Commissioners - Regular Meeting

um is the new addition to our sheriff's office

and she is she is yeah and she is going to be uh bomb and tracking yeah and public outreach for the sheriff's office if you want to explain a little bit about this process well thank you for the opportunity to speak here this morning this is evan lesher he's going to be the handler for arcadia and sarah sarah is a 14-month-old german short-haired clone um we just acquired her on friday we brought her home she actually just got off the plane from the chat the day prior to. So she has her own little passport. She's going to be a donor for Sloth. She's going to be explosives and dragon. So right now it's a multi-phase process. The process that part of the process we're in now is the marriage phase. So the handler and the dog bond at this point in time. She's going to go to training at Rocket Canine. They'll train for between 8 to 12 weeks. So he'll take her there to do all the training. Hopefully it's on the shorter end of that. They did testing with around there to show all the dogs off, and she did excellent. So we're really impressed with her. We're very happy with her. She seems to have had a very positive experience here in the forecast. Everybody had a once in a while. So as far as she is, she's doing a great job. I'd like to thank the commissioners for your support with the project. I'd like to thank Kevin Silver, he was instrumental in helping us get through the South Central task force. The task force paid for the canine, which is a pretty expensive price, and they're going to pay for all the training of the animal. So we're very appreciative to them for that. The only caveat is to it is if there is an incident within South Central Task Force, we're required to respond to it, which I think is a pretty good trade-off. We dealt with three incidents last year in our county involving explosives, and we will be in touch with you tonight. So have her on staff. We're real happy about it. We're real happy about the program. Thank you. I hope everybody gets an opportunity to meet her on the way out. We're going to hang out as long as we can. We have a lot going on this morning, as you can see, we're out in the forest, but we'll try to keep her around, so everybody gets an opportunity to meet her. Thank you.

So that's something else. Good morning, guys.

good morning commissioners good morning uh chris mullins the norwegian county of course i would ask that you refrain from any interruptions until after my three minutes myself and others from the public have ongoing issues and concerns regarding discrepancies between physical properties county assessment records and information reflected on camera cards residents continue identifying situations where the actual property does not match the camera data I personally identified a property in District 1, Norwegian Township, currently reflected as vacant land with an approximate value of $45,200 with $0 in improvements, despite the property containing an occupied dwelling conservatively over $300,000. In addition to that property, I identified two other properties containing inaccurate or false information within the assessment records. Several members of the public have also identified commercial properties directly classified as residential properties, including one operating bar with a liquor license. So the concern from the public is simple. If the reassessment system depends heavily on the TAMF accuracy, then how can taxpayers be expected to simply trust the system? when the underlying data itself may be inaccurate or incomplete. We have now made it through the assessment cycle, the reassessment cycle. At this point, the public should reasonably expect to begin seeing accurate property records and values reflected within the system. Is the county assessment office short-staffed? Are software limitations creating challenges for staff to efficiently review and verify property data? Does the official, or does the office have adequate tools and resources available, including updated satellite imagery, measuring equipment, mobile hardware, and seal technology needed to improve accuracy and efficiency? The public should not have to become assessors or appraisal experts just to verify whether their own property record is accurate. Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Good morning. I was wondering, on the agenda, is that in relation to their decision not to cover 2 and 7 ? Is there anything, has anything happened in terms of getting insurance for ? OK, because it's the 27th. Do you expect to get that done in time for ? And right now, it seems like the county didn't follow the state's pre-court order on bail-in ballots during the primary election. Letting people know that their mail-in ballots are deficient if they're not signed or if they don't have a date. I brought it up last week. Has there been any kind of action on ?

Well, I think that's a good question, Warren. Anyone who did not sign or report to the insurance system, the insurance system, contact the board.

Oh, they did this in the department?

Yes. Oh. They answer everything into the shore system. The county doesn't do it physically, except. You know, like, we don't contact the individual person. We enter into the state system, the shore system. And I guess the shore system doesn't do that. One more thing.

This person said, like, I don't know if he made an email. So what does it mean? Like, you're on the board of that commission. Okay, that's good to know. So obviously that practice will continue. Okay, thank you.

I sent you all an email yesterday, and I also sent it to Mr. Bender. And I would like to, before I even start any of this, is there a, are you still approving the plan? Yeah, we're going to table it.

We can get some information back. And we have to believe this. We've got some people saying it's too restrictive to date a tenor. And some people say it doesn't do enough per day. So it's bad for one extreme. All the way to the next .

So it's tainted.

