SUNBURY – Disagreements over Northumberland County business has led to another feud among county commissioners. This time regarding Commissioner Kymberley Best’s attendance at meetings.
In another letter to WKOK, Commissioner Best says she’s “admittedly missed two.” She says her full attendance rate is 91% and has also attended all specially called meetings. She also says she’s been to all but three prison board meetings.
Best also challenged Commissioners Rick Shoch and Sam Schiccatano claims that all business, including the latest TrueCore deal, have been conducted in public work sessions and meetings. Best says not one work session agenda for 2017 continues any reference to “TrueCore, its predecessor G4S or any of its officers.” She also says no minutes have been kept when TrueCore was supposedly discussed at any work session.
Best says these actions continued with 2018 budget discussions. She claims a 12:30 p.m. meeting Nov. 28 was called for budget talks. She says upon a 10 a.m. arrival that day, she found Shoch and Schiccatano already holding the meeting with county personnel.
In a email responding to Best’s accusations, Schiccatano says he’s attended every meeting, claiming “that was the way I thought it was supposed to be.” Schiccatano says “If Ms. Best would spend as much time in the office, doing positive things, as she does writing for the media on weekends, maybe we would be all better off.” (Matt Catrillo)
Letter from Kym Best
When I campaigned for the office of Northumberland County Commissioner, I promised to do everything I could to bring greater transparency to the public about the way our County government conducts business. As the minority commissioner, I regard it my duty to be the watchdog who holds the majority commissioners accountable for activity conducted in secret.
As Northumberland County taxpayers know, I have recently been highly critical of deals that majority commissioners Richard Shoch and Samuel Schiccatano have struck in private with TrueCore, a for-profit company, to give it tax breaks, rent breaks and seemingly free carpet. Shoch retorts that I have missed the overwhelming majority of meetings, or I would have known about all of this.
Let’s do some simple math. The Sunshine Act requires that meetings at which official action is taken and public business deliberated take place in public. In Northumberland County, our monthly public meetings are where this happens. The occur once per month. In the twenty-three months I have been in office, I have admittedly missed two. Even so, my math gives me a 91% attendance rating. There have been a few specially called meetings, all of which I have attended. In the same time period, I have been to all but three Prison Board meetings, or 86% attendance. When Shoch says I have missed the overwhelming majority of meetings, he must be referring to something other than these.
In Shoch’s own statement to the press, he alludes to “publicly advertised work sessions” where “we could discuss concernes… prior to entering into contracts.” He continues that it is “[his] understanding that this is how official business is conducted in every other county in Pennsylvania.”
Let’s test this in light of Shoch’s claims that if I came to these, everything in his dealings with TrueCore would have been out in the open. As we move through the test, you don’t have to take my word for anything. I have pulled documents and provided them to the press along with this letter. I encourage the press to publicly post them.
Shoch and Schiccatano claim that their tax breaks, rent breaks and subsidized carpet were all discussed at public work sessions. In fairness to the majority, I pulled the agendas for every work session this year. The County Code requires that each commissioner receives 24 hours’ notice of the subject of special meetings like these. Accordingly, the agenda for each work session is emailed to the commissioners the day before. Not one work session agenda for 2017 contains any reference to TrueCore, its predecessor G4S or any of its officers.
While there was clearly no advance notice that TrueCore was being discussed at any work session, there is always the chance that the matter came up during the course of the meeting. Accordingly, I requested the minutes of all of these work sessions. To my shock, and contrary to the requirements of the Sunshine Act, no minutes of these supposedly public work sessions have ever been kept. It would seem that there is no proof whatsoever that Shoch and Schiccatano ever discussed their sweetheart deals with TrueCore at a public work session.
I didn’t rest here. Every week, a schedule of events and meetings for the commissioners is circulated by our administrative assistant. I pulled months of these schedules and no meeting with TrueCore was ever mentioned. I even checked the sign-in sheets from the front door to see whether any of TrueCore’s officers came to the building to meet with commissioners. None have.
The evidence shows that TrueCore’s real estate tax breaks, rent reductions and carpet deals were never, as claimed by Shoch, discussed in public work sessions. We can only wonder where these discussions were secretly held and why?
Sadly, this behavior is not limited to the TrueCore debacle. The commissioner’s schedule for November 28 indicated a 12:30 PM meeting to discuss the 2018 budget. As few things are more important, I planned to attend. Hoping to look into other things, I arrived at the administration building at 10:00 AM only to find Shoch and Schiccatano already holding the meeting with County personnel. It seems they wanted to have a dry run on dire budget news before I could find out about it.
I will continue to fight to uphold the Sunshine Act and bring information to the public. Unfortunately, in Northumberland County government, there is little sunshine, and the majority commissioners are putting on quite an act.
Kym Best, Commissioner
