By Kyle Wind
The Times-Tribune
SCRANTON, Pa. — Lackawanna County Prison will get a new warden this summer.
The prison board on Wednesday agreed to notify Warden Robert McMillan the county will not extend his contract beyond its June 27 expiration — more than three months before his employment agreement requires notification that either side does not intend to renew the deal for a year.
Prison board members described it as a procedural move to prevent an automatic extension and said it would not preclude them from retaining the warden.
“This is not saying he is being terminated,” Judge Vito P. Geroulo said. “It’s just saying there will be no renewal of the contract. He may want to explore his options, and the board can explore its options as well.”
Commissioner Patrick O’Malley suggested Mr. McMillan could still apply for the job, but the warden said he did not intend to seek an extension to his original five-year contract anyway.
His next move? “(I’ll be) spending time with my wife and my children,” the 58-year-old Hunlock Twp. resident said. “I’m already retired from the state.”
Judge Geroulo and Mr. O’Malley both declined to discuss the warden’s performance.
Lackawanna County hired Mr. McMillan after a six-month search in June 2011.
Mr. McMillan previously was deputy superintendent for facilities management at the State Correctional Institution in Coal Twp. in Northumberland County. He came to Lackawanna County Prison with 16 years of corrections management experience, including in labor, security and budget issues. He served in the Navy from 1975-79.
His successor will inherit challenges, including 24 percent of the jail’s uniformed staff qualifying for Family and Medical Leave Act restrictions, a factor Mr. McMillan has said dramatically impacts overtime, as well as an inmate population with significant drug addiction and mental illness problems.
Mr. McMillan’s annual salary is $86,700.
Copyright 2015 The Times-Tribune