Luzerne County Council is aiming to vote on the hiring of a new manager at its March 22 meeting, according to its newly drafted selection plan.
Council plans to approve the plan at its meeting Tuesday, which is the same day it expects to receive a list of qualified applicants from the seven-citizen manager search committee.
The county’s home rule charter drafters required an outside committee to screen and recommend qualified applicants, believing the approach would make the selection more impartial and less vulnerable to political intervention. Council must then perform its own review of the finalists, with seven of 11 council votes — a majority plus one — required to hire the manager.
“We want to make sure we have a thorough interview process for hiring the right candidate for manager,” council Chairwoman Kendra Radle said Saturday.
“The manager search committee is presenting us with what we’re hoping will be very high-level candidates, and having this process organized and set to go is very important as we make what could be the most important decision facing council so far this year,” Radle said.
According to council’s proposed selection plan:
Council will immediately forward the names it receives from the committee Tuesday to the county’s human resources department to perform background checks.
The committee also will be asked to send council all supporting documentation on the recommended applicants, including their resumes, ranking categories and results of their outside personality assessments.
Council expects to receive the background check results on March 1. Human resources must forward the results to council members for their review.
On March 3, council will hold a closed-door executive session to review all documentation.
The following day, council will reach out to applicants to schedule in-person interviews that will be conducted the week of March 14.
For the interviews, council plans to use an evaluation and ranking system modeled after the one used by the search committee.
The committee has been measuring a broad range of qualities with assessments of not qualified, somewhat qualified, qualified and highly qualified, committee Chairman Chris Hackett has said.
After council’s interviews are completed, council plans to hold another executive session on March 21 to discuss the interviews and their rankings.
Barring unforeseen circumstances, the hiring vote would be the next evening.
At some point, council also must broach the topic of compensation.
The position was advertised at up to $185,000, which is around the maximum allowable under the charter. Prior manager C. David Pedri had been receiving an annual compensation of $137,333 when he resigned to accept other employment in July.
When council voted to hire Pedri in May 2016, the meeting agenda contained a resolution with blank lines to insert the name of the person selected and the salary.
A council majority approved a $120,000 salary and an offer letter that included 2% raises in 2017 and 2018.
Council also voted at the same meeting to disband the search committee.
Finalists
The search committee is scheduled to wrap up its in-person interviews of four finalists on Monday and decide which applicants it will forward to council that day.
It is free to forward any number of qualified applicants to council because there is no set minimum or maximum in the charter.
Romilda Crocamo has been serving as acting county manager and has declined to say if she applied for the position out of respect for the committee’s decision to maintain confidentiality.
At least three finalists reside outside Pennsylvania.
Division heads
The filling of two vacant division head positions is one of the most pressing decisions facing the new manager.
Edmund O’Neill resigned as operational services division head last month, and prior administrative services division head David Parsnik left in September.
Crocamo did not seek permanent replacements, saying the decision should be up to the next permanent manager.
Under home rule, council must confirm the manager’s nominees for the eight division head positions for the hirings to take effect.
The operational services head oversees engineering, roads and bridges, planning and zoning, 911, emergency management, buildings and grounds, the boiler plant and solid waste management.
Administrative services covers elections, human resources, purchasing/acquisition, information technology, licensing/permits, records, grant writing, community development and tourism.
Council’s Tuesday meeting starts at 6 p.m. in the council meeting room at the county courthouse on River Street in Wilkes-Barre. Instructions to attend the meeting remotely are posted under council’s online meetings link at luzernecounty.org.