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<b>First Posted:</b> 8/5/2007<br><br>By Jennifer Learn-Andes jandes@www.timesleader.comLuzerne County Reporter 
uzerne County provides at least 162 cell phones to county employees, including 42 &amp;ldquo;smart phones&amp;rdquo; such as BlackBerries that allow e-mailing.

 This abundance of cell phones raises questions about what the county is doing to avoid a repeat of the phone abuse scandal a decade ago, when the media found heavy use of county cell phones for personal calls.
County officials say they keep an eye out for abuse but caution that times have changed.
&amp;ldquo;Ten years ago a cell phone was a luxury. Now you have kids in elementary school carrying them,&amp;rdquo; said county Chief Clerk/Manager Sam Guesto. &amp;ldquo;Business today is done largely through cell phones, fax machines and e-mail.&amp;rdquo;
The county spent $157,760 on cell phones in the past 12 months, according to a review of expenditures.
 That doesn&amp;rsquo;t include the cost of reimbursing other staffers who use their personal cell phones. For example, county detectives receive $1,200 per year to cover use of their personal phones. A few employees also obtain reimbursement for county calls on their personal phones.
Minority Commissioner Stephen A. Urban said he chose to keep using his personal cell phone, without reimbursement. He believes the county should provide cell phones only to employees who work in emergency services or who encounter safety concerns during work travel, such as probation officers.
He said most people have personal cell phones, and they could seek reimbursement for any county-related calls that must be made on their cell phones.
While $157,760 may seem like a blip on the county&amp;rsquo;s overall budget, Urban reminded that the county had to borrow, push back debt and use Moon Lake Park as collateral in recent years to cover the county&amp;rsquo;s operating deficits.
Pagers are another option for the county to get in touch with employees in an emergency, he said. The county spent $29,193 on pagers during the last 12 months, according to bills in the controller&amp;rsquo;s office.
County District Attorney&amp;rsquo;s Office prosecutors, for example, do not have county cell phones, according to the office. When prosecutors are on-call, they may use a shared office pager.
Guesto said county officials have assigned phones to employees who must be accessible in transit and during non-office hours. Guesto said he receives calls from taxpayers, employees, the media, vendors and community leaders on his BlackBerry. Cell phones also improved communication during several weather-related disasters in recent years, he said.
Guesto said he receives about 100 e-mails per day and can&amp;rsquo;t be chained to his office computer because he has to travel to other county departments to meet with employees.
 The need to check the device sometimes borders on an obsession, he said.
&amp;ldquo;I wouldn&amp;rsquo;t even call the phone a luxury because it infringes on my personal life,&amp;rdquo; Guesto said. &amp;ldquo;I&amp;rsquo;m constantly looking at this thing to make sure I&amp;rsquo;m up on any happenings and potential emergencies.&amp;rdquo;
Department heads and senior staffers check phone logs to make sure phones aren&amp;rsquo;t being used too heavily for personal calls, but no abuse has been detected to date, Guesto said. Occasional personal use is allowed for employees on work-related conferences who must check in at home, he said.
The county&amp;rsquo;s personnel policy says use of county telephones for local personal calls &amp;ldquo;should be kept to a minimum.&amp;rdquo; Personal calls that require the county to pay long-distance fees are prohibited.
Still, Urban said it&amp;rsquo;s difficult for the public to verify that the phones are mostly used for county business because most of the departments fail to send a copy of cell phone logs to the controller&amp;rsquo;s office.
County officials say hard copies are not printed because the bills are now viewed on-line.
Urban said he would support expanding the county policy to require employees to reimburse the county for personal calls made on county cell phones.
County administrators look for ways to save money on cell service, such as the possibility of reducing the pool of minutes shared by departments, Guesto said. The county purchases cell phone service from Verizon Wireless, Nextel and AT&amp;amp;T.
Sheriff Barry Stankus said most of the 27 phones in his department are assigned to various units and are used only when employees leave the office to transport prison inmates and serve protection-from-abuse orders and other court documents to residents who are often unhappy to be on the receiving end. Cell phone contact is essential for the safety of deputies, he said.
The county&amp;rsquo;s Workforce Investment Development Agency has 18 cell phones, including 13 BlackBerries, the county says.
Agency director Richard Ammon said the phones are assigned to employees who spend a lot of time on the road or who must be updated with frequent e-mails. The department&amp;rsquo;s fiscal office scans the bills to make sure there is no abuse.
&amp;ldquo;The activity on these phones is very low, but just for safety and emergency, I feel I need to be in touch with that group of employees,&amp;rdquo; he said, noting that state and federal funding cover the expense. &amp;ldquo;We certainly don&amp;rsquo;t have a lax attitude about who gets these phones.&amp;rdquo;
County Commissioner Rose Tucker said she carries a county cell phone so she may be reached for emergencies or to give direction to county department heads. She said she didn&amp;rsquo;t want to take a BlackBerry because the text would be too small to read with her eyesight.
&amp;ldquo;I feel cell phones are almost a necessity in government these days,&amp;rdquo; she said.
County Public Information Officer Kathy Bozinski said she felt lost on Thursday because she had two off-site appointments and forgot her BlackBerry. She returned to find many e-mails that could have been answered during meeting breaks.
Bozinski also carries a private cell phone and said county people often track her down on that if they don&amp;rsquo;t get a response on the BlackBerry. She said she feels a duty to keep checking her BlackBerry at night, on sick days and when she&amp;rsquo;s on vacation.
&amp;ldquo;The BlackBerry is a blessing and a curse,&amp;rdquo; she said.
Commissioners did away with county cell phones in the late 1990s after a Times Leader investigative report revealed that as many as 10 percent of the calls made on them were personal in nature.
The report found employees had phoned pizza shops, hair salons, veterinarian offices, drug stores and their own homes.
where they go
Here&amp;rsquo;s a breakdown of the number of cell phones by department, according to county records and interviews:
Election Bureau: 2
Controller&amp;rsquo;s Office: 2
Building &amp;amp; Grounds: 1
Moon Lake: 1
Information Technology: 3
Prison: 4
Veteran Affairs: 1
Emergency Management: 2
Purchasing: 2
Recreation: 2
Workforce Investment: 18
Mental Health/Mental Retardation: 5
Aging: 7
Drug &amp;amp; Alcohol: 1
Human Services: 2
Commissioners/Administration: 27
Probation: 33
Flood Protection and levee: 8
9-1-1: 8
Court: 2
Domestic Relations: 4
Sheriff: 27
Total: 162
  
&amp;ldquo;Ten years ago a cell phone was a luxury. Now you have kids in elementary school carrying them. Business today is done largely through cell phones, fax machines and e-mail.&amp;rdquo;
 Sam Guesto  county Chief Clerk/Manager
    
Jennifer Learn-Andes, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 831-7333.

Do cell phones for county workers fit the bill?