Washington County GOP asks governor, others, to remove clerk of courts
In the wake of an audit that revealed $96,000 missing, the Washington County Republican Party has written to Gov. Tom Wolf and three state senators asking that Clerk of Courts Frank Scandale, a Democrat, be removed from office.
The letter to Wolf, Sens. Jake Corman and Jay Costa, majority and minority leaders, respectively, and Sen. Camera Bartolotta, R-Carroll Township, who represents 65 of Washington County’s 66 municipalities, is dated Oct. 8. State Sen. Pam Iovino, D-Mt. Lebanon, who represents Peters Township, was not listed as a recipient.
The Republican Party, through attorney Lane Turturice, made the request “on behalf of all citizens of our county.”
He wrote “that $96,000 can simply vanish from a public office without explanation is … evidence of either severe misconduct, or at best, gross incompetence. Either is reasonable cause for removal from office.”
Turturice cites the Pennsylvania Constitution that a civil officer, elected by the people, “shall be removed by the governor for reasonable cause, after due notice and full hearing on the address of two-thirds of the Senate.” The attorney for the GOP also notes that the County Code similarly addresses removal but uses the term impeachment.
Turturice, in the letter, noted that nearly $4.2 million was accepted by the clerk of court’s office in 2018, but of that sum, on 24 occasions, $96,000 was never deposited in a bank.
Scandale was not in the clerk of courts office Friday afternoon. Neither a phone call nor an email inquiry about the Republican Party’s letter received an immediate response.
In a hastily called news conference July 17, members of the board of commissioners announced the results of county Controller Michael Namie’s audit of the row office deficit and said they were turning the matter over to state police for investigation. No charges have been filed, but the commissioners have been told the investigation is continuing.
The letter to the governor and senators takes to task the two Democrats, Larry Maggi and Harlan Shober, on the three-member board, naming them as thus far refusing to address this issue.
“Three commissioners sitting there made a unanimous decision,” said Commissioner Harlan Shober not long after an interview Friday with the editorial board of the Observer-Reporter.
“Picking out the majority doesn’t work in this case. Chairman Larry Maggi, Vice Chairman Diana Irey Vaughan and Commissioner Harlan Shober were unanimous in doing what we did.
“Without knowing the outcome of the investigation, we have to wait for the results. We are all in the same boat on this.” Irey Vaughan is the sole Republican on the board.
On Sept. 5, President Judge Katherine B. Emery clamped down on the clerks of office, issuing a five-page order and naming county Finance Director Joshua Hatfield, Namie and Court Administrator Patrick Grimm as overseers of the office and outlining procedures to attempt to recover money that was never deducted from the accounts of defendants.
Previously, the commissioners had tasked only Hatfield, their appointee. Namie, like Scandale, is an independently elected official, and Grimm works for the Pennsylvania courts.
“Procedures in that office are being reviewed,” Shober said. “We, the county, along with the courts, are all working with the office to make sure things are done in the proper way to insure the integrity of the office moving forward.”
Scandale, of Canonsburg, is seeking a second, four-year term as clerk of courts in the Nov. 5 election. Brenda Davis, former mayor of Washington, is his Republican challenger. The commissioners’ office is also on the ballot this year.