David Pedri, County Manager of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania
In this episode of The 3rd Question we talk with David Pedri, County Manager of Luzerne County, PA about how his County’s four pillars of County Government (Financial Stability, Processes, Employee Engagement, Customer Service) lead them to success and growth even during challenging times.
Video Transcrip
Ryan James:
Hello. Welcome to The 3rd Question. This is a video interview series with public sector thought leaders from around the country. And today I'm joined by David Pedri. David is the county manager at Luzerne County in Pennsylvania. So David, thank you for taking a few minutes to spend with me today.
David Pedri:
Thanks for having me on. We do our best to get whatever information we can out that we possibly can.
Ryan James:
Awesome. Well, let's get into this. So before we actually go into our three questions, why don't you give our audience a little bit of an introduction of who you are, your role in history, and also about Luzerne?
David Pedri:
Sure. My name is David Pedri. I'm the county manager here in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. Luzerne County is based in Northeastern, Pennsylvania. We're a large geographic area. There's over 300,000 people that live in Luzerne County, but actually the entire state of Rhode Island fits within Luzerne County. So we have over 76 municipalities also within the county. So we have townships, and four cities. Wilkes-Barre is our biggest, our county seat. Also, Pittston, Hazelton, and Nanticoke. I am personally born and raised in Hazleton, Pennsylvania. I went to school in Philadelphia. I got my undergrad at St Joe's and my law degree at Temple University. And I came back home. I was working with the district attorney's office for a lot of years, that transitioned in me becoming the solicitor for the county, or handling all legal matters for the county. And then that role transitioned into becoming the county manager.
David Pedri:
And I've been here now for five years as the county manager in Luzerne County. It's an interesting form of government. There's only five county managers in Pennsylvania. All other counties are run by what's called a three commissioner format. They have three commissioners and they handle all daily operations and all legislative decisions. Luzerne County has an 11 person elected board, they're the county council, and then myself, as the county manager, oversees the daily operations. Broad overview, supposed to be set up like a CEO board of directors type of relationship would be the idea of it.
Ryan James:
Right.
David Pedri:
Obviously there's some bleed over and a couple of different things, but if we're going to take a broad overview, that's how I would phrase it. We have over 1,400 employees in Luzerne County and over 32 separate departments. So I know just enough to be dangerous in 32 areas of county business type deal sometimes.
Ryan James:
Right.
David Pedri:
But I've got some great people around me and we've been able to get some things done these past five years.
Ryan James:
Awesome. Well, I'm going to get into my first question for you. And as I read the county's four pillars of county government, do a little research before our time together.
David Pedri:
Look at you.
Ryan James:
Oh, well, sometimes... I didn't do homework when I was at school, but I do it now in my actual job. I saw you have financial stability, processes, employee engagement, and customer services, those four pillars. And knowing how 2020 was, and I'm sure still in 2021, how that's just affected and really challenged government organizations in general on their goals and objectives, and probably their pillars. Talk to me what your county has done in being able to focus on the pillars. And some of the, maybe, the success you've had even through these challenging times.
David Pedri:
Well, listen. I mean, like I said, those are our four goals. Those are something, we should be moving towards those every single day. It all comes down to customer service. I always tell people we never lose sight of the fact that we're here for the taxpayer because of the taxpayer. And how we get there lies into those four pillars. But in the pandemic, man, we were surviving. Okay? We had to survive. We had to get through, but we still had to provide service to over 320,000 people in Luzerne County. We still had to have 911, we still had to have our courts. A 600 person prison still had to be out there. Obviously our emergency management was key in getting vaccination sites to Luzerne County, and testing sights to Luzerne County. So we couldn't just be taking time off under this pandemic.
