Luzerne County Government

January 15, 2010

Suspended clerk is terminated

Prothonotary solicitor: Firing based on issues of Pamela Yanac’s handling of funds.

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

Luzerne County Prothonotary Carolee Medico Olenginski has terminated clerk Pamela Yanac.

Prothonotary solicitor Sam Stretton said the termination was based on “issues involving Yanac’s handling of certain funds.” He said Medico Olenginski has received information that Yanac has signed a confession acknowledging that she took money from the office.

“There’s a good basis for termination, and Carolee is trying to set things right in the office,” Stretton said.

Yanac, who could not be reached for comment Thursday, had been suspended without pay since Dec. 18. County officials wouldn’t say whether the suspension has any connection to allegations of missing money in the office. The county District Attorney’s Office is investigating the alleged theft, but nobody has been charged.

Medico Olenginski immediately questioned the matter when she took office on Jan. 4, saying Yanac should not continue receiving health benefits during the suspension.

Yanac waived her right to a termination hearing, giving Medico Olenginski the right to terminate her, Stretton said.

Medico Olenginski sent Yanac a certified letter informing her of the termination.

Former prothonotary Jill Moran hired Yanac in January 2004, and her annual pay was $24,144.

County Controller Walter Griffith, who took office the same day as Medico Olenginski, has assigned his deputy controller and senior auditor to complete an audit of the Prothonotary’s Office.

The controller’s office is working with the District Attorney’s Office to determine the amount of missing money, Griffith has said.

Medico Olenginski said the controller’s office audit will cover a six-month period, from June 2009 until Yanac’s suspension. However, she has asked the controller’s office to expand the audit to cover a longer time period.

Medico Olenginski, who had served as prothonotary from 1998 to 2002, has said she discovered that Moran stopped a security measure that could have detected at least some of the alleged missing money.

Medico Olenginski said the missing money is believed to have been in the office’s passport division. When Medico Olenginski was prothonotary, she had required three receipts for passport transactions. One receipt was given to the customer for proof of payment. The second went in the register to back up the deposit. The third went in a log book of all passport transactions, filed in sequential order.

If a passport transaction was voided for any reason, all three receipts had to be filed in the log, Medico Olenginski said.

That way, an employee could not give a customer a receipt, pocket the money and make the record look as if the transaction was voided, she said.

Medico Olenginski said she has instructed her staff to return to the three-receipt system.

Moran resigned from the prothonotary seat in March 2009 because of an agreement with federal prosecutors connected to the county corruption probe.

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

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