Just days before McKean County President Judge John Pavlock appears on the ballot for retention, dissatisfaction among courthouse employees with his performance is on the rise.

Further complaints have come to light against the judge in a letter sent to The Era. While the letter isn’t signed, several court officials have corroborated the complaints contained within it.

The letter claims Pavlock has abused his power, “demanding to have total control over court staff.”

An email sent to Pavlock with a copy of the letter was not immediately answered on Friday.

Earlier this week, The Era received a copy of a request made to the state Judicial Conduct Board to investigate Pavlock. The unsigned complaint alleged women who worked for him were paid less than men, and were not promoted.

Pavlock called the allegations completely false, and since then, has been running ads in The Era asking voters to “consider the facts and our accomplishments — not politically motivated, unfounded, false, last minute, anonymous allegations.”

Included in the latest letter were claims about an unequal separation of caseloads among the judicial staff. Judge Christopher Hauser handles family law, civil law, orphans court matters, juvenile delinquency and dependency cases that involve juvenile delinquents. Family law master Christa Schott handles dependency cases and family law. Pavlock handles administrative duties and criminal law.

“Judge Pavlock handles or is responsible for fewer than 1,000 cases a year,” the letter claimed, adding that Hauser’s caseload was double that number.

Hauser’s former law clerk, Rita Porterfield, the only person who has been willing to speak to The Era on the record about the allegations, agreed that Hauser handled more cases.

“It’s almost an astronomical difference,” she said.

The letter claimed Pavlock does not work a full five days a week, often leaves early and is often late for hearings.

However, the letter stated, the judge claimed he does not have time to run a drug court or to participate in regional or state roundtables on dependency matters.

“There can be no other explanation for Judge Pavlock’s lack of time other than him spending it managing the 3G Garden,” the letter stated. “Each year he spends weeks writing a report for the commissioners. In this report he claims hundreds of thousands of dollars saved for the county. He does not report the expense of running the program.”

The reports indicate more than 30,000 hours of community service a year are performed at the garden by either inmates or individuals serving a sentence through the Court of Common Pleas.

“Is learning how to grow vegetables and making birdhouses skills that are transferable to the workplace?” the letter asks rhetorically. “Is an inmate working in the garden really doing community service? Would it not be a better use of Judge Pavlock’s time to run a drug court?”

Court officials estimate the cost to run the garden is over $200,000. And that community service workers haven’t been available for municipalities to assist with projects.

The letter also mentioned the situation regarding Gary Seefeldt, the former director of Adult Probation who retired at the beginning of 2019. According to the letter, and to court officials who spoke on condition of anonymity, Seefeldt was permitted to retire by Pavlock after allegations of sexually harassing an employee in his department.

“Seefeldt’s wrongful conduct included stalking this employee after hours,” the letter alleges, and which the court officials corroborated. “Two other employees are also believed to have been harassed by Seefeldt. One left her job in the adult probation department without giving any notice. She returned to the courthouse after hours, cleaned out her desk and was never heard from again.”

Another person took a job elsewhere, the letter alleged.

The letter also explained a change of insurance in the fall of 2017 that was enacted by the county commissioners. The deductible went from $250 to $3,000, explained Porterfield. “I no longer have to be afraid of losing my job,” she said. “I am physically out of the county now.”

At the time of the insurance increase, she said, morale in the courthouse was low.

Pavlock called the staff together for a meeting and told them to quit complaining, she alleged.

She suggested unionizing. She reached out to a union, and later learned Pavlock had excluded her position and the judge’s secretaries from the union.

“That was a huge blow to morale,” she said. The people in the union didn’t have the huge deductibles, but those who were excluded from it did.

“It was a hard hit on the backs of the people,” she said.

According to Porterfield, and several other court officials, morale in the courthouse has been low under Pavlock.

Porterfield said of her motivation for coming forward, “Having a court system with efficiency and high morale is for the best for any democracy. If people stop believing in the system, that’s when the system falls apart.”