Lackawanna County Commissioners Brenda Sacco and Chris Chermak fired county Communications Director Pat McKenna on Monday in what Commissioner Bill Gaughan called \u201cbasically a political purge\u201d and a \u201cdisgrace.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sacco and Chermak declined to comment on the personnel matter. Chermak said they don\u2019t plan to replace McKenna.<\/p>\n
McKenna confirmed his dismissal Monday afternoon. The\u00a0former Times-Tribune associate editor was hired by Gaughan, a Democrat, and former Democratic Commissioner Matt McGloin early last year after a 45-year career with The Scranton Times and The Times-Tribune.<\/p>\n
\u201cStaff people come and go,\u201d McKenna said in a statement that referenced next week\u2019s special election to fill the remainder of McGloin\u2019s unexpired term. \u201cIt\u2019s more important for people to recognize that the government they elected fewer than two years ago has been hijacked, and that they can begin to restore it by voting for independence on November Fourth.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chermak called the hijacking charge \u201cpreposterous.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier Monday, Sacco and Chermak teamed up at a reorganization meeting to remove Gaughan as chairman of the Board of Commissioners. They ultimately voted together to make Sacco chairwoman and Chermak vice chairman of the three-member board despite harsh criticism by Gaughan and his supporters.<\/p>\n
The reorganization and McKenna\u2019s firing are the latest examples of Sacco, a Democrat, and Chermak, a Republican, forming a de facto bipartisan majority since Sacco took office Wednesday. She was appointed to the seat temporarily pursuant to a county Home Rule Charter process that survived a monthslong legal challenge by Gaughan and the county.<\/p>\n
Sacco and Chermak also approved changes to the county\u2019s legal team Friday, including making attorney Paul James Walker of Clarks Summit, Sacco\u2019s personal attorney, county solicitor.<\/p>\n
Sacco is not a candidate in the Nov. 4 special election to fill the remainder of McGloin\u2019s unexpired term running into early January 2028. But she has expressed a hope to remain in office for the next two-plus years, suggesting the potential for a future legal battle.<\/p>\n
Candidates in the race include Democrat Thom Welby of Scranton, Republican Chet Merli of Blakely and independent Michael Cappellini of Jessup, whom Gaughan endorsed in next week\u2019s contest. The winner will take office next month after the results are certified. Chermak said Monday he expects that will be the case.<\/p>\n
On the McKenna firing, Gaughan said he\u2019s \u201cdisappointed but not surprised.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe county had someone in the position of communications director with impeccable credentials and integrity and Commissioner Chermak and Sacco have made it really clear that their top priority is to fire anyone who has any integrity and qualifications,\u201d Gaughan said. \u201cAnd Pat McKenna\u2019s style of transparency and ethics doesn\u2019t fit into their dirty backroom political schemes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chermak responded in a text message.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is nothing more than a temper tantrum because he (Gaughan) is not getting his way,\u201d Chermak said. \u201cI started as commissioner 6 years ago to do what was best for Lackawanna County and I will continue to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gaughan also referenced the upcoming special election.<\/p>\n
\u201cCommissioner Sacco is only going to be there for 3\u00bd weeks,\u201d Gaughan said. \u201cFor her to fire anyone is just unimaginable at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gaughan and McGloin fired Sacco, then the county\u2019s economic development director, after taking office in January 2024. They hired McKenna to replace longtime Communications Director Joe D\u2019Arienzo, whom they demoted to a community relations liaison post that involved working with the Scranton\/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders baseball team. He later took a job outside of county government.<\/p>\n
At the time, Chermak sharply criticized D\u2019Arienzo\u2019s demotion as an example of \u201cold school Lackawanna County politics at its worst.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gaughan, who said Monday he likes D\u2019Arienzo \u201ca lot,\u201d heaped praise on McKenna and lauded his job performance.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is a respected journalist and professional who spent decades building a reputation of honesty, fairness and integrity,\u201d Gaughan said. \u201cIt\u2019s a huge loss for the county and I\u2019m very disappointed.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lackawanna County Commissioners Brenda Sacco and Chris Chermak fired county Communications Director Pat McKenna on Monday in what…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16987,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[201,182,139,28,178,180,179],"class_list":{"0":"post-16986","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scranton","8":"tag-lackawanna-county","9":"tag-local-news","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-pennsylvania","12":"tag-scranton","13":"tag-scranton-headlines","14":"tag-scranton-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}