Members of the Lucerne County Council continue to consider options for awarding American Rescue Plan awards.

Members of the Lucerne County Council said they have been reviewing the federal American Rescue Plan Application Request Sheets in recent days to come up with proposals for the number of third parties that could collectively receive the $60 million earmarked appropriation.

The council will hold a special meeting on Tuesday at 5:00 pm to discuss the way forward for the majority.

The meeting is taking place at the River Street County Courthouse in Wilkes-Barre. Instructions for remote participation can be found at the link to the online board meeting at luzernecounty.org.

manager deadline

Applicants interested in a District Executive position have a few more days to submit their CVs.

The stated application deadline in most online ads is midnight March 10, but one has given applicants until March 11 to have the ad appear on its site within the requested two weeks.

The manager’s announcement is posted publicly on the county (luzernecounty.org), International City/County Management Association (icma.org), Association of Pennsylvania County Commissioners (pacounties.org), and NEOGOV (governmentjobs.com) websites.

The Governing Citizens Search Committee touts a base range of $116,322 to $180,000, although the final determination of compensation remains with the board. The council has allocated $145,000 for managers’ salaries in the 2023 budget, but this amount is subject to adjustment.

More vacancies

The county jail is looking for a cook for $40,411.39 a year, according to a new posting in the HR careers section of luzernecounty.org.

Applications must be submitted by midnight March 17th. To be eligible, applicants must be over the age of 21, have a valid Pennsylvania driver’s license, have a high school diploma, and pass drug tests. Experience in commercial cooking is preferred.

Some positions remain open for a month or longer due to ongoing problems filling positions, including positions for emergency telecommunicators, assistant district attorneys and public defenders, child and youth social workers, sheriff’s deputies, and second shift security worker . work section.

Advertised starting salaries for public defender assistants have been updated to reflect the increase provided by the new union contract. The contract also covers assistant district attorneys, and District Attorney Sam Sanguedolce immediately posted the new salary in his online posting the day after the contract was approved last month.

For full-time employees, the starting salary will be $60,500 this year and will increase by $500 per year to $61,000 in 2024, $61,500 in 2025, and $62,000 in 2026. The previous starting salary was $51,083 on a contract that expired at the end of 2022.

Part-time assistant district attorneys/public defenders will start at $39,885 this year, up from $34,165 the previous year. Starting wages for part-time workers will also rise by $500 a year to $40,385 in 2024, $40,885 in 2025, and $41,385 in 2026.

Rent of household services

None of the council members sought discussion at last week’s work meeting of an agenda proposal to continue the $1.77 million lease on downtown Wilkes-Barre property over five years to house social services offices.

In October, the county publicly informed the council that it was on track to consolidate staff at the county-owned Human Services building on North Pennsylvania Avenue in Wilkes-Barre, eliminating the need for a further lease on the “McCarthy Building” at Union and State Streets.

But in December, the administration reversed course and offered to keep McCarthy Realty Inc.’s lease on the property. and pay more.

Some board members said they were told by the administration that previous manager Randy Robertson pushed through the consolidation plan prematurely. In response, Robertson recently said any speculation that he initiated and led the merger is false, as the administration approached him advocating a plan to bring employees under one roof to save money on rent and security and free up funding for other services.

The administration has said it will have to permanently transition the majority of social services employees to a remote/hybrid work schedule in order to continue consolidation in the social services building.

During a public comment last week, County Comptroller Walter Griffith urged council members to reconsider the consolidation plan, saying they must “proactively save taxpayer money.”

A portion of the proposed new lease for the District Aging Agency is expected to cost $71,880.70 per year, which will be covered entirely by funding from outside the county, the agenda says. The child and youth services portion is expected to cost $282,484.34 per year, with 80% funded from external sources and 20% from the county’s operating budget.

Contact Jennifer Learn-Andes at 570-991-6388 or tweet @TLJenLearnAndes.