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<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; Mayor Tony George took the historic step Thursday of naming Lt. Marcella Lendacky as acting police chief, the first woman to fill the position in the more than 80 member and majority male department. Erika Oswald is the only other female officer currently working in the department.</p><p>Lendacky&#8217;s appointment to replace Chief Robert Hughes upon his retirement near the end of March coincided with her 55th birthday. Hughes will leave after using up his time off and Lendacky will officially take over, George said.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;d like to thank the mayor for having the confidence in me to choose me for this prestigious position,&#8221; Lendacky said. &#8220;I&#8217;d like to recognize the officers that now work for me; their performance and their work product have made me look good.&#8221;</p><p>However, that same confidence was not shared by some members of the department, who purportedly wrote an anonymous letter to George last month, urging him not to appoint Lendacky to the top position.</p><p>&#8220;We feel that this would be detrimental to the police department and the city,&#8221; said the Dec. 26 letter mailed to the Times Leader. The letter further stated Lendacky has strained relations with other police departments and questioned her ability to do her job.</p><p>&#8220;If promoted, she will ruin the morale of the police department and it will cause many officers to turn against the administration. We believe many officers will bring issues with her public, which will make us all look bad,&#8221; the letter said.</p><p>Neither George, a former police chief, nor Lendacky would address the concerns raised in the letter.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;m not going to say much on that but that&#8217;s a cowardly letter. Anybody can write anything about anybody,&#8221; George said. &#8220;I can write something about you which means nothing. If you&#8217;re afraid to sign it, that&#8217;s a cowardly way of doing things. That&#8217;s how much they&#8217;re afraid of Chief Lendacky getting into position.&#8221;</p><p>Lendacky refused to discuss the letter. &#8220;It&#8217;s absolute nonsense,&#8221; she said.</p><p>She later acknowledged she expects pushback. &#8220;I know I&#8217;m going to have some resistance,&#8221; she said. &#8220;I&#8217;m a little bit used to it. I look forward to it. I enjoy it.&#8221;</p><p>She confirmed a fact stated in the letter that she contributed $500 to George&#8217;s campaign. His campaign finance report listed a $500 donation on July 21 from her.</p><p>&#8220;I contributed to Mayor (Tom) McGroarty, as well. Unfortunately, I have to say I didn&#8217;t have much faith in the last administration so I chose not to (contribute) as a personal matter,&#8221; she said.</p><p>Still, she said she was honored to be appointed and promised to work in concert with the law and order platform George campaigned on in his bid for mayor.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a challenge. I like goal setting for myself,&#8221; she said. &#8220;I think I&#8217;ve been successful in every job that I&#8217;ve done with the department and I hope that this will be the same thing. It&#8217;s a little bit on a larger scale obviously, but I hope with the fine officers that I know we have, that we can all work together. And, as I always say to my officers, you don&#8217;t work for me; we work together.&#8221;</p><p>Lendacky joined the force on March 27, 1989 and received a number of promotions from patrol to sergeant to lieutenant, the first woman officer to do so.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;m here for the long haul. I don&#8217;t plan on going anywhere. I will do whatever I can to see that the mayor&#8217;s wishes are carried out,&#8221; she said.</p><p>The acting chief said she is committed to revisiting the unsolved murders in the city, getting officers out of the office and onto the streets and being proactive in using statistics and analyses to fight crime, targeting the patterns presented by the data.</p><p>Lendacky was among the new and familiar faces to join George&#8217;s senior staff, ending speculation and rumor about who would be on his team four days into his term. Some of those team members will handle double and triple duties and all of them will take a pay cut, including the mayor, as he goes over the $51.5 million balanced budget of his predecessor Tom Leighton to look for cost savings.</p><p>Named to George&#8217;s staff were members of Leighton&#8217;s administration:</p><p>&#8226; Greg Barrouk, director of administrative services</p><p>&#8226; Tim Henry, city solicitor and deputy director of administrative services, replacing Ann Toole</p><p>&#8226; Ellen Meehan, human resources director</p><p>&#8226; Hank Radulski, director of health services</p><p>&#8226; Jay Delaney, fire chief</p><p>&#8226; Alan Klapat, deputy fire chief</p><p>&#8226; Joe Coffay, commander of patrol and investigative divisions</p><p>&#8226; John Curham, commander of community policing.</p><p>George will take a pay cut of $2,000, reducing his annual salary to $82,779. The police and fire chiefs&#8217; salaries also were cut by $6,000 to approximately $90,870 each. The unionized city workforce was not affected and received a 3-percent pay raise this year, according to its collective bargaining agreements, the mayor said.</p><p>New to the staff are attorney Pete Moses. Pending confirmation by city council, Moses will replace Bill Vinsko, assistant solicitor from 2002 until Monday when he was terminated. Tyler Ryan was named assistant to the mayor.</p><p>George said Ryan, social media manager for his mayoral campaign, will handle three jobs, picking up the work of former city spokeswoman Liza Prokop, municipal affairs manager Andrew Lafratte and handling secretarial work for the mayor.</p><p>Lafratte&#8217;s position was eliminated and Prokop&#8217;s hours were cut, George explained, but they were not let go.</p><p>&#8220;They&#8217;re in the bidding process now. There&#8217;s a bumping process in the union. Nobody was terminated. The positions were eliminated and they have a right to bump,&#8221; George said.</p><p>Whether the positions are reinstated depends upon the review of the budget, George added. He has until Feb. 15 to make changes and get council&#8217;s approval. If George fails to get support for an amended budget, the existing one that does not include a property tax increase will remain in place.</p><p>George defended not advertising publicly for the staff positions.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve always felt that hiring within, it gives them motivation to do the right thing and to work hard,&#8221; he said. The existing employees know the system and the city and, more importantly, many of them have worked for the city for more than 20 years. &#8220;They have the experience and experience is what you need today,&#8221; he said.</p><p>Outspoken in his criticism about the Leighton administration, Bob Kadluboski questioned George about keeping Barrouk and Delaney on staff.</p><p>&#8220;So, basically, I think I made a mistake supporting you,&#8221; Kadluboski said.</p><p>George brushed off the comment and said, &#8220;Thank you,&#8221; ending his press conference.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Lt. Marcella Lendacky said she was honored to be named the first female chief of the Wilkes-Barre City Police Department and Thursday joined the new senior staff of Mayor Tony George. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/web1_TTL010816WBADMIN1-1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Lt. Marcella Lendacky said she was honored to be named the first female chief of the Wilkes-Barre City Police Department and Thursday joined the new senior staff of Mayor Tony George. </caption0><photoCredit0>Clark Van Orden | Times Leader </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/web1_TTL010816WBADMIN2-1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Wilkes-Barre Police Lt. Marcella Lendacky was named acting chief Thursday and will become chief upon the retirement of Chief Robert Hughes later this year. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/web1_TTL010816WBADMIN2-1.jpg</photo1><caption1>Wilkes-Barre Police Lt. Marcella Lendacky was named acting chief Thursday and will become chief upon the retirement of Chief Robert Hughes later this year. </caption1><photoCredit1>Clark Van Orden | Times Leader Clark Van Orden | Times Leader </photoCredit1></div></div>

Marcella Lendacky, a member of Wilkes-Barre Mayor Tony George’s senior staff, will become first female city police chief