Editorial: Westmoreland County has to answer for hiring decisions

Westmoreland County government has some questions it needs to answer when it comes to hiring.

On Wednesday, county commissioners voted to rehire Rich Gordon to run the Regional Youth Services Center. At first glance, this isn’t a big deal. People with a specific skill set are often known to leave an employer for a new challenge, a bigger paycheck or a better role only to return later. It makes sense, especially within the interlocking worlds of government agencies.

The issue here is that Gordon left to go to Allegheny County’s 120-bed Shuman Juvenile Detention Center in Pittsburgh, where he started as deputy director in 2015 and took over the director position in 2017.

Shuman was closed in 2021 after the state pulled its license — its fourth provisional license after six years of deficiencies. The center’s demise came after failures like the kids who needed medication and didn’t receive it or the one who overdosed on heroin in a bathroom with medical help not called for at least 37 documented minutes.

The state did not pull punches in its criticisms of Shuman, accusing it of “gross incompetence, negligence and misconduct in operating a facility likely to constitute immediate and serious danger to the life and health of the children in care.”

So, what do Westmoreland leaders say about hiring the man steering that ship?

“We had a need, and he is probably the best person in southwest Pennsylvania to run a children’s detention center and shelter,” said Controller Jeff Balzer, who sits on the county salary and juvenile detention boards.

One reason for that was said to be burnout among the existing leadership seeking new opportunities. Perhaps that had something to do with the way the county valued that leadership.

Gordon was paid $119,000 to operate Shuman and will get $90,812 to run the Westmoreland facility that is 80% smaller. That’s 64% more than the $55,217 the county paid his predecessor, Nicole Kamer.

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

But the county dismisses questions about Gordon’s tenure at Shuman by saying those were existing problems he couldn’t be expected to fix. Then why does it think he is the best person to bring in to correct existing problems in Westmoreland?

The various defenses of the hiring seem just that — defensive.

What the commissioners and the rest of the salary board need to remember is that this job is about more than an office and a paycheck. This position is about responsibility — for the kids in detention, for the ones in the center’s homeless shelter program and for the best interest of the county.

And, ultimately, the people who did the hiring are responsible for not just the decision they made but why and how they arrived at it.