Proposed cap on raises for elected officials stalls in Westmoreland County
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Westmoreland’s Democratic minority commissioner claims his proposal to cap pay raises for elected county officials is being blocked by his Republican colleagues.
Commissioner Ted Kopas has lobbied for imposition of a 2.5% cap on all annual raises awarded to the county’s elected officials, saying the current system that controls future increases is outdated and has led to inflated pay for commissioners and row officers.
“This isn’t about theatrics. I crafted a resolution earlier this month and shared it via email with my colleagues. Doug Chew never responded and I had a conversation with Sean Kertes, who clearly saw value in what I was proposing but he’s not going to consider it,” Kopas said.
Kopas, who was appointed as commissioner last August and reelected with Kertes and Chew to full four-year terms that started in January, has criticized the series of raises county elected officials, including the commissioners, have received over the last two decades.
Elected officials since 2022 have received raises totaling nearly 17%. Those pay hikes reflected raises of 5.6% in 2022; 7.8% in 2023 and 3.5% this year.
The raises this year amounted to $3,200 in additional pay for the commissioners. Kertes, as board chairman, earns $98,942, and while Chew and Kopas are paid $95,418. Most row officers this year are paid $83,036, a figure that includes a raise of nearly $2,800 in 2024.
Those raises are automatically set as a result of a resolution adopted nearly three decades earlier by a prior board of commissioners. It links future pay hikes to the Consumer Price Index for Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and New Jersey, which 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.
As inflation continues, Kopas predicted raises for elected officials will increase in future years.
Kertes said the three most recent pay hikes may not be replicated in future years. He said it is premature to consider capping raises.
“It is a political motive of his. If we get significant raises in the future, it is something to talk about, but I don’t see that. Sure the figure has been high with recent inflation and I’ll be the first one to put a cap on them if these raises continue,” Kertes said.
Chew urged Kopas to drop the proposal to cap raises.
“It is clear this is a political stunt, when in his editorial he took a personal shot a me,” Chew said referring to Kopas’ mention of a Chew’s unfulfilled campaign pledge made in 2019 to donate 60% of his pay to help fund the county’s drug court program. “That issue was litigated in the primary and general elections in 2023 and we have moved on from that. I would prefer if Commissioner Kopas dropped the political antics. This is spit in the ocean.”
Commissioners earlier this year blamed the raises accepted by elected officials for difficult negotiations with the county’s largest labor union. After contentious bargaining, a new three-year deal was reached, including pay hikes that totaled 17% over the course of the contract.
The window to institute a cap on raises for elected officials starting in 2026 is closing.
State law requires any action taken to alter elected officials’ pay must be taken during an evening public meeting prior to the end of this year, Kopas said.
Commissioners conducted their last scheduled night meeting of the year on Thursday in Rostraver. Kopas’ pay hike cap was not considered.
County Treasurer Jared Squires, during public comment portion of the meeting, lobbied against any change in how elected officials’ raises are determined, and argued that the math Kopas used to defend his proposed cap was not sound and failed to adequately reflect the years that pay hikes were not implemented.
Squires said that over the last 13 years, elected county officials actually received average pay hikes of 2.25%.
Kopas’ proposed cap would have cost Squires $7,100 in pay over the last decade, and in the future, would result in salaries for elected officials far below rank-and-file county staff, according to the treasurer.
“In 68 years, the lowest paid county employee will be paid more than an elected official (under Kopas’ proposed cap). That’s in our lifetime,” Squires said. “I understand I am not going to win over people to my side, but you have to look at more than a single data point.”
Kopas characterized Squires’ opposition as flawed.
“This is a commonsense matter and despite how he wants you to trust his algebra, he is wrong. The numbers speak for themselves. His position is clearly out of touch with hardworking families who are struggling in Westmoreland County,” Kopas said.