O'Malley targets Kovaleski in political comeback bid

May 10—The fight for the Democratic nomination for Lackawanna County register of wills/clerk of the orphans' court pits two well-known Democrats against each other.

Incumbent Fran Kovaleski, 72, a Scranton resident who lived 43 years in Jessup, seeks a third four-year term in the combined job. A deputy in the office for 18 years before her first election, she argues she deserves another term because she's modernized the office and plans more of the same.

Former county Commissioner Patrick O'Malley, 52, also a Scranton resident, seeks a return to county government, touting his past government and business experience.

The winner of the May 18 primary election will face April Jenkins, 33, of Glenburn Twp., in the Nov. 2 municipal election. Jenkins faces no opposition for the Republican nomination. The salary this year is $73,154, which includes $2,000 as clerk of the orphans' court. Row officers are due a 4% increase next year. The office oversees the filing of wills, marriage licenses, adoptions and other paperwork.

Kovaleski won a four-person Democratic nomination battle for the position in 2013 and won election to her first term that November. She won reelection without opposition in 2017.

In O'Malley, Kovaleski faces her toughest test because he's a well-known and seasoned campaigner. O'Malley returns to politics after losing a bruising Democratic commissioner primary in May 2019 to Commissioner Jerry Notarianni and newcomer attorney Debi Domenick, both of whom won election as commissioners that November.

O'Malley has produced most of the heat in this contest.

First, he challenged Kovaleski's right to remain on the ballot. He claimed someone other than her signed her nominating petitions because Kovaleski was in Florida and could not have signed them. Kovaleski denied she didn't sign the petitions.

O'Malley withdrew the challenge, but has persisted in charging that Kovaleski spends months on vacation every year in Florida instead of doing her job. His campaign literature labels Kovaleski "Florida Fran."

"She's not at work," O'Malley said. "The register of wills (job) is pretty broad. If you think about it, I mean we're there at the beginning of your life with your marriage. And we're there at the end of your life with your will to make sure that is properly taken care of and your family members are able to receive the finances that were given to them by the will of the person who died. This is a big thing. You should be on hand there to actually speak to family members. It shouldn't be a phone call when you call over there, and then she'll call you back later because she's already down in Florida. That's not the way it should be."

His campaign literature questions whether Kovaleski takes another five weeks during the summer.

Kovaleski denies ever vacationing in Florida during the summer.

She said she annually takes five weeks vacation, no more than her most senior employees. She takes all five weeks consecutively during the winter, and no more the rest of the year, she said.

"First of all, his latest stunt with the five weeks in the summer, that is so untrue. There's nothing truthful about that," she said. "When you're an elected official, you're never on vacation. You're working every day. My email is connected to my phone. ... When I take my vacation, that is the best time for me to take vacation for my staff. I have staff that they don't do any winter sports, none of them ski, none of them do any of that. They don't want a winter vacation. It works for me, to maintain the office for me, and to be gone at a time when none of them want to be off. I work all summer because they are off."

Kovaleski said she deserves reelection because she has modernized the office.

"Since I took office, we have digitized over 500,000 marriage licenses in house," Kovaleski "All the wills are scanned from 1878 to the present, viewable to the public online for free. We are currently working on the adoptions. There is no duplication of the adoptions from 1925 to the current (day). So we are back now prepping those (for scanning) and they're (scanned) back to, I think, 1957 right now. It will take me another two and a half years to finish that project."

Since 2019, she has served as president of the Registers of Wills and Clerks of the Orphans' Court Association of Pennsylvania, a sign of the respect she has among her peers, she said.

"I have experience. I have integrity, and I'm doing it right. I have no political aspirations for another office. This has been my life career. I've put my heart and soul into it," Kovaleski said. "Anyone that deals with me from the bar association will tell you that we are in a perfect office here. ... We're here to serve the public. I am not a politician. I just really despise the term. I'm a public servant."

O'Malley said voters should back him because of his experience in government and business and his devotion to public service. He has served 12 years as a Scranton school director, eight years as a county commissioner and many years as banquet manager for a family catering business. He also cited the civic events he and his family organize around Halloween, Thanksgiving and Easter.

"I love to serve the people, I always have," he said.

In his eight years as commissioner, he never voted for a tax hike, led the charge to consolidate offices at the former Globe store and backed the refinancing of county long-term debt to save more than $37 million in interest.

"I've done everything you possibly can, whether it was private sector, government sector," he said. "Most people can't say that."

As for what he would do if elected, O'Malley promises to show up for work daily and avoid increasing filing fees.

Kovaleski, who says she works even when on vacation, said filing fee increases are set by the state Administrative Office of the Pennsylvania Courts and only ratified by the county court.

Contact the writer: bkrawczeniuk@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9147; @BorysBlogTT on Twitter.