SUNBURY - Ongoing bickering between Northumberland County Commissioners Vinny Clausi, Richard Shoch and Stephen Bridy over various issues escalated to new heights as the year progressed.
Most of the controversy centered around allegations made by Clausi and Shoch against each other that came to a head at a Dec. 5 press conference called by Clausi.
Clausi completed his fifth year in office in 2012, while Shoch and Bridy finished their first years.
On May 8, in what was believed to be an unprecedented move in county government, Shoch was removed as chairman of the board and replaced by Clausi.
Bridy and Clausi chastised Shoch for not being a leader, "playing politics" and fighting with his fellow commissioners. Shoch defended himself by standing by a letter to the editor entitled "Bread and Circuses in Northumberland County." The letter accused Clausi and Bridy of undermining Shoch's credibility, creating a circus-like atmosphere at meetings, and calling anyone with a dissenting opinion a liar, low-life, shyster, hypocrite, cowardly or corrupt.
Other disputes included the refusal by Clausi and Bridy to accept Shoch's emails, allegations lodged by Shoch against Clausi over his disposal of a hard drive from his work computer, criticism by Clausi and Bridy about a discrepancy with a state Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED) grant in Point Township, and concerns aired by Shoch involving the county having to pay back possibly $250,000 of a grant from DCED involving the Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program (HPRP) program.
Shoch also questioned Clausi's actions in regards to the firing of deputy sheriffs Joseph Jones and Michael Boris related to a porn-viewing scandal, as well as his timing and decisions related to the 911 center upgrade.
Shoch demanded that Clausi repay the county $57,390 in legal fees and place $1.5 million in escrow with the county to cover potential payouts to the claimants in defamation lawsuits filed by Boris and Jones and their former attorney, Gregory Stuck. He claims the lawsuits resulted from Clausi's statements made at a public meeting "that served no purpose other than to allow Mr. Clausi to see his name and picture in the newspaper." Shoch says Clausi, in sworn deposition testimony from April 7, 2011, "admitted that then-Commissioner Frank Sawicki warned him ahead of time not to discuss the issue in the public meeting as it would subject the county to a lawsuit."
Clausi, when he exposed the fact that pornography was viewed on sheriff's department computers, never mentioned names. That was both good and bad, in that it protected the county from libel, but also left all sheriff's department employees as suspects. Eventually, when Boris and Jones were fired for not obeying the department's computer usage policy, their names became more formally linked to the alleged porn-viewing, yet still not definitively.
The courts have yet to determine the final outcome of the defamation lawsuit, but as Clausi pointed out, Boris and Jones lost their arbitration suit to get their jobs back and receive two years of back pay.
Clausi said he exposed the incident because other public officials were trying to cover up the "disgraceful behavior."
The ongoing feud between Clausi and Shoch continued right through the end of the year, with the two exchanging verbal shots at the Dec. 27 commissioners meeting.