GOP members name Urban Election Board chair despite charter prohibition

Against the advice of Luzerne County’s chief solicitor, the Luzerne County Election Board’s two Republican board members on Wednesday appointed Republican county Councilman Stephen J. Urban as the new board chairman.

The third election board member — Democrat Audrey Serniak — loudly voted against the appointment and questioned how it came about without her knowledge. The board had traditionally sought citizen applicants and publicly interviewed them.

“When did this all of a sudden change because nobody talked to me about it,” Serniak said.

Chief Solicitor Romilda Crocamo said the county’s home rule charter prohibits the appointment of a county council member to the seat.

“You’re in error. You’re making an incorrect decision,” Crocamo said.

“With all due respect, I disagree with you. It is written. It is documented that that is doable,” said board member Joyce Dombroski-Gebhardt. She and fellow Republican board member Keith Gould proceeded to approve the appointment.

Serniak had asked who else applied for the position.

Dombroski-Gebhardt replied that the board is allowed to select someone without “looking at applications.” She also referred to a section of state election law in permitting the appointment of a council member, but Crocamo said that is “not applicable to this position.”

After the vote, Dombroski-Gebhardt said: “At this point my thought is that if no one likes this decision right now this can be taken down to Harrisburg to Commonwealth Court.”

She congratulated and welcomed Urban.

Urban accepted the chairmanship during the virtual session and said the county can challenge his appointment in court if there’s a belief it is not permitted. He said his appointment was legal in his opinion, although “obviously it seemingly may be a little bit unorthodox.” Court adjudication would allow the issue to be “put to bed” on whether the charter can prevent a council member from serving, he said.

The fifth board member who serves as chair is usually selected by the four council-appointed citizen board members — two Democrats and two Republicans. However, only three board members — two Republicans and a Democrat — are currently seated because Democrat Peter Ouellette recently resigned. Council cannot fill Ouellette’s seat with another Democrat until it meets again in March.

Even though only three board members were in attendance Wednesday, they were able to act because they had a quorum of three, with two out of three votes enough to get something passed.

The chairmanship was open because Jeannette Tait also resigned shortly before Ouellette.

In her argument that a council member can’t be appointed, Crocamo pointed to a section of the county home rule charter that says: “At the time of his/her appointment, throughout his/her term of office, and for a period of at least four years prior to appointment, no election board member shall be or have been an elective county official.”

After Wednesday’s meeting, Crocamo said the county office of law rendered an opinion and referenced the clear home rule charter wording.

“We believe that’s the controlling law in this particular instance,” Crocamo said.

The election board serves as an independent citizen body to oversee elections, make determinations on flagged ballots and write-in votes and certify election results.

Negative reaction

Shortly after the election board meeting, county Councilman Matthew Vough sent his colleagues an email voicing his displeasure.

“No surprise there was illegal activity at the election board meeting tonight. We need an executive session. This is a clear violation of the charter and while I am not shocked, I fully support taking this to court,” wrote Vough, a Democrat.

Generally, these types of challenges to home rule charters are reviewed by the Commonwealth Court in Harrisburg, not in county court.

“This will get overturned easily,” Vough predicted. “Wasting taxpayer money for a political stunt, again …”

County Councilwoman Linda McClosky Houck called for a special meeting of the 11-member council Tuesday to vote on vacating both Republican election board seats, saying the home rule charter allows that action when appointed board members have “willfully and knowingly violated sections of the charter.”

“The actions of two members of the board this evening in appointing an elected county official to the chairmanship meet that standard, and I am requesting that we declare their seats vacant at the next opportunity,” wrote McClosky Houck, a Democrat.

She also proposed a resolution vacating the chairmanship seat, saying the action must be taken because the invalid appointment of an elected county official to the board is a charter violation.

Council Chairman Tim McGinley said it is likely a special meeting will be held.

Also in post-meeting reaction, Ouellette pointed out the election board had adopted a procedure for choosing a chair before the selection of Tait last year that says at least three board members must vote for the chair following public interviews of the applicants. If three board members can’t agree on a selection, the chair seat would be filled by the county Court of Common Pleas, it said.

The board’s public advertisement seeking citizen applicants for the seat also said resumes would be received through March 9, with interviews and a selection to be made at the next election board meeting on March 10, noted Ouellette, who had cited “creeping partisanship on the (election) board and unfounded, often withering criticism and accusations from within and without the board” as some reasons for his resignation from the unpaid board seat.

In general comments before the chairmanship came up, Dombroski-Gebhardt said the board must move forward quickly with the May 18 primary election approaching, asking: “Do we on the board want to go down the dark road, or do we want election integrity?”

“I think integrity is the word that we need,” Gould replied.

Serniak said the board has had integrity and an “excellent” 2020 general election.

“It was transparent. Anybody could come in and watch the process. Very few people did. But there were very few problems considering the turmoil, and we’ve got to carry that going forward to the primary and the next general election.”

In other business, the election bureau has started online posting of campaign finance reports on that section of the election department page at luzernecounty.org.