Beaver County Commissioners maintain they want answers regarding issues surrounding county business

May 14--BEAVER -- Getting to the bottom of the myriad of issues swirling around the Beaver County Courthouse is enough to make anyone's head spin.

Officials are working to get clear answers to complicated questions surrounding three separate, but equally weighted issues that have become public since new Commissioners Sandie Egley and Daniel Camp were elected in November in a Republican takeover of county government the likes of which hasn't been seen in 60 years.

Two of the issues regard Friendship Ridge, which until 2014 was a county-owned nursing home:

* District Attorney David J. Lozier is investigating transfer of money from county-controlled accounts to the owners of the nursing home that have taken place since.

* A Pittsburgh-based firm has also been retained by county commissioners to conduct a forensic audit of the sale to determine whether the county is owed any more than the $37.6 million Comprehensive HealthCare Services LLC paid for the facility.

The other issue surfaced May 6, when state Rep. Jim Christiana came forward with allegations about an alleged pay-to-play scheme orchestrated by Randi Bick, who until she was fired Tuesday worked as Egley's administrative assistant.

Lozier is also investigating that matter to determine if any criminal action occurred.

"I wish all of this would come to some conclusion, all of the things that have been dangling, because it's affecting how we do business here," Commissioner Tony Amadio, a Democrat, said Friday.

"I hope we're paying all the bills and we're meeting with the people we're supposed to be meeting with," he said. "Big things are happening and big things are about to happen and we have to be prepared to facilitate the economic growth and development of Beaver County."

Egley and Camp expressed similar sentiments.

"It shows the board of commissioners will not tolerate politics as usual," Egley said. 'We'll always act decisively."

"I think the citizens need to know what took place," Camp said.

What happened and when?

Despite political rhetoric that insinuated all might not be as it appeared before the election, county business appeared to be going smoothly in 2015.

Friendship Ridge nursing home was in private hands after it was sold in 2014 for $37.6 million -- a move that gave the county an infusion of cash and also removed an operation that was losing $21,717 each day when it was owned by the county, according to Amadio.

Before the election, Amadio and his Democratic running mate Joe Spanik lauded the decisions they'd made to shore up the county's finances and plan for the future as government and business leaders await a decision by Shell Chemicals to locate a cracker plant in Potter Township that would boost the county's economic outlook.

But in November, Spanik was bested by Egley and Camp, two Republican political novices who ran as a team to beat former minority Commissioner Dennis Nichols -- who at the time was also a Republican -- in May in a contested primary orchestrated in part by state Rep. Jim Christiana, R-15, Brighton Township, to give the GOP its first majority in the courthouse since the 1950s.

Egley and Camp won after conducting campaigns where they took their message of cleaning up county government and operating with increased transparency door-to-door and it was a message that resonated with voters enough that although Amadio remained the top vote-getter, both Republicans bested Spanik in the November election.

A few weeks after the election, what was by then a lame-duck board of commissioners unveiled a $77.2 million general fund budget they acknowledged was tight, but said was workable at the time.

"We've really sharpened our pencils to make this happen," Nichols said at the time.

As then-county Solicitor Bernard Rabik advised the board to refrain from making decisions that would bind Egley and Camp to anything when they took office, Controller David A. Rossi planted seeds of suspicion in December, when he questioned a check from the county to Friendship Ridge nursing home's owners, starting one of the investigations that have continued after Egley and Camp took office.

As 2016 started and the new faces took over the board that governs the county, Rossi again was the bearer of bad news. His office was projecting a $17 million deficit at the end of the year if cuts weren't made, he told commissioners.

The new commissioners made those cuts -- $12.5 million of them -- when they re-worked the budget in January and February. They also increased employee health care contributions, offered a buyout program that 72 of 133 eligible full time employees took and re-financed $168 million of the county's bond debt to save $6.7 million in debt service payments this year.

They also brought in new personnel to advise them as they made these moves: former chief of staff Vince LaValle -- the man who crafted the original 2016 budget that was out of line with Rossi's projections -- was first demoted to financial administrator, then retired abruptly Jan. 8 at the end of the new regime's first week in office.

Joe Weidner, a former aide to state Sen. Elder Vogel Jr., R-47, New Sewickley Township, was hired as chief of staff and Ricardo Luckow, a former consultant in Rossi's office who was one of the people who calculated the looming $17 million deficit, was hired as financial administrator and reworked the budget.

County solicitor Bernard Rabik was fired Feb. 19 for reasons that haven't been publicly detailed and he was replaced by former assistant solicitor Andrea Cantelmi at a time when there's been no shortage of legal work for the county to pursue and no new assistant has been hired.

Friendship Ridge scrutiny is two-fold

Commissioners Thursday unanimously approved a forensic audit into the sale of Friendship Ridge -- a move that was long-awaited as Rossi's said since August 2015 that the nursing home's new owners may owe the county $715,000.

Last week, Rossi said the number could be as high as $1.4 million that's owed to the county. The audit will confirm or deny these calculations.

The audit is unrelated to Lozier's investigation into the checks authorized solely by Treasurer Connie T. Javens or LaValle since 2014 that total more than $6 million and were approved in violation of county procedural policies, Lozier has said.

