Judge panel to evaluate supervisors

By Jennifer Learn-Andes jandes@timesleader.comLuzerne County Reporter

Luzerne County judges have to figure out which court department heads and supervisors were hired by Mike Conahan and before they can decide which managers will stay put, the court’s President Judge Chester Muroski said Wednesday.

“We don’t know who our employees are,” Muroski said. “We were not allowed to participate and nominate anyone for department head or supervisor positions. We didn’t even know what positions were available.”

Muroski said judges had not received court hiring appointment orders in the seven years that Conahan and Ciavarella served as president judges.

Before Conahan became president judge in January 2002, all judges would meet to discuss open positions and receive a briefing on the chosen candidate, along with copies of the court orders, Muroski said.

Unlike county commissioners, president judges don’t have to go before the public to hire or promote court employees. Instead, president judges issue court orders that are filed in the prothonotary’s office for positions in the domestic relations, probation, district justice, court administration, central court and stenographer offices.

Once a list is obtained, judges will meet as a group to review job descriptions and work performance, Muroski said.

“As decisions are made, we’ll let the general public know what we’re doing,” he said.

The review stems from a court order Muroski issued Tuesday to determine whether every department head and supervisor hired by Ciavarella and Conahan should “continue in their current position.”

Ciavarella and Conahan have been suspended from their judicial posts pending criminal charges against them. A recent federal complaint alleges Ciavarella and Conahan received more than $2.6 million in kickbacks in exchange for favorable judicial rulings and other actions that led to Luzerne County’s use of privately owned juvenile detention centers in Pittston Township and western Pennsylvania.

Some of the management appointments by Conahan and Ciavarella have already been publicized in media reports, including:

• Sam Guesto, specialty courts/alternative sentencing director, $78,160.

• Paul McGarry, who was promoted from probation services director to administrative services director, $78,160.

• Larry Saba, probation services director, $78,160.

• Don Tedesco, jury management supervisor, $45,652. Tedesco is Conahan’s brother-in-law.

• Jim Torbik, central court administrator, $60,100.

• James Dougherty, assistant central court administrator, $47,304.

Guesto’s acquaintances say he is fearful he will be terminated. He could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Guesto was hired to the post in February 2008, after taxpayer predictions that the job was created for him. Guesto had resigned from his previous job as county chief clerk/administrator when it became apparent that Commissioners Maryanne Petrilla and Stephen A. Urban wouldn’t retain him.

Domestic Relations Director Jim Davis doesn’t appear to be part of the review because he has been overseeing that department since 1981.

That office has two supervisors and a first assistant director, but the only one appointed during the 2002-forward time frame was supervisor Ann Marie Braskey. However, Davis said he isn’t sure if Braskey’s employment will be reviewed because she worked in the probation department for years before she was transferred to domestic relations in 2004.

The probation services department employs seven supervisors paid about $60,000 each, according to payroll records. They are: Alma McGarry, John Argento, Krisanne Correll, Carmen Lopresto, Christopher Patte, Stephen Wolinsky Jr. and Angela Zera.

Other managers in the department are: Sandra Brulo, probation services forensic program deputy director, $78,160; John Johnson, deputy chief, $65,310; and Mike Vecchio, deputy chief, $67,822.

Saba could not be reached for comment Wednesday on which employees were hired or promoted since January 2002.

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