Schuylkill County Commissioners approved a $45 per hour contract for another consultant in the Tax Claim office at the Courthouse on Wednesday.
The consultant, Susan Graver, of Tremont, will be paid the length of the contract, 3 months, beginning April 10 and ending on July 10.
This contract has a cap of 15 hours per week, meaning she can make a maximum of $675 per week.
Last week, the Commissioners were asked to approve – which they did – paying Graver a still unknown amount of money for a contract that was approved by County Administrator Gary Bender, which began on March 14.
According to Bender on Wednesday, Graver hasn’t submitted an invoice for the work that began last month. And whatever she submits will be up until the beginning of the contract approved on Wednesday.
The Commissioners were criticized for agreeing to pay an invoice which hadn’t been submitted and a week later, it’s still unknown for how much that will be. Bender said last week that Graver had been working about 3 days per week from the start of her initial deal with the County.
Commissioners Larry Padora and Gary Hess insisted on a cap in the amount of time Graver would work under this new contract, which was set at 15 hours.
As for what Graver is actually doing under this contract, The Canary asked Padora about her role.
Padora said the Tax Claim office is currently buried in work. That’s mostly been caused, according to him, by an overwhelming number of bids on private property sales.
He explained that when properties aren’t sold at County auctions – either judicial sales or repository sales – they get classified to “Commissioner status” and can be purchased with a bid. But that bid can be contested.
The amount of bids received has multiplied in the last few years, causing a backlog in the Tax Claim office.
“They have never seen this many bids on private property sales, ever. It’s way past the norm. They just got behind. Susan (Graver) was a former director there. Some people don’t think it’s help but it is help,” Padora said Wednesday. “She has a ton of knowledge about Tax Claim sales. She’s there to get another set of eyes. She’s there to help us get us caught up.”
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Val
April 11, 2024 at 3:05 pm
Ahem.. “Padora explained that.. The amount of bids received has multiplied in the last few years causing a backlog..” How does it explain the 45.00 per hour Graver’s role ? Is she an expert on how to stop the bids? 🙂
Bender and his team of losers should learn a better strategy to manage county’s moneys.
Frank
April 13, 2024 at 6:07 am
$45/hr is NOT expert pay. $200/hr is.
Remember, this is contract labor, so the county likely are not paying taxes or benefits on that $45/hr.
When they pay an employee say $30 an hour, it comes out to more like $45 an hour with taxes and benefits- just to keep this in perspective.