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WILKES-BARRE &#8212; Amid strong pro and con arguments from the public, a divided City Council on Thursday approved three mayoral appointments by a series of 3-2 votes.A fourth would-be appointee, City Administrator Rick Gazenski, removed himself from consideration for a post on the Parking Authority.&#8220;I felt there was so much commotion with the appointments, and with talk of people making phone calls, I just decided OK, I want to take myself off,&#8221; Gazenski told the Times Leader following the meeting. &#8220;I&#8217;m not a bad guy. I thought, hopefully everyone else gets voted in, and life goes on.&#8221;Council Chairman Mike Belusko, together with members Bill Barrett and Tony Brooks, voted in favor of the appointments. Councilmembers Beth Gilbert and Mike Merritt voted against.Gazenski&#8217;s wife, Patricia, was among those who received the panel&#8217;s nod, earning a position on the Housing Authority. Council also approved re-appointment of Fire Chief Jay Delaney to the Housing Authority and Anthony Glazenski to the Wyoming Valley Sanitary Authority.Those appointments first made headlines on Tuesday, when Rick Gazenski presented them at council&#8217;s work session, and heard concerns from some members about filling the posts in the final months of Mayor Tony George&#8217;s term.Gazenski on Tuesday asked council members point blank if George&#8217;s anticipated successor, George Brown, had called them and encouraged them to hold off on appointments, and said he believed Brown had made promises &#8220;to a lot of people.&#8221;Brown: No promisesBrown later acknowledged in an interview and a letter to the editor that he had contacted councilmembers, but denied promising anyone board appointments.Brown outpolled George by a more than 3-to-1 margin in the Democratic primary May 21 and secured the Republican nomination through write-in votes because there were no GOP candidates on the ballot. It is expected he will become mayor next January barring any unforeseen developments.&#8220;This is the type of political maneuver the residents of the City of Wilkes-Barre want to end immediately,&#8221; Brown wrote of the appointments, calling them an attempt to &#8220;proceed with politics as usual by trying to appoint four people to various boards or authorities whose terms will carry well into the new mayor&#8217;s four-year term.&#8221;Public voicesPrior to the vote, council heard contrasting views from members of the public.Jean Brodie noted that, as Gazenski had said on Tuesday, several appointments were made under the tenure of former Mayor Tom Leighton in the waning months of his term in 2015, after George had been elected. Councilmembers at that time included Brown and current members Merritt and Barrett.She said Brown&#8217;s efforts are &#8220;very concerning to me.&#8221;&#8220;Mr. Brown is not mayor-elect, he still has to run in November to become mayor,&#8221; Brodie said. &#8220;I urge council to approve these appointments tonight, as it is hard to find residents who are willing to freely give their time to serve on boards.&#8221;Bob Kadluboski, a vocal critic of the George administration, saw it differently when he came to the podium moments later.&#8220;I want the council not to move forward with these appointments,&#8221; Kadluboski said, suggesting it was an attempt by George to create votes and land himself a new job after leaving office, perhaps with the Wyoming Valley Sanitary Authority.&#8220;What Tony George is doing is his last grasp at power,&#8221; Kadluboski said, saying George was &#8220;trying to stack these boards with his friends.&#8221;&#8220;Mr. Brown, if he did call on you people, it&#8217;s in his right,&#8221; Kadluboski added.Sam Troy took to the podium and specifically asked whether Patricia Gazenski was qualified for the appointment.Troy said he had been approached by the mayor several months ago about being nominated to the housing authority, and that it now appears &#8220;that I&#8217;m not going to be considered for the appointment, and that&#8217;s OK, but I can&#8217;t accept the substitution of somebody I don&#8217;t know anything about and I&#8217;m sure council doesn&#8217;t know much about.&#8221;Troy urged council to &#8220;at least suspend consideration&#8221; of Patricia Gazenski&#8217;s appointment, saying council should vet her and question her. &#8220;Does she have the proper credentials?&#8221; he asked.Patricia Gazenski was in the audience, and discussed her credentials with council.&#8220;These appointments that you have been asked to approve are not political favors, nor are they nepotism nor cronyism,&#8221; she said. &#8220;They&#8217;re not paid positions, but are appointments of qualified individuals who are willing to serve on a voluntary basis to make Wilkes-Barre a better place to live work and play.She went on to tell council that she has been a Century 21 real estate agent for 30 years, and in that capacity she has worked with sellers, buyers, investors, landlords, tenants and local housing authorities, including the one to which she was nominated.Mrs. Gazenski also said she wants to work to see the negative perception of Section 8 housing tenants be changed, which she would work toward.Other actionCouncil voted unanimously in favor of several other items on Thursday, including:&#8226; A resolution designating Mayor Tony George and Controller Darren Snyder as the officials to execute documents related to a $718,000 grant for remediation of a South Main Street industrial site eyed for an adult day care center.&#8226; Awarding two contracts related to the Solomon Creek Flood Control Project.&#8226; Authorizing sale of a vacant piece of property on Wayne Lane to a neighboring landowner, Basmattie Ramesh, for $500.&#8226; Temporarily suspending the city&#8217;s open container ordinance in order to allow sales of wine at the Strawberry Festival and Farmers Market.&#8226; Approving the 2019 action plan for the Community Development Block Grant program and related budgets.&#8226; Amendments to the employees&#8217; pension fund to amend language related to recently approved collective bargaining agreements.<style>
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<div class="neCaption">Patricia Gazenski addresses Wilkes-Barre City Council on Thursday night regarding her appointment to the Wilkes-Barre Housing Authority. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/web1_64372251_457891318319190_985107597524729856_n-2.jpg</photo0><caption0>Patricia Gazenski addresses Wilkes-Barre City Council on Thursday night regarding her appointment to the Wilkes-Barre Housing Authority. </caption0><photoCredit0>Roger DuPuis | Times Leader </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Gazenski removes self from consideration</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>By Roger DuPuisrdupuis@www.timesleader.com</bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta>CATS AND POSSUMSRead about discussion regarding feral cats and wild animals from Thursday&#8217;s council meeting in an online extra at timesleader.com.</factboxMeta></div>

Divided council OKs mayor’s appointments, but administrator backs out