Public interviews of Luzerne County manager finalists set for Thursday

Luzerne County Council will publicly interview the three top manager finalists on Thursday, May 4, and possibly vote on the hiring at its next regularly scheduled meeting May 9, said council Chairwoman Kendra Vough.

The finalists are prior county acting manager and chief solicitor Romilda Crocamo, county 911 Executive Director Fred Rosencrans and county Engineer William McIntosh, who oversees county buildings and grounds.

Seven of 11 council votes are required to hire the manager.

Thursday’s interview session will be at the county courthouse on River Street in Wilkes-Barre.

Vough said all three finalists will be asked to appear at the courthouse for 5 p.m., and finalists will be sequestered without access to technology when they are not being interviewed to prevent advance knowledge of the questions that will be asked by council.

Council members will all have input in the drafting of questions, but Vough said the complete series of questions won’t be given to council members until the public meeting as an extra precaution.

A lottery system also will be used to determine the order in which finalists are interviewed, she said.

Council discussed the interview plans during a private executive session Thursday.

The county’s three-citizen Manager Search Committee delivered the finalists to council during Tuesday’s work session, with Crocamo ranked first, followed by Rosencrans and McIntosh.

Under the county’s home rule structure, the search committee must seek, screen and interview manager applicants and recommend the candidates it believes are the most qualified to council for its consideration. Council members then perform their own interview and selection process.

The search committee had decided to interview six of the 17 applicants and unanimously agreed on the top three ranking, committee Chairman Charles Sciandra told council.