Pike election director requests transfer

Many controversies surrounded the director

By TOM KANE

MILFORD, PA ? The beleaguered director of the Pike County Board of Elections, Yolanda Goldsack, has resigned from her position and requested, in a letter dated June 18, a transfer to another department.

The county commissioners said that they would respond to her letter when they examined the county’s needs at headquarters.

“There are some possibilities where she could be used but we need more time to examine it,” said commissioner Karl Wagner.

Goldsack would not comment on questions about her resignation or request for transfer.

“Yolanda Goldsack is still the director of the Board of Elections,” said commissioner Harry Forbes.

Recently, her office has become embroiled in several controversial issues, including an incident in which her husband, Robert Goldsack, who was a candidate for the Delaware Valley School Board, interceded for a voter at the Dingman Township polling station by calling the election board office to rectify a problem at the polling station on Election Day. Many thought that he should have allowed the judge of the election at the poll to settle the issue and not intervened.

Another incident during the primary election period occurred when an activist stopped by the office and asked for the financial statement of one of the candidates. After initially receiving the information, he was asked almost immediately to return the financial statement because, he was told, he had no authority to receive it. That decision was later reversed when the county solicitor, Tom Farley, went to the election office with the activist and told the staff that they had no right to refuse him. Many saw that as a flaw in Goldsack’s administration of her staff.

A third incident that many see as Goldsack’s fault occurred in Lehman Township when a write-in candidate for township auditor was initially told that he had won a spot on the ballot in November only to have his victory reversed in subsequent certification of the vote a few days later.

Goldsack, who had been an activist in a Republican Party organization prior to her appointment, was installed to her position in January 2007 by the commissioners who were meeting in the absence of Karl Wagner, the Democratic member who was on vacation. Many criticized the commissioners for making that appointment even though it was entirely legal.

“I would have suggested someone else,” Wagner said recently, “but I had no problem with the choice made by my fellow commissioners.”

“In all my 14 years as commissioner, I have never seen so much useless scrutiny?and I include the press?by people over the performance of any department head as Mrs. Goldsack,” said commissioner Harry Forbes. “Look at the reorganization of that office which she has accomplished and the many other improvements she has made.”