County GOP Chairman Agrees to Settlement in Lansdale Lawsuit

Montgomery County Republican Committee Chairman Robert Kerns and three other officials from Lansdale have agreed to pay former Lansdale Arts Center Business Manager Anne Yannarella $18,000 for back wages.

Yannarella sued the North Penn Regional Council of the Arts (doing business as Lansdale Center for the Performing Arts) and four of its board members – Kerns, Lansdale Council President Matt West, Lansdale Borough Manager Timi Kirchner and Board Member Dale Murphy – in January 2013 in an attempt to collect $16,750 in lost regular and overtime wages from 2010, according to civil court records.

All four were being sued because each "was directly involved in the decision to not pay wages and other compensation rightfully due (to) Yannarella," according to court records.

Following an executive session Wednesday night, Lansdale Borough Council voted 8-0 to accept an $18,000 settlement with Yannarella.

Of that $18,000, Kerns and Murphy have agreed to be responsible for $6000, according to Lansdale Borough Solicitor Mark Hosterman. Lansdale Borough Council agreed to pay $12,000 on behalf of West and Kirchner.

"Within the past two to three months, Mr. West and Borough Manager Ms. Kirchner were sued by a former employee of the Lansdale Center for the Performing Arts, Anne Yannarella, seeking wages that were accrued while the performing arts center was still open, and then wages that were claimed after it was shut down and the doors were locked," Hosterman said.

Yannarella was seeking $16,725 in lost wages. The additional monies that total $18,000 result from liquidated damages and attorneys' fees that are entitled to her for the defendants' alleged violation of the Pennsylvania Wage Payment and Collection Law.

"Under applicable statute, there are liquidated damages for unpaid wages that are collected in the amount of 25 percent," Hosterman said. "Additionally, counsel fees are awarded for the employee, who is paying counsel to collect those wages. And there is also an interest payment as well."

Hosterman called the $18,000 figure "a good settlement." 

Read more about the case and the history of the dispute on Montgomeryville-Lansdale Patch.