Lackawanna County Commissioner Bill Gaughan criticized the appointment of a Scranton man to a mass transit agency board on Wednesday because the county didn’t seek other candidates.
Gaughan attempted to persuade commissioners Thom Welby and Chris Chermak to table the appointment of Larry Wynne to the County of Lackawanna Transit System board to give others an opportunity to apply.
They refused to table and voted to put Wynne back on a board he didn’t want to leave a year ago.
Welby later touted Wynne’s nine years of COLTS board experience.
Wynne's COLTS' history
Wynne served on the COLTS board starting in 2015 and became its chairman in 2018. Gaughan and former Commissioner Matt McGloin didn’t reappoint him in 2025, even though he sought re-appointment. Last January, they replaced him with Robert Durkin, president of the Greater Scranton Chamber of Commerce.
After taking office, Gaughan said, he and McGloin adopted an unwritten policy to seek applications for county boards yearly through public advertising.
“We were honestly overwhelmed by the amount of people who submitted applications, resumes and letters of interest,” Gaughan said. “And these were people from all over the community. Ninety percent of them I had never heard of before, but they were interested in public service. We did it because openness, transparency and competition are not obstacles to good government. They are the foundation of it.”
'Sunlight' instead of 'closed doors'
Gaughan said the boards, especially the one that oversees COLTS, “wield real influence.” COLTS spends millions of dollars, he said.
“The people of Lackawanna County deserve to know when opportunities exist to serve, and they deserve a fair chance to raise their hand. That process did not happen here,” he said. “When we bypass that process, even once, we undermine the very reforms we said mattered. We send a message, however unintentionally, that access matters more than openness, and that decisions can still be made behind closed doors, rather than in the sunlight.”
Good government means following best practices, he said.
“Best practices are only meaningful if we follow them consistently, especially when it would be easier not to,” he said.
Why the rush?
Gaughan said he couldn’t understand the rush to appoint Wynne.
“I can only assume the sudden rush is driven by Chairman Welby and Commissioner Chermak’s deep and abiding concern for public transportation. Nothing else could possibly explain it,” he said in a distinctly sarcastic tone. “This is clearly about buses, routes and the noble mission of transit itself. The timing, of course, is purely coincidental.”
Wynne's multiple roles
He pointed out Wynne already serves as a full-time shift supervisor in the county criminal suspect booking center and a full-time employee of Scranton’s Department of Public Works. He also serves as DPW union president.
“I'll be honest. I'm impressed. I'm deeply impressed. I don't know where this man finds the hours in a day,” Gaughan said. “I don't know when the man sleeps. I don't know if he sleeps. And if he doesn't, I think we'd all like to know his secret, because the rest of us could probably use it. Board service matters. It requires preparation, attention and time, and when we appoint someone to a public board. We owe it to the public to ask not just can they serve, but can they serve well.”
Wynne defended
Chermak admitted he doesn’t know Wynne personally, but called him a valuable past member of the COLTS board.
“I know he did a good job. I know he applied to remain on the board back when he was taken off. I certainly don't have a problem since he did apply and did want to remain on the board, and I think he could do a good job just like he did before,” Chermak said.
Welby praised Wynne for serving in multiple public service posts.
“That’s an honorable thing, and that's nice to see,” Welby said. “And he also served previously on the board and also served as board chair. We're not talking about somebody that's coming in out of the dark regarding this.”
Welby questioned why Gaughan only objected to Wynne, but not to two appointments to a farm preservation board moments earlier.
“I just find that peculiar,” he said.
Gaughan said he didn’t object to the farm board appointments because the official in charge of preservation told the commissioners he sought other resumes and letters of interest.
Efforts to reach Wynne were unsuccessful.
Welby unaware of policy
After the meeting, Welby said he was unaware of the unwritten policy to advertise for board candidates.
“So, I do think that that is a good idea, and we're going to be doing that starting today or moving forward,” Welby said.
Welby said he saw no reason to delay appointing Wynne.
“I don't know of any people that might learn of this position that could have that much institutional knowledge (as Wynne), actually,” Welby said. “Do you really think there might be someone that might have more institutional knowledge than that?”
