County chief clerkship changing hands
Those who watch county government the year after an election expect changes, but one agenda item Monday as the Washington County Commissioners reorganized took some by surprise.
After the almost-routine items of business – reelecting Larry Maggi chairman of the board and Diana Irey Vaughan vice chairman – the commissioners appointed Irene M. Reese as Washington County chief clerk to replace Mary Helicke, who plans to retire later this month.
Reese, an analyst in the county finance department, will “shadow” Helicke in the chief clerkship for the next few weeks until the county finds a replacement for her in finance. Her salary will be $50,000 a year. Helicke’s title was changed to temporary deputy chief clerk, and she plans to stay on the job for the next few weeks at her pro-rated salary of $53,044. The commissioners, as part of their salary board reorganization, said management employees are eligible for 3 percent raises this year, and they also granted raises to union employees as called for in their contracts, except for assistant district attorneys and members of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees who ended 2015 without negotiating new pacts.
Before coming to work for the county in 2010, Reese, a Prosperity resident, was vice president and controller for Clover Hill Foods, Bridgeville.
“It really is an honor to have been selected out of all the possible candidates to be approached by the commissioners and for them to unanimously agree that I would be well-suited for the job and for Roger (Metcalfe, county finance director) to concur,” Reese said Monday afternoon.
Helicke has been chief clerk since 2004. She worked in the domestic relations office as a caseworker supervisor and in child care information services and was first hired by the county as secretary to former county commissioner Metro Petrosky in the 1990s.
“I was never involved in government,” Helicke said, before applying to assist Petrosky, noting one of her interview questions was to name the other two county commissioners. She could identify Commissioner Frank Mascara, but figured she’d never land the job because she had never heard of then-Commissioner Edward M. Paluso.
She said after retiring she intends to spend more time with her husband, Jim, and other family members and learn to golf.
The three-page job description for chief clerk includes duties in open records under the Right-to-Know Act; serving as liaison between the board of commissioners and elected officials, directors and department managers; preparing agendas for public meetings, resolutions, general correspondence and maintaining a central filing system; reviewing county fiscal operations; assuring that policies, legal contracts, agreements, leases, grant applications, ordinances and regulations approved by the board of commissioners are executed; attesting to documents; and advertising public meetings.
The position requires a $5,000 performance bond and a $3,000 notary bond.
Newly sworn-in Clerk of Courts Frank Scandale said he is retaining Tamera S. Mankey as deputy clerk of courts, the same position she held under the outgoing officeholder, Barbara Gibbs. Kristin Marcy, assistant deputy clerk of courts, who ran against Scandale in the Democratic primary last May, will also remain on the job.
“I left that up to her,” Scandale said before the salary board meeting began. “She’s an asset. She got a lot of experience. She hasn’t told me otherwise, so I’m assuming she’s going to continue to work in the same capacity.”
Prothonotary Joy Schury Ranko will retain Judy Lynne Yater as deputy, but Yater, who has worked for Washington County since 1982, said her retirement will take effect Feb. 16. Sandra Bedillion will become Ranko’s deputy and Jacklyn Avolio will be assistant deputy.
District Attorney Gene Vittone named Assistant District Attorney Jerry Moschetta to be deputy district attorney in charge of the special victim’s unit at a salary of $70,000 per year. Dennis Paluso, deputy district attorney and chief of litigation, will continue in that position at a salary of $76,490 per year. Cassidy Miller, former law clerk to Judge John DiSalle, will be working as a full-time assistant district attorney replacing Moschetta. She was sworn in Dec. 2.
Public Defender Glenn Alterio received permission to promote Assistant Public Defender Michael Mihalov to a full-time employee at a salary of $56,390 per year. The salary board abolished a part-time position in the defender’s office paying $39,472.
President Judge Katherine B. Emery’s motion to grant booking center manager Larry Garner a pay increase beyond 3 percent died for lack of a second.