Luzerne County Council to vote Tuesday on new division creation

The proposed creation of a new economic development division will be on Tuesday’s Luzerne County Council agenda for a decision.

A County Council majority referred the matter to its Code Review Committee for further discussion last month, and the committee voted Thursday to recommend its placement on council’s Tuesday voting agenda.

A required public hearing will be held before Tuesday’s voting meeting.

County Manager Romilda Crocamo has said the proposed new division would work with council to “recruit the right development for Luzerne County.” It would be the first new division added since the January 2012 implementation of the county’s home rule structure, which created eight divisions.

Committee members agreed Thursday that the name of the new division must be changed, in part because the proposal to name it the “Infrastructure, Community, and Economic Development Division” prompted some citizens to call it ICE, even though it has nothing to do with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Crocamo told the committee Thursday the county’s size, complexity, and development pressures “clearly justify establishing an economic development division head.”

Comparable counties with far smaller populations already “invest heavily in this function,” she said.

For example, Lycoming County, with roughly one‑third of Luzerne’s population, maintains a staff of 13 dedicated to planning and economic development, she said.

“Luzerne, with more than 325,000 residents and a far more complex municipal landscape, operates without an equivalent leadership structure, leaving a significant capacity gap,” she said.

Lackawanna County has facilitated comprehensive plans that give participating municipalities tools to regulate emerging land uses — especially data centers — through coordinated zoning and shared technical expertise, she said.

“Luzerne’s limited staffing bandwidth prevents it from offering similar support, leaving municipalities to navigate high‑impact development pressures on their own and creating inconsistent regulatory outcomes across the county,” she said.

The Lehigh Valley Planning Commission allocates approximately $4 million annually to personnel and another $1.3 million to contracted services to guide regional growth, she said.

“Taken together, these comparisons show that Luzerne County is under‑resourced relative to its responsibilities. A division head is the first step to close that gap to provide the executive‑level coordination, planning leadership, and municipal support necessary to modernize the county’s economic strategy and align it with regional best practices,” she told the committee.

There is a “misconception” that this county will be adding multiple employees for the new division, but the only new worker will be a division head, Crocamo said.

Councilwoman Denise Williams, a member of the committee, said she fully supports the new division because it will proactively concentrate on development.

“I just look forward to seeing the fruit of this,” Williams said.

Councilwoman Dawn Simmons, also on the committee, said she likes the idea of a division head structure to stay focused on the mission, noting she experienced the effectiveness of a chain of command in the military.

Council Chairman Jimmy Sabatino, who chairs the committee, said he’s also working on drafting proposed plans that could involve the new division head — a countywide land bank to address blight and a sustainability committee to assess county water, land, and energy resources

“The possibilities are endless for what we could bring to the county if we do this right now,” Sabatino said.

The new division would give the county an “edge” in both protecting land and resources and identifying new development in the county, which has a lot to offer at the center of major highways with a nuclear power plant and proximity to natural gas pipelines, he said.

Simmons said the division head would have the “full vision.”

Williams agreed with Sabatino that the county must be “intentional” in attracting development and said the county is “very family-centered,” which is another draw.