Council halts plans to remove election board member

Immediately after convening Tuesday, a Luzerne County Council majority halted plans to vote on the removal of a county election board member.

The name of the board member is blank, but several county officials speaking confidentially had said the action focuses on Republican board member Alyssa Fusaro.

Councilman Brian Thornton made the motion to remove the matter from the agenda, arguing council should not act until it votes on whether to conduct its own investigation.

Five other council members supported Thornton’s motion: LeeAnn McDermott, Carl Bienias III, Gregory S. Wolovich Jr., Kevin Lescavage and Stephen J. Urban.

The council members voting to proceed with a decision on the election board member’s removal: Chairwoman Kendra Radle, Vice Chairman John Lombardo, Matthew Mitchell, Tim McGinley and Chris Perry.

Thornton asserted the internal investigation was not complete and that all witnesses were not interviewed. He said he wants a “full investigation.”

McGinley said the information that has been confidentially presented to council is “very complete,” and he argued the investigation was independently prepared by a staff attorney.

Urban said the attorney works for the administration, questioning the attorney’s independence.

McGinley countered that the county’s home rule charter is “very clear” that county assistant solicitors work for the county as a whole. Attorneys also must follow professional standards on ethics and conduct, he said.

Urban maintained council should investigate the matter because it has authority to issue subpoenas. He said he had conversations with the election board member that are relevant to the matter, and he was not interviewed. He argued council needs “all sides” to “get the truth” and described the situation as “lopsided” and “very contentious.”

Toward the end of Tuesday’s meeting, Lombardo said he is limited in what he can say due to confidentiality but wants to comment generally in response to social media postings asserting the proposed removal was related to the election board member’s decision to not certify the Nov. 8 general election results.

Lombardo said that could not be “further from the truth” and said he probably would have voted against certifying if he had been an election board member.

Instead, Lombardo said he believes council was presented with “compelling evidence” warranting removal. He said he does not know if this information will ever become public.

Thornton also confirmed the information brought to council had nothing to do with the board member’s voting.

The county administration had launched a review of the circumstances that led to Fusaro being kicked out of the election bureau on Nov. 9, the morning after the general election, according to multiple sources.

Fusaro had said Monday she cannot comment because she knows nothing.

Speaking on Nov. 9, Fusaro had maintained she was ejected from the bureau because she discovered what she believed to be two temporary workers handling contents of judge of election bags. Fusaro had said she questioned why they were not sworn in and searched the garbage can in their area to see if anything had been discarded.

The five volunteer election board members oversee some aspects of elections, including the post-election adjudication of ballots.

Under home rule, council appoints two Democrats — currently Audrey Serniak and Danny Schramm — and two Republicans — now Fusaro and Jim Mangan. The four council-appointed members then select a fifth board member/chair of any affiliation, and Denise Williams, a Democrat, was unanimously selected to serve in April 2021, which predates Schramm, Fusaro and Mangan.

Council appointed Fusaro to the election board in March this year.

The agenda attachment posted Monday contained a resolution stating the Pennsylvania Constitution provides that “appointed civil officers, such as board members, serve at the pleasure of the governing body that has appointed them.”

Budget cuts

Council also started approving cuts to the proposed 2023 budget Tuesday. Council is set to adopt the budget Dec. 13.

Approximately $7.1 million in cuts or new revenue would have to be identified to avoid a proposed 6.75% real estate tax increase, which equates to $55 more annually for the average property assessed at $132,776.

Voting started Tuesday with council’s adoption of most cuts proposed by county Acting Manager Brian Swetz, including lowering allocations for non-union merit raises, postage, tax assessment appeal refunds and other budget lines and eliminating planned studies on employee compensation and options for the aging prison system.

Swetz’s cuts also included a $150,000 reduction for prison system food expenses due to a new proposed kitchen management contract with Oldsmar, Florida-based Trinity Services Group Inc.

Council rejected an option to seek a cash advance on delinquent real estate taxes — a practice known as monetization. Swetz had argued against monetization.

Swetz said budget/finance will tally the dollar amount of all council-adopted changes approved Tuesday and report on the impact to the proposed tax increase.

Several managers provided additional information and arguments in an attempt to avert cuts proposed by individual council members.

County District Attorney Sam Sanguedolce made a plea for council to restore his budget to the original amount he had proposed before adjustments were made by prior county manager Randy Robertson. Council later went ahead and cut $85,000 from his department, with the idea it could reverse course before the final budget adoption if necessary.

County Sheriff Brian Szumski spoke against an $8,000 reduction in the line item that funds training of sheriff deputies, citing figures on certification required for deputies.

“I need this money. There is no other way around it,” Swetz said, noting he has always been a good steward of county funding.

McDermott initially proposed council keep the training funding intact but withdrew that proposal after McGinley sounded the alarm.

“If we don’t do something, next Tuesday night is going to be disastrous,” McGinley said. “Think about what we’re doing.”

McGinley said the county reserve can be tapped if managers are unable to cover some necessary expenses with reduced allocations.

A council majority agreed and cut the $8,000.