Luzerne County Council members continue reviewing American Rescue Plan award options

Luzerne County Council members said they have been reviewing charts of federal American Rescue Plan application requests in recent days to come up with proposals on the number of outside entities that could collectively receive $60 million in earmarks.

Council will hold a special meeting at 5 p.m. Tuesday to further discuss how a majority wants to proceed.

The meeting is at the county courthouse on River Street in Wilkes-Barre. Instructions for remote attendance are posted under council’s online meeting link at luzernecounty.org.

Manager deadline

Applicants interested in the county’s top manager position have several more days to submit their resume.

The stated application deadline in most online advertisements is midnight on March 10, but one gave applicants until March 11 in order for the advertisement to appear on its site for the requested two weeks.

The manager advertisement is publicly posted on websites of the county (luzernecounty.org), the International City/County Management Association (icma.org), the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania (pacounties.org) and NEOGOV (governmentjobs.com).

The citizen manager search committee is advertising a base range of $116,322 to $180,000, although the final compensation determination is up to council. Council allocated $145,000 for the manager salary in the 2023 budget, but that earmark can be adjusted.

More job openings

The county prison is seeking at cook at $40,411.39 annually, according to a new posting under the human resources department career opportunities section at luzernecounty.org.

Applications are due before midnight on March 17. To be eligible, applicants must be 21 or older, possess a valid Pennsylvania driver’s license, have a high school diploma and pass drug tests. Experience with commercial cooking is preferred.

Some positions have remained posted for a month or longer due to ongoing challenges filling vacancies, including openings for 911 telecommunicators, assistant district attorneys and public defenders, Children and Youth caseworkers, deputy sheriffs and a second-shift custodial worker, according to a review of the job section.

The advertised starting salaries for assistant public defenders have been updated to reflect increases awarded in a new union contract. The contract also covers assistant district attorneys, and county DA Sam Sanguedolce had immediately posted the new salary in his online advertisement the day after the contract was approved last month.

For full-timers, the entry salary will be $60,500 this year and rise $500 annually to $61,000 in 2024, $61,500 in 2025 and $62,000 in 2026. The previous starting salary was $51,083 in the contract that expired the end of 2022.

Part-time assistant district attorneys/public defenders will start at $39,885 this year, compared to the previous $34,165. The starting salary for part-timers also will rise $500 annually to $40,385 in 2024, $40,885 in 2025 and $41,385 in 2026.

Human services lease

No council members sought discussion at last week’s work session about an agenda proposal to continue leasing a downtown Wilkes-Barre property for a total $1.77 million over five years to house human services offices.

The county administration had publicly informed council in October it was on track to consolidate staff at the county-owned human services building on North Pennsylvania Avenue in Wilkes-Barre, eliminating the need to continue leasing the “McCarthy Building” at Union and State streets.

But in December, the administration reversed course and proposed keeping the McCarthy Realty Inc. property lease and paying more.

Some council members had said the administration informed them prior manager Randy Robertson prematurely pushed the consolidation plan. In response, Robertson recently said any implication he initiated and spearheaded the consolidation is false because the administration came to him advocating the plan to bring staffers under one roof as a way to save money on rent and security and free up funding for other services.

The administration said it would have to permanently convert the majority of human services staff to a remote/hybrid work schedule to proceed with consolidation at the human services building.

During public comment last week, county Controller Walter Griffith urged council members to reconsider the consolidation plan, saying they should be “proactive in saving taxpayer money.”

The Area Agency on Aging portion of the proposed new lease is expected to cost $71,880.70 annually, which will be fully covered by its non-county funding, the agenda said. The Children and Youth Services portion is expected to cost $282,484.34 annually, with 80% funded by outside sources and 20% from the county’s general fund operating budget.