David Pedri:
So keeping the eye on the goal, the first thing that we did was, we transitioned to a lot of the remote workforce. And this goes to one of the pillars we talked about, which is processes. When I came up from the DA's office, actually in 2004, we were still writing out court orders in court. We would write, literally, somebody would write out a court order in court, hand it to the judge, sign it, and it became this most ridiculous thing of, you couldn't read people's handwriting, and somebody's going to get sentenced to 20 years of incarceration and they get a piece of paper. So we changed that to now have a formalized computer set up. Not rocket science, but what can we do under this pandemic to get us that similar type of thought? So one of the things, we just removed to remote workforce.
David Pedri:
And I think, just talking to me for the last 10 minutes here, I think you know, I'm not a person who... I don't like being by myself. I want to talk to people. I want to shake hands. I want to go to lunch. I want to get ideas. I feed off of people's energies. But we had a transition. So we changed almost everything that we do, every county aspect now has the ability to have an online component. You don't have to come to the courthouse other than going to court, obviously, unless you want to. Now, it's a beautiful courthouse. It's a once in a lifetime courthouse here in Wilkes-Barre, but you don't have to if you don't want to, because now we have everything online. And looking at our finances was difficult because people are hurting, and this pandemic hit people so hard we wanted to make sure that we had a no tax increase budget for 2021. Now that took a lot to get us there.
Ryan James:
Right.
David Pedri:
When you have a 1,400 person workforce with six separate union contracts, and healthcare going up, they don't care that you don't have the money to pay them. We had to do a lot of cutting, but we fixed those things. We've got those pillars in place and we got through it. It was a difficult, difficult idea. And now my always goal is, well, what's next?
Ryan James:
Right.
David Pedri:
I have to say we're in act two of this government. This government came into play in 2012. So that was a crisis level. Everything changed in 2012. Now we're at the point where things are settled. Where are we going from here?
Ryan James:
Got it. All right. That's interesting. It definitely did cause a lot of tough decisions, I'm sure. The pandemic made by, or budgetary wise, it was how are we shifting dollars? What are not investing in, or putting dollars into, because we have to focus on other things. The other thing I've heard, you said it, was the drastic shift in technology. It was forced. It wasn't an option. It was, we have to do things in more virtual way.
David Pedri:
Yeah. I'd be the first to tell you I was slow to embrace it before, but now we had to, and I'm actually seeing some of our departments, not only survive, but thrive under this. Like our children with caseworkers, their output on reports is actually higher than it was before. They're not spending time.... They're going to see their kids, going to see their families. They're not driving back and forth to the office to get something done. Now, listen, I still believe in the benefit of colleagues. I still believe in having a conversation with somebody. What do you think about this? I think when you have experience, I think you've got to draw on that.
Ryan James:
Right.
David Pedri:
But having this opportunity for people to stay home and work and just get their stuff done. I mean, I'm sure everybody else watching this, and then yours the same way, sometimes I get more work done at home than I would in the office.
Ryan James:
Yeah. Yeah. Well, this is a good transition to our segue into my second question for you. So as a county manager, and someone who's overseeing a pretty large public sector organization, I want to hear your thoughts on what you think. You said this is kind of government 2.0, I think, or you said something like that.
David Pedri:
Right.
Ryan James:
What do you think the next five to 10 years look like? Because there's an obvious transition happening right now in the government space. I see it on a technology side of it, where there's a big move to the cloud, which, public sector was a bit of a laggard behind the private sector in making that transition, because they did things the same way, they had their processes, they had challenge of making a change. So I'm seeing that change. I'm also, the silver tsunami of retirees, right? The public sector workforce, there's a big shift going on there where, high retiree rate, and this next generation is moving in. So those are things that are happening right now as we speak. What do you anticipate being some of, maybe, the next major changes, as someone who's been in your seat?
David Pedri:
I think, first off, there's infrastructure always. There's always going to be infrastructure where we always have those issues. So that's a steady constant. But on top of that, though, I mean, we have to do what we can to draw attention in from the people who are looking for jobs in Northeastern, Pennsylvania. I mean, really, all governments do. Northeastern Pennsylvania has, I mean, just in Luzerne County, we have five colleges, five small colleges, including a Penn State, two Penn State campuses, actually, here in Luzerne County.
