Fired Westmoreland election bureau director claims commissioners set her up to fail
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Former Westmoreland County Election Bureau Director JoAnn Sebastiani said she worked sometimes 16 hours a day and struggled through health issues as she was belittled and set up for failure by her bosses before being ultimately fired without cause.
Sebastiani, 63, appeared with her lawyers at virtual news conference Tuesday to elaborate on allegations raised in a federal lawsuit filed earlier this week in which she claimed county commissioners violated her rights, harassed and improperly fired her as director of the election bureau after just 10 months on the job.
“They were just trying to set me up for failure. All the treatment that I received there by the commissioners was an extremely toxic work environment. It was abusive, it was traumatizing,” Sebastiani said.
Commissioners fired Sebastiani in June following what they said was a problem-plagued presidential election last fall where there were delays in sending voters mail-in ballots and confusion at the polls.
Other issues surfaced during and immediately after this spring’s primary. Commissioners claimed two races were left off some ballots, there were errors associated with the posting of election results and personnel and management issues impacted office operations.
In her lawsuit, Sebastiani claims she was blamed for mistakes made by office staffers, private vendors and decisions implemented by commissioners. She also claimed she was mistreated, coerced into changing her political registration from Democrat to Republican, verbally abused and was berated for medical issues that stemmed from a fall she had while on the job working in the tax office in 2018.
Commissioner Sean Kertes and Doug Chew, both Republicans, and Democrat Gina Cerilli Thrasher, approved Sebastiani’s firing in June. None of the commissioners responded to requests for comment on Tuesday. The county solicitor, Melissa Guiddy, issued a statement on behalf of them: “At this time the county is unable to comment on the pending litigation involving Ms. Sebastiani.”
Sebastiani said she suffered a concussion and broken nose during a fall in the courthouse parking garage two years before ascending to the election bureau director’s job. The injury resulted in lingering speech and memory issues that commissioners and other county officials berated and insulted her for when she struggled to deal with those symptoms.
“My health declined during all of this. I still have symptoms, now declining symptoms, from the way I was treated in my job,” Sebastiani said. “All of this, the way I was treated, really declined my health. I was physically sick to go to work every day.”
Attorney Al Lindsay said Sebastiani was fired in part as retaliation for exercising her First Amendment rights and the lawsuit also alleges civil rights violations. He said commissioners improperly denied Sebastiani’s request to take a medical leave and rejected her request to receive worker’s compensation benefits.
Sebastiani’s job performance did not warrant her firing, according to the lawsuit.
“This was probably the most controversial and difficult election in the last 100 years and to take the head of the election bureau and put her through these circumstances is very surprising,” Lindsay said.
Sebastiani claimed the demand for her to switch party affiliation was an implied threat against her job. According to the lawsuit, Sebastiani said Kertes’ secretary passed along a message from the commissioner in which she was told to cite dislike of vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris because of her race as the reason for the party switch.
“When I got the phone call, I wasn’t quite sure what was happening. All I kept thinking was, ‘Why are they asking me to do this?’ I didn’t feel like my political affiliation had anything to do with it since it was a nonpartisan position. I did find out the commissioners working as the board of elections were running that office, not me, they were. So, I pretty much felt I had to do what I was told to do.”