Public comment overshadowed a brief agenda at Wednesday’s public Schuylkill County commissioners’ meeting.

Commissioners from a number of people, including Ringtown resident Douglas Litwhiler, who questioned them about the outcome of a $15,000 investigation into the alleged actions of two of four women who filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against Commissioner George F. Halcovage Jr.

Tax claim director Angela Toomey and assistant director Denise McGinley-Gerchak, who were suspended without pay from their jobs in September 2021 after being accused of using sophisticated county software to conduct searches on people.

Then, after failing to fire the women, commissioners suspended them without pay and hired the Harrisburg law firm of Eckert Seamans Cherin and Mellott to conduct an investigation.

The results of that investigation were never made public, and the women remain suspended.

On Monday, federal court filings revealed they may begin talks to settle the lawsuit.

Toomey, Gerchak and two others filed the lawsuit against Halcovage on March 16, 2021 in U.S. District Court, Scranton. In the suit, they are identified as Jane Doe 1, Jane Doe 2, Jane Doe 3, and Jane Doe 4.

In October 2021, they amended the lawsuit to include the contention that they were retaliated against by county officials for filing the suit. The retaliation was in the form of demotions and suspensions, according to court documents.

Litwhiler asked Commissioner Gary J. Hess if he had seen the results of the investigation. Hess said he had not.

In other matters Wednesday, Clerk of Courts Maria T. Casey said she had asked for 50-cent an hour raises for her staff, but Commissioners Chairman Barron L. Hetherington removed it from the agenda.

She argued that if the county could pay $250 an hour for a human resources consulting firm, it could well afford the small wage increases for her staff.

She asked if a woman at the meeting was representing the human resources firm contracted by the county to fill in after the previous director resigned in March, after six months on the job.

Hetherington, who is often at odds with Casey, who is campaigning for a seat on the board, said the woman was a county human resources employee.