EDITORIAL: Luzerne County needs to weigh insurance switch carefully

Dec. 6--Should Luzerne County switch insurance brokers? That was the question asked by the headline of a story in Thursday's Times Leader.

The issue is this:

--County Manager C. David Pedri recommended the county keep Brown & Brown at its current $60,000 yearly fee as endorsed by an employee committee that reviewed all proposal submissions. But council voted 8 to 3 against Tuesday, making the unusual decision to reject Pedri's recommendation.

--With his first choice denied, Pedri recommended council hire Joyce Insurance for $50,000, which he described as the next option that would be a "comparable proposal" to the Brown & Brown one.

What next?

Council wants Joyce to publicly present its qualifications and a proposed contract at its Dec. 10 meeting before voting.

Brown & Brown representative Paul Pugielli publicly highlighted his company's work for the county at the Nov. 26 council work session.

Democracy is messy, as we so often see. A council majority rejected Pedri's initial recommendation, as is their right, and now county lawmakers want to hear from the the other firm before they vote -- again, as is their right.

One of the intended benefits of an 11-member council under Home Rule was that there would be more eyes on the people's business. Ideally, the larger panel would weigh decisions publicly and carefully to ensure the county and its taxpayers are getting the best possible services for their money, with broader representation than under the old three-person commissioner system, in which two majority members held an awful lot of power with what often felt like considerably less accountability.

One of the unintended drawbacks has been a frequent tendency of divided councils to clash with their appointed county managers -- sometimes over legitimate questions of policy, but sometimes merely out of partisanship or personal grievances.

We have been supportive of Pedri's management and continue to see him as a responsible steward of the public trust. That said, council has the right to set aside his recommendations and make their own decisions, as has happened here, although it's a move that should be used sparingly; if a manager is constantly being overruled, his or her ability to make effective decisions will suffer and relations between council and administrator will break down.

We also feel it is in keeping with the transparency and good governance intended by the Home Rule Charter to "shop around," especially with big-ticket items.

On the face of it, switching from Bethlehem-based Brown & Brown to Pittston-based Joyce Insurance Group would bring the service back to a Luzerne County company and save taxpayers $10,000.

At the same time, anyone who has dealt with contracts such as these understands that the lowest bidder may not always be best suited to the role, which is another reason why due diligence is required here -- and why the recommendation of Pedri and the employee committee should not be written off.

Should council switch insurance brokers? We're not making that call here.

We are saying that we hope the final decision is based on what's best for the taxpayers.

-- Times Leader

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