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Luzerne County Council is set to vote Tuesday on a new union contract with county probation and domestic relations officers.
Represented by their own Court Appointed Professional Employees Association, these employees have been working under an agreement that expired Dec. 31.
County council is not directly involved in the negotiations but has the final say on union contract approval.
The administration said it will release a summary of the changes during the voting meeting, which starts at 6 p.m. at the county courthouse on River Street in Wilkes-Barre.
Other contracts
Collective bargaining agreements with three other unions also expired at the end of 2018 with assistant district attorneys/public defenders under Teamsters Local 401, court-appointed support workers belonging to AFSCME and prison correctional officers and other staff in LIUNA Local 1310.
Negotiation with the assistant district attorneys/public defenders is headed to binding arbitration because both sides have reached an impasse, said county Administrative Services Division Head David Parsnik.
Talks are ongoing with the court-appointed support and prison unions, Parsnik said.
Tax collection
With county council set to vote Tuesday on a proposal for the county treasurer’s office to collect municipal and county taxes in Courtdale, former elected borough tax collector Maria Bocci said she wants to clarify a few points raised at a recent council work session.
Bocci said she informed the borough she was relocating outside the area on Jan. 15, which should have left ample time for officials to find another qualified resident replacement.
She also disputed an assertion to council that the borough would save an estimated $4,000 with the county’s offer to charge approximately $1,000 for the collection.
Bocci said her W-2 shows the borough paid her $3,394.31 to collect taxes in 2017 — not $5,000. She believes the 2018 payment was about the same but could not immediately find that W-2.
Many borough residents would miss collection by a local resident, she said, noting she often spent time chatting with elderly payers and sometimes visited the homebound to collect payments during her 14 years in the post.
Real estate tax bills can’t be issued to borough property owners until a new collector is in place, officials said.
Energy contract
The county is set to save $112,416.50 in utility costs annually due to a competitive bidding process obtaining favorable energy rates for electricity and natural gas, county Manager C. David Pedri recently told council.
Pedri credited Operational Services Division Head Edmund O’Neill, saying he “tirelessly worked on this until we were able to get to these numbers.”
New positions
The administration is asking council to consider amending the county budget to add two new positions that would be covered by outside funding — a drug task force officer in the district attorney’s office and transportation planner in the planning/zoning office.
The request is on the agenda for discussion at council’s work session, which follows Tuesday’s voting meeting. According to the agenda:
The full-time, non-union drug task force officer would receive a $45,000 salary to “combat the opioid epidemic as well as other narcotics related enforcement matters.” District Attorney Stefanie Salavantis secured funding for the salary and benefits through the state Attorney General’s Office, and her office has savings from job vacancies that will cover pension costs without impacting its 2019 budget.
The state transportation department’s Unified Planning Work Program will fully cover the salary, benefits and pension of the new, non-union planner position, which will pay $48,000 to $53,000 and address various road and state transportation-related issues.
Budget amendments are needed to recognize the additional revenue, Pedri said.