Luzerne County ethics complaint advances

A Luzerne County ethics complaint has advanced to the next stage, according to an update provided at Monday’s ethics commission meeting.

Typically, the subject of the complaint would still be confidential, but a detail discussed Monday made it clear this is the complaint citizen Jason Carr filed against county Councilwoman LeeAnn McDermott.

Under the council-adopted county ethics code, the commission must rely on a panel of outside attorneys to handle the initial stage of complaint investigations.

The contracted attorneys determine within 60 days whether an investigation should be terminated, further investigated or result in the issuing of a formal complaint spelling out alleged code violations.

If a formal complaint is issued, the respondent has 30 days to admit or deny the allegations.

Matters proceed to a hearing when no agreement is reached or when the respondent requests one. Once the commission issues a final written decision, the respondent has the right to appeal the decision to the county Court of Common Pleas within 30 days.

An update report from outside Attorney Qiana Lehman was read aloud during Monday’s meeting. It said she conducted a preliminary inquiry regarding a complaint received May 11 and determined a formal complaint was necessary and filed with the commission on July 7.

Earlier in the meeting, county Controller Walter Griffith, who serves on the commission, questioned a legal charge from Lehman to prepare and file a formal complaint in the case of Carr versus McDermott.

The other commission members later voted to approve the legal bill and redact the identification of the case, but it already had been cited by Griffith.

Carr, who lives in Monroe County but speaks out about Luzerne County because he owns properties here, had publicly disclosed his filing of an ethics complaint against McDermott over her use of her county email address on a campaign business card. He cited a section of the county ethics code involving “misuse of county resources.”

McDermott said Monday she has not received any notification about the status of the case and is respecting the process.

In other business Monday, the commission accepted the resignation of the other outside attorney, Dan Nawrocki. The commission will publicly seek applications from attorneys.