Election outcome will change Luzerne County Council dynamics

The dynamics change on Luzerne County Council every other year when the 11 new and current members are seated together in the January following a municipal election.

This January, five council members are leaving — Carl Bienias III, Tim McGinley, Matthew Mitchell, Stephen J. Urban and Kendra Vough.

LeeAnn McDermott will stay because she was elected last week to serve another four-year term.

New to council are Patty Krushnowski, Jimmy Sabatino, Joanna Bryn Smith, Brittany Stephenson and Harry Haas, although it is really a return for Haas because he served on council from the inception of the home rule government in 2012 until the end of 2021.

They will join council members Kevin Lescavage, John Lombardo, Chris Perry, Brian Thornton and Gregory S. Wolovich Jr.

It was a similar situation of five new people at the start of 2022, when Lescavage, Lombardo, Thornton and Wolovich took office. Walter Griffith also left council at that time because he was elected controller, and Bienias was appointed to fill that seat in February.

Expectations

Haas said he will speak up when warranted but is willing to work with all council members.

“I’ve got a good grasp and good idea where we need to go,” Haas said.

A public school teacher, Haas said he respects many past council colleagues, regardless of their political affiliation, because they worked together to make decisions to pay down debt, get caught up on an employee pension fund subsidy and stabilize and then improve the county’s finances.

“I want to build back credibility with the people that this form of government can truly work,” Haas said. “You don’t have to march in lockstep to do the bidding of any political powerhouse. Just do the job.”

Haas said he wants council to return to an active committee system to address more matters of concern and ensure “the majority of kinks are worked out” before decisions come before council.

Several council committees have been inactive, and he believes this is part of the reason council sometimes ends up with delays and going “round and round” before some votes.

Bryn Smith, an assistant public defender in Columbia County, said council must “get on the same page.”

In her work on nonprofit boards, she said she emphasizes the focus always must be carrying out the entity’s mission, which in the case of council is the best interest of the county and its people.

“We can disagree, but we need to do that respectfully,” said Bryn Smith, who worked as a county conflict counsel in the past. “We may have differing opinions on how to get there, but we have to be able to find a way to work together to get there.”

For government to work, members of both parties must work together, said Bryn Smith. She is a Democrat along with Krushnowski, Sabatino and Stephenson, which means the 11-member council will have four Democrats and seven Republicans.

Stephenson said she wants to bring a fresh perspective and “shift the conversations we have as a community.”

Like Haas, she supports committees that are “open and functioning to really address all concerns.”

“We will have an opportunity to use the home rule charter in a way it was meant to be implemented in the community,” said Stephenson, a college of student affairs practitioner working with minority students at Bloomsburg University who also will be the first Black person on county council.

Stephenson also wants to “bring respect and dignity” to council discourse.

Sabatino, who owns and operates three area Vesuvio’s restaurant locations with his siblings, said he wants to “bring the focus back to people and everday lives and how we can make it better for them.”

“I’m excited to get to work and build bridges and stop the infighting in the county,” Sabatino said. “Literally and figuratively, we must build bridges to get back to the work of the people.”

He said he has a pipeline to public feedback through his restaurant customers, which will be helpful in assessing needs and the impact of council decisions.

Council feedback

As the only council member serving since the start of home rule, McGinley has witnessed several rounds of council turnover and advises incoming members to have an open mind and focus on helping the county and its citizens instead of personal agendas.

Most importantly, he urges newcomers to “look forward all the time” for the big-picture impact their decisions will have in future years.

“Whenever you make a decision, there are always results. Sometimes it’s not the result you want or that you foresee happening,” said McGinley, who was elected to a four-year seat on the Wyoming Valley West School Board.

Wolovich said he initially sat back to “take it all in” because county government is a complicated web of regulations, mandates and funding requirements.

Because difficult decisions must be made, council members must do their research and “put personal feelings aside,” he said.

“It’s about doing the right thing and determining what benefits the majority of county residents — not about your political party,” Wolovich said.

Lombardo, who currently serves as vice chair, said he was immediately faced with a series of major decisions when he took office two years ago, saying it was “trial by fire.”

“It just went from issue to issue to issue for many months. We didn’t have time to breathe,” Lombardo said.

Lombardo said he will be accessible to incoming members if they have questions.

“I hope things are stable and that we’re able to create some great initiatives to help out the whole county,” he said.

McDermott also recalled getting “thrown into it” when she took office and said she is always optimistic and tries to view reorganizations as a “clean slate.”

“We just have to focus on getting things done. Nobody wants to hear people on their soapbox. Let’s deal with what we have to deal with and get things done,” McDermott said.