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Dr. Michael Rupp named to advisory board Commonwealth Health System

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Heath Williams wins GeoBee at MMI Preparatory School

<p>Luzerne County Councilwoman Linda McClosky Houck is criticizing two developments in the filling of a vacant council seat &#8212; the mailing of a form seeking permission to perform credit checks and the failure to release applicants&#8217; resumes.</p><p>The 12 applicants have been publicly interviewed for the seat vacated by Edward Brominski, and council plans to select someone Feb. 12.</p><p>The county recently sent the applicants an employment consideration form requesting personal information and approval to perform a &#8220;consumer report&#8221; checking an array of background information, including their credit, character, general reputation and personal characteristics.</p><p>This request was &#8220;completely inappropriate&#8221; and not approved by council as part of the selection process, McClosky Houck said in an email to council Chairman Tim McGinley and her council colleagues.</p><p>&#8220;These individuals should be treated in the same manner as any other candidate for public office, not as potential county employees,&#8221; she wrote. &#8220;Sending them a notice that this information may be considered when they are considered for &#8216;subsequent promotion, assignment, reassignment, retention, or discipline&#8217; is inappropriate and incorrect.&#8221;</p><p>McGinley said Monday that staffers mistakenly sent the form and such a check will not be performed.</p><p>After learning about the error, McGinley said he asked the solicitor&#8217;s office to send a new form only seeking permission to verify the applicants did not have past felony offenses that would prevent them from holding office. He said a criminal background check of applicants had been performed before council selected an interim county controller in 2013.</p><p>&#8220;We don&#8217;t want to end up appointing someone and finding an issue we should have checked on. That wouldn&#8217;t be good for the candidate or council,&#8221; McGinley said in reference to a felony.</p><p>He agreed with McClosky Houck that the consumer report request was inappropriate, although none of the applicants had complained.</p><p>&#8220;If somebody would have said this is not appropriate, they&#8217;d be right,&#8221; McGinley said. &#8220;I don&#8217;t want a credit check. We don&#8217;t handle money or sign checks.&#8221;</p><p>On the resumes, McClosky Houck said they should be publicly released because the applicants are seeking appointment to a public office through Jan. 6, 2020, which is different than county employment.</p><p>Council had publicly posted the resumes of controller applicants in 2013. The announcement about the council opening also advised applicants all documents they provided for consideration shall become public record and may be disclosed to the public, with the words public record in bold print.</p><p>McGinley said he relied on an opinion from the law division.</p><p>Chief Solicitor Romilda Crocamo told council there may be private information on the resumes, and a resume should not be released until an applicant is offered and accepts a position.</p><p>McClosky Houck said she disagrees with that legal opinion and also questioned the completion of any criminal background checks, saying none are performed on candidates seeking public office.</p><p>The 12 applicants for the council seat are: Patrick Bilbow, Dominic Butchko, Gene Camoni, Martin Dartoe, Hal Gabriel, Michael Giamber, James Kennedy, Lois Komensky, Elaine Maddon Curry, Bonnie Markowski, Michael McGlynn and Eileen Sorokas.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">McClosky Houck </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/web1_lindahouck.jpeg</photo0><caption0>McClosky Houck </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>McClosky Houck: Background check &#8216;completely inappropriate&#8217;</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Jennifer Learn-Andes</p><p>jandes@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Jennifer Learn-Andes at 570-991-6388 or on Twitter @TLJenLearnAndes.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Luzerne County Council vacancy process criticized