Luzerne County Ethics Commission airs frustrations

The dismissal of two Luzerne County ethics complaints Monday ended up with a call for county council to revamp the ethics code.

Under the council-adopted code, the county ethics commission must rely on outside contracted attorneys to handle the initial stage of complaint investigations and determine if a matter should be terminated or advance to full investigation in which the commission then gets involved in the process.

Both complaints dismissed Monday were still at the preliminary investigation stage, and some commission members expressed frustration that they are not informed of any details about these cases because of the way the code is structured.

The board was informed by outside Attorney Dan Nawrocki that a third case is still under preliminary investigation by another outside attorney. The only detail supplied was that Attorney Qiana Lehman received that complaint on May 11.

“We are working totally blind as a commission here,” said county Controller Walter Griffith, who serves on the panel along with the county manager, county district attorney and two citizens.

Griffith stressed he is criticizing the structure — not the work performed by outside attorneys.

County District Attorney Sam Sanguedolce said council must decide if it wants the commission to weigh in on new complaints and determine if they appear to have sufficient merit to warrant the cost of referring them to outside attorneys.

The code was implemented following the county’s 2012 switch to a customized home rule government, and Griffith said council has not revised the code since 2014.

Griffith said the lack of commission involvement at the early stage also hampers its ability to police and pursue another code option of taking action against frivolous complaint filers to recoup county expenses. The code says a commission member or the person accused (respondent) can lodge a formal complaint with the commission if he or she believes someone is misusing the ethics complaint process.

County Manager Romilda Crocamo said she believes the current code structure makes the option to challenge frivolous complaints “meaningless” because the commission is not privy to details of cases dismissed at the early stage.

Ethics code changes are “absolutely” necessary, Crocamo said, adding the she is confident council will address them. She suggested the commission provide council with feedback.

For context, the commission received four complaints in 2022, but none advanced, according to its annual report. Three complaints were dismissed after an investigation by an an outside attorney, and the remaining complaint was deemed legally insufficient, the report said.

Commission Chairman Thomas Mosca presented a divergent view of the complaints resolved at the outside attorney level, saying the commission is meant to be a tribunal, or tryer of fact and court of limited jurisdication. Using that analogy, he said a criminal judge would not be aware of cases that don’t advance to the judge’s level of adjudication.

Council came up with the current code revision in 2014 to create a level of separation after concerns were raised that the commission had to both investigate and rule on complaints, according to prior reports.

Public disclosure

Several commission members also raised concerns Monday about complaint filers publicly disclosing a filing before it has been processed.

The most recent example was Saylorsburg resident Jason Carr, who publicly disclosed before the May 16 primary election that he had filed ethics complaints against Sanguedolce and county Councilwoman LeeAnn McDermott.

Carr’s complaint against Sanguedolce focused on the DA’s election endorsement of county Councilman Matthew Mitchell. The DA questioned Carr’s motives and said he was within his First Amendment rights to endorse. Instead of backing away from endorsements, Sanguedolce later encouraged primary voters to support all six county council candidates backed by the Republican Party of Luzerne County.

Carr, who owns properties in the county, had said he filed the complaint against McDermott over her use of her county email address on a campaign business card, asserting it was a “misuse of county resources.”

Mosca said confidentiality of the subjects and nature of complaints is important while the review process plays out.

“So I would ask generally that members of the public or anyone who wishes to make a complaint utilizing the (ethics) code do so and maintain the confidentiality of the process and do it in accordance with the procedure laid out in the code,” Mosca said.

Sanguedolce said he is particularly concerned about the impact public disclosure would have on county employees named as subjects in complaints.

“I think we have a real problem on our hands where this code, instead of being used as a shield for employees against unethical behavior from their supervisors or others, is now being used as a sword to attack county employees, for which they have no defense,” the DA said.

Regarding the complaint against him, Sanguedolce said he still has “no idea” if he has been vindicated because the two filings dismissed Monday were not identified.

Carr, who did not attend Monday’s meeting, said he has not yet received a communication from a commission attorney on the decisions.

He defended his public disclosure of the filings, maintaining a lack of transparency is one of the biggest problems in county government. Carr said he wanted to set an example to show others fearing retribution that they have the option to file an ethics complaint if they have complaints instead of “looking the other way.”

Next meeting

The commission tentatively agreed to meet again on July 13, expecting Lehman to provide a status on plans for the remaining outstanding case.

A commission majority also tentatively approved a one-year contract renewal with Nawrocki, with the understanding a source of county funding must still be identified in the budget.

Nawrocki will be paid $225 per hour for work under the contract, which is capped at $25,000 annually. The commission had increased the payment for outside attorneys last year after it was unable to secure lawyers as mandated by the county ethics code.