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Luzerne County Manager voted out of his job

A unanimous vote by County Council sees County Manager Randy Robertson out of a job as of Friday.

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. — During an emergency meeting at the Luzerne County Courthouse, all members of the Luzerne County Council voted to accept the resignation of County Manager Randy Robertson.

Council also said Roberston will be done much sooner than the December 14 date he proposed.  

"We accept his resignation, with his last day of employment being tomorrow, November 18, 2022. and with the condition that the county will play his remaining compensation as per his offer letter," said Brian Thornton, a member of the county council.

Robertson started in mid-June and has only been on the job for five months.

He cited family obligations when he announced his resignation at the County Council meeting last week. 

But the meeting came one day after Election Day when several dozen Luzerne County polling locations ran out of the paper needed for the voting machines. 

A Luzerne County judge then ordered all polling places to stay open an extra two hours.

"How on earth can anyone possibly certify these election results to be true and accurate? They cannot. All of this fall squarely on the lack of leadership, the level of ineptitude and incompetence has risen to a level never before seen in this county," said Thorton. 

Robertson addressed the council after the vote, advocating for a deeper investigation into the paper shortage and other election-day issues.

"You need to take a deep dive on this, and this needs to be beyond, in my opinion, paper. It needs to be how does a meltdown have a board member affect everything else that is going on," Robertson said.

Council appointed the county's Budget and Finance Director, Brian Swetz as acting county manager. He'll take over after the closing of business tomorrow.

"You want to be the GM of a sports team, you don't start off with the Yankees; that's how it works, so there's things to fix, and I see this as an opportunity," Swetz said.

The county council says it's starting the process to search for a new county manager.

   

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