Before last week's meeting of Northampton County Council, District Attorney Steve Baratta submitted two personnel requests. First, he was proposing the elimination of one vacant full-time Assistant DA position ($67,828) and replacing it with two part-time Assistant DAs ($58,584). Second, he was proposing a new county detective, with the understanding that all detectives would be paid at Step 7G (salary unknown) County detectives are all union positions. But when County Council met last week on July 17 and 18, the Detective hire was missing. What happened?
Baratta was unavailable for the committee meeting to vet these requests on July 17, but First Ass't Bob Eyer was there. He and Council President Lori Vargo Heffner both noted that a proposed resolution authorizing a new detective was missing.
Before they were able to discuss this, Council member Jeff Warren (a McClure ally) began complaining about the multiple personnel requests streaming in from the DA asking for salary increases a position restructures. He said he's like a "plan of action in terms of what [the DA] is looking to do in terms of salaries ... ."
At this point, Executive Lamont McClure approached Council to say he had a "nice conversation" with Baratta earlier that week. He indicated that the changes with the detectives implicate an existing collective bargaining agreement. "The county is the exclusive bargaining agent for the District Attorney's office, so these things need to be done in negotiations. He indicated any action taken by Council "would be a nullity on its face because it would be violative of the collective bargaining agreement."
That's not how Baratta saw it. At the full County Council meeting on July 18, he said a secretary in Human Relations advised him that his detective proposal violated the collective bargaining agreement. "That's a pretty heavy legal opinion for a secretary to make," he observed.
He said that, as District Attorney, he has the right to move positions around as he sees fit. He indicated his detectives are exempt positions, and so long as meets the budget, the caselaw says he is free to do as he wishes. He believes he can promote and hire detectives without violating any collective bargaining agreement.
Council President Lori Vargo Heffner told Baratta to prepare a resolution on his own and Council will consider it when they meet again August 2.
23 comments:
Your boy, the guy you cover for. McClure the emperor and chief of Northampton County. Employees and others who have to deal with him know what it is like. He must have it his way and will push back on anything that doesn't get him donors or publicity. Sad state of things. Even the DA is not immune from the McClure treatment.
The State Trooper retirement pensions aren’t enough ? Baratta wants to waive a magic wand and give them 20K more a year on top of their already high County pay. Sounds like something Council will do.
Ken Kraft will get this all figured out. Nobody knows Union biz better than Ken.
Council should ask how much the make now ? How much is the raise ? What percentage increase does that add up to ? Are they retired from other jobs ? Do they have pensions from those other jobs ? How much are those pensions ?
Gotta love Lori. She can’t get a Clerk’s position filled. She couldn’t replace Zarinski. The Court had to do that for her. But, she’ll rush head long into an unfair labor practice. County Council has officially jumped the shark.
Jeff Warren is a hero. He has saved more lives by donating blood than all of the other members of County Council combined !
Other than Heckman, Jeff Warren is the most experienced government official on that Council including John Brown. While Lori Heffner Vargo continues to stumble and bumble from one failure to the next - she should pay attention to an esteemed statesman such as Jeff.
Didn’t Morganelli minimize the potential of conflicts of interests by making the staff all full-time ?
Norco - the circus continues
Sounds like he is looking to hire his buddy Lance Wheeler as a County Detective now that he got his criminal case dismissed.
The part time positions are so he can take the extra salary and give it to his inner circle in the office
Baratta went full liberal playbook. Change the goalposts, here the number of full time spots he can’t fill, and then claim success. Part time equals half assed in prosecution, at least in a busy county and with a court who schedules nonsense most of the week. Part timers are likely to burn out because the work isn’t worth it. Full timers are already there.
"Sounds like he is looking to hire his buddy Lance Wheeler as a County Detective now that he got his criminal case dismissed."
The position is for a retiring Bethlehem police officer. County detectives are certified police officers. Wheeler is not.
"Didn’t Morganelli minimize the potential of conflicts of interests by making the staff all full-time ?"
It was Morganelli's goal to completely professionalize the DA staff by making it all full-time. He was almost there. But once COVID hit, Ass't DAs began quitting all over the state. This shortage of prosecutors affected everyone. Terry came under criticism for allowing his full-timers to do part-time work outside of business hours. Now Baratta has apparently come to the realization that the only way he can staff his office is to allow part-timers. I do think he is on very thin ice messing with union contracted detectives. I know he let two detectives go before he came in and am uncertain whether that matter has been arbitrated. I believe he should exercise a bit more caution on that front. On the other hand, he is an independently elected official and one with statutory rights to hire and fire as he pleases.
He is the county's top prosecutor. The election is over. I want him to succeed. It is in all our interests that he succeeds. McClure has a very legitimate concern about union negotiations. Baratta is entitled to a great deal of deference as an independently elected official with what used to be called Section 1620 rights.
If Council refuses to let him hire a detective, he could sue. If they do, the detective union could file an unfair labor practice. They are caught in the middle here.
Council should ask if the County provides Detectives with cars that they take home ? And, why ? Are they doing extraditions like they once did ? Big savings there. Maybe they’ll ask some good questions instead of being rubber stamps. Looking at you Lori.
So his campaign promise of being able to replace the ADAs who left was nonsense. It’s not as easy as it looks, especially for someone with minimal law enforcement background.
He wants to hire part-timers because like his predecessor, he is finding out how hard it is to get people to apply. It has gotten so bad that he is even keeping on one of the people he brought over from Lehigh County (all those former Lehigh County ADAs came over so they could start earning a second pension) even though that person was charged with a pretty bad DUI in Lehigh County (https://ujsportal.pacourts.us/Report/CpDocketSheet?docketNumber=CP-39-CR-0002636-2024&dnh=X71L5mK1JKQ8hKQJ1sEfxg%3D%3D) and was driving with no tires (and might I also add is not very professional from what I hear from some of the other attorneys in the office). Let's not forget that all his top deputies are older white males, super diverse! And someone told me this morning that he is bringing someone over to work part time who shares office space with a prominent defense attorney, the same prominent defense attorney that the former first assistant shared space with. I want him to succeed as well, but am baffled by some of the decision making thus far.
I can’t speak to what is a reasonable salary for a county detective but it would be inappropriate to take a pension earned during prior state police employment into consideration. The salary should be based on the current job only. It would seem that the county benefits from hiring an experienced detective who needs little to no training. The county also probably benefits if the retired state troopers don’t need county paid health care. Also, are we sure all the detectives are retired state police.
Can we please get Houck back?
I’m spiteful, Bernie. I want the DA’s office to succeed, but I really, really want to see BaRATta to fall on his smug fat face. He repeatedly lied during the campaign and vowed to “clean up” the office and get through the backlog of cases, but six months in and he hasn’t done anything noteworthy. In case I haven’t been clear, I can’t stand the egomaniac.
Let Mr.Brown get involved so the county can get stung for another $200,000 as he did with Mancini….better yet, let Kraft argue and piss someone off enough to enter into another lawsuit….the county council “star chamber” with wannabe commissioners …..sad.
I think Lazy Lori Vargo-Heffner needs to take her conflicted self and leave public life before everyone finds out who she really is.
Dysfunctional comes to mind.
"Jeff Warren is a hero. He has saved more lives by donating blood than all of the other members of County Council combined !"
Being compelled to supply samples isn't exactly "donating."
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