WILKES-BARRE -- The new mayor of Wilkes-Barre has barely been in office and already he is drawing criticism over hiring an administrator who, right now, doesn't even live in the city.
Joyce Zaykowski starts work as a city administrator Monday.
She lives in Shavertown, though the Wilkes-Barre city charter states that all city employees, "shall be residents of the city."
Three months after being elected mayor of Wilkes-Barre by a landslide, the cheering has stopped and the criticism has started. Some of it focuses on Mayor Tony George's new city administrator Joyce Zaykowski who now lives in Shavertown.
"She has six months to move into the city and she has vowed to do that," Mayor George said. "And I know the mayor in the past has hired a lot of people who weren't in the city and nobody made an issue out of it."
Former Wilkes-Barre Mayor Tom Leighton confirms that he would hire people from outside the city, and then give them six months to move in. This way, Leighton says, people had time to sell their homes or transfer their kids to new school districts.
But the man who ran against Tony George for mayor predicts Zaykowski, who is married and raising children in Shavertown, will try to establish residence at the home of her ailing father who happens to live right across the street from Mayor George.
"And yes, she does help take care of her father. But if I came to your house to take care of you if you were sick, it doesn't mean that I live with you," said Frank Sorick.
Sorick says Joyce Zaykowski is one of the mayor's busiest supporters. Sorick adds Zaykowski has no experience in applying for grants, even though that will be a part of her job.
"In a city of 40,000, we couldn't scrounge up someone here in the city who needs that job? This is a smack in the face to every taxpayer, and every hardworking citizen and resident of this city," Sorick added.
"She meets all the criteria for the job she's just taken. It's not an easy job and you need somebody who's energetic and smart enough to do it," Mayor George responded. "I think it's all just sour grapes."
Joyce Zaykowski has until early August to establish residency in Wilkes-Barre. As the mayor said, she has vowed to do it.