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Former Luzerne County controller Walter Griffith recently offered the first public hint me may run for office again, asking the county election board for a legal opinion on the matter.

The 62-year-old Kingston Township resident ended probation in September for his 2013 guilty plea on three misdemeanor charges of obstructing the administration of justice for recording three conversations without obtaining permission of those taped as required by state law.

Griffith had also agreed to step down as controller, cancel his 2013 general election controller re-election race and not seek public office during the probationary period.

He asked the election board Jan. 12 if its solicitor, Michael Butera, can provide a legal opinion on whether he can run in coming months.

“Is that something that has to come up before the board of elections?” Griffith asked.

Butera said there’s nothing barring Griffith from appearing on the May 16 primary ballot or the Nov. 7 general ballot if he is nominated in the primary.

“You could run. The question is can you serve?” Butera said.

The state constitution says people convicted of embezzlement of public money, bribery, perjury or other “infamous crime” are barred from holding public office, but a case law analysis would be necessary to determine if misdemeanor obstructing the administration of justice offenses would fall into the infamous crime category, officials have said.

The election board would not weigh in on a legal question about eligibility to serve, Butera said. That issue would be decided by the courts if anyone challenges that matter, he said.

Butera pointed to the 2015 county council race, when Mark Rabo and John Gadomski received primary election nominations for the county council amid questions of whether they were eligible to serve due to a county home rule charter ban in effect at that time.

The ban required county board/authority members to wait one year after leaving their seats to run for county office, and both men gave up their unpaid board seats around the time of the 2015 primary. The issue was not tested because neither won in the general election, and county voters did away with the ban this November by approving a charter amendment.

Griffith, a Republican, said after the election meeting he is contemplating running for county controller or one of the five county council seats up for grabs this year — or both — at the urging of supporters.

However, he said he had to refinance his house to pay $30,000 in legal fees on his defense and negotiation of the plea agreement and is leery of investing more of his own funds on an eligibility review and possible challenge.

“I am confident I’d get elected because everyone I’ve talked to said they saw through what happened to me, but I don’t want to drag my family through the court again,” Griffith said. “I’m up in the air.”

Griffith has blamed himself for failing to research the law before recording a 2010 phone call with county pension fund officials, a retirement board closed-door executive session that same year and a 2011 phone call with Y. Judd Shoval, a member of the nonprofit CityVest board that handled the failed Hotel Sterling renovation project in Wilkes-Barre. Griffith has maintained he had no malicious intent and made the recordings for informational purposes.

County Controller Michelle Bednar, a Democrat who took office in January 2014, has said she will seek a second term.

The controller is paid $64,999 annually through a four-year term and is the “independent watchdog over county fiscal and management activities,” according to the charter.

Griffith
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By Jennifer Learn-Andes

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Reach Jennifer Learn-Andes at 570-991-6388 or on Twitter @TLJenLearnAndes.