The validity of eliminating the Butler County jury commissioner posts during an election year was challenged again Wednesday.

County Commissioner Jim Eckstein said at the commissioners meeting his colleagues, Bill McCarrier and Dale Pinkerton, erroneously voted in May to set the end of the part-time jury commissioner posts for December.

“They overturned the election two days afterward,” Eckstein said.

The May 23 vote was two days after the primary. Eckstein, who was absent from that meeting to attend a conference in Harrisburg, said McCarrier and Pinkerton “arbitrarily” threw away an election.

“That’s not a good thing,” Eckstein said.

McCarrier disagreed the action was not valid.

“A primary is only a nomination process,” he said. “We did not do anything wrong.”

Larry Thompson, former county jury commissioner and former president of the Pennsylvania State Association of Jury Commissioners, sided with Eckstein.

Thompson, who is the deputy register of wills/clerk of orphans’ court, did not attend the meeting Wednesday.

He said in an interview the posts should not have been discarded after the primary, which happened because McCarrier switched his stance between November, when the commissioners initially opted to retain the posts, and May.

“Mr. McCarrier threw out an election,” Thompson said. “It’s unprecedented. It’s un-American.”

McCarrier conceded the jury commissioners’ race is unique in that nominees getting through the primary have no opponents on the November ballot.

Thompson said the May 23 vote prevented independent candidates from running write-in campaigns to vie for the seats.

When McCarrier and Pinkerton voted to cut the part-time posts, they cited cost savings to the county. The salaries and benefits of the jury commissioners were budgeted this year at roughly $71,000.

Thompson subsequently sent a letter dated July 16 to the commissioners asking them to reverse their decision to avoid litigation in county court.

He later said the three people who ran for the office in the primary — Democratic Jury Commissioner Clinton Bonetti, Republican Jury Commissioner Jon Galante and Pat Stirling — would be the plaintiffs.

Thompson said in the interview the local lawsuit still is pending.

McCarrier said on July 24 the letter “almost seems like blackmail.”

Eckstein on Wednesday chided McCarrier for his comments, saying none of the people involved are trying to blackmail the county.

According to Eckstein, McCarrier was treating Thompson and the three primary candidates the same as he does Eckstein.

“Bill McCarrier’s degraded us all in public,” Eckstein said.

McCarrier pointed out Eckstein regularly degrades him, saying there may have been just two meetings since they served together during which Eckstein has not degraded him.

He stressed the decision to eliminate the posts was not personal.

“They’re all fine people,” McCarrier said.

Pinkerton agreed.

“I have no disrespect for any of the people who ran for the office,” he said.

Thompson agreed the action wasn’t personal, but still took offense for McCarrier’s previous comments.

“I just regret the remarks and innuendo expressed by Commissioner Bill McCarrier,” Thompson said.

Gov. Tom Corbett in May signed the law enabling counties to dispense with jury commissioner posts.

The jury commissioner association, which argues the law is unconstitutional, lost a state case in Commonwealth Court, but appealed to the state Supreme Court to overturn the decision.

McCarrier said the county will reinstate the posts if the Supreme Court rules in the association’s favor.

“We’ll have to change what we did,” he said.