WILKES-BARRE -- Luzerne County's Budget and Finance director faced tough questions after a mistake left hundreds of county employees with no paycheck on payday last Friday.
An employee was fired for that mistake Monday.
County officials would not release the name of that employee, but said that person failed to authorize those direct deposit paychecks because they were on vacation.
At the Luzerne County council meeting Tuesday, some on the council said the finance director should be the one to lose his job.
"You, as the head of the department, were you here Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday?"
Brian Swetz, head of the Department of Budget and Finance, was called to answer how a mistake in his department led to roughly 1,200 county workers not receiving their direct deposit paychecks last Friday.
Swetz said the employee in charge of authorizing those paychecks to go out failed to do so because he was on vacation.
To prevent this from happening again, Swetz said, now four people in his department are able to authorize payments.
"If Luzerne County payroll puts electronic files out there and no one approves them, the four people that can approve them get an email every hour that say there are files out there that aren't posted," Swetz said.
"There were a lot of people who had issues with Black Friday. There couldn't have been a worse weekend for it to happen. We've learned from the mistake," said County Manager Robert Lawton.
The employee who made the mistake was fired. However, some at the meeting questioned why any employee would be expected to work on approved vacation time.
"To expect a person, anybody, to go on vacation on his own time from home conduct that business, and the one time he didn't, he suffered the consequences as he did," said council member Edward Brominiski.
"I`m looking forward to that suit when he sues for what happened to him. He's on vacation, but he's supposed to be here doing the job," said Ed Chesnovitch of Jefferson Township.
"Can I get an answer from Mr. Swetz? Is he going to resign or no?"
As for penalty fees due to the missed payment, Swetz said the county will reimburse affected workers.
"Anytime you have a surprise, you have to pay other money out of accounts to other accounts, absolutely, but that's part of putting money aside for rainy days when something happens," said Council Chairman Rick Morelli.
But, with the county struggling just to make its 2015 budget, many felt it would be the taxpayers who will pay.
"We're overspending. We borrowed $18 million last year. What are we going for this year?"
"I don't know by what authority you're coming off and saying that our taxpayers are going to pay for an error that should not have occurred."
Swetz said his department is trying to avoid employees getting hit with fines by asking banks to waive penalty fees. He said the Luzerne County Credit Union has already agreed to do so.
