Westmoreland Register of Wills Office rebounds from year of disarray

On a quiet Friday afternoon, Westmoreland County register of wills staffers worked as usual to process court filings and waited on customers.

It was like any other day at the courthouse — but a far cry from the disorganization and disarray that plagued the court-filing office for more than a year and ultimately ended in the ouster of three-term Republican Register of Wills Sherry Magretti Hamilton in September.

“We’re fully staffed. The backlogs are all resolved. Appeals go out every day, and adoptions are recorded. Nothing sits around here anymore,” said acting Register of Wills Katie Pecarchik, who has served in that role since mid-September.

Pecarchik worked as a clerk in the office for two decades before retiring last year. She was brought back amid the turmoil that roiled the office and led to legal disputes and a court-led effort to remove Hamilton for lack of oversight and failure to adhere to court orders that required improvement in operations.

The office is where wills and estates are filed, adoptions and guardianships are processed and marriage licenses are approved.

Last May, Hamilton was found in contempt of court following a nearly yearlong process. It included court intervention that sought to reverse what officials said had become ongoing issues of missed deadlines and other failures such as untimely processing of adoption records and late filings of appeals. Staff levels fell through attrition from resignations and retirements.

County officials claimed Hamilton rarely came to work and failed to replace staff, which left the office severely understaffed and unable to perform its required functions. Westmoreland County Common Pleas Judge Harry Smail Jr. in June stripped Hamilton of her oversight of the office and appointed Greensburg attorney Jim Antoniono as its conservator.

Hamilton continued to draw her nearly $90,000 annual salary and was required to report to the courthouse for work without having authority over office functions.

As part of an agreement with the court to avoid a potential jail sentence for contempt of court, Hamilton agreed to resign at the end of the year and pay a $10,000 fine. She accelerated her resignation and left office in September. County officials Friday said she paid her fine to the county treasury in November.

Antoniono was paid $17,000 for his work as conservator, a role that ended in September after Pecarchik was elevated to serve as the acting register of wills.

Pecarchik said implementation of new internal policies enabled office staff to keep up with the work. She now has a staff of 12 employees with no positions vacant.

“Nothing is on hold. Nothing is laying around in piles or backed up,” Pecarchik said. “We finally got our books balanced, and we’re on time with our payments. We now work as a team. We’re cross-training the entire staff. The work here is never going to pile up again.”