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Penn State remains in the mix for the Rose Bowl or other New Year’s Six bid

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20 apply for Luzerne County election director vacancy

Luzerne County Children and Youth&#8217;s request for $600,000 more in 2020 was further explained during a recent budget work session.County Manager C. David Pedri had cited the agency increase among rising expenses when he unveiled his proposed 2020 budget seeking a 5% tax increase in October. Boosting the county match will allow the agency to obtain $2.4 million more in state funding, he had said.During last week&#8217;s Children and Youth budget presentation, Pedri said the need for a funding boost came to light during this year&#8217;s work to get the agency&#8217;s &#8220;financial house in order.&#8221;Delays documenting and resolving $2.4 million in transfers to and from Children and Youth caused both the 2017 and 2018 audits to be late, officials have said. Pedri said the discrepancies have been cleared.The resulting &#8220;correct&#8221; figures indicate the agency should be receiving approximately $3 million more to cover required services, which equates to a 20 percent county match increase of $600,000, he said.&#8220;This is the proper amount Luzerne County needs to provide these services for kids,&#8221; Pedri told council. &#8220;It comes down to properly funding this very, very important department.&#8221;The county currently contributes $6.7 million toward the agency&#8217;s total $42.2 million budget.With the increase, the agency&#8217;s total budget would rise to $43.9 million &#8212; $7.3 million from the county, records show.Pedri noted the agency is now up-to-date on reports to the state seeking reimbursement and clearly tracking all expenses and revenue that should be received, which means there should be no future audit issues.Caseworker vacanciesThe agency&#8217;s budget includes a proposed $100,000 allocation for overtime &#8212; a $10,000 increase attributed to a high turnover of caseworkers.Of the 29 agency staff vacancies, 17 are caseworker openings, the agency said.Council Chairman Tim McGinley asked if there has been &#8220;any movement&#8221; in hiring caseworkers.Pedri said the agency has been working with the state, attending job fairs and &#8220;doing everything we possibly can&#8221; to step up recruitment.&#8220;Unfortunately, despite all of these efforts, I believe that&#8217;s going to be the openings &#8212; between 12 and 20,&#8221; Pedri said.He noted Children and Youth had more than 40 caseworker vacancies when Joanne Van Saun was promoted to oversee the agency in 2016.The agency has struggled with caseworker shortages for years &#8212; a problem encountered in many other jurisdictions across the state, according to state Auditor General&#8217;s Office reports. Caseworker vacancies have been blamed on low compensation and the high on-the-job stress of investigating alleged child abuse and neglect.Pedri told council Van Saun and Human Services Division Head Lynn Hill have been concentrating on retaining newer hires. Many caseworkers decide to leave after working a short time, but ones who stick it out for a year or two tend to stay longer, he said.&#8220;It&#8217;s a very difficult job,&#8221; Pedri said.Van Saun said the caseworker vacancies were down to around nine earlier this year, but some left because the state Department of Public Welfare opened up positions at a higher salary.In response to difficulty recruiting and retaining workers, county officials in 2018 increased the starting salary for caseworkers.The position requiring more experience, categorized as &#8220;caseworker 2,&#8221; now starts at $37,080, while the entry-level &#8220;caseworker 1&#8221; job starts at $30,857, county job postings say.Caseworker job openings are advertised on the human resources section at <a href="https://www.governmentjobs.com/careers/luzernecounty" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">www.luzernecounty.org</a>.Agency license Van Saun also announced the agency learned last week it has received full state license status for another year.County officials had celebrated the agency&#8217;s return to a full license in April 2017, which had reversed a provisional license downgrade first imposed in September 2015.The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services performs licensing inspections.Van Saun said the state informed her of the full license renewal last week during an exit conference involving the state&#8217;s latest review.Children and Youth is among several departments that fall under the county&#8217;s human services division.Collectively, these departments have an overall budget of $105.6 million this year, with a county contribution of $8.4 million, budget reports show.The division&#8217;s total budget would rise to $106.1 million in the proposed 2020 budget, which includes a county payment of $9 million.The requests for county contributions from the other departments next year, according to the proposed budget:&#8226; Mental Health/Developmental Services, $138,137 toward a $22.2 million budget&#8226; Veteran Affairs, $367,986, which is the total department budget&#8226; Area Agency on Aging, no county payment requested for its $14.3 million budget&#8226; Human Services Administration, $97,607 toward a $2.6 million budget&#8226; Drug and Alcohol, $175,850 toward a $4.4 million budget&#8226; Human services block grant, $945,514 toward an $18.3 million budget<style>
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<div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/web1_TTL101719Luzerne-County-Courthouse1-8.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Luzerne County Courthouse </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/web1_TTL101719Luzerne-County-Courthouse1-8.jpg</photo0><caption0>Luzerne County Courthouse </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>By Jennifer Learn-Andesjandes@www.timesleader.com</bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta>Reach Jennifer Learn-Andes at 570-991-6388 or on Twitter @TLJenLearnAndes.</shirttailMeta></div>

Luzerne County Children and Youth budget request increase discussed