Westmoreland controller blasts commissioner for failure to meet campaign pledge

Westmoreland Commissioner Doug Chew on Thursday defended his decision to withhold a promised donation to fund the county’s drug court program.

During his campaign for county commissioner in 2019, Chew, a first-term Republican, pledged to donate 60% of his salary to help fund drug court. After questioned by county Controller Jeffrey Balzer about that pledge during a public meeting Thursday, Chew conceded he had not done so.

“You made the promise, and you broke the promise,” Balzer said.

Chew said he discussed drug court funding with the two judges who oversee the program and claimed he was told his donation was not needed.

“I got an email from the judges that no amount of additional money will help,” Chew said, insisting that he donated money to local charities instead.

Thursday’s dispute arose after Chew and Commissioner Gina Cerilli Thrasher, a Democrat, voted against proposed raises for controller’s office employees after they approved pay hikes for staffers in other departments.

Balzer, a Republican, lashed out at the two commissioners. He claimed they lied about the financial ramifications of the raises and contended they verbally consented to the raises earlier in the week.

“Ms. Cerilli (Thrasher) is a bully, and her reputation of intimidation is well known in this county,” Balzer said.

He later accused Chew as acting on Thrasher’s behalf.

“He’s like a lapdog. There is Zoey Meatball (Thrasher’s dog) and Zoey Doug,” Balzer said.

The dispute then turned to Chew’s campaign promise. Balzer said Chew, who as a commissioner earns about $81,000 a year, owes nearly $73,000 to the county after 18 months on the job as a result of his pledge.

Chew said the drug court judges last year told him the program was fully funded and his donation wasn’t needed.

Later Thursday, Chew provided the Tribune-Review a list of dozens of charitable organizations he said he gifted over the last two years. He declined to disclose the amount of the donations.

“I gave substantial amounts to the charities listed,” Chew said in a text message.

Thursday’s dispute came after Balzer pitched raises for a handful staffers. He said the raises were part of a financial package that would be a cost savings to taxpayers after two positions in his office are to be eliminated.

He said his employees are underpaid and some have been hired away by the city of Greensburg. The proposed raises would have brought the salaries for two women up to the level of the male workers they replaced, Balzer said.

Raises for dozens of employees in multiple departments that totaled more than $67,000 were approved by the three commissioners and Balzer in their role as the county’s salary board. Those raises averaged between $3,000 to $5,000 for the employees and were offset in part by the elimination of other positions.

Commissioner Sean Kertes, along with Balzer, supported the controller’s office raises. By virtue of the split 2-2 vote, the proposal failed.

Thrasher said she voted against the raises for the controller’s office because there was no guarantee that at least one job would eventually be cut upon a current staffer’s retirement.

“All of our employees are underpaid, not just this department. To do that, we have to raise taxes,” Thrasher said of the controller’s raise proposal. “He (Balzer) does not have to go on the record to raise taxes and we do.”

Commissioners awarded more than $125,000 in raises to other staffers in the controller’s office last October, she said.