Judges hear oral arguments in legal fight over McGloin vacancy
SCRANTON — A panel of senior Lackawanna County judges heard oral arguments Tuesday in the legal battle Democratic Commissioner Bill Gaughan and the county initiated last month seeking to remove the Lackawanna County Democratic Committee from the process of replacing former Democratic Commissioner Matt McGloin.
Senior county Judges Carmen D. Minora, Robert A. Mazzoni and Vito P. Geroulo, who are collectively presiding over the legal matter, also heard arguments as to whether Gaughan and the county have standing to bring the civil case, whether county solicitor Donald Frederickson required authorization from a majority of commissioners to commence the litigation and whether the county should be removed as a party to it altogether.
Tuesday's proceedings came more than a month after Frederickson and attorneys with the Scranton law firm Myers, Brier & Kelly filed a petition on behalf of Gaughan and the county asking the county Court of Common Pleas to amend a March 6 order on the process of replacing McGloin, who resigned in late February. Those parties specifically seek an amendment bringing the March 6 order into compliance with Pennsylvania Rule of Judicial Administration 1908, which would effectively remove the county Democratic Committee from the process of filling McGloin's seat for the almost three years remaining on his unexpired term.
Lackawanna County Majority Commissioner Matt McGloin speaks during the budget hearing in the Lackawanna County Government Center in Scranton Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024.
The March 6 order signed by former county President Judge Trish Corbett maintained a replacement procedure established by the county's Home Rule Charter that tasks the Democratic Committee with providing the names of three potential appointees for consideration by the judges of the county court. The HRC process played out in late February when county Democratic Party leaders used a scoring rubric to narrow a list of 18 applicants to three finalists — former county economic development Director Brenda Sacco, Olyphant Borough Council President James Baldan and Scranton School Director Robert J. Casey — before the executive committee voted to advance those candidates to the judges.
Corbett's order reset the clock on that process, giving the party five days from the date of the order to furnish the court with three potential appointees. County Democratic Party Chairman Chris Patrick resubmitted the same three names to the court the next day.
By maintaining the HRC process, Gaughan and the county contend the March 6 order violated Pennsylvania Rule of Judicial Administration 1908, adopted by the state Supreme Court in 2019, which says the county court, not a political party, 'shall receive applications from any interested candidates for the position' pursuant to a deadline established by the court.
President Judge James Gibbons, who succeeded Corbett as president judge March 17, paused the process of replacing McGloin pending resolution of the legal challenge. He also assigned the matter to the panel of senior judges Minora, Mazzoni and Geroulo.
Before hearing arguments on the merits of the case — whether the process established by the HRC or the alternative process pursuant to Rule 1908 controls the replacement — the judges heard arguments for and against Republican Commissioner Chris Chermak's effort to remove the county as a party to the litigation. Chermak is opposed to the use of taxpayer money or county personnel to argue what he's described as a 'Bill Gaughan issue,' not a county issue.
Representing Chermak on Tuesday were attorneys Paul J. LaBelle, the county's minority solicitor, and Howard Rothenberg. They contend Gaughan as a commissioner and the county lacked the authority to initiate the litigation without Chermak's approval. Attorney Adam Bonin, representing the county Democratic Committee, also argued that Gaughan lacks standing as a commissioner, as he can't be appointed to the vacant seat by virtue of the fact that he's already a sitting commissioner.
Lackawanna County minority solicitor Paul J. LaBelle has a conversation next to county Solicitor Donald Frederickson before the commissioners' meeting in the county Government Center on Wednesday, April 16, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Attorney Dan Brier of the MBK firm, representing Gaughan and the county, argued among other points that Frederickson as county solicitor had a statutory duty to bring the litigation because the county has a legal interest in the matter. That interest, Frederickson said after the court session, is getting the appointment process right.
Gaughan also has an immediate, direct and substantial interest in that respect, his attorneys contend.
Rothenberg argued that the petitioners were confusing the concepts of duty and authority.
Frederickson as the solicitor 'may have duties,' Rothenberg said, 'but he needs authority to act' — authority Chermak never granted.
Chermak and his attorneys didn't take a position on the question of whether the Home Rule Charter or Rule 1908 should control the process of filling McGloin's vacant seat — a question Brier and Bonin addressed at length.
The former argued that Rule 1908, adopted by the state Supreme Court, trumps the HRC, pointing to a section of the state constitution addressing judicial administration. That section gives the state Supreme Court the power to 'prescribe general rules of governing practice, procedure and the conduct of all courts' and notes that all laws 'shall be suspended to the extent that they are inconsistent with rules prescribed under these provisions.'
Because the HRC process is inconsistent with Rule 1908, it should be suspended and superseded by Rule 1908 on constitutional grounds, Brier contends.
But Bonin contends the question of how to fill a vacancy on the Lackawanna County Board of Commissioners is not a judicial matter, but a legislative one — essentially a policy decision — that Lackawanna County voters made when they adopted the HRC decades ago. The HRC as adopted by voters gives the county court the power to choose from a list of three candidates the Democratic Committee provides, but who those three candidates are is not up to the court, Bonin said.
In adopting the HRC, county voters made a legislative choice empowering the county Democratic Committee to play that role in the replacement process, he argued.
While the panel of judges didn't issue a ruling Tuesday, Mazonni noted that the matter 'appears to be a case of first impression,' meaning the issue before the court hasn't been addressed before. In other words, no court has been asked to decide whether Rule 1908 supersedes a home rule charter when there's an inconsistency between the charter and Rule 1908.
As such, the panel's pending ruling will set a precedent, however the judges ultimately rule.
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