Luzerne County Council members were in a collective state of distress Tuesday about what would have happened if there had been a flood or other major disaster this year.
To be eligible for state and federal disaster assistance, county governments must prepare and adopt hazard mitigation plans outlining potential risks and update these plans every five years — a requirement of the Federal Disaster Mitigation Act.
That updated plan was completed late last year and had to be adopted by council before Jan. 1, but the administration did not place the update on a council agenda until Tuesday.
This lack of an adopted plan update could have prevented the county and its municipalities from receiving funds for post-disaster damages, including property buy-outs. The county and local governments could have been forced to pay for infrastructure damage on their own.
Council discussed the plan at Tuesday’s work session but won’t vote to adopt it until next month. However, Nancy Snee, the county’s interim planning/zoning director, said the state Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency said the county is out of the “dangerous zone” because a municipality — Wilkes-Barre — adopted the county’s updated hazard mitigation plan earlier this month.
Council members questioned how the required county approval was missed.
Snee said she didn’t receive a copy of the updated plan until March but initiated the process to get the plan on council’s agenda last December.
“As to why we’re at this stage, I can’t really explain,” she said.
She said she sent a copy of the plan and an email to her boss, Operational Services Division Head Tanis Manseau, along with some reminders. Snee said she learned the plan had not been adopted and that disaster funds would be in jeopardy when she returned from a leave in July and became “very avid” to get the matter on the agenda while simultaneously sending copies of the plan to municipalities for their review.
Manseau said the plan approval was “lost in the shuffle,” and he stressed nobody from the administration had received notice from the state or federal government about the missed deadline and potential impact.
Council Chairwoman Linda McClosky Houck said she heard nothing about the matter until this week.
Council members Tim McGinley and Harry Haas said the administration must ensure crucial deadlines are not missed.
“The bottom line is we just got lucky,” said Councilman James Bobeck.
“This is extremely alarming,” said Councilwoman Kathy Dobash.
“It’s kind of scary to think of what could have happened,” said Councilman Rick Morelli.
In other business, council members voted 9-2 to extend a Keystone Opportunity Zone tax break for a 47-acre, mine-scarred tract in Duryea.
The Greater Pittston Chamber of Commerce submitted the request for the property off McAlpine Street, with representatives saying the break is their only hope to attract developers to the site, which was deserted when coal mining ceased there more than 60 years ago. An unnamed entity is considering building a manufacturing business on part of the property.
The county will only forego tax revenue if the land is developed and occupied. If not, the chamber will continue paying taxes on the land only as it has in the past. The chamber also has agreed to pay an additional 10 percent in property taxes on the land portion.
The chamber has owned the property since the late 1960s and invested $2.7 million in its own funds and government grants and loans in recent years to build the Boylan Drive access road and a railroad crossing and bring public utilities to the site to make it more attractive, officials said.
Dobash and Councilwoman Eileen Sorokas were the lone votes against the extension.
Also discussed Tuesday:
• Several council members expressed concerns about county Manager Robert Lawton’s budget transfer request to use savings from bidding out inmate health care to fund raises for 119 non-union employees who haven’t received pay hikes in seven years and a proposed new deputy county manager position.
Morelli said both requests should be addressed as part of the upcoming 2016 budget and opposed creation of a deputy manager position, saying, “We don’t need anymore chiefs in this government.” He also pressed Lawton for a glimpse of the proposed 2016 budget that must be submitted next month.
Lawton acknowledged there will be several “built-in, unavoidable increases” in 2016, including $1.25 million for the employee pension fund, $1 million for health insurance and $1.5 million for union contracted raises.
Council will vote on the budget transfers next month.
• Human Services Division Head David Schwille told council the state budget impasse has caused funding delays that have slowed payments to outside entities that provide supplies and services to his departments. He acknowledged some of these entities are “in a bad place” as a result.” Some have been forced to tap their own lines of credit or stop taking on new clients, he said.
By Jennifer Learn-Andes
jandes@timesleader.com
Reach Jennifer Learn-Andes at 570-991-6388 or on Twitter @TLJenLearnAndes.