Top officials of Lackawanna and Luzerne counties heatedly squared off Thursday about whether the local airport needs paid local police to supplement its armed security force and federal agents.
At a Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport board meeting, Lackawanna County Commissioner Bill Gaughan said the airport doesn’t need the extra cops and airport officials backed him up.
Luzerne County Manager Romilda Crocamo accused Gaughan of “grandstanding” and acting “bush league” in the absence of the man who oversees the extra police, Luzerne County District Attorney Sam Sanguedolce.
Sanguedolce was not at the meeting. He discussed the issue later in a phone interview with WVIA News, saying he supports the program.
Gaughan and Crocamo are members of the six-person airport board, which has three representatives from each county.
Even before the two skirmished, Luzerne County Controller Walter Griffith questioned why the airport board discussed the extra police privately before the board meeting.
The extra cops backstory
The dispute centers on a longtime program that pays local police to supplement former federal Transportation Security Administration passenger screening agents and the Pittston Twp. airport’s own security force.
Avoca police used to provide the officers and federal TSA money paid for it, but Avoca dropped out in 2021. Since then, the Luzerne County District Attorney’s Office took it over.
Then, the TSA funding for the program — known as Law Enforcement Officer, or LEO — expired May 1, 2024, Sanguedolce wrote in a public letter published last year. Former U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright pushed to revive funding, but that did not happen.
Since then, Luzerne County has paid about $12,000 a month to keep it going, Griffith said, with the airport kicking in another $2,500 a month for a total of about $175,000 a year. Luzerne County officials asked Lackawanna County to contribute last year, but Lackawanna, facing a large deficit, balked.
Police and the partnership
The Luzerne County Council discussed the issue at an Oct. 14 meeting. Several council members suggested the county discuss the program with Lackawanna County during ongoing talks about a new partnership agreement on running the airport. They want to Lackawanna to contribute.
Gaughan said he investigated the extra police program after denying Luzerne’s request last year and found the officers aren’t necessary.
TSA agents and the airport security officers lack arrest powers, but they can detain anyone causing trouble until local police arrive, Gaughan contends. The airport spends more than $500,000 a year on its own armed security force, he said in an interview Wednesday.
"It's nice to have, but we don't need to have it. So why would I ever agree to pay for something that that the people who actually run the airport are telling me that we don't need again?" he said.
In a private executive session before the board meeting, Gaughan said, assistant airport executive director B.J. Teichman, airport security director Mark Bailer and airport executive director Carl Beardsley Jr. all said the airport doesn’t need the police presence.
“They are stating emphatically that we do not need this program,” Gaughan told the board.
Gaughan accused the Luzerne council of conflating the police program with negotiations on the partnership agreement. The Federal Aviation Administration is requiring the counties to form a formal partnership to continue receiving federal funding.
Crocamo: Luzerne has 'carried the burden'
Crocamo took aim at Gaughan's comments.
"So I want to thank commissioner Gaughan for making a ... statement about what the motivation is of Luzerne County," she said.
“I travel to other airports of a similar size, and they all have a police presence,” Crocamo said. “Luzerne County has basically carried the burden of pain for the (police) program. We’re healthy financially. We understand Lackawanna County is not, but what’s fair is fair, and either you have a partnership, or you don't the partnership agreement.”
She said Gaughan had “changed the scale with his comments today.”
“We're supportive of the airport. The airport is an asset to our community, but we want to make sure that it's a fair agreement,” Crocamo said.
Chermak: Gaughan speaks for himself
Lackawanna County Commissioner Chris Chermak, another board member and a licensed small plane pilot, said the county will continue negotiating in good faith, but said Gaughan does not speak for Lackawanna County.
Chermak said he'd bring new Lackawanna County Commissioner Brenda Sacco “up to speed” on the issue. Sacco, in her second day as commissioner, later acknowledged the need to get educated on the issue.
Griffith said he wants to the police program evaluated to determine its benefits.
“How many incidents have they had to cost us the amount of money for two years that the county's paid out?” he said.
The 'back room' debate
Griffith again asked why the board talked about the issue “in the back room” before the meeting.
