Typically calm, Thursday’s Schuylkill County commissioners’ meeting briefly erupted as officials expelled a frequent critic after he used a vulgarity to describe a dispute with one of them.

The kerfuffle was triggered by commissioners’ approval of the repository sale of five long-delinquent properties. Four are in Lake Wynona, Wayne Township, and one is in Coaldale.

The Lake Wynonah properties were sold to JMAC Realty for $500 each; the Coaldale property went to Anthony Frias Nunez for $1,355.

Repository sales are held after tax delinquent properties have failed to be bought at the first two sales, upset and judicial sales.

The sales were to have been approved last Wednesday, but were tabled after Palo Alto resident Jeffrey J. Dunkel, who unsuccessfully campaigned for commissioner in the May Primary election, opposed them.

On Thursday, Dunkel said the issues he brought up last week had been corrected, proving that his statements that some sale properties lacked necessary paperwork and school district approvals, and that a third-party check to the county for one of the properties was in a folder, were accurate.

“So your little claim that (my statements) were unfounded were b---t,” Dunkel said.

Hetherington took issue with the expletive, drawing protests from Dunkel, who referred to a previous speaker’s use of a similar expletive.

“There’s your selective enforcement,” he yelled.

At that Hetherington called on the sheriff to escort Dunkel from the meeting for being disruptive.

He and Hetherington also argued about the content an email Hetherington sent Dunkel in response to one Dunkel sent him about the tax sales’ preparation and documentation.

Buyer speaks

The previous speaker was Jim McNulty of Wayne Township, who buys tax sale properties. He said some of the parcels have been dormant for 11 years; nobody bid on them.

McNulty described some of the properties as “s--,” and said some of the ones he’s brought require expensive work to be able to be built upon. McNulty said he’s bought three tax sale properties in Lake Wynonah.

At last week’s meeting, Dunkel said the properties were being improperly sold and that favoritism factored in.

“The gentleman gets a ton of contracts through the county,” he said of one buyer.

Dunkel said the improper awards “cost the taxpayers about $7,500 from the difference from the minimum bid. They’re supposed to occur at the minimum bid, not lower than that. There is supposed to be proof if they’re lower,” he said.

Dunkel said he read the files, and “all it is is a little Word document, not signed. Just a little document by the purchaser saying the land cannot be (percolation-tested). That’s not proof. You need it from the home association or somebody saying it can’t be (percolation-tested), not just somebody randomly saying that.”

Land must be “perc” or percolation tested to determine water drainage in various soils. That’s needed for water and sewer infrastructure.

Dunkel also said not all the sales have been approved by the school districts, either. All taxing bodies, including local governments and school districts, must sign off on tax sales.

Dunkel said he checked the files before the public meeting.

He also said a payment check to the county for the properties is in the files, but it is not from the listed purchaser.

Dunkel said he was “interested in” the four Wayne Township properties, in the Lake Wynonah development.

Had he known lower than minimum bids would be accepted, he said, he would have bought the properties.

Commissioner Gary J. Hess and Hetherington agreed to table the sales until the facts could be checked. Commissioner George F. Halcovage Jr. Voted against the delay.

Tax sale law

On Thursday, Hetherington called on First Assistant County Solicitor Glenn T. Roth to speak to the tax sale.

Roth said that after last Wednesday’s meeting, he met with the Tax Claim Bureau clerk who handles repository sales and her supervisor, interim Tax Claim Director Deb Dasch, to review the repository sale files.

He also reviewed tax sale laws.

“These were properties that were on the repository list for many years. Anyone could have come in and made an offer. In this instance, an individual made an offer of $500. He put in a statement that these properties did not perc, and they were on unbuildable lots.

“Based on that, the bureau accepted the offer, and submitted it in writing to the school district and the local municipality,” Roth said.

Neither the school district nor the municipality objected, he said.

The bureau “took a proactive step and reached out to the various taxing districts to verify that these sales were not rejected,” Roth said. “So, based on my review of the files, the bureau did comply with the Real Estate Tax Sale law. The taxing districts did not reject these sales, and therefore, they are legally compliant should move forward.”

With that, commissioners unanimously approved the sales, putting the properties back on the tax rolls.