Judge: Marianna tax collector ‘abandoned’ her job
A hearing Thursday afternoon in Washington County Court focused on an attempt to find financial records missing from Marianna Borough.
Although President Judge Katherine B. Emery determined that Erica Pinkney last September “abandoned” her appointed job as tax collector in the former coal-mining community and failed to communicate this to anyone for several weeks, Pinkney testified under oath that she does not have the records the borough is seeking.
“There’s no recourse here in court at this time,” the judge told the litigants after listening to more than an hour of testimony and argument. The borough had been seeking a court order directing Pinkney, a nine-year resident of Marianna, to produce the tax records.
Pinkney held the Marianna secretary-treasurer post and she took on additional duties when she was appointed tax collector on June 13, 2018, filling a vacancy in what is normally an elected office. The borough fired her from her secretary-treasurer position last fall, alleging she refused to participate in an investigation into missing records.
But borough solicitor Lane Turturice pointed out during the hearing that correspondence with Pinkney about her job dealt only with her status as secretary-treasurer, not her tax collection duties.
Pinkney’s attorney, Jack Heneks, noted that weeks elapsed between Pinkney’s last exit from the borough building in September and the hiring of replacement secretary-treasurer Kayla Logdon who, in court, described the premises as being in disarray.
A smith had changed locks, and Pinkney testified she could no longer enter the borough office. Neither could she access the borough’s computerized files because of a password change.
The judge asked Pinkney if she left all borough tax records in the municipal building, and she replied, “Yes.” She later testified that she interpreted correspondence about being dismissed from her job in September as applying to both the secretary-treasurer and tax collector positions.
Heneks called the accusation of “malfeasance and misfeasance” the borough had made in a court document against Pinkney, and reported in a news account, to be both “slanderous and libelous.” Pinkney, contacted for comment about a news story earlier in February, declined to address the accusations.
“If there is a criminal investigation, my client has no knowledge of it personally,” Heneks told the judge.
Marianna Borough has ordered a forensic audit.
Asked if the judge’s ruling Thursday ended the matter, Heneks replied, “As far as I know it does. We will continue to cooperate with any efforts of the borough at this point.”
Turturice said after the hearing that the municipality “is in dire financial straits,” but added that during its search for records, the borough discovered Pinkney’s bond as tax collector.
The borough, Turturice said, will turn the matter over to the insurer and ask the surety bonding company to cover losses. Marianna has suffered, the solicitor said, because it has no record of who paid, or who didn’t pay, borough property taxes last year, causing it to miss a deadline set by the Washington County tax claim bureau.
Thursday’s hearing was the latest chapter of a saga that has lasted for several months. Four members of Marianna council resigned in August, and, without a quorum, the borough was unable to conduct business for a time.
Jeremy Berardinelli, who has been council president since September, said after the hearing, “I’ve been asking questions for several years now. I’ve been asking about transparency for two years. We’re stewards of the public.”