Lackawanna County controller's office uncovers $60,000+ in unclaimed taxpayer money

Jan. 11—A Lackawanna County Controller's Office search of Pennsylvania's unclaimed property website turned up more than $60,000 for the county dating as far back as 1990, Controller Gary DiBileo said Wednesday.

The county treasurer's office routinely checks the state Treasury Department site by searching for the county's name, but DiBileo said Reggie Mariani, his office's chief internal auditor, dug deeper using unrelated keywords minus the county's name. DiBileo said Mariani learned about the new method through a presentation by the state Treasury, the depository for unclaimed property at a Pennsylvania State Association of County Controllers conference in June, Mariani said.

The more than 100 keywords Mariani used include "general fund," "district magistrate," "district justice," "clerk of judicial records," "domestic relations" and "district attorney." Mariani also searched current and former addresses of county buildings.

Some searches produced lengthy lists that included entries from other counties. Mariani checked each entry for other evidence that proved money belonged to Lackawanna — a full or partial name of a county agency, an address, even the names of past district justices such as Carmen Minora, now a senior county Common Pleas Court judge.

"We tried everything," Mariani said. "We just kept typing. As we came up with something, we brainstormed it and said, 'Let's try this.' And when we try that we got a hit."

He found 117 entries that had something to do with the county, but only 108 clearly belonged to the county. The state treasurer's office issued the county a $60,436.61 check Dec. 29 and the money was deposited Jan. 6, according to records Mariani provided.

The oldest entry was dated Nov. 9, 1990, a refund from Ford Motor Co. for $5. By law, companies with money or property that goes unclaimed must turn it over to the state Treasury Department after three years, Mariani said. The most recent was dated Sept. 3, 2019, for uncashed checks totaling $4,569.75 from the state Office of the Budget, an arm of the governor's office. The largest entry was dated March 6, 2007, a check for $21,151.89 written to "Department of Emergency Services 911" in Jessup by Commonwealth Telephone Co. LLC. That's the address of the county's 911 center. Mariani said that is a monthly check the phone company remits for fees paid by county residents in their monthly bills for 911 service. The check appeared to be for February 2007, because the county received all its monthly checks before and after that, Mariani said.

The smallest entry was for one cent for a credit balance from Sonepar USA Holdings Inc. owed to "Lackawanna County Commissioners" and dated Aug. 10, 2017. Six entries were between 2000 and earlier, 27 from 2005 and earlier, 58 from 2010 and earlier, and 93 from 2015 and earlier. Many of the unclaimed amounts are for fines, fees, insurance claim payments, rebates, refunds and uncashed checks by banks to the county.

DiBileo and Mariani aren't sure why the money didn't make it into county bank accounts before. Neither thinks the episode points to a lack of procedures that require a review to ensure this doesn't happen again, pointing out the checks weren't cashed. Mariani said county policy is to deposit checks immediately.

"We're always writing up in procedures that the minute they get the check, they should put (write) 'for deposit only.' ... This way, if it's lost, you know that nobody else is going to cash it," he said.

County Treasurer Ed Karpovich said his staff has searched the Pennsylvania Department of the Treasury's unclaimed property website for 20 years and turned up thousands of dollars a year, about $9,000 in the most recent search in July.

"Anytime I see something on their website that says, owner's name, Lackawanna County, I grab it," Karpovich said. "I figure what the heck, even though I really don't know what the heck it's about, but I figure if it's Lackawanna County, that's me."

Mariani said he provided Scranton Tax Collector and Single Tax Office head Cathy Wechsler with a list of unclaimed checks owed the tax agency.

Wechsler said a quick tally showed more than $11,000 in unclaimed money, though some of that does not appear to belong to her agency. She's still confirming the office is owed the money.

Cursory searches for the city of Scranton, Dunmore and Jessup boroughs and the Scranton School District showed unclaimed money, too.

"We would recommend that if people haven't checked with unclaimed property, they do it," DiBileo said.

Contact the writer: bkrawczeniuk@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9147; @BorysBlogTT on Twitter.