Decision on Luzerne County manager hiring halted

Luzerne County Council removed a decision on hiring the next top manager from Tuesday’s agenda, leaving the status of filling the position up in the air.

Council Chairwoman Kendra Radle said after the meeting that she will schedule a closed-door executive session to determine how council will proceed.

Councilman Brian Thornton made the motion to postpone a decision, saying he continued to receive new information about the three finalists Tuesday, including some from past county council members.

“There’s just a lot more I’d like to investigate with the three candidates,” Thornton said.

Thornton said he contacted council colleagues Tuesday and they also were not aware of the additional information.

“I’m not personally comfortable making a decision,” Thornton said.

Three of the 11 council members voted against the delay: Chris Perry, Robert Schnee and Stephen J. Urban.

Those in support of holding off: Carl Bienias III, Kevin Lescavage, John Lombardo, LeeAnn McDermott, Tim McGinley, Radle, Thornton and Gregory Wolovich Jr.

Insiders say it’s possible no finalist has the seven votes required to hire a manager under the county’s home rule charter.

Three finalists are under consideration: Romilda Crocamo, David W. Johnston and Randy Robertson. Crocamo has been serving as acting county manager since prior manager C. David Pedri’s resignation took effect July 6.

The failure to act means Crocamo will remain acting manager as council decides how it wants to proceed.

“I will do tomorrow what I have been doing for the past eight months — work hard and serve the people of Luzerne County,” Crocamo said in a written response to the situation.

The volunteer citizen manager search committee already provided council with all the finalists that it deemed the most qualified, which means additional advertising would be required to yield additional applicants. The committee, required by home rule, has been meeting since August. If council wants more applicants, council would have to determine if the committee is willing to continue or whether new members must be publicly sought.

Council had planned to disband the search committee Tuesday but held off due to the delay in the manager selection decision.

The delay also comes at a time when one council member may be leaving in the near future.

Council’s next regularly scheduled meeting is not until April 12. Schnee is running for state representative in the 116th Legislative District in a special election April 5. If elected, Schnee said he believes he would have to step down around the time he is sworn in, which he estimated would be approximately two weeks after the special election.

Council would then have to publicly seek and interview citizen applicants before selecting someone to fill Schnee’s seat. Until that happened, council would be reduced to 10 members, meaning all but three would have to agree on a manager selection for a hiring to occur.

At one point during public comment at the end of the meeting, some citizens sought clarity on the manager selection and whether outside forces are pressuring council members to vote a certain way.

Lescavage said he is not exaggerating in saying he received at least 75 phone calls Tuesday alone and did not have time to digest all the information he received because he works during the day.

Saylorsburg resident Jason Carr, who owns property in the county, drew a sharp rebuttal from Thornton and Lescavage when he said he was told by another county council member that they met with a state legislator on the weekend to discuss the manager appointment. Carr complained of “back room deals” and past county corruption.

Thornton took issue with Carr’s implication of deals in the manager selection and said there was no meeting with any state legislators to discuss the manager appointment. He said he received many calls from attorneys, state legislators and others in recent days stating their views on which manager applicant they believe would be best, but he emphasized no agreements were made.

“I can assure you there were no back room deals” regarding the manager selection, Thornton said.

Lescavage said he regularly speaks with legislators to discuss projects and funding that would benefit county infrastructure and economic development.

He said Carr is insulting the intelligence of all council members by implying they “can’t make decisions with their own minds.”

“I take offense to that,” Lescavage said.

Radle cut off the council-audience back and forth, saying she must maintain order.

“If anybody is accusing council members of corruption and back room deals, they can walk over to the district attorney’s office right now,” she said.

Urban said he would not admonish Thornton and Lescavage for speaking with legislators to advocate for county funding.

Two citizens spoke against the appointment of Crocamo.

Another citizen, Beth Hartman, said she worries the other two out-of-area applicants will take too long to “get up to speed.”

“She may be the one to kick ass in this county and get us where we need to be,” Hartman said of Crocamo.

Dennison Township resident Andy Gegaris expressed empathy for Crocamo, saying she is being “roasted” and called for everyone to “come together” in addressing county issues.

Maryann V. Velez, of United NEPA Alliance, urged council to make a decision based on what is best for constituents and not on pressure from others.

Tax break

Council unanimously approved a real estate tax break for a warehouse project on 70 acres of mine-scarred property along Johnson Street in Wilkes-Barre Township.

The developer, Fairfield, Connecticut-based Bluecup Ventures Wilkes-Barre LLC, will receive 65% county tax forgiveness on new construction for a decade — a reduction already approved by officials in the township and Wilkes-Barre Area School District.

The break would fall under the Local Economic Revitalization Tax Assistance (LERTA) program for blighted properties.

As required under this type of break, Bluecup would continue to pay taxes on the land throughout the break.

Currently assessed at $26,759, the undeveloped tract adjacent to Interstate 81 yields a total $700 in real estate taxes for the three taxing bodies.

With the improvement, Bluecup estimates the taxing bodies will collectively receive $840,000 annually during the tax break period from 2024 through 2034. After that, it projects the taxing bodies will receive a combined $2 million in tax revenue annually.

Bluecup argued the break is required to keep the project competitive.