attorney is to defend people accused of a crime, and those people are sometimes extremely unpopular,” Flora said.

He said he was focusing on adult appeals and capital murder cases for the public defender’s office during the period in which the office has come under fire for failing to ensure juveniles were represented at hearings.

Flora started working in the public defender’s office in January 1980 and said he is already eyeing improvements to protect the rights of people represented by the office. The office represents juvenile delinquents and people charged with indictable criminal offenses who are unable to obtain legal counsel due to insufficient funds.

Describing the office staff as “excellent,” Flora said the courts and commissioners have been receptive to his suggestions.

"A great responsibility is being vested in me," he said. "I know changes will be made in the office, and I believe they will be for the better."

For example, he has assigned one office attorney to handle all juvenile defendants, following them from the time they enter the criminal justice system. This lawyer will become "completely well versed" in juvenile law and know the background on all juvenile cases as they advance through the legal system, he said.

"I don’t believe he will let anybody push him around," she said. "With all the controversy we’ve had in the county with the juvenile justice system, I think it’s very, very important that the commissioners choose tough administrators who are willing to make the tough decisions."

Flora’s representation of Ciavarella shouldn’t be an issue, she said. Flora will take an unpaid leave of absence if he gets tied up with a lengthy trial for Ciavarella or anyone else, she said. Flora said he would still keep tabs on the office if he must take a leave.

Petrilla said she "felt comfortable" with Flora’s explanation on why he didn’t detect past problems with juvenile representation.

The termination of Ammon came as a surprise and was not on the planned meeting agenda.

Ammon has been vocal about the planned outsourcing that could lead to the loss of 41 jobs in the Hazleton and Wilkes-Barre employment offices that were under his supervision. Ammon ran the county Workforce Investment Development Agency. WIDA and three other entities responded to the public request for proposals, but the board that decides who gets the work tabled a selection until Monday, in part due to complaints raised by Ammon and others.

That board is known as the WIB board, formally the Luzerne/Schuylkill Workforce Investment Board.

Petrilla blamed Ammon for negative audits that have been cited as the reason the WIB board decided to seek outside proposals. She said the county is in danger of losing $10.9 million in state funding for programs to help youths and adults find jobs and said she will try to do something to ensure that the 41 workers don’t lose their jobs.

"I will fight for those jobs, but I could not fight for those jobs without a change in leadership," she said, referring to Ammon. "The reason that the state is on us, the reason we are getting audited, the reason we are in jeopardy of losing $10 million in funding, is because of leadership."

Urban said he sees no evidence that the state is close to cancelling the funding and believes the firing of Ammon was a "bad decision." He questions how Petrilla could exert any influence on the 41 jobs when the WIB board is an independent body that has already received and screened its public proposals. The board had already publicly announced its plans to hire another company – Educational Data Systems Inc. – to handle one of the three programs being outsourced, he said.

"Would the WIB board be acting ethically at this point in time if they veered from the process that’s ongoing?" Urban said. Urban said he would be suspicious if the WIB Board backs away from the process due to Ammon’s departure because state and county officials have been maintaining that the services must be bid out and awarded to the provider with the best proposal.

Contacted after Wednesday’s meeting, Ammon said he had no idea his termination would be on the agenda. He said audit deficiencies have been corrected or addressed.

"This is a political vendetta, with Petrilla against me," Ammon said, adding that he is contemplating legal action.

Petrilla said she has no agenda and that commissioners have authority to terminate at-will employees.