Luzerne County employees and retirees will pick board representative

Luzerne County government workers and retirees have an opportunity to elect their representative on the county retirement board, which oversees the employee pension fund.

The county’s home rule charter added a pension participant seat in response to past arguments that employees and retirees should have a voice in the fund’s management.

The county manager, budget/finance director, council chairperson and a council member also serve on the board. Council Chairman John Lombardo will serve, and council selected council Vice Chairman Brian Thornton for the other council seat.

Employees/retirees selected and reappointed John Evanchick Jr. as their representative since the 2012 start of home rule. He is a retired county sheriff deputy.

Information on the selection process is posted on the employee retirement board system at luzernecounty.org.

Nominations are due Feb. 16, and any individual receiving 10 or more nominations will be placed on the ballot. Employee/retirees will vote from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Feb. 23 in the courthouse rotunda and election bureau.

Votes will be tallied immediately following the poll closing, with results promptly reported to the council chair, the posting said.

HVAC

New heating/ventilation/air conditioning units will be installed at two county-owned properties — the courthouse annex on River Street in Wilkes-Barre and the record storage building/coroner’s office in Hanover Township, recent contract postings show.

The lion’s share of the expense will be covered by the county’s federal American Rescue Plan funds. Both contracts were awarded to United Heating and Air Conditioning Inc. in Pittston Township.

At the courthouse annex, the $176,952 contract will include removal and replacement of eight Trane rooftop units, a parts and labor warranty and a preventative maintenance service agreement running through February 2029.

The base bid was $164,413. The other costs were $6,000 for the preventative maintenance agreement and $6,539 for the warranty — both covering five years.

An industrial crane will be needed for this project because the units weigh 6- to 7.5 tons.

The records/coroner’s building contract runs through the same period and totals $124,254. Four Lenox rooftop units will be replaced with new Trane ones. The base bid was $114,200, and the five-year protection plans were $3,600 for maintenance and a $6,454 warranty.

A crane also will be needed because these units weight 8- to 12.5 tons, the agreement says.

Ethics attorney

The county Ethics Commission is seeking an independent contractor attorney, according to a county’s online purchasing department listing.

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. On a rotating basis, the contracted attorneys are assigned cases and must 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.

The commission currently has only one outside attorney — Qiana Lehman.

Responses from interested attorneys are due by 4 p.m. March 4. The attorney would receive $225 per hour, with an annual cap of $25,000. The commission is seeking a one-year contract.

The request is posted under the purchasing department section at luzernecounty.org.