Item 18: Luzerne County Personnel: A Study of Employee Utilization Position Classification Rates of Pay, 1956
Item — Box: 16, Folder: 18
Dates
- Created: 1956
Disclaimer for Name and Subject Authorities
Some of the name and subject authority tags have been assigned by educated guessing and estimation of persons and subjects by region, age, profession, and familial relationships. They have been thoroughly researched by using primary and secondary sources available digitally, and named in each description, or in some cases linked directly to the person tag.
Access:
All series and subseries within this collection are open for research, with the exception of a few files within the Academia series that are restricted. The Academia series contains financial and sensitive institutional records from Wilkes College, and financial report records from Princeton University that will remain restricted for 80 years upon creation.
Extent
1 items
Language of Materials
From the Collection: English
Type of Material:
Report.
Condition Note:
Fair. The binding is missing.
Measurement:
9 in. x 11 ½ in.
Title:
Luzerne County Personnel: A Study of Employee Utilization Position Classification Rates of Pay
Description:
A report to review the needs of personnel of Luzerne County. This study was conducted by Pennsylvania Economy League, which is an independent organization that reviews the spending of local Pennsylvania governments, so they can improve. This group is still active today.The employees that participated in this study were the Clerk of Courts, Controller, Coroner, District Attorney, Prothonotary, Recorder of Deeds, Register of Wills, Sheriff, and the Treasurer. Author says that one of Luzerne County’s problems is the inability to balance the political ties these jobs hold and the needs of the public. The main conclusion of this study is that the County employed 478 employees in these offices, but only 327 were needed to function effectively. The first office discussed in the data report is the County Commissioner’s office. A list of all the positions and how many people work them are available, with details about what that position entails. The author of this report suggests that many positions in this office should be combined to reduce the number of employees. This is the case of the Inspectors of Weights and Measures, where it is suggested that they reduce the number of Inspectors from 3 to 2. The Purchasing department is also told to combine the positions of Supply and Receiving Clerk. This report also states that some jobs were completely unnecessary and the county should get rid of them. They determined that watchmen for the voting machines were not required by the insurance company and that the job of Investigator was being done by the Controller’s Office. The second office reviewed is the Buildings and Grounds department. The author states that this department was very well run, but suggests some reorganization of tasks for employees and a reduction of staff. They included an organizational chart to sort the department’s workers into three groups. The groups being special-crews, night crew, and general staff. They suggested that the Courthouse only employ one engineer and the watchmen take over the other duties. At the time of this study the night cleaner being paid the least amount was making $2.07, when the average wage for the job was between 87 cents to $1.04. They suggested that either the wages should be lowered to $1.00, which would have cut the lowest paid cleaner’s hourly wage in half, or reduce the number of cleaners. They believe that other positions in this department could be combined and some employees could become general utility workers. One area that the report states that needs to be done is the cleaning of the blinds by the night shift, and that the county should hire someone to clean the marble. The Registration Commission and Election Bureau which was appointed by the County Commissioner’s office was the next department reviewed in this study. This department was responsible for overseeing the local elections. This chapter mostly describes how the Registration Commission and Election Bureau operate. It was suggested that Luzerne County should reduce the number of election districts, because they had the most out of Pennsylvania’s “third-class” counties. The author also believes that this department is overstaffed compared to other Pennsylvania counties. Luzerne county employees handles about 5,700 registrations per worker on average while other counties handled more than 10,000. So they thought they could cut the number of workers. Their final summary of how the Registration department could improve is to employ 17 permanent employees and that temporary workers should be paid per diem. They say that the Election Bureau only needs 2 full time employees. The next chapter is the review of the Board of Assessment and Revision of Taxes. The review summarizes this board was not well run as local counties in the area. Personal costs in this department are twice that of Westmoreland and Berks Counties. They also found that this department could be more efficient in collecting taxes, and that they should hire a stenographer to help.The last departments included in the review are the County Treasurer, Tax Claim Bureau, County Controller, Register of Wills, Sheriff, Prothonotary, Clerk of Courts, District Attorney, and the Bridge and Road department. These nine departments were all said to need a reduction of employees. The assessment found that because the departments were overstaffed the employees had a small workload. After the review of the individual county departments the Pennsylvania Economy League suggested a way of classifying the jobs available and the rate of pay. This review finishes by listing the names of the people that were in those positions and a table of what the position’s yearly salary should look like.
Location:
Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, Pa.
Creator
- From the Series: Pickering, Timothy, 1745-1829. (Person)
- From the Series: Pennsylvania Economy League (Organization)
- From the Series: George III, King of Great Britain, 1738-1820 (Person)
Repository Details
Part of the Wilkes University Archives Repository
Contact:
84 W South St.
Wilkes-Barre PA 18701 US
570-408-2000
570-408-7823 (Fax)
ask.archives@wilkes.edu
84 W South St.
Wilkes-Barre PA 18701 US
570-408-2000
570-408-7823 (Fax)
ask.archives@wilkes.edu