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Urban says county should get any payment beyond Shucosky’s salary.
Luzerne County judges removed court employee Michael Shucosky from a second county job last week, but he has yet another job.
Shucosky said Wednesday that he is occasionally appointed as a guardian to represent the interest of children in custody disputes.
He estimates that he is assigned less than 20 cases a year. No county funding is involved because the parents are ordered to pay the $200 to $300 fee, he said.
Shucosky estimated that he is not paid in half the cases because the parents don’t have the money or simply refuse to pay.
“This is not a big cash cow,” Shucosky said.
But minority Commissioner Stephen A. Urban said he does not believe Shucosky should receive any outside payment on top of his $73,645 salary for his position as juvenile custody court master. Payments from parents should be reimbursed to the county, Urban said.
“I believe any revenue our full-time employees are receiving for county work should come back to the county, particularly since the county is facing multi-year deficits,” Urban said.
Urban said people have been approaching him about Shucosky’s multiple duties, questioning his income and ability to perform the work.
County judges decided last week to stop allowing Shucosky to serve as a mental health review officer, for which he was paid an additional $65 an hour. Shucosky was paid $37,000 in the 2008-09 fiscal year as mental health hearing officer.
Shucosky said Wednesday that he performs the child custody guardian work during lunch breaks, evenings and on Saturdays. He said he meets with the children at outside locations or his private law practice – not in the courthouse.
The law requires the appointment of guardians to represent the interest of children when their parents can’t reach an agreement over custody issues, Shucosky said.
The court also appoints other attorneys as guardians, but Shucosky said he is assigned the most contentious cases. For example, he was recently appointed guardian for a child whose parents could not agree on which school the child should attend.
“They only give me the worst of the worst. This isn’t something I volunteer for. I don’t seek this out,” Shucosky said.
Senior Judge Clinton W. Smith, who has been handling custody cases for Luzerne County, said he relies on Shucosky for difficult cases because he has experience handling them.
“I have never found anyone more skilled and dedicated than Mike Shucosky,” Smith said.
Shucosky said he’d be willing to give up the additional assignment, but he believes the court would have a difficult time finding a replacement because of the uncertain timing of assignments and difficulty obtaining payment.
He said he isn’t surprised that people are complaining about him because his recommendations to the judge are sometimes unpopular with parents who “both believe they are right.”