Luzerne County Courthouse

Luzerne County Courthouse

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Luzerne County Manager C. David Pedri will present his annual “state of the county” report Tuesday as required by the county’s home rule charter.

His report is scheduled at the beginning of the county council meeting, which will start at 5:30 p.m., or a half hour earlier than usual.

The charter says council must hold at least two regular meetings per month, but only one must begin after 6 p.m.

Because the Feb. 11 voting meeting was preceded by a lengthy work session, it started late in the evening and ran until after midnight.

Vehicle fee

Council is expected to vote Tuesday on whether to stop collection of the $5 vehicle registration fee on Dec. 31.

The administration has said the fee should remain in effect an additional year, or through 2021, because more time is needed to collect $2 million for bridges to secure a full $2 million state bridge match. The administration had opted to use $1 million of the $1.13 million collected last year to fix two deteriorated roads, including one that will be taken over by a municipality to reduce the county’s infrastructure.

Critics said the administration should have expressly alerted council it planned to use fee revenue for roads because only bridge spending counts as credit toward obtaining the state match.

New committee suggested

Council also may vote on the introduction of an ordinance suggested by Councilman Matthew Vough to create a County Cares Commission focused on drug and substance abuse and homelessness.

Vough’s agenda submission said the commission would work with council’s legislative committee to identify and secure grants, partner with county human service departments to host public education forums and collaborate with local nonprofit organizations to reduce the stigma of substance abuse, highlight rehabilitation success stories and provide community outreach programs to help county residents.

Stormwater letter

Council’s legislative committee delayed public discussion about drafting a stormwater fee opposition letter at its meeting last week because it wanted to stick to a two-hour limit and used that time for comments from area legislators and citizens.

However, Committee Chairman Harry Haas has submitted a proposed letter to council that is up for discussion at Tuesday’s work session.

The letter to President Donald Trump is meant to convey council’s displeasure with a federal pollution reduction mandate and resulting stormwater fee imposed in much of the Wyoming Valley area.

County council has no jurisdiction over the fee, but council passed a resolution earlier this month opposing the fee and authorizing the county law office to research options to challenge the fee and mandate. County officials have stressed it’s still unclear if legal action is viable and, if so, what it would cost and the time and resources involved. Under the county’s charter, the manager would have to recommend legal action to council for its approval.

The proposed draft letter to Trump says council passed a resolution that “instructs” the county law office to seek an injunction in federal court seeking to halt the mandate and fee collection.

Worker agreements

Proposed memorandums of understanding with supervisory employees in three human service departments also are up for discussion at the work session, likely in closed-door executive session.

Represented by Teamsters Local 401, these workers in Mental Health/Developmental Services, Children and Youth and the Agency on Aging are working under agreements that expired at the end of 2019.

A vote at a future county council meeting would be required for the agreements to take effect.

More proposals

Councilman Walter Griffith has two proposals for council consideration on the work session agenda.

In the first, he wants council to seek a declaratory statement from the county Court of Common Pleas on whether two Republican applicants — Joyce Dombroski-Gebhardt and Mark Finkelstein — were eligible for an unpaid county election board seat under the home rule charter.

The charter says board appointees cannot have held any elective public office or public employment during the four years prior to appointment.

Council appointed Dombroski-Gebhardt, but Griffith is questioning whether she is eligible because she has been an elected Republican committee member since 1996. The county law office deemed Finkelstein ineligible because he has been a poll worker in Kingston since the 2017 primary election.

Griffith also is proposing a resolution to transfer unspent funds that had been earmarked for non-union raises into the budget reserve.

Other meetings

The county election board will meet at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday in the courthouse.

Council’s budget/finance/audit committee will meet at 4:45 p.m. Thursday, also in the courthouse.

Reach Jennifer Learn-Andes at 570-991-6388 or on Twitter @TLJenLearnAndes.