Posted on 06/20/2009 5:33:10 AM PDT by Born Conservative
Deputy’s vacation time not reported to payroll dept. called misunderstanding.
WILKES-BARRE – Luzerne County Sheriff Michael Savokinas acknowledged Friday that vacation time recently taken by Chief Deputy Charles Guarnieri was not reported to the county’s payroll department but insisted it was a misunderstanding and there was no intent to defraud the county.
Savokinas said Guarnieri was off for about two weeks. That information was recorded internally, he said, but it was not transmitted to the county payroll department because his payroll clerk apparently did not realize it was supposed to be noted.
That resulted in Guarnieri being credited for working “regular” hours instead of using vacation time. Although it had no impact on the amount of Guarnieri’s pay, the distinction is significant because management employees are entitled to receive payment for unused vacation, sick and personal time when they leave county employment, said Commissioner Chairwoman Maryanne Petrilla.
Savokinas said he wants to make it clear there was no attempt at wrongdoing, so he contacted the District Attorney’s office Friday morning to ask them to investigate. He has a meeting set with a detective on Wednesday.
Guarnieri, who is paid a salary of roughly $43,000 a year, has served as chief deputy since January 2008. He said he’s dedicated to his job and routinely puts in 10 to 12 hour days, but never seeks overtime, even though he is entitled to it.
The sheriff’s office is one of nine row offices in the county. Regulations governing row officers and their employees have long been an issue as allegations have occasionally arisen that some row officers and employees were not putting in full days.
Petrilla said she’s concerned about those allegations, but commissioners have no authority over row officers who, as elected officials, control the policies within their own office.
“We have a personnel policy in place and we ask the row officers to adhere to it, but we don’t have jurisdiction over them,” Petrilla said. “All we can do is provide the policy and hope they follow it.”
Doug Richards, director of human resources, said all departments and row offices fill out a spreadsheet listing employees’ hours that is emailed to the county’s payroll department. That spreadsheet is created by pay slips maintained internally by each office.
The spreadsheet provides various categories for the type of pay for each employee, allowing department heads and row officers to break out “regular” hours from vacation, sick and personal time.
In Guarnieri’s case, Savokinas said he left his payroll clerk a note advising her to list Guarnieri’s hours as vacation, which she did on the internal form for Savoknias’ use in tracking time. But she did not list it on the spreadsheet sent to the county.
Savokinas said he believes the clerk, who was not in Friday because she is out on personal leave, did not include the information in the payroll spreadsheet because previous administrations never kept track of vacation time utilized by management.
Mary Ellen Rebo, a clerk in Savokinas’ office, said she did payroll for years under sheriff Barry Stankus and she never once noted the vacation time he or his management employees took.
“Never did he or his chief make out a time sheet. I never knew when they took vacation,” Rebo said.
Stankus could not be reached for comment Friday to confirm Rebo and Savokinas’ comments.
Savokinas said he did not realize management employees were entitled to be paid for unused vacation, sick and personal days until a reporter advised him of Petrilla’s comments on Friday.
“It hasn’t been reported ever. I didn’t know it had to be,” he said. “We kept it noted in the office, but I didn’t know it had to go over to the county.”
Savokinas said he will immediately change the policy to ensure vacation and other non-working hours are recorded. He said Guarnieri’s next check will also reflect that vacation hours were taken.
“It absolutely will be rectified. This is not something we’re trying to hide,” he said.
As a formner Payroll Supervisor, I can read that a little differently.
I am pretty sure he know how the formula is calculated (in general) for vacation time, etc. But since law officers tend to work over an 8 hour shift on numerous occasions, he might have more ‘vacation time’ on the books than just using a 40 hour week as a cold standard.
I suspect that is saying that he doesn’t know the exact amount of time he has accumulated.
Some state/county payrolls are programmed to show your hours worked, earnings in all catagories, and they also show the amount of sick time, vacation time, anc comp time you have accumulated or have left in your account. I think Cal Trans in Kalifornia does that.
Happens at the California Department of Education all the time.
Not at all. The Wyoming Valley/Hazleton areas have been corrupt since the late 1800’s. It’s a very ethnic area - originally settled by Western European immigrants, followed by Eastern European immigrants, and most recently Hispanics.
The Sheriff and Chief in this article, and the corrupt felon judges (Ciavarella and Conahan) are all from the area, and not imported from Jersey (although the Pocono region i.e. Monroe County etc has a lot of Jersey-ites).
I’m sure that when he leaves office and is ready to collect his unpaid vacation time, he’ll know EXACTLY how much he has accumulated.
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