David Pedri:
So do those students know they have to go on this website and take a civil service test in order for them to get a caseworker job with our mental health department when they want to be, or, it's just so easy and there's so much information out there for that new generation. Are we keeping up with that? I've been, especially in the last, in the 2020 election, I've been kind of, I don't know, emboldened, energized by a younger crew of people that want to be involved. We have more younger poll workers now than we've ever had in the past. It's interesting because our poll workers for elections are the very elderly-
Ryan James:
Right.
David Pedri:
... and the very young. I've got 18 year olds working with 70 year olds.
David Pedri:
And I love that, and I love that kind of energy that they're bringing into it, but how do we keep that momentum going? Because as you know, the generation coming in here could lose interest very quickly. And it is an employee job market right now. And the county, I think like a lot of other governments out there, we can't pay highest rate.
Ryan James:
Right.
David Pedri:
But what we can pay is benefits. We've got great health care. I've got pension. This is a great workforce. I have a very busy job, but still, I'm coaching three little league baseball teams, because I think that's important to me, and as part of the community, and I want our employees to be part of that. So I think the governments needs to move from, this is a nice place to work, get you're 20 years into, hey, listen, work-life balance means a lot. And I think that that should be a recruiting tool that we've got to drawing on new attention with.
Ryan James:
Yeah. That's great. I have heard that from other cities and counties, as I've talked to them, especially, you mention the universities and colleges around you, and how they're trying to tap into that next generation and let them understand what civil work is about. The balance, the fulfillment, just personal fulfillment in getting part of your local government and helping, because it's not a salary thing.
David Pedri:
Listen, every single day though, you get an opportunity to help somebody here. I just did an orientation class. We have 11 new 911 call takers.
David Pedri:
And I said, "Listen, of all the jobs in the county, there's 1,400 jobs in the county, but you're the job that, you're going to help somebody every single day in their absolute moment of dire need, is that you're going to be a county employee on the other side of that line, helping them and changing their life. And if you are interested in public service the way I've always been in public service, I've always been drawn to government, my whole family grew up around the table talking about government. You know what? That means something. And I got other friends who work in private sector, and yeah, they have they more money than me, and I don't have the pool in my backyard right now, but I'm not complaining about my salary in any way, shape or form. And I'm happy where I'm at. And it does give me an opportunity, especially to help the area where I'm from. This is where I'm from. I'm born and raised here. I choose to raise my children here. I choose to live here. What can we do to take this to the next level?"
David Pedri:
We've had an influx of over 4,000 jobs here in Luzerne County in the past five years, mostly distribution centers and manufacturing centers. So we're at the point right now, because if you put... We're at the route 81, 80 juncture right in Northeastern, Pennsylvania. So what that means is that you can get to, probably, half the population in the United States of America by trucking eight hours. You can get to Boston, you can get to New York, you can get to DC, you can get out to Pittsburgh, and Cleveland, and all these different areas that you can get to is right here. So how do we draw into that, how do we tap into that to say, hey, listen, these jobs are coming in here. Now, how do we get these people to build houses? How do we get them to buy houses? How do we get their kids to be part of the community? How do we get them to join our churches? So that they want to be part of that community and build from there?
Ryan James:
Yeah, that's great. Well, we're already at the third question. And so season two, the third question, first season, you see over my shoulder, I had a time machine question. If you want to go back in time and change things. Season two, and I am a props guy, is the blank check.
David Pedri:
Nice.
Ryan James:
So it's written out to Luzerne, unfortunately it's signed by me, so it's probably about that... It's got that worth.
David Pedri:
I'll be waiting for that, I'm going to call the mail room.
Ryan James:
Okay. Keep waiting. But if I did give you a blank check for your organization, that you could, if you guys continue to evolve and go after those pillars, what would you use it for, and why?
