Luzerne County Council firms up plans for manager search committee

If all goes as planned, Luzerne County Council will appoint three citizens to the new manager search committee on Jan. 10.

An outside committee must be convened due to Randy Robertson’s resignation after five months in the top post.

Brian Swetz has temporarily stepped away from his role as budget/finance division head to serve as acting county manager. Swetz told council Tuesday he has appointed Budget/Finance Deputy Director Chris Dalessandro as acting budget/finance division head.

Under the county’s home rule charter, the search committee must seek, screen and interview manager applicants and “recommend the candidates it believes are the most qualified” to council for its consideration.

The only charter-stated requirements for search committee members are that these citizens “possess relevant qualifications, knowledge, and/or experience in the search for, recruitment of, and identification of qualified candidates for county manager or related positions.”

Council Chairwoman Kendra Radle said she proposed a condensed schedule for getting a new committee in place based on council’s stated goal to identify a new permanent manager as soon as possible. Radle asked her colleagues to speak up if they wanted more time, but no opposition was expressed.

“I like the timeline. We have to move on it,” said Councilman Tim McGinley.

“We will make it work,” said council Vice Chairman John Lombardo, who presided over Tuesday’s meeting because Radle participated remotely.

With the new timeline, council plans to grant final approval for the public advertisement seeking committee members at its next meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 29, with the advertisement posted starting Dec. 1.

Interested citizens would have until Dec. 19 to submit applications. Council would then publicly interview the committee applicants on Jan. 3.

The last search committee started meeting in August 2021 and presented three finalists to council in early March 2022. Council members have said they will urge the new committee to aim for a tighter schedule.

Based on the draft advertisement, council will seek search committee members with a bachelor’s degree and experience in the job selection and interviewing process for high-level positions, although council members emphasized there is latitude because one citizen serving on the last search committee did not have a bachelor’s degree.

American Rescue Plan funding

Council received a status report Tuesday on its continuing review of applicants seeking a share of the county’s federal American Rescue Plan funding.

A proposal to use an estimated $10 million for some form of public relief also was discussed.

After deducting prior earmarks, council has $94.3 million in American Rescue funding available for awards. The county has received $218.9 million in requests from outside entities and another $17.9 million in submissions from within county government.

Instead of relying on an administration or council committee recommendation, council members decided to individually evaluate and score the applications through an online portal created by Booth Management Consulting. The Columbia, Maryland-based business is serving as the county’s American Rescue consultant to prevent auditing and compliance issues later on.

Consultant Robin Booth told council 10 of 11 members completed evaluations of the first pool of 10 applications, and the average score was 43.43.

That means none met the 60-point threshold that council had tentatively set for projects to advance, she said.

These first-pool applicants were not identified by name in the status report.

Council informally agreed to continue with the same scoring parameters instead of changing midstream.

If this below-60 trend continues throughout the process, council will have the option to lower the score required to advance or to rank projects from high to low scores and set a cut-off.

Four more pools of 34 or 35 applicants each must be evaluated by council — a task slated for completion on Dec. 22.

Several council members said they spent hours reviewing documentation and scoring the initial smaller pool of 10 applications.

Council had tentatively planned to allocate up to $60 million of the remaining funds for outside awards and retain $17.9 million for the county government projects.

That would leave $16.36 million for other purposes, such as a relief program for residents.

Initially some council members had pitched an idea to provide a stimulus check, but questions were raised about how the county would establish and verify eligibility parameters countywide.

Suggestions to provide relief for elderly and/or low income property owners struggling with weatherization and heating expenses prompted some council members to reach out to the Commission on Economic Opportunity (CEO), which already offers such a program but has a waiting list due to high demand, some council members said.

Council agreed Tuesday to ask CEO for a list or relief programs that could provide widespread assistance if more funding is allocated by the county.

Booth would be asked to review any county funding plans to ensure they comply with federal American Rescue requirements, officials said.

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