New Westmoreland County commissioners say they'll reopen the county's budget

Westmoreland County commissioners Monday afternoon elected Republican Sean Kertes to serve as the new board chairman.

Kertes, 33, of Greensburg, and Commissioner Doug Chew formed a new Republican majority on the board, which for the previous four years had been controlled by Democrats.

The board’s lone returning member, Commissioner Gina Cerilli, a Democrat who had served as chairwoman since 2016, formally moved to have Kertes named as her replacement during a brief reorganization meeting. Chew was elected to serve as the board’s vice chairman, and Cerilli will be its secretary.

Past boards have traditionally elected the top vote-getter in the previous election as chairman. Kertes, in his first bid for public office in November, received the most votes of the three elected commissioners.

On Monday, he said the Republican majority commissioners will focus on making potential changes to the county’s $341 million budget over the next month. Commissioners can vote this month to reopen the 2020 budget passed in December by the previous board. That budget is projected to exhaust the county’s surplus account to balance the deficit spending plan and raises property taxes by 2.4 %, the first such increase since 2005.

“This week, we’ll be talking about the budget with Mr. Chew and myself, going over what we can do to look at that, trying to find more monies and talk about repealing the tax increase and really going over, methodically looking over that,” Kertes said.

Chew was not at the courthouse Monday for his first day on the job. He said he was sick and participated in the reorganization meeting by telephone.

“I have a stomach bug,” Chew said in a text message. “I did the meeting from a bed at an urgent center.”

He said he expects to attend the commissioners’ next public meeting Tuesday morning, when the board will review items to to be considered during Thursday’s regularly scheduled voting session.

As chairman, Kertes will receive an annual salary of $84,011, about $3,000 more than Cerilli and Chew.

During last fall’s campaign, Chew said he will donate 60% of his salary, a figure that equals about $48,613 a year, toward funding of the county’s drug court program.