SUNBURY - Northumberland County Commissioner Stephen Bridy has accused veteran coroner James F. Kelley of a possible conflict of interest for submitting a bill to the county for funeral expenses for a 16-year-old male who was in foster care when he died in January.
Kelley, who requested the payment on behalf of James Kelley Funeral Home, Coal Township, of which he is director, maintains he did nothing wrong and was instructed by Children and Youth Services Director Jennifer Willard to submit the $5,755.50 bill. Submitted Jan. 30 and paid by the county Feb. 8, it included funeral services and cremation.
Bridy called an impromptu news conference after a salary board meeting Monday morning to report that the county planned to file a complaint with the state ethics commission about the bill because it may constitute a conflict of interest since Kelley serves as county coroner.
Kelley was not made aware of the conference until after it happened.
"I am extremely disappointed I wasn't contacted beforehand," Kelley said. "A phone call would have been a lot more appropriate."
While Northumberland County agencies worked with the teen, the death actually occurred in Union County, Kelley said.
"In no way was I performing my duties as county coroner in this case. It had nothing to do with the coroner's office," he said.
Kelley said the victim's family members asked him to handle the arrangements because his funeral home had done so for other members of that family. The mother of the victim lives in the Shamokin area, he said.
"Children and Youth told me to submit a bill, so I did," Kelley said. "If the county didn't want to pay it, they shouldn't have paid it. But they didn't need to create a big issue about it after the fact."
DA to be notified
After the press conference, Bridy, on the advice of county solicitor Frank Garrigan and assistant county solicitor John Muncer, directed chief clerk Gary Steffen to send a letter to county District Attorney Tony Rosini informing him of the situation.
According to the county code, no public official or public employee or his or her spouse or child, or any business in which the person or his or her spouse or child is associated, shall enter into any contract valued at $500 or more with the governmental body with which the public official or public employee is associated.
Bridy, who said the teen committed suicide, said Kelley could be guilty of committing a misdemeanor under the county code that would require him to pay a fine of not more than $1,000 and/or imprisonment for not more than one year.
"We are asking the state ethics commission to investigate these allegations," Bridy said.
Commissioner Vinny Clausi said, "I'm not saying he (Kelley) is guilty, but we must look into this."
Clausi said he learned Sunday night that Bridy was calling the news conference.
Shoch, who said he wasn't informed about the news conference until five minutes before the salary board session, said Bridy brought the issue to the board's attention late last week. "We thought it warranted further investigation because it may have been inappropriate," he said.
After the conference, Shoch said he was disappointed that the matter wasn't discussed with Kelley before it became public. "I called Mr. Kelley immediately after the press conference to apologize for the way it was handled," he said. "We should have extended him the courtesy of making him aware of the issue."
Unusual
Bridy, who pointed out Kelley may not be guilty of anything, said county Controller Tony Phillips brought the matter to his attention after discovering a bill for the teen's funeral expenses.
"It was an unusual expenditure, one you don't see every day," Phillips said. "Since it was an out-of-the-ordinary expenditure, I thought the commissioners needed to put a procedure in place to cap county expenditures like this. This is the first time it's happened since I've been controller. I don't know if it's happened before. I brought it up because it was unusual, not because Mr. Kelley was involved."
The coroner, who noted the teen's funeral expenses were actually lower than most of his funerals, didn't recall his funeral home handling arrangements for Children and Youth Services in the past. But Kelley said he has provided funeral services for the state involving homicide victims that he was reimbursed for through the Pennsylvania Victims Compensation Fund administered through the Attorney General's Office.
Kelley also said he has paid for children's funerals numerous times over the years at no expense to the families of the deceased.
"I welcome anybody to look into this," Kelley said. "I did nothing wrong. I've done my job appropriately for more than 22 years in the coroner's office, including the past 10 as coroner. I've been a funeral home director since 1985 and I have never had my morals or ethics questioned in that time."