Lackawanna County hired Pittston city's business administrator as the county’s new human resources director Monday, a move one commissioner immediately criticized as textbook "backrroom politics."
Commissioners Chris Chermak and Brenda Sacco authorized the hiring of Jenna Strzelecki, who’s also a Scranton school director, but left Commissioner Bill Gaughan out of the decision. She will earn $65,139 a year.
In a statement, Gaughan said the county received more than 30 applications and interviewed only Strzelecki, days before the county Board of Elections is expected to clear the way for Commissioner-elect Thom Welby to replace Sacco on the three-member Board of Commissioners.
Gaughan called the hiring “the definition of backroom politics.”
“It is an outrageous abuse of power by a lame-duck duo scrambling to hand out political favors before the clock runs out on their authority,” he said.
Efforts to reach Sacco were unsuccessful. She has failed to return WVIA News’ phone calls since being sworn in on Oct. 22 to replace former Commissioner Matt McGloin.
Cherrmak denies playing politics
In a telephone interview, Chermak denied playing politics. He said he and Sacco kept Welby informed of their intentions to hire Strzelecki, and Welby did not object. Welby confirmed that later.
Chermak said he and Sacco reviewed resumes and settled on Strzelecki because she stood out above all the candidates.
“Well, first of all, you know, we have two qualified commissioners who agreed on this person and think that she's very qualified. We ran it by Thom Welby just so he wasn't in the dark,” Chermak said.
Chermak said the county began a screening process for a new HR director to replace Joanne Decker, who left for another job in September. That process involved a panel that he wasn’t part of, he said.
Chermak didn’t know further details of that process, but county chief of staff Brian Jeffers said Gaughan, deputy chief of staff Traci Harte and a human resources manager handled that.
“He (Gaughan) doesn't tell me anything,” Chermak said of that process. “So, I don't know what he was doing.”
Chermak cited the screening panel’s earlier interviews when asked if anyone else was interviewed. Asked if he and Sacco only interviewed Strzelecki, he said, “I interviewed her, yes, and I picked her.”
Chermak said the interview took place Friday.
“I don't know when Thom's getting sworn in, and we can't wait another day,” Chermak said. “We needed to get somebody ASAP. We have union negotiations going on right now, the girls down in that office are overwhelmed, and we needed to get an HR director.”
Chermak likened the hiring to Gaughan and former Commissioner Matt McGloin hiring and dismissing staff without consulting him when they took the majority on the Board of Commissioners in January 2024.
“The same thing. They hired people. I didn't know what they were doing,” he said.
Not true, Gaughan said in a text.
“He was invited to interviews of any top-level cabinet member,” Gaughan said. “Sometimes he showed up, sometimes he didn’t.”
'Best suited for what we needed'
Chermak called Gaughan the expert at backroom politics and said he and Sacco picked the best qualified candidate.
“She was the one that we thought was going to be the best suited for what we needed,” he said.
Strzelecki, 41, began serving as Pittston city’s business administrator earlier this year. Before that, she was the city’s human resources director since 2023, according to a copy of her resume.
The resume shows she owns a fitness business and served as an associate dean at Lackawanna College and director of curriculum development and assessment at Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine.
She was appointed to the Scranton School Board in April to replace longtime director Katie Gilmartin, who resigned. Strzelecki won a full four-year term on the school board in the recent election.
“I have never been shown this candidate’s resume,” Gaughan said. “I’m not questioning her background or potential qualifications. I’m questioning the sham process Sacco and Chermak used to push her through.”
With Welby about to take office, “Sacco will be in office for barely another week or two, yet she’s rushing to make a major, long-term appointment,” he said. “The question is obvious: What deals are being cut on her way out the door? And Chermak, ever the MAGA sidekick, is enabling it.”
He portrayed Chermak and Sacco’s hiring as “a blatant slap in the face” to Welby.
“Commissioner-elect Welby and I should be part of any decision this significant — not shut out of it by officials who are days away from losing power," he said. “This hire reeks of favoritism, secrecy, and backroom politics. No ethical government throws out dozens of qualified applicants to push through one politically connected candidate at the last minute.”
Welby: 'She's terrific'
Welby said he learned of the hiring Monday and has no problem with it. He looked up Strzelecki on LinkedIn and reviewed her resume, he said.
“I got to meet her and get to know her a little bit over the course of the campaign,” he said. “She's terrific. She really is.”
Welby declined to say if he would have preferred to wait to hire a human resources director until he takes office.
“I mean, they're the commissioners, and whatever they decide while they're in office, it is what it is. I'm okay with her, and I told them that. I think she's fabulous.”
With her experience, Strzelecki should be able to work well with county employees and solve problems like high overtime at the prison and HR issues in other departments, he said.
“I think just by her personality and her experience, she can overcome a lot of that. I don't think that's being naive either,” he said.
Welby, still an aide to state Rep. Bridget Kosierowski, said he hopes to be sworn in by Thanksgiving.
“Definitely, definitely, definitely, by the end of the month,” he said.
