May 12, 2021 5 min read

Washington County Commissioner Larry Maggi’s May 4 op-ed, “Time to examine county form of government,” was an interesting read, but not factually accurate. While Mr. Maggi is right in saying that Washington County is an antiquated county, he is wrong about needing a change in its form of government. Washington County is antiquated because of our antiquated leaders who have been in office for decades.

The county needs new leadership, new technology, and progress, not the same old leaders. Mr. Maggi is right about needing term limits, but comes across as hypocritical because he is in his fifth four-year term as commissioner. Washington County has too many politicians who have been in office 20-plus years. He is correct in saying they all must go!

Mr. Maggi has been an elected official for almost 30 years and has benefited greatly from what he calls the “highest salaries among commissioners in the region.” And now that he is in the twilight of his career, he calls for changes and is now magically in favor of term limits and saving taxpayer money? How can you be in your fifth term and call for term limits? If he were truly upset with these “highest salaries” and believes in term limits, it is time for him to immediately resign his seat.

Mr. Maggi is correct in saying we have a large number of elected officials running various offices, including myself as register of wills. According to his op-ed, for 240 years, “the only thing that really has changed in the past 240 years is that salaries have greatly increased while the duties of these offices have stayed the same.” I can’t speak for everyone’s office, so I will focus on the register of wills. In 1790, the population of Washington County was 23,892; in 2010, the population was 207,820, a nearly tenfold increase in population which would equate to a tenfold increase in deaths and other work required in the register of wills office. Back in 1781, we did not complete marriage licenses; we did not submit inheritance tax; for a small period we completed birth and death records; orphans court was added to the register of wills office and many other important changes. The register of wills office is different than it was 240 years ago. While Mr. Maggi notes that these offices cost taxpayer dollars to operate, our filing fees cover the cost of the register of wills office, so no taxpayer money is used to run it, unlike the commissioners’ office. The register of wills is a profit center for Washington County while the commissioners’ office is not.

If he was so concerned about taxpayer money, why did Mr. Maggi, along with Commissioners Diana Irey-Vaughan and Nick Sherman vote down my request to reduce the register of wills 2021 budget by 20% and vote against my office reducing the number of staff? I requested to cut the register of wills budget by $67,943.10 and reduce my staff. All three commissioners gave the office a larger budget than requested and denied me from reducing my staff from six to five employees to save money. The commissioners increased my request by $80,632.09, even though I did not want this in my budget. They do not seem too concerned about taxpayer money if they are increasing budgets above the requested amounts.

Democrats ran Washington County for the last 100 years. Now that Republicans such as myself have been voted into office, Mr. Maggi has lost power and control, he wants to take his ball home so no one else gets to play. His actions of voting to increase my budget demands and increase my staffing above my requests show his actions do not match his words.

Mr. Maggi’s real objective is to take away the power and control of separately elected people and consolidate that power and control into the hands of one county executive who can rule as Governor Wolf rules Pennsylvania. Washington County does not want a local version of Governor Wolf. Power and control should be in the hands of the people through individually elected individuals who are not political appointees.

If we want to make real, productive change in county government, we need to demand more accountability, more transparency and remove those who have been office for decades. There is way too much power and greed in those who run Washington County because their actions never match their words. So, let’s see if Mr. Maggi is really for term limits. Any elected official who has been in office for more than 10 years, please resign immediately! That should help solve the problem Mr. Maggi is so concerned about. I challenge him to be the first and set the example to show his words match his actions.

James Roman is Washington County Register of Wills/Clerk of Orphans Court.