Wednesday’s Luzerne County Council meeting cancelled

Luzerne County Council cancelled Wednesday’s special meeting due to an issue with the state Sunshine Act.

The meeting had been scheduled to adopt a resolution regarding the sale of county-owned property in West Pittston. The agenda said further details would be provided in a meeting handout, but several council members indicated the property is a house at 1200 Susquehanna Ave., West Pittston.

Council Vice Chairman John Lombardo said the council clerk did not receive a proposed resolution regarding the sale so it could be posted online on Tuesday, or 24 hours before the meeting, to provide the public with more required disclosure on the matter up for a vote.

Lombardo said the council clerk had pointed out the lack of an online posting Wednesday morning.

Shortly before 11 a.m. Wednesday, county Controller Walter Griffith sent council members an email informing them the agenda seemed to be a direct violation of the law.

“The controller has asked several times that the use of the word ‘handout’ on the agenda should not be allowed and is not transparent enough to conform with the PA Sunshine laws that require at least 24 hours notice of the agenda to ‘provide sufficient information so that the public can comment on the agenda item being discussed,’” Griffith wrote, citing case law.

If a voting item is still in negotiation, council should provide basic information in advance, Griffith argued. Failure to do so makes it appear council is deliberately attempting to “hide information from the public so they cannot research or participate in the meeting,” he said.

Griffith requested a written opinion on the matter from the county law office and said the meeting should be cancelled and rescheduled.

Lombardo said the special meeting will now be held at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the county courthouse on River Street in Wilkes-Barre, following council’s 5 p.m. public interviewing of citizen applicants for the Manager Search Committee.

It’s unclear if the voting delay on the West Pittston property will require rescheduling of the sale closing, Lombardo said.

The county acquired the property earlier this year as part of its settlement of 2018 litigation filed by Richard and Kimberly Hazzouri that argued the couple was wrongly prevented from participating in a flood buyout program

The settlement awarded $650,000 for the property — $585,000 from the county community development office, $50,000 from the county’s insurance carrier and $15,000 from West Pittston’s insurance carrier. Since the settlement was separate from a flood buyout that would require demolition, the county is free to sell the property to recoup some of the money lost paying the settlement.

County officials also want to sell the property so it does not have to be maintained by the county.

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