It's going to be tainted, but we're going to refer it to Planning and Selling so we can give them all the information that we got from, well, we have about four or five people email or call regarding this. OK. On both ends of this .

Could you tell me when the planning meeting? June 10. June 10. Is it here? Yes. Well, there are .

Same time. Well, you know, we did that to that extra meeting. So I didn't have to pay for extra security without having extra costs, because we're already open that planning meeting, we added some extra night meetings. And that way, they're here. That's Probably. Okay. Okay.

Would there be any way to submit comments to the planning commission?

Yeah. They posted their agenda on the website. They were in the process of gathering information. I've talked to Susan Smith a while ago about starting to get information on what other counties do, what other communities do, what other states do, what other But you must keep, you must remember that it's a little less than 50% that the county actually has in the planning zone. All the rest are individual municipalities, like Tamaqua has that southern, or Schuylkill, eastern thing that moved there, and then like 20 counties that has their own planning zone. There's many municipalities that have their own planning zone in their own style. So we have no control over there. what they decide to plan, what they want to do. You only have the municipalities that prefer the county to plan it.

OK, so if you can submit a public comment to Susan Smash, our planning director, or you can come to the meeting.

I'm just too excited to be meeting someone one night. I'm going to make Shelby cover both. Yes.

They were going to turn it into cover both.

You should just stand in the middle of the room.

Do like a split screen on a big screen, right? They do do those live.

It is live stream.

Yeah, that's also live stream.

It is live stream, yeah.

I mean, we're so bombarded with information, I guess we could all like pay attention to two things at once. I have to just comment on the very last sentence, and it's what I call the screen peep. The core message of Charney and the county's industrial history into its next economic chapter.

So do we want to go back to being

a whole country again. I mean, I respect our heritage tremendously. I had two grandfathers die of black lung, not that that's a flag of pride, but I don't want to see us go in that direction again, because we're still trying to clean up that legacy. It's a wonderful history, and I'm happy we killed the industrial revolution, two world wars, but what's this data center explosion doing for us, besides taxes? Well, jobs.

will create jobs it will create you know people you know this is the next answers if data centers aren't the united states they're going to be somewhere else you're going to control our information another country what i'm trying to say is why not take coal lands that are not by any homes or any problems and if they're done responsibly why not on bullet i i agree and that's

A unique thing. Because we have that ability in this study that we have. But when I looked at, when I did scrutinize this, I tried to find the feasibility study that was referenced. That's a study that's going to be started shortly.

Okay. So we wanted to make sure that that was included in the feasibility study. That's why that's referring to that. What's the math? It's reported, the reason that plan was first a feasibility study, we're making sure the feasibility study goes out and they understand what the specific look, also where data centers would be located to identify areas that, you know, that have the infrastructure that will impact the community by noise or visual or anything. So we want to make sure that is included.

I think that would be a wonderful idea, to reuse that historical legacy that we have. Well, that's what we're trying to do.

Okay.

But again, I'm happy to take my last thing I was going to ask you to call for an auditorium until we do figure this out, because there's so much vagueness and so much ambiguity.

Like I said, if we call for an auditorium, it would only affect 3% or less of the county. Right now, any of the data center projects that are going on right now in this county are under

local planning is on. So when the county plan is in effect, does that supersede anything at all? No.

It is only on what is in the county's planning zone. An individual municipality that has their own planning zone, they can set their own rules and regulations, their own areas where they are. And this is just like, the reason this has to be looked at, because you can't just deny use. You have to specifically pick an area or location that they can meet. So that's why this is trying to be addressed, trying to be proactive on it, to try to address those issues.

Okay, will the public have to come, besides sending comments in?

Yeah, this is going to take a, it's going to take a company in the process of planning something to get through. Okay.

And that's good to know.

We have five states, those are frightening. Like, here's the thing, and there's a free technology, and then we're going to vote on it.

It's still a guideline that just means this is the guideline the planning is only for. That's all that we've met.

OK. Thank you.

Thank you for your time. Morning, Jeff. Morning. Let's start with the manager.

She already has a chance to speak. Stonie Cooper, Stonie Cooper, Six people not here at 930 this morning, while making about $100,000 a year salary and benefits. Stonie Cooper, Stonie Cooper, I guess you were stuck in traffic, I know I got to adopt this appointment about five or 10 minutes late, they cancel it and charge it, you know they're traffic every day on that grade and leave a little earlier, maybe leave at 830 when you're supposed to be Stonie Cooper, Stonie Cooper, sitting here delaying the whole meeting. Seems though Sarah, referring to her, she's probably gonna work more hours in this courthouse than most of the row office people. So it's good to have somebody like that here. Mr. Stevens and the right to know still haven't gotten the proper paperwork. The paperwork that you guys sent to me, they said Mr. O'Pick release what he has. Oh, that is correct.

