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Wilkes-Barre’s inaugural Strawberry Festival attracts a crowd

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Auditor General: Northwest might have ‘improperly inflated’ retirement benefit

<p>Luzerne County Manager C. David Pedri officially handed over a stack of 35 sealed ethics complaints to outside attorneys for their review Thursday, including one that prior county controller Walter Griffith said he filed more than a year ago.</p><p>Attorney Michael Sharkey received 17 complaints, and the remaining 18 went to Nanda Palissery.</p><p>The two county ethics commission lawyers must unseal the envelopes, investigate and recommend if the cases should be dismissed or upgraded to formal matters heard by the commission.</p><p>Kingston resident Brian Shiner said he had filed 34 ethics complaints against county council members and administrators in February, maintaining that they ignored home rule charter requirements involving a board appointment.</p><p>The complaint processing delay stemmed in part from the commission&#8217;s inability to find outside attorneys required by the council-adopted ethics code. Council added the provision to address concerns about the commission handling both investigations and rulings.</p><p>Three ethics commission members &#8212; Pedri, District Attorney Stefanie Salavantis and Controller Michelle Bednar &#8212; had approved the hiring of Palissery and Sharkey at $140 per hour in March. The two remaining citizen commission seats were vacant at that time.</p><p>Although the county law office concluded only three commission votes were necessary for the outside attorney hiring, the full five-member commission unanimously voted Thursday to confirm the appointments.</p><p>Pedri said he and other members wanted to give the two new citizen members &#8212; Republican Marc Dixon and Democrat Karen Metta &#8212; an option to weigh in, even though their votes were not technically required.</p><p>Council appointed Dixon in April and Metta in May.</p><p>Griffith told commission members Thursday that his complaint was important and is &#8220;almost moot&#8221; because of the time that has lapsed. He criticized the commission for waiting until June to distribute the complaints to the attorneys.</p><p>The attorneys will notify commission members if they are named in a complaint, which would require them to abstain from involvement, Pedri said.</p><p>Commission members agreed to meet again in August to discuss the attorneys&#8217; recommendations.</p><p>In a related matter, a council committee considering code revisions has discussed the possibility of eliminating a third outside attorney required in the ethics code because no other lawyers have expressed interest in the post after several rounds of public advertising.</p><p>The commission also voted Thursday to name Dixon chairman and Metta vice chairwoman.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Dixon </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/web1_dixon.jpeg</photo0><caption0>Dixon </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></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 ethics commission activates processing of lingering complaints