The county’s aging agency presented several items to Lebanon County Commissioners at their Thursday, Feb. 1, meeting, including numerous contract amendments and the requested sale of an old bus.
Adrian Layser, administrator for the Lebanon County Area Agency on Aging, presented for approval seven 2023-24 contract amendments totaling $62,439. Layser noted the needed funds would come from AAA block grant and local grant funding, meaning the expenditures will be paid at no additional cost to taxpayers.
The biggest expenditure increase was for the Mom’s Meals program at $60,345.85, which saw a requested increase by 927 meals over the projected amount that was funded in the agency’s budget.
This nutritional program is similar to Meals on Wheels but provides ready-to-heat meals instead of heated meals that are ready for consumption.
Both nutritional programs deliver food to qualified county residents. It was noted that Mom’s Meals’ minimum age requirement is for adults 60 years of age and older and that those meals are delivered biweekly.
Layser told county administrator Jamie Wolgemuth that the difference between the two nutritional programs is that Meals on Wheels requires receipt of the meals as a safeguard to ensure a client’s well-being.
“Meals on Wheels is a check system,” said Layser. “It is usually for the homebound and individuals who don’t have a lot of contact in the community.”
Layser also asked permission to seek the sale of the Pride of the Valley, a bus owned by the county that’s been stored at Brightbill Transportation since 2019.
“The top issue is liability,” said Layser, who added it’s hard to determine liability in case of an accident.
Layser noted the county stopped hiring bus drivers in 2008, the bus is 25 years old, has 215,000 miles on the odometer, needs maintenance work including a new battery and new back tires, and is not currently in running condition.
“We’ve been using charter bus companies the past several years, so we don’t have to find drivers and arrange trips,” added Layser, who noted there haven’t been as many senior bus trips scheduled by the agency since demand is down following the pandemic. She noted only one trip has been taken since 2019.
Commissioner Mike Kuhn said he has sat on the agency’s advisory board and that selling the bus has been a frequent topic of conversation at those meetings. He said he wondered why the sale had not been mentioned previously to commissioners since he believes it is a good idea.
Commissioner Robert Phillips emphasized that Lebanon County is the last county to still own its own large passenger bus, and he said he supports it being sold.
Before the unanimous vote to approve its sale, Commissioner Jo Ellen Litz asked about how much funding the sale may generate and asked if proceeds could be put towards buying one or two passenger vans for the agency to use.
Her colleagues highlighted liability as being a deterrent, with Phillips adding he doesn’t want the county to be in the business of hiring drivers since it is “out of the scope of what we do.” Driving services have been contracted to a firm for at least the past 15 years.
Wolgemuth noted it can be difficult to get someone to drive a van since many county employees don’t want to accept that responsibility and stated it would pull staff from their currently assigned duties.
Litz countered those claims by saying the county is in the business of transporting people since prisoners are driven by county employees from the prison to the courthouse and other destinations. The discussion ended with Litz asking her colleagues to consider the purchase of vans for use by the agency.
In a separate matter, the county amended its conflict criminal attorney services contracts one year after it was implemented.
Last February, the county commissioners entered into contracts with two law firms to provide legal services as criminal defense attorneys when the public defender’s office has a conflict of interest.
Read More: Lebanon County resolves conflicted court case issue for indigent defendants
At the time, the county hired the law firms of Lebanon-based Buzgon Davis and Harrisburg-based Joshua Harshberger for $168,000 to represent criminal defendants who cannot afford to hire an attorney at prevailing rates.
This action was taken following the filing of an October lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union, which was first reported by LebTown, that asked the Lebanon County courts to reexamine how attorneys are appointed to cases where a public defender has a conflict of interest preventing representation of a given individual.
The county resolved the issue by appointing two firms to handle those cases.
Buzgon Davis was hired at that time to cover eight monthly criminal appointments and be paid a flat rate of $8,000 per month while Harshberger’s firm was contracted for up to six monthly criminal appointments and be paid a flat rate of $6,000 per month.
The new contract signed Thursday calls for a maximum of five criminal appointments with Buzdon Davis and for a maximum of eight assignments with Jacobson, Julius & Harshberger. Both firms will charge $1,000 per case and an additional fee of $250 per hour if involved in jury selection.
In other county business, the commissioners voted unanimously to:
- Amend a fiscal year 2023-24 intermediate punishment grant between the state and the county’s Probation Department in the amount of $42,000 lower than what was in the original grant contract.
- Increase the salary of the stormwater management plan engineer from $100 to $120 per hour. It is the first raise for that position in 20 years.
- Accept the 2023 Hazardous Mitigation Plan for the Department of Emergency Services to ensure the county receives state and/or federal funding in case there’s a declared emergency within Lebanon County. It also identifies risks and provides for procedures to mitigate those risks.
- Signed a fee agreement with Buzgon Davis Law Office for attorney Bret Wiest to continue handling several ac tive legal matters at a rate of $235 per hour. Weiss was representing the county in several legal matters that are now either near conclusion or have ended. Those cases had been contracted prior to Matt Bugli’s hiring in December as the county’s full-time solicitor. Previously, that position was only considered to be part-time. Bugli noted that he will handle all legal matters moving forward as the county’s full-time solicitor.
- Approve the minutes from their Jan. 17 executive session and Jan. 18 meeting, the treasurer’s report and various personnel transactions.
- Announce the resignation of Al Smith from the advisory board of Mental Health, Intellectual Disabilities/Early Intervention after 11 years of service.
- Accept a hotel tax grant request from applicant Making a Difference of Lebanon for $600 of a projected cost of $1,500. The funding is for a 5K Fun Run and Walk on March 30 at Coleman’s Park. Litz made a motion to approve $375 instead of the requested $600, which she said was the county’s 25 percent maximum grant amount match. Phillips said the match “was opposite” with Wolgemuth adding the county provides 75 percent of the cost and the recipient pays the other 25 percent. Litz amended her motion to $600 after stating she “got it backwards.”
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