Commissioners name Clabaugh first full-time defender / By Martha Knight

SMETHPORT—Philip L. Clabaugh now heads the Office of Public Defender of McKean County, according to an announcement by the McKean County Commissioners at a regular meeting Tuesday forenoon.

It is also a change for the public defender system, in that Clabaugh will serve full time as Chief Public Defender. Previously chief and assistant public defenders have been part-time.  Outgoing chief Douglas Garber will continue to serve the office, now as an assistant public defender.

Clabaugh was on hand for the meeting but offered no remarks. The announcement was made by commissioner-chairman Joe DeMott under the “Commissioners’ Comments” item on the agenda. A press release was made available after the meeting.

Clabaugh had been Assistant District Attorney since March of 2010. HM earned his law degree at Duquesne University law school and is a graduate of Penn State Altoona. He served internships at the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General, Criminal Prosecutions Section, and in the Blair County District Attorney’s office. Currently he is an adjunct professor in the criminal justice program at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford.

Commissioners DeMott, Al Pingie and Cliff Lane voted to accept a scope-of-services and fee proposal, in effect engaging Barton & Loguidice (B&L) to update the county’s municipal waste management plan. The stated fee is $48,000.

The commissioners also agreed to pay Verizon $10,370 for continuing to provide maintenance of the new 911 CAD system, following the current one-year pact.

Human Services director Lee Sizemore was on hand to explain the gist of a new Mental Health Disaster Counseling and Outreach Team (DCORT) the commissioners voted to authorize. There will be no cost to the county, with funds coming from the Office of mental Health and from the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency.

DCORT training will be provided to first responders and persons who are involved in disaster responses, to professionals and to volunteers, later this year, Sizemore said. DECORT is separate from the training many supportive, emergency and law enforcement personnel already receive concerning dealing with mental health issues in the course of their duties assisting victims of trauma.

Jim Herzog addressed the commissioners under Public Comments, renewing his call for the commissioners to alter their approach to setting Clean and Green (C&G) use rates. In particular, Herzog maintains that rates applied to forest reserve parcels since 2011 should have been $94 per acre, and should not have been set at rates two to three times as high, as has been done beginning in 2012 and effective from 2013 on.

Herzog gave commissioners a copy of a letter from Pennsylvania Secretary of Agriculture George D. Greig to Assemblyman Marty Causer, stressing that C&G enrolled properties are to be given “preferential assessment.” On no account can their use values be set higher than fair market value, the latter states. Herzog maintains that the county has not adhered to that requirement of the C&G enabling legislation and guidelines.

Herzog reminded commissioners of their oaths of office, in which they pledged to uphold the law, and pointedly asked them, “Will you comply with it, instructing the assessment office to change Forest Reserve use value to $94 as required under (Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture) policy and by oath of office?”

DeMott momentarily broke what has seemed an oath of silence by the commissioners, regarding Herzog’s Public Comment presentations, responding to one passage in Herzog’s comments. Herzog had quoted a National Tree Benefit study to the effect an acre of red maple forest, holding 100 trees, provides a value to the public calculated at $10,400.

DeMott asked Herzog why, if the “an acre of red maples is worth more than $10,000,” Herzog was asking the county to reduce the assessments.

Herzog said “Al asked me that 10 years ago,” referring to Pingie. He reiterated that the $10,400 figure refers to value to the public.

DeMott then said the commissioners would not comment about a matter being litigated.

Commissioners appointed 53 voting machine inspectors to serve in the May 20 primary election.

Commissioners approved 16 agreements with service providers at the behest of the Department of Human Services.

The Office of Human Services, Inc. will be paid $6,250 for the third quarter of fiscal 2013-14; the YWCA will receive $9,048 as an advance payment for their third quarter homeless assistance services; and the county will receive $6,270 from the Liquid Fuel Fund  for administration costs related to that program, commissioners agreed.

DeMott read a letter which had been sent to Richard Grandinetti, Robert Roulo and Andrew Eliason by 911 director Andrew Johnson, in which Johnson praised those dispatchers for the manner in which they had performed their functions during a near-drowning emergency in Bradford Township on April 21. He credited them with having helped save the life of a two-year-old who had been unresponsive when found in a hot tub.

  Philip L. Clabaugh looks up at another official after his appointment

 as full-time chief public defender was announced by the McKean 

County Commissioners at their meeting Tuesday.  Martha Knight Photo