That investigation continues, Lozier said this week, and he's trying to determine if the transfers warrant criminal charges.

They were made from county-controlled accounts that held federal reimbursements to Friendship Ridge for care of residents. The accounts weren't -- and haven't yet been -- turned over to the control of Comprehensive HealthCare Services LLC, the new owners of the Brighton Township nursing home.

More questions than answers so far

A week ago, Christiana came forward with allegations he heard from three reliable but unnamed sources that a third man, who also hasn't been publicly identified, was told by Egley's administrative assistant that if certain people didn't make increased campaign contributions to Egley they wouldn't be considered for county business contracts.

Christiana went to Egley with that bombshell on May 6 and she at first stood by the aide, Randi Bick, but ultimately fired Bick on Tuesday. Bick has denied the allegations.

By Wednesday afternoon, Christiana was meeting with District Attorney David Lozier -- also a Republican newcomer who was elected in the GOP tsunami that swept the courthouse. On Wednesday evening, Lozier confirmed his office was investigating the allegations against Bick.

"When my investigation is complete, I may find no cause to proceed, I may find cause for criminal charges of corruption, or I may refer the case to another agency for criminal prosecution or civil penalty," Lozier said in a statement Wednesday. "In cases involving ethics of public officials but no actual theft or harm, civil penalties can often have more bite than prosecution; by law they are treated like confidential personnel proceedings and thus resolved with serious civil penalties but not with public charges or hearings."

What commissioners are saying -- or not saying

"It took me a long time to be convinced the sale of Friendship Ridge was necessary," Amadio said Friday.

His father died as a resident of the nursing home and "loved the place," Amadio said.

But cutbacks in the amount county-owned nursing homes were reimbursed by federal and state authorities contributed to ever-increasing deficits and it eventually became apparent to him that the county needed to sell the facility, Amadio said.

"We could no longer afford to keep it," he said. "I knew we had a fiscal responsibility to do something about it."

He and then-commissioners Spanik and Nichols worked to find a qualified buyer and Amadio said they found that buyer in Comprehensive HealthCare LLC, a group of New York-based investors he described as "a very good group of people."

Lawyers from both sides negotiated the sale and although commissioners had "a big say in it" it was the attorneys who worked out the specifics of the deal.

Amadio supports pursuing the forensic audit because the county may yet be owed money, he said. Amadio made the motion to move forward with the audit on Thursday to "find out who owes who," he said.

Commissioners weren't involved with the way the bank accounts associated with Friendship Ridge were kept open and active, he said.

Because there was a time before the sale when Comprehensive was running the nursing home for the county prior to closing of the deal, the accounts were open because they were where federal reimbursements and those from insurance companies for patient care were deposited into.

Regarding the how the county's fiscal straits have been painted since Egley and Camp took office, Amadio said he still isn't convinced things are as bad as they've been portrayed.

"We knew we were going to have to make cuts," he said. "And we knew we had the ability to refinance bonds."

Amadio was out-of-town when the allegations against Bick surfaced, although he was apprised of the situation by Egley, he said.

"These are personnel issues and it wouldn't be fair," to comment, he said.

Egley said the county will be aggressive in seeing the audit into the sale of Friendship Ridge is done is a timely manner.

"We need to understand what monies were transferred to who and if the county is owed any money," she said.

It will also give the county "a strong basis" to close the accounts that remain open that allowed for the questionable transfers to the new owners of Friendship Ridge, Egley said.

"We'll be moving to do that soon," she said. "We have to make sure all parties are aware of the situation and the bank understands where any payments need to be distributed."

She also supports Lozier's investigations into Bick's alleged actions. She wouldn't comment further.

She has the county's best interests at heart, she said again.

"We have been very open when Vince LaValle left and when Bernie (Rabik) left and now Randi (Bick). It shows that the commissioners act when needed," Egley said.

LaValle maintained he retired from the county in a decision he made on his own and Egley wouldn't comment when he made that decision Jan. 8. Rabik was fired for unspecified reasons Egley would not detail and she wouldn't directly comment on the move to get rid of Bick.

"When you're talking about ... personnel issue(s), it's difficult to be transparent," she said. "Personnel issues are very sensitive and I don't want to make any comments that would be opening up the county to any lawsuit."

Moving forward with all of the issues facing the county is a step-by-step process, she said.

"It takes time to make sure we're making the right decisions," Egley said. "Now, I'm going to focus on economic development opportunities and that we can put Beaver County back on the map for small business, large commercial and industrial opportunities."

Camp maintained transparency is a priority.

"We're putting everything out for the public to know as much as we can," he said.

He also wants answers about the sale of Friendship Ridge.

"We firmly think it was done wrong. The closing wasn't done right and somebody owes somebody money," Camp said.

The only way to find out is to pursue the audit, he said.

He supports closing the accounts associated with Friendship Ridge that are still controlled by the county and said officials are in the process of doing so, Camp said, and he supports Lozier's decision to investigate Bick's actions.

"Our office has always and will always cooperate with David Lozier and anything we can do to assist him in this we will," Camp said.

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