Bucks County Coroner Sues Commissioners For 'Draconian' Cuts

WARMINSTER, PA — The Bucks County Coroner is suing the county commissioners, alleging in an amended lawsuit that they knowingly slashed her annual budget by more than $1 million and did so secretly, which would be a violation of the state’s Sunshine Law.

In the lawsuit, filed late last week, the attorney for Coroner Meredith Buck maintains that there was never any public discussion by commissioners that they were planning on cutting her budget by more than 66 percent, the lawsuit alleges. The suit, which county officials have dismissed as "meritless" and "filled with frivolous claims", also alleges that commissioners acted unlawfully in preparing and advertising notice of the proposed budget when it is “knowingly inaccurate.”

The coroner’s budget for 2021 was proposed to be $1.54 million, which represented only a 0.3 percent reduction ($5,300) from the previous year, the lawsuit states. On December 9, a public hearing was held that lasted 15 minutes the budget still was shown to be at the same amount. However, a week later, commissioners voted to cut Buck’s budget by $1,033,000, which represents a reduction of 66.8 percent down to $514,000, according to the lawsuit.

“The draconian budget cuts by the defendants undermine the authority and ability of the independent and duly elected Bucks County Coroner from properly performing her statutory duties,” the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit specifically states that Commission Chairperson Diane Ellis-Marseglia acted in “absolute bad faith” and has “deliberately retaliated” against Bucks by pushing forward a “draconian, unlawful and inadequate” budget.

When contacted by Patch Tuesday, Ellis-Marseglia directed Patch to county spokesman Larry King, who provided this statement on behalf of the county:

“As soon as we motioned the court to throw out this meritless lawsuit, the Coroner changed her complaint yet again," the statement reads. "We will continue to protect the taxpayers from frivolous claims against the County and its officials and look forward to having our day in court. The commissioners have a fiduciary and moral responsibility to assure all County offices function well and we have always done what was necessary to ensure that.”

The lawsuit maintains that there was no public discussion of the budget cuts at either the Dec. 9 or Dec. 16 meetings and Buck did not receive a notice or explanation stating that cuts were coming, the lawsuit states. Larry Otter, Bucks’ attorney, told The Intelligencer that at some point between Nov. 23 and Dec. 16 commissioners held a “non-public meeting” to discuss the budget, which would be a violation of the state’s Sunshine Law.

The only other two county departments that saw reductions in budgets from the previous year was the Recorder of Deeds and Constables, which were cut by 2.3 percent and 2.7 percent, respectively, according to the suit.

Seven other elected officials, including the county treasurer, controller, register of wills, sheriff, district attorney and others all received increases to their budgets, according to the suit.

In early January, Bucks’ requisitions for the 2021 yearly contracts were denied, according to the suit, and the Bucks County Financial Office System indicated that the amounts requested were “overbudget.”

Later in the month, Bucks was told by the county purchasing department that her budget had been cut by two-thirds. The suit states that Bucks then spoke with county Chief Financial Officer David Boscola, who told Bucks that he was given “orders” not to say anything to her until after the county’s $469 million budget had been passed.

He also said that the coroner’s office was only budgeted through April 30 although the final budget approved by commissioners “falsely portrays” that the budget is for the entirety of the year.

Buck’s budget was cut at a time when her office was charged with investigating deaths in Bucks County, including the nearly 1,100 coronavirus-related deaths which have occurred in 2020 and 2021, the lawsuit states. The total is “over and above the typical workload”, according to the suit.

Buck did not disclose the budget cuts until March, when she held a news conference and said her office would run out of money by the end of April, according to The Intelligencer report. Commissioners on April 7 approved a $655,400 general budget transfer which took Bucks’ budget to $1.16 million for the year.

According to a response filed to the lawsuit by the county, officials said that Bucks withdrew her initial lawsuit, which she said she filed to get the attention of commissioners in a matter that deeply affected her office. She said at the news conference that she hoped to meet with commissioners soon after and with hopes of resolving the matter, the county response states.

Otter then said that his client had no choice but to refile the lawsuit because a meeting between herself and commissioners was canceled when Otter accompanied her to the meeting, the county response states.

County officials said that they met their statutory obligation to pass a budget totaling $469 million and that it is up to the Commissioners' discretion to pass subsequent budget adjustments, the response states. The county maintains that the cuts that were made to the coroner's budget do not fall in line with a violation are are in turn, seeking the case against the commissioners to be dismissed.