Incoming Luzerne County controller Griffith making personnel changes

Set to take over as Luzerne County controller Jan. 3, Walter Griffith said he plans to replace two current staffers with employees who worked in the office when he was previously in the elected post.

The office currently employs four in addition to the elected controller: deputy controller Mark Majikes, senior auditor Wendy Saxe, internal auditor Susan Yozwiak and auditor II Nancy DeFluri. The auditor II position is the only unionized one.

Griffith said he is keeping DeFluri but will hire new workers for the other three positions.

He said his past controller deputy Marilyn Derolf will return to that position. His prior senior auditor Patricia Llewellyn also will come back to fill her old slot, he said.

Griffith said he is still reviewing options for the internal auditor position.

The 67-year-old Kingston Township Republican received 30,341 votes in the Nov. 2 general election, or 1,409 more than incumbent Democrat Michelle Bednar’s 28,932.

He had served as controller 2010 until August 2013. He resigned as part of a plea agreement for recording two phone calls related to office matters and a closed-door executive session without permission of the parties involved. He said he made a mistake in his efforts to fight for the people, and voters subsequently elected him to council in 2019.

Griffith is midway through that county council term but said he wanted to return to the controller seat because he would have expansive access to records and freedom to examine and highlight concerns.

He said he opted to swiftly select Derolf and Llewellyn because he is comfortable with their work.

“I have to go with people experienced to do the job,” he said.

He had hired Derolf as his deputy in July 2011, saying she was a certified public account capable of taking on more auditing responsibilities.

Derolf had previously worked as controller for TFP Limited and related companies and held accounting and auditing positions at other companies, according to a prior published reports. She has a bachelor’s degree in accounting from King’s College.

Derolf was furloughed as part of a batch of county layoffs impacting numerous offices after the county’s switch to home rule in early 2012, past reports said.

Llewellyn was first hired by the county in January 2004 as an administrative assistant for then-Commissioner Greg Skrepenak. She had previously worked for 13 years at Sallie Mae Servicing Corp. in offices in Washington, D.C., Tampa, Fla., and Wilkes-Barre as a senior auditor and process control supervisor.

In September 2006, Llewellyn was promoted to a newly created budget/finance deputy chief job and then moved to the controller’s office in February 2008 under then-acting controller A.J. Martinelli.

Shortly after taking office during her first term in 2014, Bednar terminated Llewellyn as part of office restructuring, past reports said.

Griffith is scheduled to take the oath of office the evening of Jan. 3, which will then create a vacant council seat that must be filled by a council majority.

One of his initial controller focuses will be a review of information technology department contracts recently requested by County Acting Manager Romilda Crocamo, he said.

Also on his radar is a review of payroll and the system used to track hours worked, he said.

While some money reconciliation audits of specific funds or accounts are necessary, Griffith said he wants to dwell more on whether policies and procedures are in place and followed.

“I’m looking forward to the new role in January and serving the public in that capacity,” he said.