A six month look at County Home Rule on Pittston Politics

The wheel turns, time passes and common sense organization continues to elude Luzerne County government.

Time Clocks
The now infamous time clocks remain off line and continue to frustrate employees who have to deal with them at least 4 times a day. There are times when an employee must search the building for a time clock that will recognize them as employees. Six months past the time they were scheduled to go into effect and the question remains, "when will they operate efficiently?"
If you look at the budget, you will see that additional dollars are allocated to the unworkable system. Will county manger Lawton recognize these units for what they are and stop throwing good money after bad?

   Of course STEVE Urban will have a fit since he was part of the decision to purchase them.
I attended county meetings and urged the Commissioners in office to cancel any plans to purchase the system. It just wasn't necessary. If managers did their jobs, employees would sign in and out right at the manager's desk and the cost would be a paper and pencil. Just consider that the county prison employees begin each shift with a muster. How do they fake being there when a manager takes muster? When a guard is not at his assigned post, wouldn't a manager notice? The prison is a great example of why the time clocks are not necessary for proper record keeping.

Parking
   The information now available is that the station property is up for sale. I wonder if management has considered the number of parking spaces used by county employees who work in the Penn Place building? There are days when parking spots are at a premium and some employees are required to search for alternative parking. There are courts and active offices located at Penn Place and hundreds of employees. Add to that the number of taxpayers who have business at court or one of the offices located at Penn Place and then ask yourself is selling the parking area at the old station a prudent move? I have to wonder if a parking survey was ever done to know just how much parking area is required and sufficient. The building could be rented and the county could use the additional revenue. The county being a landlord would be an alien thought but maybe it is time to begin thinking out of the box.

Office consolidation
   Here we are past mid June and the consolidation of court related offices has not been done and cross training remains a chore to deal with at a later time. The problem is that employees have been cut and budgets prepared to deal with the new system but the old system remains in effect. The sheriff's office and county security are two separate departments but in defiance of the Charter both are managed by the same person and they are located in two separate buildings. The same holds true with the Clerk of Courts and the Election Bureau being managed by the same person and again, they are located in two separate buildings. It was only a few weeks ago that paper work was mixed up and a guy had to spend a weekend in jail. Not a big deal? Well, your right, it wasn't but only because luck was on the side of the county. We did feed and cloth that person but what if he had a heart attack or some other serious health issue fell upon him?
   Guess who would have been responsible for the potential tens of thousands of dollars in medical bills because of a little paper work error. Would that have happened if the Clerk of Courts office had completed the Charters plan?
Probably not.

The Controller
   The Controller is still functioning under the Third Class County Code. The Charter eliminated the possible conflict of interest with the Controller approving, paying and then auditing departmental bills. This was properly recognized as a conflict of interest but obviously not taken serious by our new government. There are certainly other examples but I think the point has been made.

The Budget
    WOW! This is where Mr. Lawton will earn his keep. The current budget just doesn't make sense. Of course most know that there was no funding in place to cover the salaries of the new county departmental managers but there are other major problems. Example, in the past, the prison used over a million dollars for overtime. This budget allowed them $150,000 and that has been spent long ago. The Day Reporting system was also under funded but the operation was not adjusted to avoid a cash shortfall. Where are the warning bells? This is where we have to hold the Council's feet to the fire. Pribula was told that a tax increase would not be tolerated so the completed budget is little more than a joke. Pribula gets a bad rap with regard to the under funded budget. Who do I blame? The Council! Even today they refuse to recognize the debt as the culprit. At some point in time they will come to the realization that they need to create a dedicated tax of 1.3 mills to cover the 25 million dollar debt payment due each year. Nobody wants to pay more taxes but this is reality. Previous administrations borrowed and spent with no thought of pay back. The debt is a fact and like it or not, we must now pay the bill.

Balancing the budget
The county has cut almost 300 employees in the last few years and they seem to think that the only way to balance the budget is on the back of the employees. The fact is that once a dedicated debt fund is created, and removed from the budget thought process. It is a huge distraction that clouds good management. If this is done, the Council and manager will have a clearer picture of what must be done and more importantly what "can" be done.

There are many issues that need attention and we have made many commitments that require funding.

We find ourselves spending time on social issues and setting aside the day to day operation of government. We create a focus that sets well with the media and makes for a great sound bite but reality becomes a side note. THE THING THAT SCARES ME MOST AND IS A GOOD EXAMPLE OF MY POINT IS THAT WE DECLARED WAR ON DRUGS AND KILLED COMMON SENSE. It is time to tackle government from a common sense point of view and if taxes are needed to make things work then that's what has to be done. A man once said that if a politician did what was right in his first term, he would never be reelected. I believe it! Let's keep in mind Ronald Reagan's famous dream comment. "I will increase spending, lower taxes and balance the budget." Yeah, right!

Member Opinions:

By: makitrite on 6/23/12
Why is there so much overtime in the prison system? Why are we not hiring people for straight time and saving a lot of money?

