Lansford Borough’s Civil Service Commission chairman has resigned — one week after making a presentation to borough council on attracting police candidates.

Council did not act on the resignation at their meeting Wednesday night, as the letter dated Oct. 15 from John Zym arrived too late to be placed on the agenda.

Borough Secretary Ashley McLaughlin confirmed receipt of the letter and said that council was aware of the resignation.

In his resignation, Zym said he was aware that council was going to entertain a motion from Councilman George Gilbert to remove him as chairman of the commission.

Gilbert, who was not at Wednesday’s council’s meeting, confirmed that he sought to have Zym removed from the commission.

In his resignation, Zym wrote, “It appears that after the Times News article dated 10/14/2025 was discovered, George had no choice but to remove the motion from the original agenda and a new agenda was posted.”

Gilbert said the decision had nothing to do with a newspaper story on Zym’s presentation a week earlier.

He, instead, asked the borough secretary to remove all of his motions from the agenda when he was unable to attend due to a work conflict, Gilbert said.

In his resignation letter, Zym stated that council is playing with the safety of the community and seeking to advance their own personal agendas, not the will of the people who elected them.

“An adequately staffed, professional and fully functioning police force is the WILL of the residents of Lansford, but clearly not the goal of council,” Zym wrote.

“Lansford Police have a long history of being neglected by council,” he continued. “This has been going on long before I was appointed to the Civil Service Commission. Each and every member of council should be held accountable.

“I will no longer be a part of this game of ‘hot potato’ council is playing with the residents of Lansford Borough,” Zym concluded in his resignation.

Questions

Both council members and residents questioned portions of Zym’s presentation regarding its accuracy and the actual role of the civil service commission. At Wednesday’s council meeting, resident Erin Soberick asked about the physical agility testing, which had been scheduled for Monday. She had heard that not everyone was notified of the schedule approved by the commission at a September meeting, and asked if it took place.

“Nobody was notified,” council President Bruce Markovich said. “The other members of the board weren’t notified. It wasn’t advertised, simply because we were never notified. So nothing occurred. That’s all I can tell you on that.”

When asked about police candidates, Markovich said that there are two applicants for full-time police positions, and third application came in Wednesday morning.

“There were two submitted, even though John had in his presentation that we had none, we did have two,” Markovich said. “Then another one was submitted this morning.”

Markovich added that he didn’t even tell his board members that he was presenting to council about police wages, benefits, sign-on bonuses and other matters that council must negotiate with the police union.

“They didn’t know anything about the presentation,” he said.

Reversal?

On Thursday night, Zym contacted the Times News stating his resignation was “on hold.” It is unclear whether borough council will act on his resignation at its next meeting.

A special meeting is anticipated later this month, and council hopes to hire one officer at that time.

Actions

Council on Wednesday did act on other civil service positions, including accepting another letter of resignation from commission secretary, Stephen Foster, who has not attended any recent meetings or responded to communications.

Council also accepted letters of interest from Kara Krajnak and Joseph M. Seaver for positions on civil service, and placed both in positions as alternates.

They also moved Keath Lowry from a commission alternate to regular member with Foster’s resignation creating the vacancy.

Also related to civil service, council also adopted the Municipal Police Officers’ Education and Training Commission standards for police testing, the same standards used by the state police.

Councilwoman Jennifer Staines requested to go off the agenda, which council agreed to do, to change the order of police testing to allow for physical agility tests to be done first, the written exam second and the oral exam last.

The borough’s civil service rules had placed the physical agility test last, but other communities placed the test first to eliminate candidates and avoid the need for additional testing.

Police candidates are eliminated if they fail any portion of the testing.