Judges poised to appoint commissioner amid special election legal challenge

SCRANTON — The judges of the Lackawanna County Court of Common Pleas plan to appoint a commissioner amid a legal challenge seeking to block a recently declared special election to fill the remainder of former Democratic Commissioner Matt McGloin’s unexpired term.

Attorneys for Democratic Commissioner Bill Gaughan and the county, meanwhile, are asking the state Supreme Court to preclude the county judges from interviewing candidates or making an appointment until the high court acts on a still-pending request to review and reverse a Commonwealth Court decision in a separate legal battle involving the vacancy. Gaughan and the county’s attorneys filed that emergency application Wednesday.

Absent intervention by the state Supreme Court, the county judges plan to interview Thursday each of three potential appointees the Lackawanna County Democratic Committee advanced for consideration pursuant to a process established by the county Home Rule Charter: former county Economic Development Director Brenda Sacco, Olyphant Borough Council President James Baldan and Scranton School Director Robert J. Casey.

The judges will also interview three Democratic Committee-advanced candidates for the clerk of judicial records row office that Democrat Mauri Kelly vacated Tuesday. Appointment orders would follow the interviews, Court Administrator Frank Castellano said in an email.


https://www.thetimes-tribune.com/2025/09/03/election-board-votes-for-special-election-to-replace-judicial-records-clerk/