It's in the file. He specifically told me that

the Attorney General denied, which is one of the Attorney General's policy.

And it's up to the county if we were to also call that policy and that would be our policy as well.

Okay, I see no documentation on the wall says that the Attorney General says this is what we do. If I couldn't be Attorney General, they would deny. But they could release I could release.

Yes, sir. Yeah, scratching on me. on the right-to-know request and the policies that are going to be released as an investigator.

And can we have a policy like that?

That's the policy we're following, that's what we're using. And Jeff, you have appeal rights for that.

So, right, there is documentation that are being denied is what I'm getting at, which is, I mean, it's a piece of paper. Why is it being denied?

But I guess, what are you looking for? A written policy?

Looking for the response from the Attorney General.

That's what we said. That's what we gave you.

That's not what you said. You sent me the response of my request.

That's what we have.

I'll bring it over to you. All right. You're also the one that told me to file it.

I didn't know I got it.

It's totally different.

You wanted the email chain. Correct. That's what we need. That was the email chain that we provide.

No, I can't release it. If you appeal the response, that's the counter response, and then you should appeal to the OR.

Let's just make some groups for one email is absolutely for something that we're in a payroll scheme because gave us a lot on a risk and it's still working in the building.

I wasn't here for many. I don't know. I said a third party agency working in the county.

Well, we'll keep. Miss Gaffney, her FMLA claim. I'm sure she's not here today. There's probably no tour. Still waiting on her to come and explain that. The missing evidence, President Jones made it out on record. I keep asking, has any of the missing evidence been found? I mean, is it crucial that any trials that are pending are coming up? It's mind-blowing that that statement was made on record and we have no idea on the missing evidence. Going back to last week's comments, the joint campaign, he definitely took $250 on September 26th, 2023 from Frank Promise. But for the Larry and Boots campaign, Boots, you also took $1,500 on April 20th, 23. That was one of your biggest donors, if not the biggest donor. That's not true. And then... He wasn't the biggest donor. What did I just say? He's either your biggest or one of the biggest donors of your company.

What?

He was not one of the biggest donors.

Okay. I was told that we did not...

So I'm urging you guys, if you really care about the people of the West End, stop supporting people like this. Send 1750 back to him and show that you're standing behind the people that are terrorized by his moves. I mean, the Mr. Miller out there, the stuff right in his backyard, it's disgusting.

And the last question I have, because I got multiple calls and new questions about it.

Were you in a little fender bender last week with somebody else's vehicle? And it was one of the Richards? Yes. Okay. I gave it to you. Okay, thank you. You're welcome.

Any other comments? If not, we'll be here. The motion to approve the minutes from the May 13th meeting. So moved, Mr. Chairman. Second.

Any questions?

Commissioner Hedrickson. Yes.

Commissioner Hedrickson.

Yes. The motion to approve the work session minutes from May 21st. So moved, Mr. Chairman. Second. Any questions? Commissioner Hedrickson.

Yes. Commissioner Hedrickson.

Yes. Commissioner Haas. Yes. The motion to approve children being presented on the work session. So moved, Mr. Chairman. Second. Any questions? Commissioner Hedrickson. Yes. Commissioner Hedrickson. Yes. Commissioner Haas. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. That most of what we're going to have some sort of double check second question for sure.

Yeah. Yes. Yes. So I'm sorry. Second question. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes. Good morning. There's two items of information that are occurring about your justice made from $1,000 that we can use for us that Stonie Cooper, Stonie Cooper, And then i'll be having to go probation world problems are after the approval of a government.

Stonie Cooper, And i'll say. Stonie Cooper, Yes, yes. Stonie Cooper, I just wanted a question on that. Stonie Cooper, For the extra snow is not going. I don't know how much winter we had. If anybody knows the winter, it was not the easiest time. So with that, I just wanted to know what happened. That is correct. Is that any illustration?

We're going to take this to our crew zone, and we got some good information to pull outside. So we'll enter the planning zone. Human Resources Office.

