Westmoreland County hires back former Shuman Juvenile Detention Center director

Westmoreland commissioners rehired the man who ran the county’s juvenile detention center nearly a decade ago before he took the helm of the of the now-shuttered Shuman Juvenile Detention Center in Pittsburgh. His new salary will pay him 64% more than the woman he is replacing.

Rich Gordon served as director of Westmoreland County’s Regional Youth Services Center from 2013-15. Commissioners voted to rehire him Wednesday.

“This is the best direction to move forward, with Rich Gordon,” said Commissioner Sean Kertes.

The facility in Hempfield includes a 16-bed detention center for juveniles and a shelter program for troubled youth that can hold up to eight residents.

Gordon left Westmoreland County to serve as a deputy director at Allegheny County’s 120-bed detention center in 2015. He served as that facility’s director from 2017 until last summer, when the state revoked its license after a series of inspections found continuing problems with operations.

Following Shuman’s closing, Gordon worked as an administrator in Allegheny County’s Children and Youth Services department.

Westmoreland County’s salary board, which includes all three commissioners and Controller Jeff Balzer, set Gordon’s new salary at $91,800. He will replace Nicole Kamer, who in August 2020 was named the detention center’s permanent director at a salary of $55,200. She previously served as the facility’s deputy director.

Balzer, who also serves as chairman of the county’s juvenile detention board, said Kamer will stay on as Gordon’s deputy.

Kamer declined comment.

Gordon becomes the seventh juvenile detention center director hired by Westmoreland officials in the last decade. He returns to the job he held during the county’s major renovation of the facility, which saw the creation of a shelter program and expansion of the detention center. It is one of three that remains open in Western Pennsylvania, along with juvenile centers in Beaver and Erie counties.

“We had a need and he is probably the best person in southwest Pennsylvania to run a children’s detention center and shelter,” Balzer said.

Westmoreland officials said they were unconcerned about Gordon’s job performance in Allegheny County, where the state’s Department of Human Services found continued failures in following regulations and remediating prior violations related to the medical treatment and care of residents. Shuman Center operated under a provisional license for years before it was revoked by the state last summer.

“There’s only so much a director can do,” Balzer said. “There were problems at Shuman Center that couldn’t get resolved, and they weren’t caused by the guy who was running it. Those problems started long before he was there.”

Gordon is scheduled to begin his new job on April 25.

As of Wednesday, 10 children were in detention and another seven were housed in the shelter program, officials said.

Gordon will be tasked with filling out a depleted staff. Eighteen percent of the facility’s workforce remains vacant, officials said.

“We’re are just trying to keep it open. We’re having staffing issues. We have substantially raised wages there,” said Commissioner Gina Cerilli Thrasher.