Life has a funny way of coming full circle.

Just ask Mark Sverchek.

The Carbon County native began his career as a public servant in the Carbon County treasurer’s office in the late ’70s before leaving for the private sector and then returning to public service. Sverchek will now finish his career as the county controller, when he officially retires at the end of his term this year.

Sverchek announced this week that he will not seek reelection and said that life changes were a factor in his decision.

“When I decided to run for public office four years ago, I really had every intent to run and hopefully win and serve two full terms. Of course the pandemic hit, and as you know, changed all our lives,” Sverchek said.

Sverchek said that he and his wife, Anne, have three grown children - one who lives in Lehighton, one in South Carolina and one in Australia, and being able to travel to visit them was a big factor.

“I didn’t think it was fair to the citizens of Carbon County to run and hopefully win and try and serve again when, if our kids that are married start a family and they need our help that I say to my staff, ‘I gotta go to another state for a month because they need our help.’ I didn’t think it was fair to my staff and to the voters.

“It was a hard decision to make because I am enjoying what I am doing,” he added. “I think I’m making a positive difference.”

Sverchek credits his staff for making the controller’s office operate as smoothly as it does.

Highlights

Over the last three years, Sverchek said that he feels he helped to save the county and taxpayers money.

Changes include getting rid of some of the paper reporting that took time and money to complete and transferring some retirees from paper checks to direct deposit.

“The printing cost, labor cost and computer time, that all adds up,” he said.

It also included, in his position as secretary to the retirement board, that he helped make the decision to give investment consultant Marquette Associates greater authority over the retirement investment portfolio.

By doing this, it allowed Marquette to make financial decisions within certain parameters to best serve the portfolio rather than waiting for the county to make a decision, which could take up to two months.

“Over the course of the last few years, there has been some wild markets so having Marquette have the county’s authority to go in and make changes without having to come to us and us meeting and thinking it over, it saved a lot.”

This helped the county have growth in the retirement portfolio.

Last month the value of the portfolio was just over $84 million.

Sverchek said that growth is good because the monthly payout in retirement benefits averages between $450,000 and $500,000.

“If you do the math and you still see portfolio growth, they’re doing pretty good.”

Challenges

Svercheck there has been some challenges too, citing his position as a member of the county salary board and the pay disparity of employees in the county.

“Even before the pandemic struck, I felt that there were a number of positions that were quite low paid and I thought there’s got to be a way to pay some of these folks some more money because I didn’t even think it was a living wage,” he said.

“Then of course the pandemic hit and turned everything upside down.”

He said that while he was supportive of the salary study, more work is needed to set salaries to properly compensate employees for the work they do.

“Unfortunately, and I kind of opine about this, is that the result of the study may have an indirect negative effect on more senior, tenured people,” he said.

“And as we have seen, there has been a few that have left or are going to leave the county, whether it be early retirement or just resigning after many, many years of county service. I’m very concerned about that because I’ll call that a brain drain. Those men and women are a wealth of knowledge for the county that we’re losing.

“It’s going to be hard to replace that knowledge base.”

He said that he plans to work to correct some of the inequities from the study for his office, as well as other departments.

Job to question

Throughout the last three years, Sverchek has made it his mission to question decisions to save the taxpayers money in the long-term.

He cites maintenance at the county prison, especially a water system that has continuously been a problem over the years.

“One thing I like to think that I brought to the board was just good business common sense when I would see things breaking and maintenance issues. I was always asking questions and not just as controller, but as a business owner myself.”

Carbon County proud

Sverchek, a Republican, has always kept Carbon County as his priority.

Born in Lansford before moving to Lehighton, he has served, not only in two offices within the county, but also owned the Mark A. Sverchek Insurance and Financial Service Agency in Summit Hill for nearly 20 years before selling it to Spotts Agency in Schuylkill County, while still consulting as needed.

He also was employed in various management positions at numerous banks around the area.

“When this opportunity came up, I thought I certainly had the background to do it and I wanted to give something back to our county that’s really been good to us,” Sverchek said. “ ... It was just a nice fit.”

He and his wife, the former Anne Corkill of Jim Thorpe, raised their family in the Lehighton area and are members of SS. Peter and Paul Church, Lehighton.

“It has certainly been an honor and a pleasure to serve the citizens of Carbon County, my home county, as your controller these last (few) years,” Sverchek said. “I wish I could have stayed longer, but family duty calls.

He thanked his staff for “their support, their knowledge, their cooperation and assistance for me coming in as the new guy three years ago.”

Sverchek challenged the public to get informed about county government and call out officials if they see something that should be questioned.

“Hold us, as elected officials, accountable,” he said. “Ask questions.”