Commissioners remain silent on suspended Westmoreland election bureau director

Westmoreland County’s public works director continued in his interim role as head of the election bureau on Tuesday as the commissioners remained silent about the status of the department’s suspended top official.

The county commissioners also serve as the county’s election board. They met as such late Tuesday to approve the final certification of 14 races after write-in winners were excluded from the results of the May 18 primaries. None of the three would comment onelection bureau leadership.

They referred questions to Solicitor Melissa Guiddy, who said the county would not discuss “pending personnel matters.”

Public Works Director Greg McCloskey served as the election bureau representative during Tuesday’s brief meeting and spent the day working from the bureau’s first-floor courthouse offices.

The commissioners assigned McCloskey to the election office a week before the primary to serve as the department’s temporary deputy under Director JoAnn Sebastiani, and he returned to his primary job in the days that followed the election.

McCloskey was called back to the election bureau after the commissioners suspended Sebastiani with pay June 8. Her suspension was set to expire at the close of business last Friday, but she was not at work Tuesday when the courthouse reopened after the Flag Day holiday.

“No comment,” Sebastiani said when contacted Tuesday afternoon.

Sebastiani was hired to run the election office last August. She had a turbulent fall as she navigated a high turnout in the presidential election that came amid the state’s new law allowing for no-excuse mail-in voting, new voting equipment at the polls and a pandemic that caused a coronavirus outbreak among her staff as voters went to the polls in November.

Commissioners confirmed Tuesday that McCloskey, in addition to his duties as head of the public works department, was overseeing the election bureau this week on a temporary assignment.

“There has not been an appointment,” said Commissioner Gina Cerilli Thrasher when asked about the election bureau leadership.

Throughout the spring, commissioners have been forced to answer questions about election issues, both before and after the May primary. Some of those included incomplete ballots, delays in postingresults and internal employee matters, such as staff turnover resulting in four vacant positions in May and early June.

The election bureau has been without a deputy director since October.