Fitzgerald vetoes bill seeking more oversight of top Allegheny County hires

Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald on Wednesday vetoed a bill that proposed giving more authority to county council on executive staff hiring decisions.

The bill would have required that county department directors and division directors be approved by county council before being hired. Currently, only county manager and the county solicitor are pursuant to council approval.

In his veto message, Fitzgerald said he opposes this measure because it would alter the county’s Home Rule Charter, which granted county executives the power to hire most staff when it was first enacted.

“The people passed it, and only the people can change it,” reads Fitzgerald’s veto message. “The people did not give council the powers it now seeks to give itself.”

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• Large raises for Allegheny County's top staffers raise timing questions

The veto comes after some controversy over large pay raises for top staffers within Allegheny County Government. Some staffers, included those not approved by county council, say pay increases of more than $44,000 over the last three years.

Allegheny County Council President Pat Catena, D-Carnegie, proposed the vetoed-bill. He told the Tribune-Review in June that when he voted for the county budget, he wasn’t even aware of the pay raises of many top staffers because they are not broken down in the budget.

Catena has also proposed a bill to add line-item salary details to the county budget.

A special meeting has been scheduled for July 19 to attempt to override the veto of this bill and another bill that seeks to ban fracking in county parks. It’s unlikely that council will be able to override the veto of staffing hiring bill, since it passed earlier with an 8-7 vote, and 10 votes are needed to override the county executive’s veto.