Westmoreland officials approve raises for row offices, jail employees, deny increase for warden, deputy warden

Raises were handed out this week to middle managers in several Westmoreland row offices and officers at the jail as part of a comprehensive effort to standardize county salaries.

Members of the county’s salary board, which includes the three county commissioners and Controller Jeffrey Balzer, approved those raises but deadlocked on a plan to give pay hikes to the prison warden and his top deputy.

Balzer and Commissioner Doug Chew voted in favor of granting a $6,200 raise to Warden John Walton and an additional $4,200 to Deputy Warden George Lowther. The effort failed when commissioners Sean Kertes and Gina Cerilli voted against the raises.

“We simply don’t have the money. Everyone knows what our (financial) situation is,” said Cerilli, who denied that any personal animus she has toward the warden impacted her decision. “This is simply me trying to be fiscally responsible.”

Cerilli and Walton have been at odds for the past several years over his management at the jail. Walton last year filed a complaint against Cerilli with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that alleged she fostered a hostile work environment. Cerilli on several occasions has asked the county prison board to fire Walton.

Balzer said he pitched the raises for the warden and his deputy to keep their salaries in line with the amended pay scale approved for sergeants and lieutenants at the jail.

The warden may still get a raise this year. Kertes said he is not against the warden’s pay hike but said it was proposed just a day earlier and he was not prepared to grant it approval on one day’s notice.

“I’m not opposed to it, and I asked that it be tabled until October,” Kertes said.

The salary board unanimously approved raises of nearly $3,600 for five jail lieutenants who will now receive $53,455 a year and increased the annual pay for five sergeants, who will now earn $$51,537.

Filling those positions has become a challenge, officials said, and by raising salaries the expectation is that unionized corrections officers who have refused promotions to lieutenants and sergeants will be more willing to accept those jobs because of the higher pay.

Meanwhile, pay for second deputies in the Recorder of Deeds, Treasurer, Register of Wills and Clerk of Courts offices were increased to $39,659 to standardize the salaries for those positions.

“We want to bring all of them up to the same level. We had middle managers’ salaries all over the place,” Kertes said.

Clerk of Courts Bryan Kline said he opposed the raise for his deputy.

“I felt a raise would have been better served for my union employees because employee retention is an issue,” Kline said.