DA investigating extra pay given to salaried county employees

May 9—MERCER — The Mercer County district attorney's office continues to investigate the issue of unauthorized payments to the county controller's office staff, and could release findings soon.

"It'll get done when it gets done," District Attorney Peter C. Acker said. "Hopefully sooner than later."

At the commissioners meeting Thursday, commissioners and Controller Stephen J. Sherman II continued to argue over the issue and two projects under the controller's leadership that commissioners say are taking longer than expected.

The controller's office is in the process of transferring the county's financial system into a new software system from Oracle.

"We are working through the implementation issue that we have," commissioners Chair Ann Coleman said. "We are using a contract that was negotiated through the previous board and it may or may not have anticipated the time commitment needed by our employees."

When Sherman realized the project was taking too long, he said he approached Coleman and Commissioner William Finley Jr. and requested that two of his senior salaried employees be paid overtime for working outside their normal hours on the project.

Sherman said two commissioners agreed but told him to put the issue before the salary board. McGonigle was on vacation and was not alerted to the issue.

The issue of payment still has not come before the salary board, because the DA is conducting his investigation.

McGonigle said that Sherman, of all people, should know that this issue should be brought in front of the salary board. The salary board consists of the controller as chair, and the three commissioners as permanent members. When there are decisions that affect the other elected row offices, such as the district attorney or sheriff, the relevant row officer is added as a temporary salary board member.

McGonigle said the two employees are not even eligible for overtime. The county's Human Resources Department discovered the unauthorized payments and reported the issue to the commissioners.

The commissioners requested in a formal letter to Sherman that the nearly $6,000 paid to the employees be paid back.

Coleman stressed that this situation is not a political issue, and Commissioner Tim McGonigle agreed.

"It's an ongoing operational issue," Coleman said. "It's not something to be fought on social media."

McGonigle was not happy that Sherman took to Facebook to state, "After being falsely accused by one commissioner, losing over three weeks of progress on our project, our software partners have estimated these delays will cost Mercer County $350,000. I brought this concern forward, took immediate action to mitigate the situation, however the false accusations by one commissioner has cost us a lot of money."

McGonigle said commissioners cannot agree to anything without the salary board.

"The salary board is in place to maintain democracy," McGonigle said. "Had these guys been in a salary board meeting, along with me, we could've discussed the fact that raises were already given to those two employees."

Sherman said that the employees gave up their personal time to work very hard on the project, and the extra funds they were paid were legally earned.

"There was no other legal matter that has arose or jurisdiction or ruling that says they have to pay those funds back," Sherman said. "If I were those employees, I would not pay them back either."

He went on to say that if he were a commissioner in this situation, he would not request that payment because he would be afraid of the employees bringing a lawsuit for work they completed and were due to be paid.

McGonigle said this project was one of two projects that Sherman was in charge of that are not getting completed.

"When you were elected without your accounting degree, we questioned whether or not you were going to be able to handle the responsibilities of that office. And now, here we are," McGonigle said. "And it seems those fears have come to fruition."

Coleman said she speaks for the board when she says that they shouldn't be playing the blame game.

"We are committed to finding a realistic and cost-effective solution that guarantees that we have a strong financial base going forward," Coleman said. "And we don't waste any taxpayer dollars doing that."

Follow Melissa Klaric on twitter @HeraldKlaric or email her at mklaric@sharonherald.com

Follow Melissa Klaric on twitter @HeraldKlaric or email her at mklaric@sharonherald.com