Westmoreland DA to add information officer, fiscal coordinator/grant writer

Westmoreland County District Attorney Nicole Ziccarelli said three new jobs in her office will improve transparency and enhance the prosecutor’s efforts to secure additional public funding for services.

The county’s salary board, which includes the three commissioners and Controller Jeffrey Balzer, signed off on Ziccarelli’s plan to create the new staff positions in the district attorney’s office, moves that will cost taxpayers more than $100,000 annually.

“People were expecting change, and we are delivering change,” said Ziccarelli, a first-term Republican who took office in January.

The positions include a public information officer who will earn $50,000 annually and a fiscal coordinator and grant writer approved for a yearly salary of $45,200. Neither job has been filled.

Since taking office, Ziccarelli has served as the district attorney office’s lone voice. Throughout her first seven months on the job, the office has released information through news releases emailed by the district attorney’s executive assistant and attributed to the district attorney.

The public information officer will take over those duties and administer social media and a Crimewatch webpage that will be unveiled later this year and designed to detail prosecution efforts, compile statistics and make disclosures related to other office initiatives, Ziccarelli said.

The Westmoreland District Attorney’s Office is the largest county in the state without a public information officer, she said.

“This is uncharted territory for this office,” she said. “I will still be available, but this person will always be able to be reached on a consistent basis.”

Once hired, a fiscal officer will oversee office spending and applications for grants that officials anticipate will increase prosecutorial efforts, including more than $180 million now available through state and federal programs allocated toward firearms prosecutions and to enhance local police service.

Ziccarelli said attorney Alex Brown also was hired as the part-time solicitor for the office. Brown will earn $7,700 as the office’s chief counsel.

The office has a $4.5 million annual budget and employs 19 assistant district attorneys. There are four vacant prosecutor positions, Ziccarelli said.

The new jobs won’t increase the office’s overall spending, she said.

Spending cuts and other decreased expenses related to retirements and resignations trimmed more than $300,000 from the office budget so far this year.

“Those savings are enough to offset these new expenses,” Ziccarelli said.