Luzerne County Council members assessing top manager finalists

Luzerne County Council will meet in executive session Thursday night to discuss the three finalists for the top manager position, council Chairwoman Kendra Radle said Tuesday.

Radle said she also invited the citizen manager search committee, which recommended the three finalists, so council members can ask questions about the committee’s screening process.

The closed-door session will wrap up with a council decision on how to proceed with interviews, Radle said.

Council is aiming to interview finalists the week of March 14 and make a hiring decision at its March 22 public meeting, under a plan adopted by council.

Councilman Brian Thornton said Tuesday he has reviewed applications, cover letters and other information on the three finalists — Romilda Crocamo, David W. Johnston and Randy Robertson — and believes all are qualified.

“I think all three are solid, respectable candidates. I think the search committee gave us three good candidates,” Thornton said.

Thornton said Johnston and Robertson have decades of executive-level experience overseeing government entities, while Crocamo has a unique legal background that includes work overseeing the county’s law division and hands-on experience as acting county manager since July.

“They’ve all had a lot of experience. We need to speak to all three and interview them because you get more out of interviews than you do reading about their life on paper,” Thornton said.

Councilman Kevin Lescavage said he wants assurances applicants would be committed to the position for a period of time because he is “not in favor of doing this all over again a year from now,” referring to the time-consuming manager search process.

He also wants to know why Johnston withdrew from consideration when he was among the three finalists for the county manager position in 2016. At the time, county officials said they were informed he wanted to pursue other opportunities.

Radle also said her resume review has raised some questions that she looks forward to clarifying through interviews.

“For now, it looks like we have three great candidates and can get a good quality manager out of these three,” Radle said.

She credited the seven-citizen search committee, which is required by the county’s home rule charter, for seeking applicants, filtering the responses and identifying three finalists.

“The committee did a good job,” Radle said.

Council Vice Chairman John Lombardo said he believes all three finalists are “impressive” and is eager to interview them in person.

“They all have great resumes in my opinion,” Lombardo said.

Councilman Chris Perry said the three finalists have “different qualities that stick out.”

“They all have something to offer to our county. All three are well-educated and have extensive work in the public sector field,” Perry said.

Perry also commended the search committee for “doing a great job narrowing it down for us.”