Wyoming County Concerned Taxpayers' P. A. C.

Visit this page to read information gathered from the commissioners, and other meetings.

Click Here to view a copy of the 2010 Wyoming County Commissioners meetting schedule.

The Tunkhannock Area School District School Board has cancelled the Human Resources Committee meeting scheduled for 2/25 due to the weather. The School Board meeting scheduled for 2/25 has been rescheduled to 3/4 at 7:00pm.

1/14/10 Report by, Chris Jescavage - At the end of today's commissioners work session Jim Davis said that George Skumanic's sexting appeal will be heard by , I think he called it the applet court in Philadelphia , tomorrow . If they find against Judge Mundly decision in Scranton it will be over . If they in favor of him there is a very good chance that the A.C.L.U. will be looking for their fees to be paid by the county . There was mention that George might have insurance for something like this through the bar association . I don't know if this would let the county off of the hook . Jim mentioned that we would possibly be looking at a $200,000.00 bill to the A.C.L.U.. Also mentioned at the end is that there is more problems with the 911 building . The floating floor is cracking in spots and also some areas have the edges turning up . We only had a one year guarantee on the building by the builder . I didn't ask where the money keeps coming from to fix all of these problems . Give your commissioners or Jim Davis a call to see where we stand on George's case .


11/28/09 Report by, Chris Jescavage – I heard from a reliable source some info about the new lacrosse field at the Roslund School . I don't know right now who gave the school board directors a drawing of elevation for the field but they showed only 5 foot of land needing to be dug out of the hill side on the north side and placed on the south side for fill . This person also drew the field up to be 420 ft . long and 240 ft . wide . Right now the north side is dug down to 12 ft . and more fill is needed on the south side . The labor and dozer are being donated but the school board agreed to pay for fuel , estimated to be $15,000.00 . I don't remember a figure for this being mentioned at the budget meetings and don't know where the money will be pulled from . Migilori ? at the last meeting said he had in his notes that $10,000.00 would be put aside for the lacrosse program but not specifically for a field . People I talked to don't remember this figure from any meeting so it should be a matter of pulling minutes and seeing if this is true . My understanding also is there are no other schools with a lacrosse program and this is a shot in the dark that others will start up lacrosse programs to make leagues up . I don't understand much about sports and I thought to begin with schools were tight on state money this year and if we were to finance anything it should be education first .
We also have a maintenance supervisor that wants to move the air handlers in the pool area up on the roof . It was mentioned that the roof might have to be re enforced , a room built around it because of the condensation water in the winter , duct work , and electrical moved to make this happen plus the possibility of people having to go up on a snow / ice covered roof to do work on the unit . Common sense would say keep it where it is at , in the warm building where it is now . Please let the school board know how you feel about this !
I also heard the business manager position was put out for bid 7 months ago with a specification that the person had 5 years of hard experience . 25 applicants were received 5 had the 5 years and were narrowed down to 3 . 2 ended up being undesirable and with 1 left it was put out for bid a 2 nd . time with no recommendation attained . It was put out for bid a 3 rd . time and the fellow that got it had 25 years with J.P. Morgan as financial advisor for Asian and Latin affair accounts and not the hard 5 years experience in the public sector originally specified . Dr. Sandra Lane was business manager for 22 1/2 years and in the end was paid $102,000.00 a year and this fellow was brought in at $90,000.00 . The average for a business manager is $ 83,000.00 and it was mentioned that someone younger with good experience would have been less if they would have waved the 5 years hard experience like they did for the fellow in the end .
My ears are red now and my blood pressure is up so I am done for now . Look up info on SamRohrer.org for governor and see what you think of him . He sounds like the man to get school property taxes off of our homes forever , still fund schools responsibly , and get government off of our backs . All Wyoming county workers are getting between 2 and 3 1/2 percent raises this year with the county ( us - me and you ) paying for their full medical insurance expense including their $1,000.00 deductible . The ones that are only getting the 2 percent were upset . I know people that haven't received raises for several years and many that have no job at all , I don't feel any tears forming . They also get the guaranteed pension fund that , we - you and me , have to fund if it goes below a certain amount of return . Teachers and state workers are guaranteed this also . Think about that the next time you see a Penn. DOT truck backed into the woods some where with the 4 people sleeping in it .

