Application deadline nearing for Republican Luzerne County Council seat

Luzerne County Republicans have until 4:30 p.m. Thursday to apply for the vacant county council seat.

Council declared the seat vacant Jan. 11 because Walter Griffith became the elected county controller. Under the county’s home rule charter, a majority of the 10 remaining council members must pick someone within 60 days after the vacancy is declared.

Griffith’s council replacement will serve through Jan. 2, 2024 and receive $8,000 annually.

Information on the application process is posted under the council section at luzernecounty.org.

Council plans to publicly interview applicants at 6 p.m. Feb. 16 and make a selection at its Feb. 22 meeting.

Ethics complaint

There was little discussion when the topic of an ethics complaint against Councilman Stephen J. Urban came up during last week’s council work session.

Council is expected to vote Feb. 8 on the county ethics commission’s recommendation to impose a $100 fine and censure against Urban over his February 2021 acceptance of an election board chairmanship seat. Urban’s 10 council colleagues had unanimously voted the following month to remove him from the election board because the charter states elected county officials can’t be appointed to the election board. The two citizen board members who made him chair also were removed by council.

Presiding over last week’s work session, council Vice Chairman John Lombardo asked council to refer to the commission document attached to the public agenda. He also read a public comment from Denise Williams, who said she had filed the complaint before she was appointed election board chairwoman in April 2021 because she was “appalled” witnessing his placement to the seat.

Urban made a brief comment during last week’s work session, saying council already took decisive and public action in response to his appointment last year. He also claimed the ethics commission went against county policy by retaining an outside attorney without first seeking public proposals.

County Councilman Gregory Wolovich Jr. was the only other councilman to weigh in last week. He repeated a prior complaint from Urban that the commission formally notified Urban of the complaint using the courthouse address instead of his residence.

Tax collectors

When a council majority voted last February to keep using 68 elected municipal tax collectors, it also approved additional requirements that included the appointment of deputy collectors in case they are incapacitated.

However, county Controller Walter Griffith told council last week his office has discovered many elected collectors are unaware of these new requirements because they were not sent notice of them.

Under the new provisions, collectors face a $1,000 penalty if they don’t add a municipal-approved deputy as an alternate signatory on their tax collection bank accounts and provide a copy of the signature card to the county treasurer’s office by Tuesday, Griffith said.

Griffith suggested council vote at its next meeting Feb. 8 to extend the deadline for tax collectors to comply.

While tax collectors have an obligation to know their job responsibilities, plans should have been put in place to ensure the council-approved resolution was communicated to collectors, he said.

Repository

Council voted last week to approve the sale of 53 properties that are in the repository because they did not sell at prior delinquent tax auctions.

Repository parcels are available for purchase at any time. Sales are encouraged because the county has amassed approximately 1,000 repository properties in limbo, with no active owners to maintain and pay taxes on them.

A list of available repository properties and information on all tax auctions is posted at luzernecountytaxclaim.com.

Newport Township

Council also approved an agreement for the county treasurer’s office to collect Newport Township’s municipal real estate taxes in 2022, continuing a practice first approved in 2015.

The municipality will pay the county $2.50 per bill, the agenda said.