Schuylkill to draw $28K from contingency fund due to constables’ suspension

The suspension of two Schuylkill County constables has triggered a $28,000 draw from the contingency fund.

At the request of Finance Director Paul E. Buber, commissioners approved the budget adjustment.

Deputy Court Administrator for Criminal Court John Richmond explained the situation.

Constables are independent contractors, chosen by district judges. They are paid a fee for each warrant they serve. The constables submit their bills to the county, which pays them from the offenders’ fines.

The constables, whom Richmond did not name, were suspended, and told to return all their warrants.

“These two now submit their bills for whatever they are doing. They did their work, so they are entitled to be paid,” Richmond said.

Constables’ pay ebbs and flows depending on the number of warrants they serve, and whether or when offenders pay their fines.

If the fines aren’t paid, the county antes up.

“This year, that went beyond what they budgeted,” Richmond said.

“The fees will eventually be recouped when the defendants pay their fines,” he said.

Richmond called the suspensions an anomaly.

While he did not identify the men, constables David R. Kneller, 40, of Myerstown, Lebanon County, and John M. Sarge, 63, of Tamaqua, were charged by Hazleton police in June with multiple counts of official oppression, false imprisonment, harassment and conspiracy to commit official oppression and false imprisonment stemming from an April 10 incident.

In other court matters, commissioners agreed, at the request of court administrator Lois Wallauer, to a new contract for the county’s sole capital case defense lawyer.

Before 2011, the county didn’t have any attorneys who were qualified to try capital cases, so if a defendant couldn’t afford a lawyer, and the public defender had a conflict, a judge would have to appoint an attorney from out of the county, and that got to be very expensive, Wallauer said.

Two lawyers in the county each had one of the two qualifications needed — to have tried a number of significant cases before a jury — to try capital cases.

The lawyers agreed to the second qualification, and the attainment of continuing education.

The commissioners in 2011 signed off on the agreements, and the judge had the lawyers agree to work 320 hours for which they would be paid $2,000 a month.

If they exceeded the 320 hours, they would be paid by the hour, at the time, $75 an hour, she said.

The lawyers were Jeffrey Markosky and Claude A. Lord Shields.

But now, Shields is transferring to the district attorney’s office, so his contract is being terminated.

Markosky’s contact is also being terminated so a new one can be put in place.

Commissioners approved the agreement to continue Markosky’s court-appointed services for criminal defendants who cannot be represented by the public defender due to a conflict of interest.

The new contract begins on Jan. 1, 2018, and increases the annual hours of work required from 320 hours to 525 hours, increases the monthly payment from $2,000 to $3,500, and increases the hourly rate for hours worked in excess of 525 hours from $75 to $80 per hour, Wallauer said.