Westmoreland commissioner claims county pay raises result of political threat

Westmoreland Commissioner Gina Cerilli on Thursday accused her Republican colleagues of buckling under a threat from the county controller when they granted a series of raises to his staff of auditors.

“They should be ashamed,” Cerilli said about a reorganization of the auditing department that included $130,000 in raises handed out to seven members of Republican Controller Jeff Balzer’s staff. “Leave it to the Democrat to be the fiscal conservative in the courthouse.”

Acting as the county’s salary board, Republican commissioners Sean Kertes and Doug Chew, along with Balzer, approved the financial package for the auditors. It’s a move Balzer said was needed to retain a quality staff and was recommended by the county’s human resources department.

Cerilli, a second-term Democrat, claimed Balzer threatened to shutter his auditing department and hire outside staff to complete those mandated functions should the proposed raises be rejected.

Balzer denied that a threat was made but conceded that during a private meeting last week he suggested that the hiring of an outside firm to perform the county’s routine auditing would be costly.

“It was a talking point and I don’t have the authority to do that,” Balzer said. “Once again, she’s exposed her inexperience in government and claims she knows everything.”

Kertes and Chew, first-term Republicans, supported the raises and said they were cheaper than hiring private auditors.

All three commissioners and Balzer voted to award raises to other staff, including large salary bumps for court reporters and court assistants.

Court reporters with less than five years of experience were given one-time salary bumps of $9,000. Those with five to 19 years with the county will receive a $10,000 pay raise and court reporters with more than 19 years on the job will see a one-time $15,000 increase.

Kertes said the previous pay scale resulted in ongoing shortages among the court reporter staff.

“Retention has really been a problem,” Kertes said.

Commissioners said those raises will bring court reporter salaries more in line with what neighboring counties pay.

Salary board members also increased the annual wages for Veterans Affairs Director Matt Zamosky, who will see his pay increase to $50,352 this year — a $5,500 raise — and will receive another $3,000 increase in 2021.

“The raises are really a product of our wages not being competitive,” Chew said. “My goal in 2020 was to bring pay equity here a little bit at a time so people will want to work at Westmoreland County.”