Westmoreland election bureau director post to remain vacant
Sep. 29—Westmoreland County commissioners said Wednesday they will not hire a new election bureau director until after voters cast ballots in November.
Officials said interviews are ongoing to fill the job that has been vacant since June, when commissioners fired the elections director after she served just 10 controversial months on the job.
"This close to the election, we will allow the current team in place to continue working as they currently are," said Commissioner Sean Kertes.
Commissioners cited performance issues, including two races being left off some ballots during last spring's primary when they confirmed in July that Director JoAnn Sebastiani was fired. Sebastiani has since filed a federal lawsuit against the county and all three commissioners, claiming she was fired for political reasons and was subjected to a difficult workplace.
County officials moved even before the primary to strip Sebastiani of some responsibilities when commissioners transferred Public Works Director Greg McCloskey to the election bureau to beef up its administrative functions. McCloskey, along with Scott Ross, the county's Computer Information System's director, nowserve as interim directors of the election bureau.
Commissioners this summer also reorganized the election bureau. An assistant director's job, which had been vacant since last fall, was eliminated, and three middle manager jobs were created. Two of those positions are filled and commissioners said Wednesday that a quality assurance manager is expected to be hired in the coming days.
"Elections is a very unique role to fill and, as you saw from other counties throughout the state, everyone is looking for someone who has elections experience. We are trying to find the right fit for Westmoreland County. We are taking our time on this," Kertes said.
Beth Lechman, who resigned last year as the county's election bureau director, was hired earlier this month to the same job in Centre County. At the time of her resignation, Lechman, a county employee since 1997 who served more than a decade in the election bureau before taking over the directorship in 2016, earned $69,000 annually.
Her new salary in Centre County, which is about half the size of Westmoreland County, is $85,000.
Sebastiani served as a deputy director in Westmoreland County's tax office before she was hired as election bureau director last year at an annual salary of about $53,000.
Commissioners said they have not set a salary for the vacant election bureau director's job.
"We haven't discussed salary," said Commissioner Gina Cerilli Thrasher.
Meanwhile, staff continues to prepare for the Nov. 2 election.
Ross said more than 18,000 mail-in ballot applications have been received. The deadline to request a mail-in ballot is Oct. 26. More than 13,000 voters cast ballots by mail in the May primary. Nearly 60,000 mail-in ballots were received last November for the presidential election.
The first batch of ballots is expected to be mailed to voters in about a week to 10 days, Ross said.
Rich Cholodofsky is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Rich at 724-830-6293, rcholodofsky@triblive.com or via Twitter .