Good morning. First, we have an expert, Jeff Lewis, who is an expert in novels that are full-time. He was an expert in novels that are full-time at a value of $24,555, effective $61,26, and the rate is per unit contract. Under information on the method related to the $20,000 decision, the case officer is effective $68,26, and the rate is per unit contract. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes, the approval of the addendum to the contract 2013-176 and payments of people insurance program for property loss and liability for the contract period of June 1st, 2026 to June 1st, 2027 for a total cost of $835,607 and the payment will be broken down to 40%, 30% and 30% through June 1st, September 1st, They decided, arbitrarily,

right for our renewal that they weren't going to cover this anymore and leave the county surrounded. That's why in the late time, the insurance. Then the court of candidates said, we've been speculating this since September. They never gave us any notification at all that they were going to exclude coverage for the 287 G-20. They never told, originally they told us we had coverage And then all of a sudden, the last minute, they changed them again. So that's why the latency is not even . Because we were trying to get verification on what they're actually doing. So that's why. . Yeah.

.

So you'd be on top of the county's target team. So, but if there's PCORS full-time work on it, some kind of answer, because they're the only acts that are in the entire country that's not in this coverage. So we're a little disappointed with how the county...

The research in the local police for the city of Roscoe and the municipalities, having a different co-op, here's part of their coverage. The charm that I wasn't, and then the question at the point of the vote, He's doing surgery. He's an outsider. Spoke to the job. Well, the job was he's been a sheriff of Holland, a living sheriff. So he was saying, so what else are we doing? So the super guy kind of stood up and said, well, he said, there's a common law. He said, well, if you want him, why don't you always say, if you'd like a car, if I've ever covered it, I've covered it. If I've ever covered it, I've covered it. We know we should work on this, so we're We're going to push it out. We're going to push it back and say, tell us what we have coverage for and what else we're doing on top of it. So we've got to put a spin on what we have. Like I said, people is the only travelers in our community. It's the only insurance company in the world that's not covering this situation. The sheriff's doing his normal duties. He's knocking down a ranch, knocking out doors down in Newark. so we're and we did some shopping outside

There's still some confusion on it, but with this insurance policy, you exit it before plus 14, for how much you have to pay in one year's premium, plus half a year, even to leave that. So that's why we looked into it, and that's why it's being adopted right before the deadline, because we were trying to get clarification. So, do we have a motion? I'll make that motion, sir.

Second. Mr. Fedor? Yes. Mr. Evans? Yes. Yes. The motion to adjourn. I'm back.

All right, in working conditioners, again, Chris on the left, Peter on the right. Short of sat on this one,

and thought about it a little last night. I would like to just briefly address an issue regarding professionalism and respect during last week's meeting. During the discussion between yourself, Chairman Padora, and Ms. Clara Woodstown, who's not here today, there were two counties' employees that had left the meeting, whether they were responding to work matter or returning to offices for other reasons. And I want to make that clear. However, while leaving, a comment stating, get them to shut up, was factually overheard by myself and directed towards another county employee who did not respond. Regardless of the circumstances surrounding their departure from the room, the comment was inappropriate and disappointing to hear during a public meeting.

Residents take their time.

out of their schedules each week to attend these meetings, stay informed, and participate in county government. Whether citizens agree or disagree with the discussions taking place before this board, the public deserves professionalism and respect from everyone representing each local county. I am intentionally not identifying whether these individuals were associated with a row office or a county department, because the larger issue is about conduct and public perception. The actions and comments made by the county representatives inside this room reflect on the county government as a whole. I simply ask that everyone, everyone involved in county government, elected officials, staff, employees alike remember professionalism patience respect matters especially during moments of disagreement or tense discussion thanks for your time guys

Good morning. My name is John Powers from Pottsville. I'm not really good with computers, but I have watched the meetings for many months now. And I was a teacher in the Pottsville Area School District for 41 years. I was the dean of students for a number of those years. And what I want to get to is during that time, Republican and Democrat lawmakers who did not know squat about education forced educators in the school districts to follow certain things because of politics. And both parties were absolutely guilty. I thought most of them did not dare me to do an instruction, but I made it very clear that very often this was not the best Interest of the student. And that is our job. The best area for the best interest for a student. So I stood up to a lot of it. Took some grief. I actually call them at times misinformed politicians who have never been in a classroom. And I resented it. But when the time came and they said we had to do it, I did it. The reason I'm here today is, and I'm going to speak directly to this area in Tremont. As commissioners, I would ask you to stand by the people who put you in those seats, the majority of which are against this idea for a myriad of reasons. And I've heard at least two of you say, you don't want to get into the politics. Politics has everything to do with it at times. And I'm asking you today, despite the politics, to stand up individually and say, you are against this travesty that you're looking to bring into the dream on paradise. I think the people of Schuylkill County deserve to know that you're with them. Thank you.

Second. Second. Yes. Yes.

Yes. In the resource. I'm happy.

Okay.