SCRANTON — Lackawanna County’s new-look board of commissioners narrowly approved Wednesday an agreement to pay law enforcement officers at the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport, following the lead of neighboring Luzerne County, with whom Lackawanna will share some of the cost.
The two-year agreement and whether the Law Enforcement Officer (LEO) program at the airport is necessary given the presence of an armed security force there has been a point of contention for certain officials, including Democratic Lackawanna County Commissioner Bill Gaughan, who opposes it. The two votes needed to approve the agreement came from Republican Commissioner Chris Chermak and new Democratic Commissioner Thom Welby, who participated in his first public meeting Wednesday after taking office last week.
In an unrelated matter, the commissioners also tabled a vote on the county’s proposed 2026 budget amid uncertainty over electricity costs the county will incur next year. Tabling the budget vote until Dec. 17 will give officials more time to quantify the impact of increasing electricity costs while giving Welby more time to review the proposed spending plan crafted before he took office.
Lackawanna County Commissioner Thom Welby listens to public comment during the commissioners’ meeting held at the county government center in Scranton Wednesday, December 3, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
The LEO program agreement commissioners approved by a 2-1 vote calls for Lackawanna and Luzerne counties to each pay 25% of the cost of providing law enforcement officers at the Pittston Twp. airport jointly owned by both counties, with the airport itself covering the other 50%. The program costs about $144,000 per year, officials said.
The Luzerne County district attorney’s office took over the LEO program in 2021, when it was funded by the federal Transportation Security Administration, and continued the program after the TSA stopped funding it in May 2024.
Luzerne County officials have been frustrated that Lackawanna hasn’t helped fund the program; the airport has been providing $5,000 a month to defray Luzerne County’s costs.
Gaughan contends the program is unnecessary, noting the airport already pays for armed security that complement armed TSA personnel there. Airport leaders have also said the program isn’t necessary, Gaughan stressed Wednesday, calling the agreement a “solution in search of a problem.”
Lackawanna County Commissioner Bill Gaughan speaks during the commissioners’ meeting held at the county government center in Scranton Wednesday, December 3, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
“The idea that airport professionals, armed federal agents and a fully funded, 24/7 airport security force are not enough — and only an optional program that we used to have funding for can save us — in my opinion defies logic, math and gravity,” Gaughan said. “This is like being told by your mechanic your brakes are fine, and then Luzerne County jumps in and says ‘pay for new brakes anyway, don’t you support safety?’”
Republican Luzerne County Controller Walter Griffith joined Gaughan in criticizing the arrangement. Griffith blasted the agreement as vague while noting the document lacks a specific figure for what the LEO program will cost, among numerous other concerns.
Chermak and Welby support the program and agreement, with Welby essentially describing the county’s financial contribution as a relatively modest cost to safeguard public confidence in the security of the airport.
“What’s been happening in our country is almost beyond comprehension, some of the horrible, terrorist things and just horrors that happen,” Welby said, noting as an example last week’s shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, D.C., one of whom died. “I think that we need to do everything that we can, as much as we can. … I want to make a clear impression to the public and a clear impression to anyone that might have misgivings and thoughts that tend toward evil, I want to make very clear to all of them, that security will be as strong as we can possibly do at our airport, at our county government buildings and wherever we go.”
Chermak expressed a similar sentiment, noting Lackawanna County District Attorney Brian Gallagher and Luzerne County District Attorney Sam Sanguedolce support the program.
“The way things are today with violence you just never know,” he said. “Is there ever enough security?”
Chermak also noted armed security guards at the airport can detain but lack the authority to arrest individuals, unlike law enforcement officers provided under the LEO program.
Luzerne County Council approved the LEO program agreement last week. The bicounty airport board composed of Luzerne and Lackawanna officials approved it earlier in November over Gaughan’s objections.
No reorganization
Commissioners did not formally reorganize Wednesday and apparently won’t until January, leaving the board without an official chairman for the next several weeks.
Former interim Democratic Commissioner Brenda Sacco had served as chairwoman since late October, when she and Chermak held an unusual reorganization meeting to replace Gaughan in that leadership role. Welby, the winner of a Nov. 4 special election for commissioner, succeeded Sacco last week, ending her turbulent 35-day tenure in office.
Chermak, made vice chairman during the late-October reorganization, led Wednesday’s commissioners meeting and will lead the meeting Dec. 17.
While Gaughan would have preferred to reorganize this week and elect a new chairman and vice chairman, that “wasn’t in the cards,” he said.