{"id":250537,"date":"2026-07-23T19:44:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T19:44:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/250537\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T19:44:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T19:44:16","slug":"gaughan-questions-airport-board-about-chermaks-candidacy-for-director-job","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/250537\/","title":{"rendered":"Gaughan questions airport board about Chermak’s candidacy for director job"},"content":{"rendered":"

PITTSTON TWP. \u2014 Lackawanna County Commissioner Bill Gaughan asked fellow members of the board that oversees the Wilkes-Barre\/Scranton International Airport whether they communicated support to any candidate for the airport\u2019s executive director job before interviews and hiring deliberations conclude.<\/p>\n

It was one of a number of pointed questions Gaughan posed Thursday at the first airport board meeting since Lackawanna County Commissioner Chris Chermak confirmed last month his candidacy for the position and announced his leave of absence from the board he chaired pending a hiring decision.<\/p>\n

\"LackawannaLackawanna County Commissioner Bill Gaughan speaks to fellow board members in the conference room of the Wilkes-Barre\/Scranton International Airport in Pittston Twp. Thursday, July 23, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG \/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)<\/p>\n

The board is normally made up of Lackawanna\u2019s three commissioners, two Luzerne County Council members and the Luzerne County manager.<\/p>\n

After initially abstaining due to a potential conflict of interest, Chermak, acting in his capacity as a county commissioner, voted with fellow Commissioner Thom Welby last week to appoint attorney Chris Munley to the airport board as his temporary replacement, a move Gaughan sharply criticized.<\/p>\n

Gaughan\u2019s specific questions, which went unanswered during Thursday\u2019s meeting, came after Chermak said in a recent interview with WVIA that he has the support of the airport\u2019s staff and administration and \u201cmost of the other board members.\u201d Efforts to reach Chermak, who remains among five finalists for the executive director job, were not immediately successful.<\/p>\n

Prior to Thursday\u2019s meeting, airport board members met in executive session Monday with ADK Consulting and Executive Search, a Florida-based firm the board hired in March for $47,574 to facilitate the process of finding a successor to former Executive Director Carl Beardsley Jr. Officials discussed personnel issues, candidates and an upcoming interview process during the executive session, airport Co-Solicitor Donald Frederickson said, noting ADK is in the process of scheduling interviews with five remaining candidates.<\/p>\n

ADK previously reviewed 20 applications for the position and at one point winnowed the broader list down to seven, before the pool shrunk again to five. While Chermak acknowledged his own candidacy, officials have not identified any other applicants.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe board meeting commences in the conference room of the Wilkes-Barre\/Scranton International Airport in Pittston Twp. Thursday, July 23, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG \/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)<\/p>\n

In addition to several questions stemming from Chermak\u2019s claim in the WVIA interview that he helped run the airport in recent years after Beardsley developed health problems, Gaughan specifically asked Thursday whether any airport board members or airport officials \u201casked ADK to put Commissioner Chermak through to the next round.\u201d He also asked whether another applicant with Chermak\u2019s qualifications but with no prior relationship to the airport board would have ended up a finalist for the executive director position.<\/p>\n

\u201cFinally I would ask each member of this board one simple question: Can each of us honestly tell the public that this hiring process has been conducted solely on the basis of qualifications, merit and the best interests of the airport without regard to familiarity, relationships or politics?\u201d Gaughan asked.<\/p>\n

After Gaughan posed his questions, Luzerne County Councilman Chris Belles, the airport board\u2019s vice chairman, said Thursday\u2019s session was not a hearing.<\/p>\n

The board \u201ccan certainly discuss possibly having a hearing if that\u2019s what the board chooses to have, but we can\u2019t do a fact finding during the course of this right now,\u201d Belles said. \u201cIt\u2019s OK to ask the questions obviously but I don\u2019t want to get us down the road of having a hearing without (the) public being aware that there was going to be a hearing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Welby said it would be inappropriate to discuss the hiring process until the process concludes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a personnel matter,\u201d he said. \u201cIt should remain confidential until the process is over. When the process is over those questions can be asked and hopefully answered.\u201d<\/p>\n

Munley, the board member recently appointed to temporarily replace Chermak, and board member Romilda Crocamo, the Luzerne County manager, participated in Thursday\u2019s meeting by phone.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did not speak to or direct ADK to advance any candidate,\u201d Crocamo said in a text message Thursday afternoon. \u201cThat is not the way I do business or we do business in Luzerne County. Merit hiring means merit hiring. It means every applicant gets a genuine look. It means the process is not a formality designed to validate a decision that was already made.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crocamo also said Gaughan has never contacted her directly to discuss \u201cthis matter or any other.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt appears that when he wishes to communicate with Luzerne County, he does so publicly rather than through the appropriate professional channels,\u201d she said. \u201cThat approach does not lend itself to the kind of genuine intergovernmental collaboration this decision requires.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reached by phone, Munley said he\u2019s gotten no indication whatsoever during his brief time on the board that any members have already made up their mind about the hiring. He was surprised Gaughan raised his questions during Thursday\u2019s meeting, he said, describing them as questions \u201che could easily ask the candidate when we do the interviews.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI can only hypothesize it\u2019s because the media was there,\u201d Munley said. \u201cI only want to pick who\u2019s best. \u2026 I don\u2019t think that\u2019s fair to the other members of the board to make those suggestions, especially while the process is still playing out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Airport board member and Luzerne County Councilwoman Lee Ann McDermott stressed immediately after the meeting that no hiring decision has been made.<\/p>\n

\u201cI honestly don\u2019t know who I\u2019m going to vote for because we didn\u2019t interview yet,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Belles also emphasized after the meeting that he has a \u201cvery open\u201d mind and is only interested in hiring the best candidate.<\/p>\n

\"StephenStephen Mykulyn, P.E., Director of Engineering at the Wilkes-Barre\/Scranton International Airport, speaks during a board meeting in the conference room of the Wilkes-Barre\/Scranton International Airport in Pittston Twp. Thursday, July 23, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG \/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PITTSTON TWP. \u2014 Lackawanna County Commissioner Bill Gaughan asked fellow members of the board that oversees the Wilkes-Barre\/Scranton…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":250538,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[201,182,803,139,28,4487,178,180,179],"class_list":["post-250537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-lackawanna-county","tag-local-news","tag-luzerne-county","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pittston-township","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250537","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=250537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}