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The Luzerne County Ethics Commission’s outside attorneys are still investigating three of five complaints that sources said are related to the county election director’s advisory board trips.
The two remaining complaints were previously dismissed.
After a closed-door executive session Monday, commission members said they will meet again in two weeks because attorney Michael Sharkey needs more time to further investigate the two outstanding complaints assigned to him.
Nanda Palissery, the other outside attorney, was unable to attend Monday’s meeting but will brief the commission at the next meeting on the status of the remaining complaint he has been investigating, commission members said.
While two sources have verified the complaints are tied to the trips, commission members said they can’t discuss details of the cases because the council-adopted ethics code says all complaints are deemed personnel matters to be kept confidential in accordance with state open records laws.
However, the code says final commission decisions, sanctions and orders may be available to the public.
Under the code, the commission has three options to proceed when cases are under investigation:
• Ending the investigation if the attorney determines there is not a “reasonable basis” to believe the code has been violated.
• Extension if more time is needed to investigate.
• Issuance of a formal complaint outlining allegations that constitute code violations and providing the accused with 30 days to respond in writing.
As the Times Leader reported in early April, both the state and county ethics commissions were asked to review election director Marisa Crispell’s advisory board trips to Las Vegas and Omaha, Nebraska, funded by Election Systems & Software (ES&S), the company that sold the county its electronic poll books, two sources had said at the time.
Crispell has said her involvement on the board was cleared by Administrative Services Division Head David Parsnik and county assistant solicitor Michael Butera and that she stepped down from the advisory role in fall 2017 before the county sought proposals from electronic poll book suppliers in January 2018.
ES&S, which received the $325,000 electronic poll book contract, covered travel, lodging for two nights and meals for the trips that Crispell had valued at $2,493 in a financial interest statement she amended after the issue surfaced here in December. Several county council members have said they should have been informed of Crispell’s advisory board role before they voted on poll books.
The county administration had paid Harrisburg firm McNees Wallace & Nurick LLC $47,400 to analyze the conduct of Crispell and other employees to determine if they violated any county policies, rules of regulations, officials said. The report was shared with council members during a closed-door executive session earlier this year, with instructions it should not be released.