SCRANTON — Lackawanna County will retain the consultants that crafted an extensive long-term financial management plan for the county as officials move to implement the plan’s many recommendations.
Commissioners Bill Gaughan and Chris Chermak voted Wednesday to approve an amended agreement with PFM Group Consulting LLC, extending the term of the consulting arrangement through July 2026. The cost of services rendered by PFM under the amended contract is not to exceed $100,000 and will be covered by additional grant funding the county recently received pursuant to its continued participation in Pennsylvania’s Strategic Management Planning Program.
Facing a pronounced financial crisis marked by a growing structural budget deficit, more than $18 million in unpaid bills and other inherited challenges, commissioners hired PFM in April 2024 to conduct what officials described as an “MRI” of county finances and operations. The county’s successful entry into the STMP program earlier that year delivered $100,000 in grant funding to defray the cost of engaging PFM, which conducted a cash-flow analysis and created an emergency action plan as precursors to the longer-term plan unveiled in early March.
The firm’s work informed a number of sometimes painful corrective actions commissioners took last year in the interest of lasting financial stability, including an $11 million unfunded debt borrowing, a freeze on hiring and discretionary spending and, ultimately, a nearly 33% property tax hike that Gaughan and former Democratic Commissioner Matt McGloin approved over Chermak’s objections. McGloin resigned in late February.
“Those adjustments were overdue and mark a departure from prior years’ practice of closing budget deficits with short-term answers to a long-running problem,” officials noted in documents accompanying the amended PFM contract. “But the margin for error in 2025 is very small.”
As the county proceeds to the second phase of its STMP grant engagement, where phase one recommendations are and will be implemented, PFM will provide technical support in a number of areas. For example, the firm will provide continued cash-flow monitoring and projections, assist with workforce initiatives to mitigate high personnel costs and provide increased “strategic coordination” on initiatives aimed at curtailing costs tied to the county’s criminal justice system — a system that includes the district attorney’s office, the sheriff’s office and the Lackawanna County Prison.
PFM’s 163-page financial management plan, available online at lackawannacounty.org, contains nearly 50 recommendations in total. On Wednesday, Gaughan called the report thorough, honest and in many ways difficult, as it laid bare the “truth about how bad things really were.”
“PFM will now help us carry out the recommendations of the five-year financial management plan, and this next phase … is critical,” he said. “It’s where, I believe, we start to rebuild the foundation of county government structurally, responsibly and with an eye towards the future.”
Chermak didn’t offer commentary on the PFM contract during the session, but has endorsed and complimented the firm’s work.
Wellpath audit
In other business Wednesday, Gaughan and Chermak unanimously approved a contract with the firm Boyer & Ritter LLC to conduct a forensic and performance audit of services rendered by Wellpath, the former medical provider at the county prison. It comes after Wellpath invoiced the county for more than $917,000 in costs that the county has yet to pay.
“The county had questions regarding more recent billing which were not answered satisfactorily,” county Chief Financial Officer David Bulzoni told commissioners, noting the audit will focus on two areas: billing and staffing/performance.
“With apparent billing irregularities, the auditor will be required to verify the accuracy of those figures,” a cover sheet submitted with the Boyer & Ritter legislation notes. “The performance audit will review program staffing and the delivery of service in conjunction with contractual responsibilities.”
Wellpath, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy late last year, served as the prison’s inmate medical provider for the past four years. It replaced Moosic-based Correctional Care Inc., which had served as the county’s inmate medical provider since 2004.
Commissioners approved in December a three-year contract for inmate medical services with another firm, Florida-based Armor Health, that took effect Jan. 15.
The cost of Boyer & Ritter’s audit services is expected to range from $70,000 to $100,000.
Lackawanna County Commissioner Chris Chermak looks on during the public meeting held in the commissioners’ board room in the county Government Center in Scranton Wednesday, May 7, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Lackawanna County Commissioner Bill Gaughan stands up to give a proclamation to workers of the Lackawanna County Office of Youth and Family Services Foster Care Unit during the meeting in the county Government Center in Scranton Wednesday, May 7, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Chief Financial Officer for Lackawanna County David Bulzoni speaks during the meeting in the commissioners’ board room in the county Government Center in Scranton Wednesday, May 7, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)