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Former Luzerne County Council member and home rule charter drafter Rick Morelli said he plans to apply for Eugene Kelleher’s vacant council seat.
“There’s no learning curve for me. I’m doing this because I think I could fit in well during this short time period,” Morelli said Thursday.
Arthur Bobbouine, a past county employee, also said he may seek the appointment.
Council must pick another Republican to serve the rest of Kelleher’s term through Jan. 6. Applications are due Aug. 2, and an appointment may be made Aug. 13.
Morelli, 48, of Sugarloaf Township, works in software sales and served on the initial council seated under home rule, from 2012 through 2015. He has a bachelor’s degree in finance from Villanova University and an MBA in finance from St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia.
He said his thorough understanding of home rule and county operations and finances would allow him to immediately provide experienced input on the upcoming 2020 budget and an expected proposed borrowing plan to fund a 911 emergency radio project and possibly new voting machines.
Stressing he has no plans to run for county council or another office in the near future, Morelli said he is open-minded and independent and also remains an advocate of the home rule structure, which he describes as “clearly working.”
The charter replaced three, full-time elected commissioners with 11 part-time elected council members and an appointed manager.
Morelli said he agrees with a proposed council ordinance banning current council candidates from filling the seat.
“If they did support someone running, it would definitely provide that person with marketing and helping them with their election bid,” Morelli said. “I have no agenda, and I feel like I can help out.”
A 43-year-old Pittston resident, Bobbouine said he is contemplating applying because he has 12 years of experience working in county government, both before and after home rule.
“It would be a way to help the county and serve the community,” he said.
Bobbouine had worked eight years in the county sheriff’s department, rising to the position of chief deputy from March 2005 through 2007. He returned to county government in July 2010 as deputy prothonotary and later worked as acting overseer of the prothonotary and clerk of courts offices until James Haddock was appointed to that position in September 2013.
He has bachelor’s degrees in history and political science from the University of Scranton and a law degree from the Penn State Dickinson School of Law. Currently employed as registrar at the Fortis Institute in Forty Fort and Scranton, he had served on the county Transportation Authority from June 2014 until January, when county council chose to appoint someone new to fill his seat.
Bobbouine said he never plans to run for county council and, like Morelli, believes appointing a candidate to Kelleher’s seat would provide an “unfair advantage” to one contender.
Three of the five Republicans on the ballot in this year’s council race said they won’t apply for Kelleher’s vacancy — Walter Griffith, Stephen J. Urban and Gregory Wolovich. Candidate LeeAnn McDermott said she is leaning toward not applying, and contender Kendra Radle said she is reconsidering plans to apply.