11/24/09 Report by, Chris Jescavage F.Y.I. - At the last work session for the commissioners Tony Litwin and Eric Brown were talking about property taxes going to 100 percent of the property value instead of the 50 percent they are at now . They also mentioned that the ratio property taxes are calculated at will max out by law in a few years and will have to be changed some how so it could be increased more in the future . We need to find and suggest places to cut and save in the budget instead of raising and raising taxes . The borough is also asking for a 3 1/2 percent increase in taxes for their budget soon .

12/01/09 Report of Concern from, Deborah Albert-Heise Dear Friends,

I find myself in a position where I must ask you for a favor yet again at a time where I thought I would no longer need your help.

An unexpected turn of events - as you probably know, I am the Wyoming County Public Defender for all adult cases in the county. I am now at risk of losing my job because the county commissioners, who hire me, have indicated that someone "has expressed interest in the job"; and therefore, the commissioners are advertising my job and accepting "letters of interest" from any attorney that may want the job. The person that "has expressed interest in the job" is GEORGE SKUMANICK.

I understand that Mr. Skumanick finds himself out of a job; however, the commissioner just reviewed my budget in October and told me that I was doing a good job and that they had heard no complaints about my work performance. The fact that Mr. Skumanick now needs a job is not a reason to take mine away from me.

Some facts about my work: I have been the public defender from January 1, 2004 to present. I handle between 350 and 400 adult criminal cases a year, which amounts to about 80% of all the adult cases in the county.
To do this, I have no assistant public defenders, 1 secretary and no detectives. (The DA's office has a full-time DA, 2 assistant DA's, 3 secretaries and a detective.) This requires the ability to manage cases efficiently and to multi-task, both of which I believe I do well.

I am a member of the Wyoming County Prison Board. I have worked hard to keep the prisoners informed and satisfied, although they find numerous things to complain about, some of which are legitimate. For example, in 2007, the prisoners were not receiving drug and alcohol counseling like they should. I brought this to the attention of the county commissioners, and after much hard work by everyone in the system, the county contract drug and alcohol provider was switched to a much more reliable agency that now provides the counseling these prisoners need.

It is important as public defender that I minimize exposure to liability for the county. If I get sued, the county gets sued. In 6 years, I have had no complaints lodged against me, and in all my 18 years of practice, I have never been sued for malpractice or disciplined by the Disciplinary Board. In addition, I do federal criminal defense work, which I think is important to understand how a state criminal case may affect a client on the federal level and visa versa. Not understanding the way the state and federal laws interact could result in a mistake that may amount to malpractice.

Another important part of my job as public defender is to sit as a team member on the Drug Treatment Court. I have done this since the Treatment Court began almost 3 years ago, and I am one of the founding members. I have had almost 50 hours of training for this specific purpose, and I am on the Policy Committee which helps to create and revise the policies of the Treatment Court. I have taken a very personal interest in the clients that have entered the Treatment Court, and I find it very rewarding to see these individuals overcome their addictions as our team helps them become productive members of our community.

As public defender, I am a member of the Pennsylvania Public Defenders Association, and represent Wyoming County on a state-wide basis. I have spent the last 6 years networking and working with public defenders from other counties, a network that I find invaluable in representing my clients.

There are countless other duties that I carry out on a daily basis, but the bottom line is this - I truly enjoy the work I do, I do it with dedication and integrity, and from what I can tell, my clients appear to be very satisfied with my representation.

If the commissioner hire Mr. Skumanick, he will not be able to represent anyone he prosecuted. I currently have about 200 pending public defender cases that he would not be able to handle. Those people would have to have court-appointed attorneys that would bill the county at least $ 30,000.00, above and beyond the public defender's salary. That doesn't even count all the future cases he would not be able to handle.
In addition, any other attorneys interested in the job would not be residents of Wyoming County. I live in the county, pay taxes in the county and spend my money in the county. I belive that Wyoming County employees should live in the county.

I intend to continue to be public defender as long as the commissioners will allow me. This is not a passing fancy or a new venture for me to dabble in. This is a position that I am committed to.

My contract with the county commissioners expires on December 31, 2009.
I can only continue in my position if the commissioners renew my contract. I am requesting that you contact anyone and everyone you know in Wyoming County, that you encourage them to contact the commissioners to urge them to renew my contract and that you do the same. They will make their decision sometime around December 15, 2009.

The county commissioners are Anthony Litwin, Judy Mead and Stark Bartron. They can be reached at the courthouse at 1 Courthouse Square, Tunkhannock, PA 18657, (570) 836-3200, X1.

I really appreciate your help. If you want more information or have any additional insight you'd like to share, please get in touch with me.

Thank you so much!

Sincerely

Deborah Albert-Heise

Last Updated: 1/22/10