Lackawanna County, Scranton City Council to reorganize Monday for 2026

Scranton City Council and Lackawanna County Commissioners will hold separate reorganizations Monday, while reelected Scranton Mayor Paige Gebhardt Cognetti will also be sworn in, to set the stage for their governing in 2026.

Current council ends

Proceedings to occur Monday will begin with the existing city council, composed of council President Gerald Smurl, Bill King, Mark McAndrew, Jessica Rothchild and Tom Schuster, who are all Democrats, holding their final meeting at 11 a.m. at City Hall, 340 N. Washington Ave., according to a public noticed published Dec. 26 in The Times-Tribune.

The current council has no pending matters to complete, other than formally ending to make way for the new, incoming council. Called a sine die meeting after the Latin phrase, this final meeting of the current council will have a public comment period and council members may also offer remarks and bid farewell to departing members King and Smurl. King did not seek reelection last year and Smurl lost his bid for reelection.

Of the three council members who will remain, Schuster won reelection last year and McAndrew and Rothchild were not up for reelection and both have two years remaining on their current terms. McAndrew and Rothchild were first elected to council in 2019 and reelected in 2023 to new four-year council terms they’re currently serving.

New council begins

At noon Monday, council will hold a reorganization meeting with Schuster and two new council members, Patrick Flynn and Sean McAndrew, both Democrats, all being sworn in to office.

Appointed to fill a vacancy in 2020, Schuster was elected to a full council term in 2021 and reelected to a new, four-year council term in November’s municipal election. Flynn and Sean McAndrew each won election in November to a four-year council term. A former member of the Scranton School Board, Sean McAndrew is a nephew of Mark McAndrew.

Council will select a president, vice president and committee assignments regarding rules, finance, public safety, public works and community development. At a brief caucus held last month by the five members who will comprise the new council, only Schuster expressed interest in serving as the next council president.

“I have put my name up for consideration (for council president) and if my colleagues have faith in me in that role, it is possible that I will be in that role in 2026,” Schuster said Friday.

Scranton City Councilman Tom Schuster participates in a caucus Dec. 18, 2025 to discuss council’s coming reorganization. He was the only member of the next council to express interest in serving as council president. (JEFF HORVATH/STAFF PHOTO)

Mayoral inauguration

With council organizing in the Council Chambers, Cognetti at the same time — Monday at noon — will take the oath of office on the grand staircase inside City Hall.

The city’s administrative code says new mayoral and council terms began at noon on the first Monday in January following the year in which they were elected or reelected, except when filling vacancies.

A former Scranton School Board member, Cognetti won her first bid for city mayor in November 2019 to fill the vacancy of former Mayor Bill Courtright, who resigned amid corruption charges, to which he later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to prison. A Democrat, Cognetti first was reelected in 2021 to a full four-year term as mayor. She handily won reelection this past November to another four-year term, defeating independent Eugene “Gene” Barrett and Republican Trish Beynon.

The staircase inside City Hall is the same spot where Cognetti took her prior mayoral oaths of office, in 2020 and 2022, with the latter one marked by the wearing of face masks because of the COVID-19 pandemic, she recalled Friday.Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti and her husband, Ryan, during her inauguration at Scranton City Hall in January of 2020. (TIMES-TRIBUNE / FILE PHOTO)

Before the 2025 general election, Cognetti announced in September she would seek the Democratic Party’s nomination in 2026 for the 8th Congressional District in hopes of challenging first-term Republican U.S. Rep. Rob Bresnahan, R-8, Dallas. The congressional campaign, which has already been underway with each side targeting the other, likely now will shift into higher gear leading up to the primary election.

Council also to hold first meeting of 2026

On Monday at 1 p.m., council will hold its first regular meeting of the year, which was rescheduled from Tuesday at 6:30 p.m., according to a public notice published Friday in The Times-Tribune.

Council’s weekly meetings will continue to be held Tuesdays at 6:30 p.m., with each preceded by a caucus work session at 5:45 p.m., excluding legal holidays, according to a separate public notice also issued Friday.

Countywide government

The Lackawanna County commissioners will choose who among them will serve as chairman and vice chairman of the three-member board this year when they reorganize Monday at 2 p.m. at the county government center, 123 Wyoming Ave., in Scranton.

The board made up of Democratic Commissioners Bill Gaughan and Thom Welby and Republican Commissioner Chris Chermak did not formally reorganize after Welby took office in late November, leaving it without an official chairman for the last few meetings of 2025.

Welby, the winner of a Nov. 4 special election to fill former Commissioner Matt McGloin’s unexpired term running into early January 2028, replaced former interim Democratic Commissioner Brenda Sacco, who was appointed to fill the vacancy on a temporary basis and held the seat for a turbulent 35-day tenure.

Sacco had served as chairwoman since late October, when she and Chermak formed a bipartisan majority and held an unusual reorganization meeting to replace Gaughan in that leadership role. It was one of several moves by the Sacco/Chermak de facto majority that Gaughan sharply criticized.

Chermak, made vice chairman during the late-October reorganization, led commissioners meetings held last month.

The Lackawanna County Commissioners, on dais from left, Bill Gaughan, Chris Chermak and Thom Welby, at a meeting on Dec. 30, 2025. (JIM LOCKWOOD / STAFF PHOTO)

Jeff Horvath, staff writer, contributed to this report.