Gaughan names Dunmore Mayor Max Conway to fill Lackawanna County vacancy, urges transparent party selection

Commissioner Bill Gaughan announced on the record that Commissioner Matt McGloin has resigned effective today and said he is nominating Dunmore Mayor Max Conway to fill the vacancy on the Lackawanna County commission. Gaughan urged the Lackawanna County Democratic Party executive committee to disclose the identities of the 10 members its chair will appoint and to conduct interviews before forwarding three names to the Court of Common Pleas.

Gaughan said the vacancy is a governance issue, not a political one, and argued that the selection matters because of ongoing financial and operational reforms he and McGloin have begun since taking office in November 2023. He told reporters the county entered office with $19,000,000 in unpaid bills from the prior year and a roughly $37,000,000 structural deficit. Gaughan said those conditions required immediate action and that he and McGloin "instituted major financial reforms" including joining the state's strategic management planning program and commissioning a…