Luzerne County manager compensation likely question for new search committee

The search for Luzerne County’s new manager will accelerate now that council is set to appoint three citizens to the search committee Tuesday, raising questions about the manager compensation.

Prior manager Randy Robertson received $181,500 annually, but council voted to reduce the manager salary allocation to $145,000 in the 2023 budget.

Based on past experience, council likely will be asked to weigh in on whether this reduction is a firm amount before the manager position is advertised by the committee.

The committee must seek, screen and interview manager applicants and recommend the candidates it believes are the most qualified to council for its consideration.

Previous manager search committees have asked for clarity on the compensation for the job advertisement, arguing prospective applicants expect some idea of what the position will pay before they decide whether to submit resumes.

The county’s first manager Robert Lawton, had received $110,000 when he was hired shortly after home rule’s January 2012 implementation. His successor, C. David Pedri, who resigned in July 2021, was hired at $120,000 and rose to an annual compensation of $137,333.

For the search that resulted in the hiring of Robertson, a council majority had voted in November 2021 to state a compensation of up to $185,000 in advertisements for the manager position, which was around the maximum allowable under the charter based on the district attorney’s compensation at that time.

The charter says the manager must make at least 55% of the DA’s compensation but not more than the DA. The DA compensation is currently listed as $196,119 in the county’s position budget.

Before Pedri’s hiring, council opted to use the charter minimum and maximum in the advertisement, resulting in an unusually broad range that critics said may have deterred applicants.

Council publicly interviewed nine citizens interested in serving on the search committee: Danielle Ader, Kingston; John Bonita, Plains Township; John Dean, Fairview Township; Robert Fisher, Salem Township; David Fusco, Pittston; Margaret Gushka, Kingston; Harry Haas, Kingston; Linda McClosky Houck, Kingston; and Charles Sciandra, Duryea.

Tuesday’s voting meeting starts at 6 p.m. in the county courthouse on River Street in Wilkes-Barre, with instructions for remote attendance posted under council’s online meeting link at luzernecounty.org.

American Rescue

Several matters are up for discussion during the work session, which immediately follows Tuesday’s voting meeting.

Now that council members have finished individually screening and scoring applications seeking county American Rescue Plan funding, Booth Management Consulting is set to provide an update on the results and options for council to proceed.

The Columbia, Maryland-based business is serving as the county’s American Rescue consultant to prevent auditing and compliance issues later on.

Approximately $94.3 million of the county’s federal American Rescue funding has not been earmarked for projects. Council had tentatively planned to allocate up to $60 million of the remaining funds for outside awards and retain $17.9 million for county government projects.

For outside applicants, council set a 60-point preliminary threshold for requests to advance.

If few projects meet this scoring target — a likely scenario — council will have the option to lower the score required to advance or to rank projects from high to low scores and set a cut-off, officials had said.

Home rule study

Also up for discussion is Councilman Stephen J. Urban’s proposed ordinance to place a question on the May 16 primary election ballot asking county voters if they want to form a government study commission.

Urban’s ordinance would require support from four council members at a subsequent voting meeting to be introduced and then a public hearing and majority support at another meeting to be placed on the ballot.

Urban is proposing a seven-citizen committee. Citizens interested in serving would run in the primary, with the top seven vote-getters taking office if the ballot question passed. These commission members would then have up to 18 months to study the current structure and decide if they want to keep it intact as is, make changes, switch to a different structure or revert back to the three-commissioner system, officials have said.

Any commission-recommended change would have to be approved by future voters to take effect, which is what occurred before the county’s 2012 switch to home rule.

Seven of the 11 council members recently said they advocate proposing changes in-house instead of forming an outside committee, with some emphasizing they don’t want to risk a committee recommendation to throw out home rule.

Home repair funding

Council also will discuss a formal submission required to obtain a Whole-Home Repairs Program Grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development, according to the agenda.

The county is expected to receive $3.24 million in grant funds to help income-eligible county residents preserve their aging homes.

Funding can address safety concerns, improve energy or water efficiency and make dwellings accessible for those with disabilities, it said.

“This program represents the largest investment in housing that the Pennsylvania Legislature has made in recent history,” the agenda said, noting one in four state residents live in homes that need a critical repair.

Funding would be available to homeowners with household incomes up to 80% of the area median income, it said. Loans also may be provided to small landlords renting affordable units, with the loans secured by a mortgage against the rental property, it said.

The county community development office is seeking proposals from agencies interested in assisting with administration of the program.