Lackawanna County secured $131,250 in state funding for a comprehensive salary study officials will pursue with a downstream goal of improving employee retention and recruitment.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the latest grant the county has received stemming from its ongoing participation in the state\u2019s Strategic Management Planning Program that previously delivered funds officials used to engage and later retain PFM Group Consulting LLC, the financial consultants behind the county\u2019s long-term financial management plan.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere in the county and region, the cities of Carbondale and Pottsville and the borough of Tunkhannock also secured STMP grants during the most recent round of program funding.<\/p>\n
Among other features, the STMP program provides matching grants to help counties and municipalities experiencing fiscal difficulties develop financial management plans and \u201cestablish short- and long-term financial objectives,\u201d per the state.<\/p>\n
Lackawanna County commissioners, facing a serious fiscal crisis driven by a ballooning structural budget deficit and other challenges, successfully sought entry into the program in early 2024 and hired PFM shortly thereafter.<\/p>\n
The firm\u2019s early work informed debt restructuring, borrowing to avoid running out of money and other admittedly painful steps, including a nearly 33% 2025 property tax hike, the fledgling Democratic majority administration of Commissioner Bill Gaughan and then-Commissioner Matt McGloin took to navigate the financial maelstrom. PFM then released early last year the five-year financial management plan it crafted for the county under its initial engagement, an expansive report replete with analysis of what contributed to the county\u2019s long-developing financial woes and future-focused recommendations aimed at achieving lasting stability.<\/p>\n
The salary study and compensation review project for which the county recently secured additional STMP grant funding is consistent with and will support a number of workforce management initiatives in the financial management plan, officials said in June. That\u2019s when Gaughan and fellow Commissioners Thom Welby and Chris Chermak retroactively authorized an application for the grant to support the study.<\/p>\n
It will specifically \u201celevate compensation structures, classification systems, market competitiveness, internal equity, wage compression, and long-term compensation administration practices\u201d across county government. Changes the study might inform as it relates to employee pay and compensation could make the county more competitive in its hiring and help it retain workers who might otherwise leave for other opportunities, officials said.<\/p>\n
Gaughan, who said the county will solicit proposals for the study, described recruitment and retention as major challenges for the county. The timeline for the project is not immediately clear, but he said officials hope to have it started before the end of the year.<\/p>\n
Other grants<\/p>\n
The state Department of Community and Economic Development announced the Lackawanna County grant and 15 others awarded through the STMP program late last month.<\/p>\n
Carbondale and Pottsville secured grants of $81,000 and $90,000, respectively, to defray the cost of their own five-year financial and operational plans.<\/p>\n
Tunkhannock, meanwhile, secured a $53,026 STMP grant for \u201ctechnology upgrades and codification,\u201d per the state. That phase-two project for the Wyoming County borough comes after the state awarded Tunkhannock $27,000 in 2024 to support a five-year financial and operational plan.<\/p>\n
In a press release announcing the latest round of STMP funding, DCED Secretary Rick Siger noted Gov. Josh Shapiro\u2019s administration\u2019s commitment to \u201csupporting local governments by investing in their financial future.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cKeeping our local governments in good financial health ensures that they can support the people who work and live there and allows communities to compete for important investments,\u201d Siger said. \u201cThese investments help local governments keep the lights on, responsibly manage finances, and keep their communities growing while maintaining their financial footing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lackawanna County secured $131,250 in state funding for a comprehensive salary study officials will pursue with a downstream…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":279239,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[201,182,139,28,178,180,179,181,729],"class_list":["post-279238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-lackawanna-county","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-top-stories-stt","tag-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279238","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=279238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279238\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}