After refusing to say for more than a week, Lackawanna County Commissioner Brenda Sacco now says she will honor the results of the special election Tuesday for county commissioner as long as the outcome is “lawful.”
“There is a lot of concern regarding whether I will honor the lawful result of this special election — of course, I will,” Sacco said in a Thursday evening post on her personal Facebook. “These last few weeks have been a whirlwind. I’m here to serve as commissioner for however long that turns out to be. The work is meaningful and hard. And I love it.”
Sacco, sworn in last week to replace former Commissioner Matt McGloin, is not a candidate in the special election to fill the rest of his term, but she previously said she hoped to fill out the remainder of the term. She also remains a plaintiff in the county Democratic Party’s court challenge to whether the county Board of Elections legally called for the special election.
That challenge remains pending in the county court of common pleas, though the party’s attempts to gain an emergency order blocking the election failed.
The special election candidates are former state Rep. Thom Welby, the Democratic nominee, former utility operations manager Chet Merli, the Republican nominee, and independent Michael P. Cappellini, a brand ambassador for a national cigar company.
In a related development, county President Judge James Gibbons rejected Friday a request for a meeting to clear up who should serve on the county Board of Elections.
In a letter to county Solicitor Paul James Walker and county elections board Solicitor Don Frederickson, Gibbons said the board will remain composed of common pleas court judges Terrence R. Nealon, Margaret Bisignani-Moyle and Frank Ruggiero.
Nealon was already on the board, but Gibbons replaced commissioners Bill Gaughan and Chris Chermak on the board with the other judges on Sept. 17. He did that once the previous elections board — Nealon and Gaughan with Chermak abstaining — authorized the special election for commissioner. Gibbons interpreted the county home rule charter as barring the commissioners from serving on the elections board when a commissioner election is on the ballot.
In a letter to Gibbons on Thursday, Walker and Frederickson said they wanted to meet with the judge to gain “clarity” about the board’s makeup. They said the charter bars commissioners from serving on the election board if they are “eligible for re-election.”
Neither Gaughan, Chermak nor Sacco face re-election this year.
Gibbons did not directly address that argument in his letter, but referred Walker and Frederickson to the Sept. 17 order appointing the judges to the elections board.
“I see no need for clarification,” he wrote. “The order rather unambiguously says what it says. Regarding your invitation to discuss this matter, I am disinclined to acquiesce to your request.”
Gibbons also questioned whether a majority of the Board of Commissioners authorized the solicitors to ask for the meeting.
“Finally, if the comments in the media from commissioners Chermak and Gaughan are reported accurately, the representation that you write on behalf of a majority of the commissioners seems, at best mistaken,” Gibbons wrote.
Chermak told WVIA News on thursday he had “nothing to do with” Walker’s and Frederickson’s letter and would not seek to rejoin the elections board until the "commissioner issue" is resolved. Walker said Sacco could not ethically join the elections board because her seat is at stake and she's suing the county. He called any suggestion otherwise "paranoia."
On Thursday, Gaughan portrayed the letter as signaling “the first part of a potential takeover of the election board” to invalidate the special election so that they either won't certify the election or they'll try to stop the election in some way.”
Check back for updates.
