Tuesday will be a milestone in Luzerne County government because council is set to pick the next top manager.
The chosen person will be the third non-interim manager in the county’s decade-old home rule government. Robert Lawton, the first, came here from California in January 2012 and remained manager through the end of 2015. Local resident C. David Pedri, of Butler Township, was hired as the second manager in May 2016 and announced his resignation to accept other employment at the end of May last year.
Three finalists are under consideration to be the third manager: Romilda Crocamo, David W. Johnston and Randy Robertson. Crocamo has been serving as acting county manager since Pedri’s resignation took effect July 6.
A resolution posted with Tuesday’s council meeting agenda contains a blank space to insert the name of the person council wishes to appoint and the effective start date.
Also blank is the line specifying the salary that will be paid to that person. It says an offer letter containing terms and conditions of employment will be made available to the public at the time of the manager appointment.
Because council must know what compensation and conditions the applicants are willing to accept before it makes a selection decision, county Manager Search Committee Chairman Chris Hackett has served as an intermediary to obtain that information from all three finalists and present it to council members.
The position had been advertised at up to $185,000, which is around the maximum allowable under the home rule charter, but there was no range specifying a minimum.
Pedri had been receiving an annual compensation of $137,333 when he resigned.
When council voted to hire Pedri in May 2016, council approved a $120,000 salary and an offer letter that included 2% raises in 2017 and 2018.
Lawton had been hired at $110,000 annually in 2012 and remained at that amount for all four years of his employment, past published reports show.
Voting requirement
Due to the significance of the position, the charter requires seven votes — a majority plus one — to both hire and fire the manager.
Looking back, seven of 11 council members had voted for Pedri’s hiring. Three of the then-council members in opposition at that time — Edward Brominski, Stephen A. Urban and Kathy Dobash — had walked out of the meeting after the vote in protest, though Brominski had later returned for the subsequent work session.
Nine council members had voted to make Lawton manager in 2012, with Stephen A. Urban and Stephen J. Urban abstaining from voting because they did not participate in the selection process.
Under home rule, the county manager oversees day-to-day finances and operations and hires and oversees employees who are not controlled by the court, controller or district attorney. The exceptions: the council hires and manages a council clerk and must vote to confirm the manager’s nominees for eight division head posts.
The manager also prepares a budget for council’s consideration. The manager doesn’t have to come to council for approval on purchases if there are enough budgeted funds to cover them unless the expenditures would cost the county $25,000 in a future year or $75,000 in two or more years, the charter says.
Search committee
The volunteer citizen manager search committee is required under the charter to seek and recommend the most qualified applicants to council for its consideration, and council ended up choosing to interview all three finalists presented by the committee for the current selection.
Following past practice, council is set to vote Tuesday to disband the committee that had been appointed last August, saying it has fulfilled its duties and responsibilities.
In total, the committee spent $7,340 on job and legal advertising, travel for highest-ranked applicants to come here, personality testing of finalists and legal fees, according a council work session report.
Meeting specifics
Tuesday’s council meeting is at 6 p.m. in the county courthouse on River Street in Wilkes-Barre. Instructions for the remote attendance option are posted under council’s online meetings link at luzernecounty.org.
Council members have said they will be meeting in closed-door executive session Monday night to discuss the interviews and their rankings of the three finalists. An executive session also is scheduled before Tuesday’s meeting to discuss personnel, the agenda said.
Council has publicly posted audio recordings of last week’s public county manager finalist interviews for interested citizens who were unable to attend all three sessions last week.
The recordings are available through a link on the main page at luzernecounty.org.