Gaughan said he agreed the airport’s solicitors should determine if the backroom discussion was legal but then pressed the airport officials to repeat what they said privately.
“I object,” Crocamo said, “because the chief law enforcement officer, District Attorney Sanguedolce, isn’t here. He wasn’t invited. He wasn’t in the executive session. And I agree with the controller that there are issues that need to be discussed in public, because it not only affects the taxpayers of Luzerne and Lackawanna County, but it affects the people who use this airport.”
Gaughan pressed on, pointing out the board meeting isn’t a courtroom. He said airport officials spoke about the program during the private meeting and should explain publicly.
What airport officials think
After Crocamo said she’s worried both counties could face lawsuits if something happened with no police around, Gaughan asked Bailer to repeat what he said privately.
Bailer said the police program isn’t required by law.
Gaughan then asked Teichman if the airport should spend money on the program.
“No,” Teichman said.
Gaughan asked Beardsley.
“No,” Beardsley said.
Gaughan recapped.
“I don't know how to run an airport. I will admit that I've been on a plane once in my life. I went to Ireland two years ago,” he said. “We have the director of public safety, (who’s) a former air marshal, the assistant airport director and the airport director telling you people at this table that we do not need the (police) program. If Luzerne County wants to pay for it out of their own coffers, be my guest. It's a nice program to have if you want to pay for it, have at it.”
The board agreed to invite Sanguedolce to its November meeting to revisit the issue.
Gaughan presses on
The meeting went on with other business, but before it ended, Gaughan asked Teichman to present the analysis she provided the board privately.
Crocamo objected again, calling Gaughan’s request “bush league” because Sanguedolce wasn’t present.
Gaughan interjected, saying the program isn’t “some confidential, secretive thing that we can't talk about without someone else here.”
“If the DA wants to come at the next meeting, that's fine,” he said. “B.J. just talked about an analysis that she did.”
Crocamo again asked Gaughan to wait to publicly hear Teichman’s presentation until Sanguedolce is present.
“It would be ... something that would benefit all the taxpayers in Luzerne and Lackawanna County, if that information was distributed to the board members for review, and that we have the chief law enforcement officers here to discuss the findings,” she said.
Teichman said she felt “between a rock and a hard place” because she reports to the whole board.
“This is a public meeting,” Gaughan said. “We're not talking about the secret to, like the atom bomb here ... I'm only asking the question to free you to answer (what) you just told us 20 minutes ago, and you did a good job in the analysis.”
Teichman said she wasn’t trying to hide the information. Crocamo said she wasn’t accusing her of that.
“It would be more beneficial, and not this grandstanding that’s going on ...,” Crocamo said.
“There’s no grandstanding,” Gaughan interrupted. “I’m simply asking a question.”
The numbers
Teichman finally answered.
Between April and September, she said, the airport had no police officers present for at least six days each month and at least 24 days with police officers present only eight hours a day.
“Here's a great example of another reason why the notion that without the LEO program, you know, the place is on fire, doesn't make any sense,” Gaughan said. “The facts are the facts.”
A few minutes later, the board voted to ask its solicitors to examine if the board can discuss the matter privately.
Sanguedolce backs program
Reached after the meeting by telephone, Sanguedolce said his office only took over the program because airport officials told him Avoca backed out. So he's surprised to hear airport officials don't think it's necessary, he said. He recalled airport officials telling him they needed a memorandum of understanding with a police department promise a response within five minutes.
Avoca and Pittston Twp. police don't want to do that, he said.
"I also know the surrounding departments usually have about one police officer on at a time, and couldn't possibly promise to be there within five minutes," he said. "But to further point out the absurdity, I just like to look at the Philadelphia airport and LaGuardia (Airport in New York City) and say(ing), 'We don't need police, we have armed security,' just how absurd that is, and the fact that the 9/11 terrorists didn't come through a major airport. They came through a tiny airport like Avoca in Maine."
"You can think what you want, but this is literally the definition of defunding the police, telling me we don't need police present at an airport and we're not funding them," Sanguedolce said.
