Luzerne County hires new correctional head

James Wilbur was hired Tuesday as Luzerne County’s new correctional services division head.

Six of 10 council members present Tuesday voted to confirm county Acting Manager Brian Swetz’s nomination of Wilbur to the position at $87,000 annually: John Lombardo, Carl Bienias III, Kevin Lescavage, Brian Thornton, Gregory S. Wolovich Jr. and Chris Perry.

Voting no were council members Tim McGinley, Stephen J. Urban, LeeAnn McDermott and Matthew Mitchell.

Council Chairwoman Kendra Radle was absent Tuesday.

McGinley and Urban unsuccessfully attempted to remove a vote from the agenda and later to table it, with no colleagues supporting these moves.

Both cited concerns about the selection process, with McGinley noting he was not questioning Wilbur’s abilities.

Telling Wilbur her no vote was not personal, McDermott said she couldn’t support the confirmation because council members don’t get to see all the resumes and applications.

Mitchell said he echoes their sentiment.

Thornton said he and his colleagues had ample opportunity to vet Wilbur. He said he received Wilbur’s resume several days ago and took advantage of an invitation to personally question Wilbur about his experience and ongoing issues that may exist at the prison.

Council also met with Wilbur in closed-door executive session before Tuesday’s meeting.

Although the county manager recommends applicants for the eight division head positions under the home rule charter, council confirmation is required for these hirings.

According to background information released by the county, Wilbur has worked as a county correctional services captain since November 2020, supervising 75 lieutenants, sergeants, corporals and corrections officers.

That position was a promotion from his previous position as a lieutenant, which he started in September 2017.

Wilbur’s most recent employment prior to county government was a position a corporate chaplain for No Limit Ministries in Wilkes-Barre, which he started in March 2004. In this role, he developed and administered a chaplaincy program modeled after one in the U.S. Military that provides counseling and care in a corporate environment to all interested workers. It states his client was the Mohegan Sun at Pocono racing division.

In seeking the division head position, Wilbur said he wants to apply his 12 years of experience as a U.S. Army military police officer and more than 21 years of experience in the corrections field, which included both security and treatment roles.

A 1988 graduate of North Salem High School in Oregon, Wilbur received a master’s degree in ministry from the IMI Bible College and Seminary in California and a doctorate in ministry from Vision University, also in California.

The position was open because Mark Rockovich retired the end of last year, after nearly 32 years of employment in the county prison system.

Manager report

In an annual “state of the county” report required by home rule, Swetz received applause for an announcement that the credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s has decided to upgrade the county’s rating one notch from an A- to an A.

Swetz also cited employee training as a crucial need and said he has attempted to be a “calm and steady presence” amid the uncertainty of a new search for a permanent manager and an upcoming election to fill six council seats.

He called for a team approach in a common goal of improving the county instead of “one side against another.”

“We are all one county,” Swetz said, noting valid ideas can come from anyone and that no one person will have all the solutions.

His 32-page presentation is posted with council’s agenda at luzernecounty.org.

Lombardo, who is vice chairman, said council “can see the light at the end of the tunnel,” noting the county is “sort of the epicenter of growth” in Northeastern Pennsylvania as evidenced by the growing tax base.

Thornton thanked Swetz for taking on the acting manager position in November.

“It’s a bear of a job. Thank you for stepping up,” he said.

McGinley agreed the credit rating was good news but said past council members also deserve credit for tackling fiscal challenges at the beginning of the January 2012 switch to home rule, when the county had no credit rating.

“To come all the way up to where we are today is an amazing feat,” McGinley said.

American Rescue

Council also continued its discussion of an allocation plan for $60 million in federal American Rescue Plan awards to outside entities, with no consensus reached.

After back-and-forth over different options, council members agreed to hold a special work session at 5 p.m. on March 7 to firm up how they want to proceed.

McGinley said council members should submit any ideas ahead of time because waiting until the March 7 session to bring them up will lead to further delays.

Mitchell proposed a new approach that would cap allocations by category and allow 121 entities to receive funding instead of 75.

The previous plan fully funded $60 million in projects that received the highest scores in council evaluations performed individually through an online portal set up by the county’s consultant, Booth Management Consulting.

After the resulting list of 75 top-scoring projects was compiled, council members realized the consultant’s scoring portal was missing five applications that had to be scored after the fact. Council members also have expressed concerns about the dollar amounts of some awards and said a few top-scoring applicants have reached out to say they could still complete meaningful projects — or phases of projects — with lower awards to free up funds for more recipients.

Mitchell said this plan would fully fund 84% of the projects while remaining within the $60 million earmark set by council. The smaller percentage of entities not receiving their full request would be asked to submit revised budgets and project summaries, he said.