GOP Drops Lawsuit After Acting Voter Services Director Leaves Post

Kerns’s law firm filed the suit in May, after long-time voter services director Joseph Passarella was fired and Paston, who previously served as the county's print shop director, was “loaned” to the department as acting director.

Kerns asserted that Paston was illegally placed in the position without a vote from the salary board, and he was too political for the post, having held a school board position as a democrat and running unsuccessfully for the State House in 2006 and judge in 2011

Shapiro objected to the initial suit, stating it was “wrong on the facts, wrong on the law,” and that a salary board vote was not necessary because Paston’s salary did not change.

After Kerns filed an amended complaint on June 24, Montgomery County Solicitor Raymond McGarry said that that lawsuit, aside from having several other defects, was moot because Paston left his position with voter services on June 20 to become the first deputy of the Montgomery County Clerk of Courts office.

“This matter is moot,” said McGarry in a letter to Kerns.  ‘Yet, you continue to pursue it for obvious partisan (rather than legal) reasons.”

Kerns considers the transfer a victory, nonetheless.

“While Shapiro found a soft landing for Paston which county taxpayers will pay for, it is reassuring to know that he will not bear the responsibility of ensuring our elections will be administered fairly and without partisan influence,” Kerns said.

Other county officials did not draw the correlation between the lawsuit and Paston’s transfer.

“Let's be clear, they dropped the lawsuit because it was totally without merit,” said Frank X. Custer, Montgomery County director of communications. “The chairman of the county Republican committee continues to beat a dead horse in his ongoing effort to make himself relevant in a county that appreciates strong leadership."

McGarry took it one step further in his letter to Kerns, threatening to seek sanctions against Kerns if he did not withdraw the amended complaint since it was “frivolous and necessitates a wasteful expenditure of public resources.”

Lauren Lambrugo, Chief Clerk of the Election Board, continues to oversee the operations; no Voter Services Director has been named to replace Passarella.