Fitzgerald takes county minimum wage increase to court

Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald is asking a court to weigh in on whether the executive’s office or council can determine wages for public employees.

The move follows a vote by county council last week that overrode Fitzgerald’s veto of an ordinance that would raise the minimum wage for county employees to $20 by 2026.

Fitzgerald on Wednesday said he has filed an action for declaratory judgment with Allegheny County Court to decide “important differences between the county executive and county council concerning the (wage) ordinance’s legality.”

Earlier this month, Fitzgerald vetoed a bill passed by county council to establish a $20 minimum wage for county workers.

At the time, Fitzgerald argued that the council’s bill violates Allegheny County’s Home Rule Charter and attempts to usurp authority of the executive branch. He said council would need to amend the charter to change who has the power to set pay rates for employees. He also said the move would raise property taxes in the county.

A week later, council voted 10-5 to override the executive’s veto, reinstating the salary increase. Under the bill, county employees would have a new minimum wage of $18 an hour starting next year, with pay eventually increasing to $20 an hour by 2026.

In the lawsuit, Fitzgerald argued that the Allegheny County Home Rule Charter does not grant legal authority to the legislative branch to set the wages of county employees. It also contends that the ordinance’s application to future collective bargaining agreements also violates the authority of the executive.

“This home rule form of government, which is over 20 years old, is still relatively new and, from time to time, there are going to be questions about authority within the county’s home rule charter that impacts the operation of the county,” said Fitzgerald in a statement. “Taking the personalities out of this entirely, there is a legitimate disagreement on whether the executive branch or the legislative branch has the legal authority to set wages.

”It’s an important legal question that requires immediate review and determination by the court, especially since my administration is in the process of preparing the 2024 budget.”

The Allegheny County solicitor and the county council’s solicitor have diverging opinions on the minimum wage bill. The county solicitor’s opinion said council does not have the legal authority to install a minimum wage, while the county council solicitor’s opinion said otherwise.

Fitzgerald said he supports increasing the minimum wage.

“As county executive, I established a $15 an hour base wage for our full-time county workers several years ago and have since committed to increase that full-time base wage to $18 an hour; a wage that will take effect in 2024,” he said in his statement.

Councilwoman Bethany Hallam, D-Brighton Heights, called the legal action “irrelevant.”

“A declaratory judgment cannot prevent council from appropriating the funding necessary to implement this pay raise in the 2024 budget, nor can it prevent the next county executive from implementing the pay raise using that appropriation,” Hallam said Wednesday.

“He can throw all the temper tantrums and engage in all the stalling tactics and employ rhetorical devices about how he doesn’t oppose pay raises, but the simple facts are that he only actually gives significant raises to his inner circle cronies, and he’s willing to go to court in a desperate effort to keep anyone else from getting raises,” she said.

At the time of the veto, which passed in a 10-5 vote, Allegheny County Council President Pat Catena, D-Carnegie, said the wage increase is needed to help county workers, particularly those with children.

He said a couple with two children each needs to make $23 an hour to support their family in Allegheny County, according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Living Wage Calculator.