Luzerne County commissioners are considering hiring Ohio-based IntelliCorp Records Inc. to conduct background checks of prospective employees.

The cost is $19.95 per check. The county does about 240 pre-employment checks a year, and prison employees had been doing the checks on the state's criminal-record computer database, county Manager/Chief Clerk Doug Pape said.

But the state recently informed the county it could no longer use the state criminal-record database for pre-employment screening except for prison employment, Pape said. Sheriff's department and 911 employees can use the database to screen prospective employees, but also only for employment in those departments, Pape said.

In 2006 and 2007, the county paid two companies more than $50,000 for screening services. Those companies were tied to Bill Maguire, then the county municipal coordinator, and Doug Richards, then the county's human resources director.

Richards and Maguire have pleaded guilty to corruption charges and have been cooperating with federal authorities. Maguire has not been sentenced, and Richards is seeking a reduction in a 15-month prison sentence for helping run a dummy payroll-preparation corporation that received a no-bid county contract and secretly paid him thousands of dollars.

William Grub, a former New York City police officer, wined and dined county officials on trips to Manhattan and gave each of them key chains attached to small boxes stuffed with up to $4,000, according to a pre-sentence report prepared by federal probation officials in Richards' case.

The report says Maguire and Richards received cash-stuffed key chains. Grub had a financial interest in companies paid by the county for personnel services and law-enforcement consulting.

Pape said IntelliCorp was "the least expensive" company that offered pre-employment screening services. The company provides services to Miami-Dade County in Florida and the city of Phoenix, Pape said.

County commissioners (at the time of this publication) plan to vote on the IntelliCorp motion at their meeting in Wright Township.