I'm a tad late getting to reporting yesterday's Commissioner's meeting. After the session I was in the Prothonotary's office doing more research on Billy Reed. There will be an article about him this afternoon on The Pennsylvania Progressive.
Controller Sandy Graffius and President Judge Grim made a presentation on the newly developed constable's manual. The constables were a big non-issue last year after the Eagle reported some of the incomes a handful of them were earning. The coverage was very deceptive because it led people to believe these guys were making large incomes off the taxpayers.
Constables serve warrants and court document, by and large. Each instance is billed to one of the parties in the action: for example criminals in court must pay these costs of part of their court fees. Constables work pretty autonomously, meaning they can do as little or as much as they decide. Some of the men like Bart Ganster work several days non stop, sometimes three consecutive 24 hour shifts.
It can be dangerous work because people aren't usually happy having legal papers served upon them or being arrested. Berks County has the highest rate of warrants served in the state, 73%. 95% of the fees for constables are recovered statewide. This means constables serve the public at negligible cost to taxpayers.
The other major part of the meeting dealt with a new county human resources affirmative action policy. The idea is to widen the pool of people applying for county jobs to include all segments of our diverse population. This includes veterans and the disabled in addition to women and minorities.
I was expecting Mark Scott to begin one of his patented tirades against minorities but he disappointed me. I suppose he wasn't going to open a big can of political worms the week before election day.
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