Recommended applicants for Luzerne County’s top manager position should be in County Council’s hands next week.
The county’s volunteer citizen manager search committee expects to complete its interviews Monday, Feb. 21, and also decide that day which applicants it will forward to council for its consideration, committee Chairman Chris Hackett said during a committee meeting Tuesday.
The committee then plans to present its recommendations to council the following night, Feb. 22, Hackett said.
Council Chairwoman Kendra Radle said council also will be discussing the manager selection procedure it plans to use at its Feb. 22 meeting.
It’s unclear how many applicants the committee will be interviewing for a second time.
The committee had selected five finalists to advance in the review process and complete outside personality assessments.
Hackett said the committee discussed the five finalists in closed-door executive session Tuesday night to determine which will be interviewed in-person. He declined to provide any additional information on the committee’s conclusion after the executive session.
Committee members had originally envisioned forwarding at least three qualified applicants to council, but there is no set minimum or maximum in the county’s home rule charter.
In the previous manager search in 2016, council had asked the committee to present the top three finalists in alphabetical order with no ranking to prevent bias in council’s own independent review. Seven of 11 council votes are required to hire the manager.
This time around, council did not approve a set number of applicants it wanted to receive from the committee.
Hackett said the committee also discussed a planned format for the in-person interviews, including questions it will ask applicants, during its executive session Tuesday.
Council recently approved an additional $10,000 allocation to the committee, including $6,000 to cover applicant travel, lodging and other expenses associated with the in-person interviews.
The committee voted Tuesday to authorize travel reimbursement within council’s allocation, without providing specifics. Committee member Rick Morelli provided the lone vote against the reimbursement because he had argued committee-level interviews could be performed remotely. Others argued they cannot make a recommendation to council without interviewing applicants face-to-face.
In addition to Morelli and Hackett, the following citizens serve on the committee: Walter S. Mitchell Jr., Alec Ryncavage, Sherri Homanko, Brian D. O’Donnell and Patrick Patte.
The manager position is open because C. David Pedri resigned last July. Romilda Crocamo has been serving as acting county manager and declined to say if she applied for the position, saying she is respecting the committee’s decision to maintain confidentiality.
It took nearly a month for council to complete interviews and other due diligence before hiring Pedri in 2016.
Council also must agree on a salary. The position was advertised at up to $185,000, which is around the maximum allowable under the charter. Pedri had been receiving an annual compensation of $137,333 when he resigned to accept other employment.