Raises approved for Westmoreland transit leaders

The Westmoreland County Transit Authority’s director and its top deputy will be getting raises approved last week by the authority’s board.

The board unanimously authorized a more than 23% pay raise for Executive Director Alan Blahovec, his first raise since being promoted to the authority’s top job in 2014. Blahovec’s annual pay will increase to $122,850. Deputy Director Ashley Cooper-Brounce will receive a 13% pay hike, increasing her salary to $98,500.

“It’s something way overdue,” board Chairman Frank Tosto said. “If we attempted to replace them it will cost us significantly more than what we’ve increased those two.”

Blahovec, 51, of Youngwood was hired in 1998as finance director and promoted after former Executive Director Larry Morris left the post in 2014. Blahovec has overseen the authority’s transition from an agency that relied upon outside contractors to run its transit services to an organization that in 2020 took over exclusive operation of its fixed-route and paratransit shared-ride systems.

That move saw the authority’s payroll jump from about a dozen employees in 2019 to more than 150, including management staff, drivers, mechanics and other support personnel.

Bus ridership boomed immediately after Blahovec took over as executive director but cratered during the coronavirus pandemic. Over the past year, ridership has slowly started to rebound.

Board members hired a private consultant to study the authority’s salary scale and determined the agency’s leadership compensation was below national standards. Transit authority executive directors at agencies comparable in size to Westmoreland’s earn salaries ranging from $120,000 to $140,000 annually, Tosto said.

For the last eight years, Blahovec was paid $99,000.

“This is something that should have been done a long time ago,” board member Dan DeBone said.

The raises for Blahovec and Cooper-Brounce, 36, of Latrobe are retroactive to July. In the future they will receive annual raises of 3.5%.

Board members said salaries for the remainder of the authority’s management team also will be reexamined.

Meanwhile, board members also approved $1 hourly raises for the authority’s paratransit drivers, who operate vehicles on the system that provide door-to-door transportation services to low-income elderly residents as well as those who receive various social services.

The increased pay scale for drivers will begin Dec. 1.

“Paratransit drivers are working their tails off, and hopefully this will help us attract more,” Blahovec said.

The authority has struggled to hire paratransit drivers to staff its fleet of 61 vehicles. There are more than 40 drivers on staff, and there are 12 vacant positions, officials said.

Pay, including annual raises, for the drivers who operate fixed-route buses for the authority’s local and commuter service is set by a union contract that runs through June 2024.