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Child rapist from Wilkes-Barre requests reconsideration of prison sentence

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92-year old Rose Mason honored for 30 years of service as a foster granparent

<p>A reorganization of the Luzerne County&#8217;s Veteran Affairs Office has turned into a gamble, with the jobs of two workers at stake.</p><p>County Veteran Affairs Director Jim Spagnola has pushed for more than a year to cut a vacant clerk position to provide a net savings and upgrade the job title and compensation of two current employees, prompting recent complaints from some area veterans about the administration&#8217;s delay enacting the plan.</p><p>The administration has agreed to grant the request but stressed the two employees don&#8217;t have a claim on the upgraded positions because the home rule charter requires that openings be publicly advertised and filled through merit-based selection.</p><p>That means the two current employees have no guarantee they&#8217;ll be selected and will be out of work if two others are hired because their existing positions are cut in the reorganization.</p><p>The two new veteran service officer positions, with starting salaries around $30,000, will be publicly advertised this week, said county Administrative Services Division Head David Parsnik.</p><p>The council-adopted personnel code outlines what is required after applications are received:</p><p>&#8226; The human resources department screens applications and disqualifies those who don&#8217;t meet minimum qualifications.</p><p>&#8226; The department, with the approval of the appropriate &#8220;hiring manager&#8221; &#8212; in this case Human Services Division Head David Schwille or his designee &#8212; determines the form of examination to be used in the selection procedure and the appropriate candidates to participate in the examination.</p><p>&#8226; Human resources and the hiring manager rate and rank applicants.</p><p>&#8226; Human resources certifies a list of highest-ranked candidates to the hiring manager, who then selects one of the three top-rated candidates to fill the position.</p><p>&#8226; If no selection is made after interviews are conducted, the next top three applications are sent to the hiring manager for review and selection.</p><p>&#8226; Every time a group of three top candidates is rejected, an explanation for non-selection must be provided in writing to human resources to be kept on file.</p><p>The new union contract governing these workers said the county &#8220;will first consider existing employees&#8221; in filling vacant positions in their department, though the county reserves the right to select the most qualified person.</p><p>Council Vice Chairman Edward Brominski inquired about the status of the two upgraded positions at the last council work session to ensure the merit-based process will be followed.</p><p>County Manager Robert Lawton told council everyone will have an opportunity to compete for the jobs because there&#8217;s no &#8220;pipeline from one job to another.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;If jobs disappear and if people don&#8217;t qualify for the new job, they will need to find employment elsewhere,&#8221; Lawton said, referring to the two existing employees.</p><p>Spagnola had viewed the reorganization as a position reclassification that would not require a public advertising and selection process, according to emails. He declined comment for this article but said in a recent email he finds it &#8220;in the realm of impossibilities&#8221; that the two employees would not be the selected candidates.</p><p>Although it was not part of their job description, the two workers &#8212; Karen Doknovitch and Cyndi Giuli &#8212; completed training and obtained veteran service officer certification with the Department of Veteran Affairs that is required to process federal veteran benefit claims.</p><p>Their willingness to complete this requirement has contributed to the office processing significantly more federal benefit claims for county veterans and their spouses, Spagnola has said. The claims were around $800,000 when Spagnola was hired in 2009 and increased to more than $4.6 million in 2014.</p><p>Some American Legions and other veterans organizations also have veteran service officers to assist with claims processing, but the county office should have staffers to perform such work because the county office is supposed to be a one-stop shop for all veteran services, Spagnola has said.</p><p>He had estimated the reorganization would save a net $40,000 due to the elimination of a clerk position vacated by a retirement.</p><p>Doknovitch is paid $22,601, and Giuli receives $25,368.</p><p>The office&#8217;s remaining employee, Kevin Malloy, recently was hired to a clerk position vacated by a second retirement, though the original clerk position vacated one year ago is still empty and will be eliminated as part of the reorganization.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Parsnik </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_Parsnik-Dave.jpg</photo0><caption0>Parsnik </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_spagnolause.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Spagnola </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/web1_spagnolause.jpg</photo1><caption1>Spagnola </caption1><photoCredit1></photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Jennifer Learn-Andes</p><p>jandes@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Jennifer Learn-Andes at 570-991-6388 or on Twitter @TLJenLearnAndes.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Luzerne County administration: Merit-based selection will fill job vacancies