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In light of the most recent defeat of an appeal in the ongoing legal dispute between the Lycoming County commissioners and county Controller Krista Rogers, Commissioner Scott Metzger announced that the commissioners will not seek any further appeals.
To reinforce that decision, the commissioners voted at their meeting this week to transfer the positions that had been moved out of Rogers' office back to her office.
"We've discussed as a board moving forward...and we're all in agreement that we want to work with the controller's office," Metzger said.
The latest appeal had been filed under the former board, which included Metzger, Rick Mirabito and Tony Mussare. Mirabito and Mussare have since left office.
"When this case was appealed last year, my two previous colleagues -- I respected their opinions and their thought process. I didn't necessarily agree with appealing it and I was against the appeal. The courts have ruled," Metzger said.
"I didn't think it was in the best interest, at the time, of the county to appeal back then. And I'm definitely of that opinion again. This is not in the interest of the county to move forward any further with this," he added.
Metzger noted that his fellow commissioners on the current board, Marc Sortman and Mark Mussina, are in agreement with the decision not to pursue any more appeals.
"The three of us have spoken together, (and) we're in unison on this, so the actions we took today placed the staff back where they were prior to the lawsuit," he said.
"We've had several conversations with Krista...where we feel that the relationship is a good one moving forward, and it's going to be a cooperative one. And we look forward to that," he added.
In her comments about the board's decision, Rogers said that "working with this board is like a breath of fresh air."
"We were in a row officer meeting with the three commissioners and a comment that stuck out to me...we're all elected officials," Rogers said.
"We're on the same level and we all need to work together and it doesn't matter who we are, what position we hold -- we were elected by the citizens of Lycoming County to do a job, whatever that job is. No one is above anyone else and let's all do our jobs and get the job done. I'm looking forward to being able to do that," she added.
Sortman praised the merger of the positions under the umbrella of the controller's office.
"I think it's a positive for Lycoming County because it puts all the financial under one area," Sortman said.
"As a new guy coming in, we got the treasurer's office, we got the budget office, the controller's office. I really think this helps streamline, and anything we can streamline -- and I think that the controller would agree with me -- also saves the county money and payroll and time. So I think it's an excellent merger, personally," Sortman said.
The offices that were transferred to the controller's office are senior accountant, accountant I, accountant II, lead fiscal technician, financial technician and payroll/AP specialist.
In other matters, under personnel, the commissioners approved the following full-time replacements: Thomas Hook, senior technology administrator in information services, $72,800; Lisa Ames, procurement and grant officer in purchasing, $43,602 per year; Angelica Turner, clerk III in domestic relations, $14.58 per hour; Julie Morlock, paralegal in the district attorney's office, $19.74 per hour; Sharif Mercer, correctional officer I at the prison, $20 per hour; Donald Heverly, recycling laborer at Resource Management Services, $14.50 per hour; Christopher Dalla Piazza, senior software analyst in information services, $72,800 per year; Bruce Musheno, technical analyst in information services, $63,250 per year; John Noble, technical analyst in information services, $62,150 per year; Timothy Shaffer, technical specialist in information services, $26.50 per hour; Douglas Boyles and Ronald Weaver, technical specialists in information services, $26.31 per hour each; Clayton Keefer, technical specialist in information services, $24.46 per hour; and Nicholas Nemeth, software specialist in information services, $24 per hour.
Three lateral position transfers for the controller's office were also approved. They are: Emily Snyder, accountant I, $50,714 per year; Lori Weston, lead fiscal technician, $27.39 per hour; and Desierre Higley, payroll/AP specialist, $20.17 per hour.
Other actions taken by the commissioners included approving: a beneficiary agreement with Alabaster Coffee Roaster & Tea Co. in the amount of $50,000 in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds' business assistance program; a Motorola Solutions quote of $959,123 in ARPA funds to purchase mobile radios for all of the county's volunteer fire departments; and an amendment to the subrecipient monitoring agreement with STEP Inc. for 2022 PHARE funds.
The following applications for membership on the Lycoming County Local Emergency Committee were approved: Sortman, elected official; Stacey Folk and Jon Mackey, emergency management; and William Miller and Charles Whitford, EMS and health provider, emergency management and firefighting.
The next commissioners' meeting will be at 10 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 15, in the Commissioners' Board Room, first floor Executive Plaza, 330 Pine St.