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Chris Kelly Opinion: Judges’ ‘conclave’ no substitute for public vote

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It took 33 hours to choose a new pope. Three months after departed Lackawanna County Commissioner Matt McGloin abdicated his throne, we’re still waiting for white smoke over Courthouse Square.

When voters go to the polls in Tuesday’s primary election, they will set the stage for several important mayoral, municipal and school board races to be decided in November. The highest official vacancy in Our Stiff Neck of the Woods won’t be on the ballot.

Voters will have no say in deciding who will hold one-third of the county government’s taxing and spending power over the next three-plus years. The Vatican is more democratic than Lackawanna County.

The county’s Home Rule Charter plainly states that voters should choose McGloin’s successor in a special election that could easily have been added to Tuesday’s ballot. But state rules of judicial administration and plain old state law appear to supersede the charter, a conundrum a “conclave” of three senior county judges has been considering since mid-March.

In fact, the Home Rule Charter’s own language is maddeningly self-neutering. It says special elections shall be held “according to the Laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.” Well, state law does not call for a special election to fill a vacant seat on a board of commissioners, so the Home Rule Charter may as well be a dry cleaning receipt.

The apparent impotence of the Home Rule Charter was inadvertently exposed in an ongoing hostile takeover of county government by the Democratic Machine, led primarily by county Democratic Party Chairman Chris Patrick. Patrick and the party’s executive committee followed the charter up to the point where the process would have become “too democratic” for the Machine’s purposes.

According to the Home Rule Charter, the court appoints one of the party-approved candidates to serve out the vacated term temporarily pending “a special election according to the Laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania” to be held “at the next primary municipal or general election to permanently fill the vacancy (unless the open term is in its last year).”

McGloin’s term doesn’t end until 2028, but Patrick didn’t call for a special election, which, barring any court intervention, would have honored the charter and could have opened up the process to the public. Instead, the Democratic Committee met in secret and selected two duds and a ringer as “candidates” for the judges’ conclave to consider.

Former county economic development Director Brenda Sacco is the ringer. If appointed, she would join MAGA Republican Commissioner Chris Chermak in a de facto “Cheese and Crackers” majority that would sideline Democratic Commissioner Bill Gaughan. The Machine wants Gaughan gone. His cardinal sin? Voting for a long overdue and absolutely necessary property tax hike despite the damage it might do to his future electability.

The Machine has no patience nor practical use for an elected official who prioritizes the public good at the risk of ceding political power. It moved against Gaughan the minute word leaked that McGloin was leaving.

Naturally, Gaughan responded in kind. For the record, his attempt to select Dunmore Mayor Mark “Max” Conway Jr. as McGloin’s replacement was also undemocratic. Voters should decide. The Home Rule Charter (sort of) says so. Gaughan could have made that case, but since the charter’s provisions are apparently mooted by state law, it would have been a losing argument.

Legally, any argument for a special election would most likely be futile. Still, it’s worth noting that neither side is in court fighting for the public’s right to decide.

Gaughan filed a petition to shut down the Machine’s power grab based on the Pennsylvania Rule of Judicial Administration 1908. The rule gives the county court sole authority to accept applications and appoint replacements with zero input from any political party.

What followed was a flurry of court filings that have been exhaustively reported by Times-Tribune Staff Writer Jeff Horvath. The case is being followed far and wide because it may set precedents for how official vacancies are filled and the authority (or impotence) of Home Rule Charters across the commonwealth.

However the judges’ conclave rules on McGloin’s replacement, it’s clear that the county’s Home Rule Charter — drafted in the mid-1970s — is in dire need of updates, much like the property tax reassessment that took nearly 60 years to begin.

The new pope is 69 years old, relatively young for a fledgling pontiff. God willing, he could hold the papal throne for decades. Maybe by the time Leo XIV steps down, Lackawanna County will have a Home Rule Charter that gives voters a say in replacing officials they elected in the first place.

CHRIS KELLY, the Times-Tribune columnist, believes more democracy is always better than less. Contact the writer: ckelly@scrantontimes.com; @cjkink on X; Chris Kelly, The Times-Tribune on Facebook.