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A disagreement over the creation of a new $30,000 Luzerne County election services associate position this summer came to a head during county council’s first 2019 budget work session Tuesday.
Councilman Harry Haas brought up the position and questioned the job duties during county Election Director Marisa Crispell’s budget presentation, saying council debated the request last year and chose not to fund it in the 2018 budget. Last year’s job description characterized the duties as more public relations and “get out the vote,” Haas said.
Crispell said the new employee will assist with plans to beef up an array of online services for voters and candidates. These initiatives include online access to a ballot finder, a listing of all elected officials with the dates of their terms and campaign finance reports, including the ability to electronically file these reports.
The worker also is assisting customers in the office as needed, helping with requested school mock elections and other voting demonstrations and handling a new student poll worker program, she said.
But Council Chairman Tim McGinley said these services are not required, and the question is whether the county can afford to provide them.
The administration’s proposed $140.9 million general fund operating budget seeks a 3 percent tax hike.
Councilwoman Linda McClosky Houck said Crispell made a passionate argument for the position in last year’s budget sessions, but a council majority still determined it was not justified.
County Manager C. David Pedri said he had authority to create the position because he oversees day-to-day operations, and available funding was identified in the department’s budget this year.
Pedri said he sent council an email about the new position plan on July 5, or five days before it was created.
The manager said he moved forward with the plans because he did not receive any council comments about the new position during those five days or before he hired Melony Jones for the position on Sept. 21, even though there were three council meetings during that period.
“Council did nothing to tell us at any of those meetings that they did not want to fund it,” Pedri said.
Council had voted in 2014 to require the manager to notify council at least five days before adding positions or granting raises that were not included in a position listing attached to the budget.
The county’s home rule charter does not allow council to stop the manager from creating positions if funding is available. However, Pedri told council members they could have offered feedback or amended the 2018 budget to remove the funding needed to add the position.
Pedri pointed out Jones, a mother of three, sitting in the audience and said he has been impressed with her work.
“The issue is now we have a real person in this job,” he said, adding that he would have reconsidered if council members had expressed concerns.
He also said he fully supports the position and enhanced services because elections are an essential function of county government.
“We’re talking about one position for $30,000. I think it’s worth it,” he said.
Haas said his fiscal concerns are “no reflection” on Jones, but he does not believe the budget should contain any unnecessary expenses.
“We hold the purse strings, and it’s the painful part of the year we have with this job,” he said.
Councilman Chris Perry said he supports the new position to generate more interest in voting and improve office functioning.
Councilwoman Sheila Saidman said she believes in more outreach but observed when she ran for council that some election office employees were not “working as hard as they should be” promptly servicing the needs of customers visiting the office.
Spending on the election department would increase from $880,288 to $1.028 million under the proposed budget, or an additional $148,019. Crispell attributed the higher request in part to a federal requirement to make polling places accessible to people with disabilities and costs associated with the governor’s directive to purchase new voting machines.
The county reached a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice in 2017 to make polling places accessible to the disabled. Crispell told council only 14 of the 156 buildings housing polling places were in compliance.