By: makitrite on 6/23/12
All across corporate America the blue collar worker is being sacrificed for bonuses.
Teachers don't want to give in. Government workers don't want to give in...
I would be willing to not have a pay raise in order to hire more people so I wouldn't be expected to do the job of two people and the job would be done better than if I were to do the job of two myself.

By: Nanteen on 6/23/12
Actually with the benefit packages that most employees receive it is often cheaper to pay over time than higher new people.

By: Eye-in-the-sky on 6/23/12
How do you know that county workers are not willing to negotiate? I have to wonder if the union itself, not the members are the problem. Let's keep in mind that union leaders are often time high in seniority so they are not in dnger of layoff so they don't bring negotiable offers to the membership. They want what they have and all they can get and they are willing to safcrifice employees at the bottom of the seniority list so they retain comfortable and safe positions. I'm not a big fan of public employee unions. There was a time when they protected employees from politics but now the protection is for the most senior people. From many sources, it seems the new employees are the work horses and management do not do their jobs. I would love to be a bug o the wall and learn the truth.

By: TruthBeTold on 6/26/12
Mr. Toole, with all due respect, you really have no idea what you are talking about. Is your hair too tight? Have you asked yourself why you lost your bid for Controller and Council? Have you asked yourself why no one calls you for advice? You are just a bag of wind that screwed up and screwed Pittston. Millage is dedicated for the debt. What you suggest is that the County uses that for wasteful spending and then add another 20+ percent to cover the debt. Pribula had a hard time selling 2% and you want 20%? Perhaps the budget for the Day Reporting was missed, but that falls back on Warden Piazza and Budget and Finance Chief Pusateri (Petrilla). Pribula was running the entire County and educating the inept Council. He was also dealing with some members of Council overstepping their authority by negotiating with unions on the side. I'm sure a few ethics violations were evident. Perhaps that is why the Council was hesitant to pass a stringent Ethics Policy. The Budget left by the Commissioners was a joke. The amended Budget is more than deliverable and the organization remains top heavy with management. Lawton has had more than enough time to implement the new organizational structure. Perhaps he can skip a breakfast of luncheon boondoggle once in awhile to move the County forward.

By: Eye-in-the-sky on 6/27/12
TruthBeTold, I get a real kick out of people who begin a criticism using the old standard, "With all due respect" but you use it and immeadiately begin to insult Mr. Toole personally. I would have preferreed if you left the high school insults in the playground and addressed Mr Toole's very well done piece on the county's progress. You can most certainly disagree with any or all points made by Mr. Toole but at the very least, try to be factual and adult in the way you do it. Personally, I appreciate the insight and effort put into his post.

By: JValenti on 6/27/12
Reply from Wil Toole

Truthbetold,

Looks like I must have peed in your cheerios at some point in time.

Your contradiction of my assessment isn't just wrong but your entire statement is flawed. Which of us is right? I can prove my point but you can't prove yours. I challenge you to take out a copy of you county real estate tax (if you own property) and show me (us) where on that bill is a dedicated debt tax. You won't find it because the county does not have a dedicated debt tax. I assume you believe that because the county is required to pay the debt payment out of taxes collected then that is a dedicated debt tax. Sorry buddy but you're flat out wrong and obviously don't have a clue as to how government budgets work or how the Pennsylvania Tax Enabling Act works.
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As for my personal ability to manage a local government, I can only reply that under my stewardship of the City of Pittston, when I left, every road had been recently paved. Every park was in pristine condition. We had an award winning recycling program, fully staffed Street and Sanitation Departments. The police department was double what it is today, the police desk was covered 24/7 by full time qualified police desk clerks and citizens could walk into city hall 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and talk to a real person. Today, Pittston has 7 police officers, the doors are locked at 4 PM and are not open during the weekend. We had brand new street department equipment, a front end loader, a backhoe, street cleaner, sewer clean out equipment, a wood chipper, a mounted patrol officer, the first bicycle downtown patrol in the Valley and we had a motorcycle. We had a brand new Street/Sanitation Dept's. building and computerized state of the art gas pumps that were capable of tracking the fuel used by each vehicle. The city garbage fee was $120 year and today it is $160. Real estate taxes have doubled 3 times since I left office.
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Finally, the city debt was approximately $400,000 and today it is $10 million dollars. And you think I screwed up the City? There was a reason that the International City County Manager's Association (ICCMA) recognized me as a professional municipal manager and there was a reason that the ICCMA listed the City of Pittston in the Who's Who of Municipal Governments as the only city in NE PA with a professional municipal manager.
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You are certainly entitled to your opinion but the problem is that you confuse opinion with facts. As to why I lost the Controller and the County Council election is because I didn't get enough votes. It isn't rocket science, I simply didn't receive enough votes.
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In closing, I will fall back on that old saying, "Better to be thought a fool than to open your mouth and erase all doubt."

Wil Toole, ICCMA Recognized Professional Municipal Manager

By: judge on 6/27/12
Maybe if they had a supervisor do his job. To monitor the employees to see if they show up for work on time. This would save a lot not having to put in time clocks.