Jan 5, 2018 3 min read

For the first time, the base pay for Washington County commissioners has topped $90,000.

Under a formula members of the board adopted in 2002, Washington County elected officials receive automatic pay raises of 3 percent annually.

Only one commissioner currently serving on the board, Commission Vice Chairman Diana Irey Vaughan, took part in that vote. Then-commissioners Bracken Burns and John Bevec are long gone.

Fifteen years after that vote, the base salary for Irey Vaughan and Commissioner Harlan Shober is $91,207. Commissioner Larry Maggi receives an additional $1,000 because he is chairman of the board.

A news story from 2005 recorded that Irey Vaughan called unsuccessfully for a special meeting to enact a pay freeze, but her motion during a regular meeting of the board died for lack of a second. Most elected officials also declined to accept a pay raise during 2010, a year in which commissioners Maggi, Irey Vaughan and Burns voted to raise the county tax levy.

The base pay for most other county elected officials is $85,257. The district attorney, who must be a law school graduate, is an exception. District Attorney Gene Vittone’s earnings are pegged at $179,299, part of which will be reimbursed by the state this summer.

At the annual salary board reorganization meeting Tuesday afternoon, the commissioners and Controller Michael Namie also granted 3 percent raises to salaried employees.

Among the actions affecting various departments were:

• The creation of a full-time, union deputy sheriff’s position paying $20.49 an hour.
• The renaming of the chief coroner’s assistant to chief deputy coroner, at a salary of $46,798.
• Replacing the part-time assistant deputy recorder of deeds, which had paid $21.83 an hour, with a full-time assistant at a salary of $46,798 a year. A part-time and a full-time position were abolished to compensate for the change. The new assistant’s position had not yet been filled. In the tax revenue department, the assistant chief assessor will receive a $5,630 raise, bringing the salary to $52,000 a year.
• In the controller’s office, the payroll supervisor received a $5,000 raise to $53,109; audit manager, $4,000 raise to $54,305; and payroll administrator, $2,000 raise to $41,782.
• In the public defender’s office, a full-time defense attorney’s union position was created at $62,584, and a full-time legal secretary’s union position was created at $17.97 an hour.
• In the purchasing department, the fixed asset manager/buyer will receive a $1,323 raise, bringing the salary to $38,834.
• The position of county health center human resources generalist was abolished now that Premier Healthcare LLC of Philadelphia owns what is now Premier Washington Health Center in Chartiers Township. Michael Edgar, who formerly did that job for the county, is human resources director for Premier, said Kathleen Bali, county human resources director.
• In the maintenance department, the director of buildings and grounds received a $4,219 raise, bringing the salary to $66,019 a year.
• The county will advertise for a full-time attorney at the Children and Youth Services agency, with a salary of $74,000 a year.
• The county is negotiating new contracts with jail guards and sheriff’s deputies, whose contracts expired Dec. 31. The jail guards are in the process of decertifying their affiliation with the Teamsters union, and no negotiations can be scheduled until that is completed, Bali said.