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By JOLYN RESNICK [email protected]
Wednesday, April 05, 2000     Page: 9A

WILKES-BARRE – City officials met with the district attorney for more than
an hour Tuesday to discuss overtime request forms for former Wilkes-Barre
Planning Director John Varaly.
   
After the meeting, Wilkes-Barre Police Chief William Barrett, city
Administrator William Brace and city Human Resources Director Christine Jensen
refused to discuss the outcome.
    Assistant District Attorney Joseph Carmody said a decision concerning
whether criminal charges will be filed against Varaly had not yet been made.
He said he did not know when a decision will come.
   
Mayor Tom McGroarty did not attend the meeting. He said a decision will be
up to Brace and Jensen.
   
“They were assigned to handle this, and they should take appropriate
action,” McGroarty said Tuesday.
   
Last week, city officials said the city planned to ask an outside agency to
aid its probe into who photocopied signatures on overtime authorization forms
that allowed Varaly to collect thousands of dollars in overtime.
   
A few days later, Lupas confirmed his office had been called.
   
The city launched a probe in March after a Times Leader investigation
showed that the authorization signatures on 19 of 42 forms were photocopied
rather than authentic. The documents at issue were found in payroll records
and are supposed to justify $9,204 in overtime payments to Varaly in 1997,
1998 and 1999.
   
Varaly, who quit in the midst of the probe, said he always had verbal or
written approval for his overtime. Brace, Varaly’s supervisor, said he never
gave permission for anyone to use his signature on a photocopy to approve
overtime.
   
Brace also said he gave verbal approval for some overtime, but that the
verbal approval did not negate the need for his signature on the forms.
   
The city has refused to release results of its probe, saying it is part of
an ongoing investigation. Varaly maintains he did nothing wrong.
   
A short time after Varaly left, the city said it would not pay Varaly
retirement benefits until it concludes its investigation. In the meantime,
Varaly is contemplating a lawsuit against the city and has retained attorney
Donald Brobst, of Rosenn Jenkins & Greenwald, to represent him, the city said.
   
Call Resnick at 829-7210.