Westmoreland commissioner criticizes 3.5% raises for elected county officials

Westmoreland County’s elected officials will receive bigger paychecks starting in January.

Annual cost-of-living increases for 2024 will total nearly 3.5% for county commissioners and row officers, marking the third year in a row that elected leaders will see a significant bump in pay.

Since the start of 2022, Westmoreland’s elected officials have received pay hikes totaling nearly 17%.

Westmoreland’s three commissioners will see an additional $3,200 in their paychecks next year. Commissioner Sean Kertes, as board chairman, is set to earn $98,942, and commissioners Doug Chew and Ted Kopas will be paid $95,418.

Kopas on Thursday renewed his call to cap pay hikes for elected officials.

“This brings a three-year total for elected officials to about 17%. That is obscene and absurd, and I believe more strongly than ever raises should be capped at 2.5%,” Kopas said. “This is not good for taxpayers and certainly not good for our labor union negotiations. Every action has consequences, and I’m hoping my colleagues realize we need to do things differently in Westmoreland County.”

Most row officers will earn nearly $2,800 more next year as part of their new base salary of $83,036. Westmoreland County District Attorney Nicole Ziccarelli will receive the largest raise, more than $7,300. Her $218,814 salary is set by the state Legislature and is $1,000 less than the annual pay earned as part of the statutory pay scale set for Common Pleas judges.

The pay hikes are determined by the consumer price index for Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and New Jersey that is calculated by the U.S. Department of Labor. That index takes into account average consumer spending differences over the previous 12 months for food, shelter, energy and other cost-of-living expenses.

Westmoreland’s elected officials received a nearly 7.8% raise this year and 5.6% in 2022.

Kopas, a Democrat who was appointed as a commissioner in August and elected to a full four-year term in November, said he will accept only a raise of 2.5% next year and would consider donating any additional money above that amount to charity.

Neither Kertes nor Chew, both Republicans, responded to requests for comment.

County officials are in talks with the Service Employee International Union Local 585 and SEIU Healthcare PA, the largest bargaining unit among Westmoreland government employees. The union represents about 500 workers at the courthouse, 911 emergency dispatch center, Area Agency on Aging and nurses and staff at Westmoreland Manor, the county-owned nursing home in Hempfield.

The union’s four-year contract expires at year’s end. Members received annual raises that averaged 2% over the course of the expiring agreement.

Union officials did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.

Controller Jeff Balzer, who serves as a member of the county’s salary board, said elected officials’ pay raises averaged just 2.1% over the last 12 years. At least twice since 2012, elected officials received no raises, and pay hikes in two other years were less than 1%, he said.

“I think the way we do it is fair. No one has control over it,” Balzer said.

Elected officials’ pay raises and the method by which they are determined was set by an ordinance approved by commissioners in the late 1990s.

Treasurer Jared Squires, who like Balzer has been in office since 2012 and was re-elected to a fourth term in November, defended the process for elected officials’ pay raises.

“We’ve had some years with 0% raises. I think it’s grandstanding and self-serving for his wannabe agenda,” Squires said of Kopas’ call for a pay hike cap.

Prothonotary Gina O’Barto, who is serving her first term as the head of the county office that oversees all civil and family court records, said future pay raises for elected officials should be determined by the county commissioners.

“I would agree with what they decide. I don’t have an opinion either way,” O’Barto said.