Westmoreland County Commissioners Sean Kertes and Gina Cerilli on Thursday appointed a new member to the county’s housing authority board of directors, a move that resulted in the first disagreement among the county leaders.

Commissioner Doug Chew voted against the appointment of former Monessen District Judge Joseph Dalfonso to serve a five-year term on the board that oversees low-income and elderly housing in the county. Chew said he was not afforded a proper review of Dalfonso’s qualifications for the volunteer position.

“I haven’t had the opportunity to meet him or even see a curriculum vitae. He hasn’t reached out to me, one of the two majority commissioners,” Chew said.

Chew, who, along with Kertes, formed a Republican majority on the board, started work this week.

Cerilli is the lone Democrat elected in November and is taking over a minority role after having served the previous four years as the board’s chairwoman. She and Chew had a contentious relationship during the campaign, and that bad blood seemed to continue Thursday.

At one point, Chew interrupted the voting to correct Cerilli on meeting rules after she attempted to move to have Dalfonso appointed and questioned her vote on his failed effort to have the issue tabled until another meeting.

Cerilli then criticized Chew for not raising objections to the appointment during a public agenda meeting this week.

“I know you are new, but the agenda meetings are where we ask questions. You were silent at the time of the agenda session,” Cerilli retorted.

At Tuesday’s agenda meeting, no one discussed Dalfonso’s appointment — and little was said publicly about anything else on the agenda.

After Thursday’s vote, Cerilli blasted Chew for citing partisan politics to explain his objection to Thursday’s appointment.

“My hope and expectation is we can all work together, but that clearly is up to Commissioner Chew,” she said.

Kertes said he had no objection to Dalfonso’s appointment and didn’t need to personally interview the retired judge because he was recommended by housing authority administrators, who sought out a representative from the southern portion of the county to replace outgoing board member Debra Wohlin.

“The housing authority did the vetting process. I’m not putting a person on without their recommendation, and we can put on whoever they feel they would like,” Kertes said.

Chew said his objection wasn’t to Dalfonso, nor did he quibble with his qualifications. Chew said he wanted to meet and interview Dalfonso before he voted to appoint him to the board.

“The electorate spoke very clearly on Nov. 5 that they favored a more transparent operation to county government. They don’t want business as usual with these board appointments,” Chew said.

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