SCRANTON — With Bill Courtright’s resignation, city council will get first crack at choosing a replacement.
Under the city’s Home Rule Charter and Administrative Code, a resignation or a criminal conviction by a sitting mayor are two of the ways the office may become vacant.
Once a mayoral vacancy occurs, city council has up to 30 days to select a mayor to fill the remainder of the unexpired term.
During this 30-day period, the city council president — in this case, Pat Rogan — becomes the acting mayor.
If council does not or cannot appoint a mayor for whatever reason, including a tie vote, within the 30-day time frame, Lackawanna County Court would decide who becomes mayor to fill the unexpired term.
The unexpired mayoral term runs through 2021. Courtright was reelected to a second four year term in 2017.
After the Jan. 9 raids by FBI agents of City Hall and Courtright’s home, council broached with its solicitor the process of possibly filling a mayoral vacancy.
Council had not discussed potential candidates to fill the vacancy, because at that point it was still premature, Councilmen Wayne Evans and Tim Perry said. While the resignation was not totally unexpected, it still is difficult, they said.
“As much as you think you are prepared for this ... nobody wants to see that happen,” Evans said. “We certainly want to make sure all of us are prepared on what the procedure is. We’ll do our best to do our best.”
Perry said council wants to make sure they find the best candidate to serve the rest of the term.
“It’s kind of all opened up quickly,” Perry said. “Our biggest job is making sure city government goes on and doesn’t miss a beat.”
Rogan said he will meet with city department heads today and tell them to keep doing what they’re doing, so services are not interrupted. Council will have an executive session Wednesday, before its regular weekly meeting at 12:30 p.m. at City Hall, to discuss picking a new mayor.
“I’m focused right now on the task at hand, making sure government operates and picking the next mayor,” Rogan said.
Councilman Kyle Donahue said transparency moving forward will be key.
“We’ve got to figure out a way to move forward in an open and transparent way,” he said. “It can’t be done behind closed doors.”
JOSEPH KOHUT, TERRIE MORGAN-BESECKER, SARAH HOFIUS HALL and JON O’CONNELL, staff writers, contributed to this report.
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