Letter to the editor: Ted Kopas deserves vote as next Westmoreland County commissioner

I want to encourage the citizens of Westmoreland County to vote for Ted Kopas to be our next county commissioner. He absolutely will get the vote from my family and myself because he is the most deserving candidate. I say that for these reasons:

• He served our county as a commissioner for 10 years without, to my knowledge, ever breaking a promise.

• I don’t think he would never pledge to give 50% of his salary to a county agency and then fail to do it. In fact, I believe that a commissioner’s salary is less than what he earned in the position that he resigned from in order to run for this office.

• He is a problem-solver and no doubt would have prevented the county from having to returns millions of dollars that the county received from the federal government for covid recovery. He would most assuredly have figured out how to use those dollars under the guidelines imposed by the government.

• I believe he would have voted against the 13% raise that the three current commissioners granted themselves, which also impacted their retirement pensions forever.

Kopas has the experience in economic development that we deserve. He has proven himself to be a person who we can trust. His honesty, integrity and knowledge will allow him to serve in a manner that we, the citizens, deserve.

Vote for Ted Kopas as our next county commissioner. You’ll be glad that you did.

Melvyn Smith

New Kensington