Opinion: Bill Gaughan’s Bullying Problem

For all the talk Bill Gaughan puts out about transparency, accountability, and “doing things the right way,” his behavior tells a different story. Over the past year, Lackawanna County residents haven’t been watching a leader navigate tough issues. They’ve been watching a bully lash out at anyone who refuses to bend to him.

The reassessment fight didn’t create this behavior — it exposed it.

When Commissioner Brenda Sacco and Commissioner Chris Chermak raised legitimate concerns about the reassessment timeline, the appeals process, or the cost to taxpayers, Gaughan didn’t counter with facts. He didn’t try to build consensus. He didn’t even acknowledge that disagreement is normal in government.

Instead, he attacked them personally.

On Facebook, in meetings, and on camera, he fired off insults with the ease of someone who’s done it a thousand times. He’s called Chermak a liar, a conspiracy theorist, a silent “watchdog,” a MAGA imitator, and even compared him to Pinocchio. At one point in a public meeting, he called him a “buffoon.” This isn’t the language of a serious public official. It’s a performance — and it’s meant to humiliate.

And Sacco, one of the few people in the county with real financial, managerial, and administrative experience? She gets the same treatment. When she sought clarity from President Judge James Gibbons about the proper make-up of the Board of Elections, Gaughan didn’t wait for facts. He didn’t even pretend to consider that she might simply want to follow the law.

Instead, he accused her of running a “scheme” to stay in power for two years unelected — a bizarre claim with no evidence and no basis in reality. The scheme never materialized because it never existed. But for Gaughan, the accusation was the point. If he can make people doubt Sacco, he wins. Truth is secondary.

This kind of behavior isn’t new in Lackawanna County politics. Older residents will remember the days when Commissioner Bob Cordaro routinely demeaned and tried to steamroll Commissioner Mike Washo — a pattern of domination, public belittling, and control tactics that became infamous. The echoes are unmistakable. The aggression. The personal attacks. The refusal to accept that colleagues are equals.

And if Gaughan is willing to treat Sacco and Chermak this way, it’s fair to ask: who’s next?

There is already quiet speculation that he may try the same strong-arm tactics on Thom Welby — a man known for his decency, calm demeanor, and broad respect across party lines. Welby is not a bomb-thrower and not someone who thrives on conflict. But bullies rarely discriminate; they look for pressure points and push. If Gaughan perceives Welby as someone he can intimidate to regain control of the board, history suggests he’ll try.

And now that his longtime mouthpiece, Pat McKenna — the former Scranton Times operator who used the county’s Facebook page as a de facto Gaughan PR channel — is gone, the mask is off completely. Without the communications office to filter and package his message, Gaughan has taken to his personal Facebook page to conduct county business and attack his colleagues. What he posts there is raw, unprofessional, and increasingly unhinged.

A sitting commissioner calling another commissioner a liar, an embarrassment, a puppet, a fantasist — all from his personal page because he no longer has access to the county’s official platforms. That alone says a lot.

But the public meetings say even more.

Journalists from WVIA documented the escalation firsthand: shouting, insults, name-calling, and a total breakdown of professionalism. The public didn’t see leadership. They saw hostility.

And here’s the real irony: Gaughan’s repeated legal fights over appointments, challenges, and procedural maneuvers — each one ending in defeat — are what caused months of deadlock, confusion, and instability. Yet he inevitably blames Chermak and Sacco for the chaos he created. That’s the hallmark of a bully: start the fire, then scream at everyone else for the smoke.

What Lackawanna County residents deserve is civil, competent leadership — not a commissioner who treats colleagues like enemies and the public like an audience. Disagreement is part of government. Bullying should never be.

But for Gaughan, bullying isn’t an accident. It’s the strategy.

And the county has paid the price.