David Pedri:
All right. Well, all right. 2012, this home brew form of government came into play. We were $460 million in debt. I'm the only county manager that brags about being under $250 million in debt in, probably, the entire nation. Okay? But that's because we've paid off over $200 million in the space of nine years on this debt. We righted our government, fixed our financial structure. So, I mean, listen, if I'm going to be boring and I'm going to do that, the first thing I'm going to do with a blank check is I'm going to-
Ryan James:
Pay it off.
David Pedri:
... pay off the debt, and I'm going to fix every single road here in Luzerne County. We have 120 miles of roads that are county owned and literally over 300 bridges in Luzerne County. And so if you want to buy a bridge, Ryan, let me know. I will literally sell you a bridge.
Ryan James:
Oh, you're that guy? You're the guy who sells bridges.
David Pedri:
Yes.
Ryan James:
I've gotcha.
David Pedri:
I have 300 of them. And most of them are small. I've been told that there are over 600 county bridges in the entire state of Pennsylvania and we have over 300 of them. I didn't make these decisions, but most of them are very small bridges, but we have them. But obviously, listen, pay off the debt, roads and bridges, but honestly, what I would love to do with that blank check is community outreach. Okay? So I often tell people, and when I go out to talk to people in groups, I'm like, "Listen, I want to be very clear with you on one thing. There is no they. Okay? There is no they, it's us, because what I can't stand when I'm with somebody and they say, 'Oh, they should fix that stop sign. They should put a park here. They should handle it.' Well, hold on a sec, there is no they. It's me, it's you, it's community involvement. It's the only way it works."
David Pedri:
So I would love to see that community involvement. In 2019, we were able to have a concert series. It came out, we have a beautiful county riverfront park under utilized, without a doubt. We are now putting this concert series out there. We crossed our fingers. We had sponsors, we had everything. We had over 6,000 people come out to three events.
Ryan James:
Awesome.
David Pedri:
It was everything that I want to do in government. It's community, it's government usage, it's utilizing parks, it's everybody coming together. Listen, you go to an opening day of a little league. That's the people who you want to be with. Those are the people who were here. So with that blank check, what I would do is, just do community outreach to individuals. Okay? I want people to be involved with their governments.
David Pedri:
What makes you excited to be here? I mean, I know that government can be boring, and going to a municipal meeting to talk about an inter-governmental agreement couldn't do much, but that's how change happens. I would love to see that. And I would also love to see real change in infrastructure when it comes to technology. I mean, this is where we're at right now. I need fiber optics. I need broadband. We're lucky that we do have some great cable connectors here, but there are parts of Pennsylvania where people are still lining up in libraries because they're the only places with wifi.
Ryan James:
Right. Yeah.
David Pedri:
So it's 2021 people. I mean, we have to get on the side of things. When I drive... Hazleton area where my kids go to school, I drove by McDonald's at the beginning of the pandemic and they had free wifi. And there were a bunch of kids on their phones in the parking lot.
Ryan James:
Yeah.
David Pedri:
We've got to help them. And we've got to make it affordable for people. I mean, it's the information super highway and it's how we get out there, so that's my long answer to what I would do with the blank check. It's a nice blank check because I'm going to pay off the debt, I'm going to fix every road, and then I'm going to do my community outreach, which I love, which is all [crosstalk 00:17:18] like, yay, we're all in this together. And then we're going to do wifi, so...
Ryan James:
Well, it is a blank check, so it sounds like you can do all those things with that check. It's an infinity check, actually. I think that's what the symbol I put on there, so. Well, David, I really appreciate spending a few minutes with you today and answering three questions. I'm always excited when I meet leaders like you that has got a vision, and have got some real drive behind what they're doing in local and county government. So thank you so much for spending some time. And I look forward to staying in touch with you as well.
David Pedri:
Thank you so much for your kind words, Ryan. And thank you for what you're doing in getting this information out to the public as well.
Ryan James:
Thanks. Have a great day.
