The way has been cleared for former Clarion County district attorney Mark Aaron to become a deputy sheriff in the county.
Last week, county commissioners voted 2-1 against hiring Aaron with Wayne Brosius voting yes and Ed Heasley and Ted Tharan voting no.
Tuesday Tharan said, “Row officers have the full authority to hire whomever they want, period.”
“He (Munsee) has to do it so long as there is a position available,” Heasley said.
“It was really just a public acknowledgment. We should have had it under public announcements,” said Brosius.
According to a story in the Clarion News last week, Munsee said, “I’m in a bind with a full-time opening and no one interested in taking it. Mark came to me and said he would like to take the job and I’ll be honest, he said he needed the (health) insurance.”
Munsee pointed out the county-paid health insurance wouldn’t be available to Aaron until at least May 3 if the hiring was approved with an effective date of Feb. 3.
Nor, Munsee said, would Aaron be “sitting in the office twiddling his thumbs.”
Munsee said Aaron would be a uniformed deputy sheriff and would perform routine duties such as serving civil papers, transporting prisoners and other duties.
Aaron is not Act 120 certified, but Munsee said the former district attorney doesn’t need to be to start the job.
“But he does have a law degree, he has 20 years of criminal prosecution experience. He knows the law,” said Munsee. “He has taught various classes, he has done many, many public presentations on many, many public safety topics.”
Munsee also addressed the issue of Aaron’s county retirement benefits.
“He would be making a whopping 12 dollars and one penny an hour,” said Munsee. “I don’t think that’s going to make much difference in his retirement.”
“It just wouldn’t be practical right now,” said Aaron. “I would have a conflict of interest with every case filed before Jan. 1, 2020.”
Aaron said he intends to open a law office in Clarion and practice criminal law.
“But due to the potential conflicts, it wouldn’t make sense to start for a while,” said Aaron. “Also, it’s not feasible to take my pension until I reach full retirement age later this year.”
Aaron said the possibility of him working as a deputy sheriff came up in a conversation with Munsee.
“We thought it would work out if I helped him out for a while,” said Aaron. “Until I open my office after most of the current pending (criminal) cases have worked their way through the system.”
The commissioners will take no further action on the hiring, leaving the way clear for Munsee to add a new deputy.