Editor's note: Story includes vulgarity.
Lackawanna County Commissioner Chris Chermak accused colleague Bill Gaughan of acting like a “smart ass” and threatened to “tackle somebody to the ground” as they debated reassessment and budgeting Wednesday.
“Oh, now he's threatening violence. Well, that's a Republican,” Gaughan, a Democrat, shot back at his Republican colleague during a public commissioners' meeting.
The two commissioners, who’ve argued publicly before, have generally avoided harsh words the last seven months as they awaited the replacement of ex-Commissioner Matt McGloin.
They tangled during the segment reserved for commissioner comments, which winds up their bi-monthly meetings. The meeting was shown on ECTV's YouTube channel.
Chermak gets vocal
Chermak went first by raising “the tragic assassination of Charlie Kirk,” the conservative political activist murdered last Thursday in Utah.
“Our county is far better than this vile hatred and bloodshed,” he said. “Violence has no place in America ... Our nation must remain a safe haven for free expression, where we unite firmly against those forces that seek to tear us apart.”
Chermak also again called for “a swift resolution” of the court cases that he said Gaughan’s actions created to replace McGloin.
“We need a third commissioner now. We've needed it for a while, and if it ends up being a Republican, I'll be very happy,” he said.
But it was Chermak’s comments on budgeting and reassessment that really bothered Gaughan.
His budgeting and reassessment comments
Chermak said the county faces another multi-million budget shortfall after raising property taxes cumulatively more than 40% the last two years, including 33% this year.
He said he’s working with his “bipartisan budget study group” and the county’s chief financial officer to avoid another increase.
He renewed his call for pausing the implementation of new property values developed during the county’s first reassessment in more than 50 years.
The new values have induced “sticker shock” in “far too many” property owners and are “plagued with errors in valuations for countless homes, vacant land and commercial properties,” he said.
He did not provide specifics.
Chermak said assessment appeals board members tell him 90% of appeals turn up errors that threaten “to devastate seniors and those on fixed incomes, while improper commercial appraisals of commercial and industrial properties could cripple our economic backbone.”
“I think we need to extend formal appeals by six months, and we should ramp up the outreach to make these corrections to the mistakes,” he said.
Many elderly residents are confused about their new values and how to challenge them, he said.
“They haven't even had a chance to appeal. They don't know what to do. We need to work with them as well,” he said.
All property owners had the chance to appeal values by Aug. 1. Appeal hearings remain underway.
Gaughan fires back
Using phrases and words like “with all due respect” and “respectfully,” Gaughan called “most of what” Chermak said “either completely false” or “completely misleading.” He accused Chermak of “scare tactics.”
Pausing new assessed values would invite reinstatement of the lawsuit that forced reassessment three years ago and would run up legal expenses, Gaughan said.
He pointed out the owners of only about 4,700 of the county’s 102,000 properties appealed new values, less than half the expected appeals.
“So, the vast majority of property owners in Lackawanna County clearly disagree with Commissioner Chermak’s unsupported assertion that property values determined by the reassessment are incorrect,” he said.
The taxpayers who sued to force reassessment did that because “they had been overtaxed for years,” he said.
“So, you have a bunch of people who are by all rights, not paying their fair share, and a bunch of people who are paying way more than they should be, and that goes to the point of reassessment,” Gaughan said. “It is to establish equitable taxation based on actual current property values rather than relying on an obsolete, skewed assessment baseline that is nearly 60 years old.”
Delaying the new values would only extend the unfairness, he said. Taxpayers had the chance to appeal values this year and can appeal each year if they feel values are unfair, he said.
“So, the idea that there's all this chaos and Tyler's done everything wrong. That's just simply not true,” he said.
“Reassessment is a political hot potato. Anyone who goes near it isn't in good shape. But you know what? When I was elected, I was elected, and I told people, I'm going to tell you the truth. I'm going to give it to you straight. It's what I said when I had to raise taxes 33%.”
Ten years of budget mismanagement led to the hike, he said.
The nasty exchange
Then, Gaughan sarcastically referred to the Republican commissioner’s “budget team.”
“I hope to God that they fixed the calculators from last year,” Gaughan said, referring to flawed figures developed by Chermak’s team last year.
“You don’t have to be a smart ass,” Chermak said. “You don't have to have scripts and ... just be a jerk.”
As Gaughan said he wrote his own statements and tried to get him to stop interrupting, Chermak said some county residents are preparing to sue over reassessment.
“Excuse me, you’re interrupting me, and it’s my time,” Gaughan said.
“If you’re going to keep respectfully mentioning my name and then beat the crap out of me, I'm not going to just sit here,” Chermak said.
It got worse
Gaughan pleaded for order.
“As long as you don't keep beating up on me, you can say whatever you want,” Chermak said.
“I'm telling the truth,” Gaughan replied.
“You always say that. You know, anytime somebody says ... honest to God, I'm telling the truth, I know they're lying,” Chermak said. “If you're going to keep this crap up, I'm going to leave, because this is you wasting my time and everybody else. And you're going to say, ‘All he does is walk out the room. Well, yeah, that’s because if I don't, I'm going to tackle somebody to the ground.”
After accusing Chermak of threatening violence, Gaughan said he's only rebutting Chermak “in a very respectful manner.”
“You know what this is called, ladies and gentlemen, it's called the debate of opinions,” Gaughan said. “He's obviously flustered because I am giving you the facts.”
Professionals assessed the county’s finances and concluded a tax increase was necessary, he said.
“Don't listen to the nonsense. Don't listen to the noise,” he said.
Lawyer warns against delay
Reached by telephone later, attorney Marielle Macher, who represented the county residents whose suit forced reassessment, said delaying new values would violate the settlement that suspended the suit.
“Right now, ... the stipulated court order, is still in effect, requiring that the new values go into effect by January 1, 2026,” she said. “So, if that were not completed, then the county would be in violation of a court order.”
