SCRANTON — Lackawanna County commissioners did not vote Wednesday to adopt the county’s 2020 budget, setting up a likely budget vote at the board’s next meeting Nov. 20.
Absent from the meeting was Commissioner Jerry Notarianni, the lone incumbent to win another term as commissioner Tuesday night. Notarianni also has been the most critical of county budgets in recent years, voting against the county’s 2017, 2018 and 2019 spending plans. None of those budgets raised property taxes, nor does the tentative 2020 fiscal blueprint.
When the county introduced the $129.5 million draft 2020 budget in mid-October, it carried a roughly $5.6 million operating deficit that was expected to shrink the county’s general fund surplus from about $23.7 million to about $18.08 million by the end of next year.
That operating deficit widened in the weeks since to about $5.87 million, as officials factored in pay hikes and salaries for new positions approved late last month by the county salary board, county Chief Financial Officer Tom Durkin said.
Commissioner Laureen Cummings said Wednesday she still has questions about the spending plan, which is why commissioners delayed a vote on its adoption. The draft budget, which also includes a $500,000 pension fund contribution, remains a work in progress until final adoption later this month.
Commissioners must adopt the budget by Dec. 1, though Notarianni and commissioners-elect Debi Domenick and Chris Chermak said they would consider reopening the final budget to make additional changes.
Construction contracts
Commissioners also took no action Wednesday on almost $3.2 million in construction contracts for a project to convert a former medical office building at 1360 Wyoming Ave. into the future home of Central Court. The building is behind Lackawanna County Prison.
The contracts include: general trades, Mar-Paul, $1,955,000; HVAC, Robert Harrington, $505,000; plumbing, Scranton Electric, $244,950, and electrical, Joyce Electrical, $495,000.
Commissioners seemed prepared to vote on those contracts last month when they appeared on the board’s Oct. 23 meeting agenda, but tabled the motion pending additional information about the bids and the scope of the work.
It’s unclear when commissioners will vote on the contracts. Attempts to reach county General Counsel Donald Frederickson were unsuccessful after Wednesday’s meeting.
If the county moves forward with the contracts, the cost of the court project could exceed the $4 million commissioners allocated for it from the $15 million in capital borrowing they approved in August 2018.
That allocation included the $875,000 the county spent to buy the Wyoming Avenue property last year and a $165,000 contract awarded to the Palumbo Group to design the project.
In other business, commissioners approved five-year lease agreements with Connecticut-based Pitney Bowes for postage machines for the county’s nine magistrate offices and for the county coroner. Leasing the machines, which eliminates the need for officials to go to the post office, will cost a $45.49 a month per office, county purchasing Director Joe Wechsler said.
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