Luzerne County Council may meet soon to decide on manager hiring

Luzerne County Councilman Brian Thornton provided more explanation Wednesday on why he pushed to hold off on a county manager hiring decision.

At Thornton’s request, a council majority ended up voting Tuesday to remove the hiring from the meeting agenda, leaving the status of the selection of the county’s next top manager up in the air.

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.

Thornton said he had received information in the 72 hours leading up to the meeting from citizens, former and current employees and former council members about situations that had occurred in the past, mostly involving personnel matters that he cannot publicly discuss.

“It’s nothing earth shattering or major, but knowing more would be helpful to make a decision,” he said.

He acknowledged receiving information both supportive and critical of all three finalists.

Thornton said he was unable to verify the accuracy of any information before the vote, largely because he works full-time. Assessing the accuracy of personnel-related reports is difficult for council members because they are part-time elected officials and not immersed in day-to-day inner workings in the courthouse, he said.

Allowing a vote to proceed Tuesday night would have risked a 6-5 vote, with no finalist securing the seven votes required to hire a manager under the county’s home rule charter, he said.

Thornton said that is the “last thing” he wanted to occur because it would bring finality to the decision and essentially force council to reactivate the outside citizen search committee to “start the process over again” in seeking new applicants, further delaying the hiring of a manager.

“I am trying to avoid that,” he said.

Council Chairwoman Kendra Radle has options to schedule the vote during the next meeting April 12 or hold a special meeting sooner to vote, Thornton said.

“That’s up to her how to proceed with another vote,” Thornton said.

Radle said Wednesday night that council is considering holding a special meeting next Tuesday to vote on the manager selection.

Thornton said he has been receiving emails criticizing his request to delay a vote, including an accusation of cowardice, but said nobody should be faulted for pausing.

“I wanted everyone to be sure before casting their final votes. This gives everyone a few days to cool down,” Thornton said. “If we wait one week, the county is better off, not worse.”

Thornton said he has received outside feedback on all three finalists but stressed there are no implications of illegalities or behavior that outright warrants removal of any finalists from consideration, he said.

“I’ll be honest. I hope this hiring could happen in a week or so,” Thornton said.

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.