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Study panel in limbo
The government study panel couldn’t have an official meeting again Wednesday.
NEW CASTLE, Pa. — On one hand, there is a panel of elected officials who have a job to do.
They’ve been meeting since January to decide whether to recommend a new form of government for the voters in Lawrence County.
But now the panel has two big problems. It hasn’t had enough members at meetings lately for a majority to even convene. And, depending on who you talk to, it’s either about to run out of money or it already has.
On the other hand are the three county commissioners. They have a legal obligation to fund the government study panel, which was only supposed to exist for nine months. It was given a nine-month extension to propose a new county charter, however. So it wants an additional $12,000.
But commissioners are frustrated because they requested a budget from the study commission accounting for how that $12,000 will be spent. They asked for the budget Sept. 11, and they believed a panel representative would be coming to a commissioners’ meeting Oct. 9 with the budget. So far, no one has shown up.
Though they do have an obligation to fund the panel, commissioners have maintained that they have a say in how much they will give it.
The panel’s request is coming against a backdrop of belt-tightening as the county reacts to the hit its retirement fund took in the economic crisis by imposing a hiring freeze and trying to cut costs.
The commissioners also expect to finalize the county’s 2009 budget by late November and will put it on display for 20 days for the public. They wanted the panel’s budget before then, though they could still add line items, said Commissioner Steve Craig. They also could reopen the county budget in the new calendar year, he said.
He acknowledged that the commissioners could set an arbitrary amount for the panel just to satisfy the legal obligation.
“But I don’t know if it’s our role to set that number,” he said.
Craig said the commissioners know how the panel spent its first allotment of $12,000. The bills are submitted to the county controller.
“But we don’t know what their future needs are,” he said.
Craig also questioned whether the commissioners do have a legal obligation to fund a panel that can’t convene itself for lack of a quorum.
That’s an interesting question, said Thomas Leslie, county solicitor — one that he would have to research, he said, if the commissioners ask him for an opinion.
The study panel could not convene its meeting last Wednesday.
Its chairman, David Kennaday, said business was discussed, though no votes were taken. The last time the panel had a quorum, Kennaday said, was Oct. 1. But during that meeting, a member had to leave, and the quorum was lost. The panel had to stop conducting official business.
Kennaday said the panel might try to have its meetings on another night if more members are able to attend. It has been meeting every other Wednesday to draft a new charter, which it wants to recommend next November along with a council-manager form of government.
Kennaday also said he wants the panel to vote on its budget before submitting it to the commissioners. He will have to wait for a quorum to take that vote.
Joe Cicero, the panel’s secretary-treasurer, told The Vindicator last week that the panel’s budget wasn’t done by Oct. 9.
Cicero said the commissioners knew the panel’s budget was for nine months and wasn’t following the county’s fiscal budgeting schedule.
“They not only owe us for what we use in the second nine months, but they owe us for the first nine months,” he said, adding that the panel’s part-time secretary has yet to be paid for September work and wasn’t paid for August work until October.
The panel submits its bills monthly to the county.
Cicero also said the county “moves money around” all the time, and could take the $12,000 out of its contingency fund. “They have more than enough money.”
Craig said the commissioners could take the money out of the contingency fund. But the fund is down to $130,000, he said, and should be used only for emergencies.
“If we have an office that doesn’t receive state reimbursement funds, we wouldn’t have enough money to meet payroll,” he said.
Craig also said the commissioners never agreed to a nine-month budgeting cycle for the panel. “Baloney,” he said, adding that commissioners allocated $12,000 for the panel based on an earlier study panel’s budget of $10,000. Commissioners added 20 percent for the current panel, he said.
How much money does the panel have left? Cicero said it has around $1,000.
“They don’t have any money left,” Craig said. “Depending on legal bills, they may have expended all their funds before [Wednesday’s] meeting.”
starmack@vindy.com