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 completed by a staff attorney with no tie to county council.

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, which includes council. 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.”

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 the county’s home rule charter, 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.”

Reach Jennifer Learn-Andes at 570-991-6388 or on Twitter @TLJenLearnAndes.