After only 13 months on the job, Lackawanna County Commissioner Matt McGloin announced Friday he will resign Monday, kicking off a search for his replacement.
Unavailable for questions since rumors he would leave began Sunday, McGloin, 35, of Waverly, announced his resignation in a county-issued statement.
The statement did not say where McGloin will coach, but numerous sources said he is leaving for a football-related job at Boston College, whose head coach, Bill O'Brien, was McGloin's last head coach when he played quarterback at Penn State University.
McGloin notified the county of his planned resignation in a letter to county chief of staff Brian Jeffers.
"This was not an easy decision to make," he said in the letter. "But I have to do what's best for my family and explore other options outside of county government. Lackawanna County always will be my home, and I will bring a part of home with me wherever this journey may take me."
Dems must submit replacement list
The county Democratic Party executive committee will have five days from Monday to develop and submit a list of three potential replacements. The party must submit the list to the judges of the county court of common pleas, according to the county home rule charter.
The judges, sitting as a group, must pick one from the list, according to the charter.
The charter also says "a special election according to the Laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania shall be held at the next primary municipal or general election to permanently fill the vacancy." A municipal primary is scheduled for May 20, but a county official said no special election for commissioner will take place then.
County solicitor Don Frederickson said the state code governing counties requires a commissioner replacement serve until a term ends. McGloin's term expires Jan. 3, 2028. The next commissioner election is Nov. 2, 2027.
County Democratic Party chairman Chris Patrick said the executive committee will meet Thursday at a time and location he hasn’t determined. Patrick invited potential replacements to apply at lackawannacountydc@gmail.com.
A political career interrupted
The resignation will interrupt — at least temporarily — a budding career in politics fueled at least partly by McGloin's sports past.
At Penn State, McGloin, a star quarterback at West Scranton High School, walked on without a scholarship and developed into one of the school's all-time leading passers.
After two years playing for legendary coach Joe Paterno, McGloin played his senior season, 2012, under O'Brien and flourished even further under O’Brien’s tutelage.
No NFL team drafted McGloin the following spring, but he signed a rookie free-agent contract with the Oakland Raiders. He played four seasons for the Raiders. In 2017 and 2018, he had brief tenures with the Kansas City Chiefs, Philadelphia Eagles and Houston Texans. McGloin joined the Texans in November 2018 when O'Brien was head coach there, but was cut four days later. In 2019, he played briefly for the New York Guardians in the XFL and scored the team's first touchdown. The league disbanded in April 2020, effectively ending McGloin's professional football career.
McGloin, who earned several million dollars as a professional football player, worked as a sportscaster before deciding to run for commissioner in 2023. McGloin and Gaughan won election as commissioners that November.
Last year, he won election to Penn State’s board of trustees and as a Democratic national convention delegate for Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign.
Many speculated McGloin might run for Congress or a state office someday, but the resignation will end such talk for now.
A whopping deficit and a 33% tax hike
As a commissioner, McGloin and Gaughan inherited a whopping budget deficit, a dysfunctional Office of Youth and Family Services that lost its full license to operate and a planned Department of Health stuck in limbo.
To fix the budget deficit, the commissioners shut down the Department of Health as too costly, hired a financial consultant to develop a long-term plan, instituted hiring and spending freezes, instituted more efficient technology to track spending and adopted a widely criticized 33% property tax hike.
They hired another consultant to study the Office of Youth and Family Services who helped the office upgrade staffing and eventually regain its full license.
"When we took office in January 2024, we inherited one of the worst financial crises our county ever has seen," McGloin said in the statement. I take great pride in having turned it around in less than one year."
McGloin said he and Gaughan also "fought crime by helping to develop a community violence intervention and prevention strategy, and have supported local businesses."
"I am particularly proud of the work we did to have our Office of Youth and Family Services' operating license restored by the state Department of Human Services in December, after the office nearly collapsed under the previous administration," McGloin wrote.
McGloin thanked Gaughan "for being a great majority partner during my time."
"And I urge the Lackawanna County Democratic Party Executive Committee to honor Bill's choice as my replacement," McGloin said.
Gaughan also called McGloin “a great partner” and declined to criticize him for resigning before their four-year terms are even half over. He expects McGloin will succeed in his next venture because he always does.
“I'm not upset at all. I totally understand,” Gaughan said. “We had a lot and make a lot of tough decisions last year and this year. You know, we were left with a real mess that we inherited. And he was an outstanding commissioner. We were able to work together and do the right thing. So yeah, I'm happy for him and his family in whatever new opportunity he's pursuing.”
Gaughan: 'Really difficult decisions' ahead
Gaughan said he is vetting several people about replacing McGloin but declined to name them.
“I do think that replacing him is about governance, and it's not about internal politics,” Gaughan said. “It's about really finishing the job that we started last year with a mess that we inherited.”
Gaughan said the commissioners will soon face more “really difficult decisions.”
“And I need someone that's going to help me turn the county around financially, make this government run more efficiently,” he said. “I need somebody with government experience, someone who's ready to do the right thing, who's independent-minded (and) is going to do the work.”
He's confident, he said, the executive committee will “respect the will of the voters by honoring whoever I put forward as my choice to replace Matt.”
Patrick: Party 'will make right decision'
Patrick said he will consider Gaughan’s wishes and recommendations by state Sen. Marty Flynn, the county party’s highest-ranking elected official, but declined to commit to honoring either request.
“I love Matt McGloin, and he's a friend, but Matt McGloin is not in a position to request anything of my Democratic committee. We will make the right decision,” Patrick said. “We will make a decision to send three names across the street to the judges, and not one of those names won't be able to work with commissioner Gaughan on moving the commissioner's office forward.”
Patrick said he must worry about whether Democrats can keep the Board of Commissioners majority in the 2027 election.
“So I'm going to pick a person who I know can win in (20)27 despite a 33% tax increase, despite reassessment in (20)26,” Patrick said. “If that's what's important to me, and I think that should be important to the taxpayers in Lackawanna County as well, because right now, the taxpayers in Lackawanna County are not happy. They got their (property tax) bills, and they're not happy.”
The county is undergoing a real-estate reassessment with new property values scheduled to be mailed to owners soon.
