SCRANTON, LACKAWANNA CO. (WOLF) \u2014 After months of protracted legal battles and political infighting, a plan to seat a commissioner that spanned the better part of a year neared its end Friday morning as Lackawanna County officially certified the November general election.<\/p>\n
The certification paves the way for Thom Welby to be sworn in as Lackawanna County Commissioner on Tuesday, November 25, at 11 a.m.. The ceremony will take place in Courtroom 4 of the Lackawanna County Courthouse.<\/p>\n
Welby\u2019s certification marks the resolution of a saga that began this past February when Democratic Commissioner Matt McGloin abruptly resigned. His departure triggered a contentious process under the county\u2019s Home Rule Charter \u2014 and thrust the county into a months-long court fight.<\/p>\n
How the Saga UnfoldedOn February 24, Commissioner Matt McGloin submitted his resignation. The board accepted it, creating a vacancy.Under the Home Rule Charter, the Lackawanna County Democratic Committee submitted three names to the Common Pleas Court judges. Those names were Brenda Sacco, James Baldan, and Bob Casey.But Commissioner Bill Gaughan (a Democrat) and the county challenged this process in court, arguing that a state judicial rule (Rule 1908) should override the charter and force the judges to take applications directly, rather than rely on the party committee\u2019s shortlist.In May, a panel of senior judges in the county court ruled 2\u20131 in favor of the Home Rule Charter process, rejecting Gaughan\u2019s and the county\u2019s challenge.The case then went to the Commonwealth Court, which affirmed the lower court\u2019s decision, and ultimately to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. In an October ruling, the Supreme Court upheld the charter, rejecting the argument that Rule 1908 invalidated it.Following that decision, Brenda Sacco was sworn in as interim commissioner on October 22.Meanwhile, the county Board of Elections had scheduled a special election for November 4. Despite legal challenges from the Democratic Party to block the election, courts declined to stop it.The Democratic Party, which had initially fought the election, later withdrew its lawsuit, clearing the way for Welby to take office once certified.On November 4, Welby won the special election handily, defeating Republican Chet Merli and independent Michael Cappellini.<\/p>\n
The dispute boiled down to whether Lackawanna County\u2019s Home Rule Charter or statewide judicial rules should decide how to fill a mid-term commissioner vacancy. Brenda Sacco\u2019s brief, temporary appointment highlighted the uncertainty as the issue moved through the courts. With the election resolved, Thom Welby\u2019s win brings him back into a government role, where he\u2019s stressing unity, revenue growth, and rebuilding teamwork after months of turmoil.<\/p>\n
Comment with Bubbles<\/p>\n
BE THE FIRST TO COMMENT<\/p>\n
Check back for updates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SCRANTON, LACKAWANNA CO. (WOLF) \u2014 After months of protracted legal battles and political infighting, a plan to seat…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40786,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[178,180,179],"class_list":["post-40785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40785","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=40785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40785\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}