As much as $500,000 in revenue generated through fees and other payments made to Westmoreland’s Register of Wills Office during the first four months of 2024 has yet to be turned over to the county treasury, officials said Thursday.
Controller Jeffrey Balzer said the register of wills and other county row offices are required to make monthly payments of funds collected through costs and fees of services. Through Thursday, the Register of Wills Office has made no payments of funds collected between January and the end of April, Balzer confirmed.
The office processes adoptions, guardianships, wills, estates and marriage licenses. A check for $96,500 was submitted to the county last week reflecting fees collected during the final month of last year, Balzer said.
“Under normal circumstances, by the 10th of every month, we get monthly statements,” Balzer said, noting the county has received no receipts from the Register of Wills Office for revenue collected in January through April. “We weren’t having any problems with her until last December.”
Register of Wills Sherry Magretti Hamilton’s office turned over more than $1.7 million in revenue to the county in 2023.
Sean Logue, newly hired as solicitor for the office, said the funds soon will be paid to the county.
“Everything through 2023 has been paid. In February 2024, she (Hamilton) brought on a new bookkeeper who is training. No funds are missing, and, once the bookkeeper completes her training, all the funds will be turned over. At the end of the day, this never came up in any legal filings,” Logue said.
The register of wills is one of a handful of row offices that collect money through fees and costs. Other court-related offices such as the recorder of deeds, prothonotary, clerk of courts, sheriff and treasurer also submit monthly revenue checks. No other row office has routinely missed payment deadlines, the controller said.
Hamilton, the three-term elected Republican, has run the office since 2016. Last week, two Common Pleas judges found her in contempt of court for violating multiple administrative court orders that required her office meet specific filing deadlines and work standards.
Those court orders came in response to allegations the Register of Wills Office had fallen behind on required work to process adoption certificates and appeal records that, in some cases, dated to 2019.
The judges Monday appointed Greensburg lawyer Jim Antoniono to serve as the conservator of the office beginning May 28, essentially demoting Hamilton and removing her authority to oversee the office. Hamilton will continue to earn her nearly $90,000 annual salary as an elected official.
She faces a potential jail term and fines when she is sentenced next month in connection with the contempt of court finding.
Hamilton has resisted calls from two county commissioners for her to resign and, last week, fired lawyer Michael Nestico, who had served as the Register of Wills Office solicitor since 2012.
Logue, who started work Monday as the new solicitor, addressed commissioners at Thursday’s public meeting and claimed the office corrected the backlog of adoption and appeals cases that have been subject to the court order.
“I am happy to report to you the register of wills is caught up, and the backlog that we keep hearing about in the press is no more,” Logue said. He defended Hamilton’s stewardship of the office, saying staffing issues that plagued the office have since been corrected.
“She is doing a great job, and you are lucky to have her,” Logue said.
Hamilton was not at the courthouse Thursday. Logue said she had a medical appointment that could not be changed.
Commissioner Ted Kopas, a Democrat, discounted Logue’s defense of Hamilton as spin and criticized her failure to appear at Thursday’s meeting as a continued lack of leadership.
“The guy’s been here, what, a minute, and now suddenly declares all is good and frankly none of this ever happened. No amount of spin is going to overcome the core issues, and it is shameful that, rather than taking responsibility, she’s trying to push this under the rug like none of it happened,” Kopas said.
He later added, “Perhaps if she was actually at work she could speak for herself instead of sending a minion.”
