Attorney Paul James Walker resigned from Lackawanna County upon learning he\u2019d been replaced as county solicitor by attorney Chris Caputo, the county\u2019s general counsel.<\/p>\n
He said as much in a resignation letter submitted Wednesday to commissioners and other county officials, with Democratic Commissioner Bill Gaughan confirming Thursday that he and Republican Commissioner Chris Chermak had approved the personnel change elevating Caputo to the position of solicitor.<\/p>\n
\u201cI learned today that I have been replaced as Lackawanna County Solicitor by Chris Caputo, without the knowledge of either Mr. Caputo or myself, with an apparent plan to swap our positions,\u201d Walker wrote in his resignation letter. \u201cThe only explanation I have heard is that I \u2018do not get along with department heads.\u2019 My working relationships with department heads have been pleasant, save one, so this is slightly confusing to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe my professional performance has been decent enough,\u201d the letter continues. \u201cIt is clear to me that this is about personality clashes. I believe this is happening because I am an independently minded, hard-nosed and strong-willed person. Maybe I am this way because I am young and a little na\u00efve; we\u2019ll see. It is also clear to me that this is about power and control. I understand it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gaughan largely declined to comment because the resignation is a personnel matter, but touted Caputo as a well-respected, longtime attorney who\u2019s impressed Gaughan since joining the county as general counsel in January. Caputo replaced former Solicitor Donald Frederickson in the general counsel position after Frederickson left for a position with the county Court of Common Pleas.<\/p>\n
Frederickson\u2019s most recent stint as county solicitor ended in October, when Chermak and former interim Democratic Commissioner Brenda Sacco hired Walker, Sacco\u2019s personal attorney, to lead the county\u2019s legal team. Sacco and Chermak returned Frederickson to the general counsel role during that personnel shakeup.<\/p>\n
Sacco\u2019s temporary and tumultuous tenure as commissioner ended in November, when she was replaced by Democratic Commissioner Thom Welby, the winner of a special election for the commissioner seat former Democratic Commissioner Matt McGloin resigned in February and that Sacco briefly filled as an appointee following a long and acrimonious legal battle over how to fill the vacancy.<\/p>\n
Efforts to reach Chermak were not immediately successful, but Welby said Thursday he didn\u2019t support and is disappointed by the decision to replace Walker.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have 100% faith in Paul,\u201d Welby said. \u201cHe\u2019s incredibly smart, sharp, ethical and has made some, I think, terrific counsel for us. I trust him and value his input. I\u2019m disappointed, honestly disappointed, that they chose to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Efforts to reach Caputo were not immediately successful.<\/p>\n
Walker noted in his resignation letter that he\u2019s been donating his county salary to charitable causes and that he emailed commissioners individually last week about donating $1,000 in their names to charities of their choosing. But Walker wrote that only Welby responded, \u201cand now I understand why.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat offer still stands for each of the Commissioners, but I am increasing the amount to $3,000.00 apiece,\u201d he wrote. \u201cPlease let me know.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI have learned a lot through my short tenure as Solicitor and remain grateful for the opportunity to serve the County, but I am resigning,\u201d Walker wrote.<\/p>\n
While Walker also noted in the letter that retired county Judge Thomas Munley had \u201cgraciously offered to take up the position\u201d of general counsel, Munley said Thursday he\u2019d thought about it overnight and was not interested in the job.<\/p>\n
Who commissioners might tap as the next general counsel is not immediately clear.<\/p>\n
Check back for updates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Attorney Paul James Walker resigned from Lackawanna County upon learning he\u2019d been replaced as county solicitor by attorney…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":173829,"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-173828","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\/173828","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=173828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173828\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}