A letter to Lackawanna County’s top judge Thursday may signal a potential new development in determining who serves the rest of former Commissioner Matt McGloin’s term, Commissioner Bill Gaughan said.
The letter, signed by county Solicitor Paul James Walker and county Board of Election Solicitor Don Frederickson, asked county President Judge James Gibbons on Thursday for a meeting to clarify who can serve on the Board of Elections.
Walker and Frederickson said they wrote the letter on behalf of the Board of Commissioners majority. They did not name the majority commissioners, but Gaughan said he was not consulted and commissioners Brenda Sacco and Chris Chermak recently formed a new majority on the three-member board.
Gaughan questions letter
Gaughan said the letter may signal Sacco plans to take steps to stay in office until McGloin’s term ends Jan. 3, 2028, despite a special election Tuesday to choose a replacement.
“Based on Commissioner Sacco's non-committal to accepting the results of Tuesday’s election and her attorney's previous argument against the special election, this would seem to me to be there the first part of a potential takeover of the election board so that they either won't certify the election or they'll try to stop the election in some way,” Gaughan said. “How they can do that, I don't know, but it's a very odd letter.”
Walker defends letter
Walker denied the letter signals Sacco’s intent to try to block the election or stay in office. By law, Sacco can’t serve on the Board of Elections for the upcoming election because her seat is up for election, Walker said. Beyond that, Sacco remains a plaintiff in the county Democratic Party’s unresolved lawsuit that aims to invalidate the special election, Walker acknowledged.
“You tell me how it is that (she’s trying to invalidate the election outcome),” Walker said in a telephone interview.
The letter is only a request for a dialogue to clarify the matter, he said in a text later.
"Any indication to the contrary is paranoia," he wrote. "Nothing more, nothing less."
Efforts to reach Sacco were unsuccessful.
Chermak denies involvement
In a text, Chermak said he had nothing to do with the letter.
“I have no intention in trying to get back on the election board at this point,” Chermak wrote. “Not until this commissioner issue is over with.”
The history
McGloin resigned Feb. 24, but a lengthy court battle that Gaughan started delayed Sacco’s appointment as his replacement until Sept. 4 and her swearing-in until Oct. 22.
At an Aug. 29 meeting, the Board of Elections — made up then of Gaughan, Chermak and county Common Pleas Court Judge Terrence R. Nealon and — voted to call the special election to replace McGloin. Gaughan and Nealon voted in favor. Chermak abstained, citing unanswered questions and concerns about the precedent the move would set.
With an election for commissioner scheduled, Gibbons appointed two other common pleas judges, Margaret Bisignani-Moyle and Frank Ruggiero, to replace Gaughan and Chermak on the elections board.
Why the letter
In the letter, Walker and Frederickson say the county home rule charter forbids commissioners from serving on the elections board when they are “eligible for re-election.”
Neither Gaughan, nor Chermak are up for election this year. Gibbons appointed Nealon to the Board of Elections because McGloin resigned.
Walker and Frederickson wrote that they “seek clarity” because historical practices on the makeup of election boards have varied.
In 1999, the court appointed three judges to serve on the elections board, even though one commissioner, Ray Alberigi, wasn’t seeking re-election. (Alberigi was eligible for re-election, but chose not to run.)
In 2015 and 2019, “non-candidate commissioners served alongside appointed judges” after primary elections, Walker and Frederickson wrote.
“While the office of county commissioner appears on the Nov. 4 ballot in a special election, none of the sitting commissioners are candidates for or running for re-election,” they wrote.
“We respectfully seek clarification from the court on the proper constitution of the Board of Elections for the upcoming general election,” they wrote.
Efforts to reach Gibbons were not immediately successful.
Sacco is not a candidate in the special election. The candidates are former state Rep. Thom Welby, the Democratic nominee, retired utility operations manager Chet Merli, the Republican nominee, and Michael Cappellini, an independent and a brand ambassador for a national cigar company.
