County finances top priority list for new Westmoreland commissioners

The first order of business for Westmoreland County’s new board of commissioners will be to look at the county’s balance sheet, but what they will find remains an open question.

Republicans Sean Kertes and Doug Chew, along with holdover Democrat Gina Cerilli, will take office in January after winning in Tuesday’s general election. They will have to decide whether to accept a 2020 county budget adopted by their predecessors or redo the spending plan for county operations that is expected to top $300 million.

“The first thing we’ll have to deal with is the current board’s budget. It needs to be talked about and looked at thoroughly,” Kertes said Wednesday, a day after he secured the most votes in the commissioners race.

Kertes, 33, of Greensburg, received 27.2% of the vote. Chew, 49, of Hempfield, finished second with 26.5%, claiming about 1,100 votes fewer than Kertes. Cerilli, 33, of Hempfield, will get a second term after coming in third with 23.1%. She finished 234 votes ahead of Ted Kopas, a three-term incumbent Democrat from Hempfield. He received 23.02% of the vote. Nearly 152,000 votes were cast, though results are unofficial until certified by the county’s elections board.

The apparent outcome represents a political shift at the courthouse. Cerilli and Kopas served as a Democratic majority for the last four years, although they routinely differed on a number of issues.

Victories by Kertes and Chew allows Republicans to regain board control the party lost in 2015. Four years earlier, the GOP secured its first majority at the courthouse in about six decades.

Kertes said he expects he and Chew to meet in the coming days to outline an agenda for the new majority. That agenda figures to focus on county finances, he said.

The outgoing board of Cerilli, Kopas and Kertes’ boss, retiring Commissioner Charles Anderson, will present a preliminary budget in two weeks. They are slated to adopt a final spending plan in late December.

Kertes said he expects to participate in budget talks but won’t insist on crafting the current board’s final spending plan.

“Chuck is still the commissioner, and I will follow what Chuck wants me to do,” Kertes said. “I still think Commissioner Cerilli and Commissioner Kopas should have a say in the budget. Any decisions until the end of the year is up to them.”

The new board will have the option in January to adopt their own spending plan.

County officials, as has been done for more than a decade, balanced this year’s budget using a surplus account that is expected to be reduced to $5.3 million at the end of the year. Expenses are projected to outpace revenues by more than $18 million in 2019.

Kertes said he also wants the new Republican majority to rescind a project labor agreement implemented in 2016 by Cerilli and Kopas. Both Republicans campaigned against the labor deal that they said gives preference to union firms for county construction contracts.

Chew did not return calls seeking comment on Wednesday. In a text message, he signaled he would support overturning the project labor agreement, identified the 2020 budget as a top priority and said he wanted to appoint a “watchdog” to review operations at the Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County.

Meanwhile, Cerilli, who has served as the board’s chairwoman since 2016, said she’s not sure how she’ll operate as a minority commissioner.

“I am a moderate and I’m willing to reach across the aisle. I’m hoping all three of us can agree on some issues. I think all three of us are committed to counteracting the opioid epidemic, bringing jobs and a trained workforce to the county,” Cerilli said.

She said she was not surprised that Republicans seized back control of the county commissioners.

“When you look at the results in the region, obviously the Republican voters were sending a message to the electorate that they are frustrated with what’s happening in Washington D.C.,” Cerilli said.