Luzerne County chief public defender begs council to provide attorney pay increases

During his Tuesday budget presentation, Luzerne County Chief Public Defender Steven Greenwald implored county council to support a new yet-to-be presented union contract that will allow him to attract and retain attorneys, citing staff caseloads far above acceptable standards and the need to pull resources from a juvenile unit created during the “Kids for Cash” scandal.

Council also announced it will be holding a special meeting Thursday to accept county Manager Randy Robertson’s resignation and approve the creation of a new outside citizen manager search committee to seek and screen applicants for the top position.

Greenwald told council the union contract covering attorneys in his office and the District Attorney’s Office expires the end of this year. He proposes a significant starting salary increase and the addition of progressive step increases that will allow lawyers to better project how their compensation will rise in subsequent contracts.

The public defender reiterated the office has eight of 28 attorney positions open, with most departing lawyers citing compensation as a reason for leaving. The starting pay for attorneys in his office is $51,083 for full-timers and $34,165 for part-timers. He mentioned several other counties that pay assistant public defenders in the $60,000 range to start and are not struggling with vacancies. Greenwald said he has not been receiving any qualified applicants in response to steady job advertisements.

Due to vacancies, his office had stopped providing required representation for non-incarcerated, income-eligible indigent residents charged with misdemeanors. Council agreed to transfer funds from his office so the county court could retain contracted attorney to provide the mandated defense.

Greenwald said each attorney in his office is handling more than 400 cases on average. He has individual attorneys juggling more than 300 felonies annually, or double the most current recommended standard of 150 per year, he said. Similar excessive caseloads are placed on attorneys handling mental health hearings and appeals.

The public defender said he has been forced to essentially “dismantle” a model juvenile defense unit that had been created largely through state funding in the wake of the juvenile justice scandal. While juvenile defense is still provided to some degree, Greenwald said he can no longer assign attorneys to exclusively focus on those cases because criminal representation is needed.

“It’s heartbreaking to do,” Greenwald said, saying this county above all others in the state should be cognizant of the need for proper juvenile representation.

Councilman Tim McGinley described any diminishing of the juvenile unit as “scary,” saying he never wants a repeat of past situations where juveniles did not have legal advocates.

Greenwald said it scares him too.

McGinley said council as a whole has been fair in approving other recent union contracts that addressed compensation issues contributing to job vacancies.

Councilman Stephen J. Urban said Greenwald — or other managers — should approach council to request funding or other assistance with problems before they rise to the “brink of collapse.” Greenwald said he has been stating his concerns in monthly reports but will accept the offer to approach council directly in the future.

Councilman Kevin Lescavage said he will be pushing state legislators to fully honor a decades-old state Supreme Court order to fund county courts. That would free up funds to address needs in other county departments, such as the public defender’s office, he said.

Greenwald said the staffing issue must be solved, even if a tax increase is required, because the office is “about to collapse.”

The county — including council — is constitutionally obligated to provide defense for the indigent, he said, noting at least three more attorneys are expected to retire within a year.

If the problem is not swiftly addressed, the public defender’s office will be forced to “fold up,” which would prompt litigation against the county, he said.

Manager search

Council’s Thursday emergency meeting to accept Robertson’s resignation and create a search committee will start at 5:30 p.m. at the courthouse on River Street in Wilkes-Barre.

Robertson submitted his resignation letter to council Monday, saying Dec. 14 will be his last day of employment. A 30-day notice is required under his employment agreement.

On the job since June 13, Robertson said he is leaving to attend to health issues involving his mother and wife. He also generally mentioned conflict he has experienced with some council members and others that make his work here ‘“unreasonably difficult to accomplish” and “very trying.”

Under the county’s home rule charter, council must rely on an outside committee of at least three citizens to seek, screen and conduct initial interviews of county manager applicants.

Seven citizens served on the most recent search committee, while there were five on the first one.

McGinley suggested a committee of the minimum required three citizens during Tuesday’s work session, saying a smaller group may help it “move along quickly.”

His colleagues expressed support for that idea.

Following past practice, council would publicly interview citizen applicants before voting on which three will serve.

Some council members also have proposed specifying a shorter time frame for the committee to perform its work. The last search committee started meeting in August 2021 and presented three finalists to council in early March 2022.

Council Vice Chairman John Lombardo noted council can’t dictate a timeline to the committee because it is independent. McGinley acknowledged the committee operates on its own but said council can make suggestions.

Lescavage also said he’d like to ask the committee to present more than three finalists, if possible.

The charter says the search committee must “recommend the candidates it believes are the most qualified” to county council for its consideration. The last committee provided council with all the finalists it deemed the most qualified — which turned out to be three — and had said additional advertising would be necessary to yield additional applicants.

Search committee members must “possess relevant qualifications, knowledge and/or experience in the search for, recruitment of and identification of qualified candidates for county manager,” the charter says.

Instructions to attend Thursday’s meeting remotely are posted under council’s online meeting link at luzernecounty.org.

Reach Jennifer Learn-Andes at 570-991-6388 or on Twitter @TLJenLearnAndes.