Quality assurance manager hired for Westmoreland elections, pay is $80K

Westmoreland County will pay $80,000 a year to the man hired to serve as the quality assurance manager for the election bureau.

Commissioners created the position this year to serve as a backstop for potential problems in the department that oversees elections. This week, the commissioners — acting as the county’s salary board — set the pay for the position. It is $20,000 more than first planned.

Greg Kline, 53, of Herminie, a former corporate controller with oil and gas company Huntley & Huntley was tabbed as the quality assurance manager. His duties will include more than just oversight of the election bureau. He started work on Oct. 4.

Commissioner Sean Kertes said Kline’s initial assignment will be to oversee and create job plans and procedures for election bureau operations but also serve in the same capacity throughout county government.

“This is a long-term investment for not just for the election bureau but for all the other offices at the Westmoreland County Courthouse,” Kertes said.

For now, Kline will be working exclusively in the election bureau, but he is assigned to the county’s computer information systems department. Information Systems Director Scott Ross and Public Works Director Greg McCloskey have served as interim election bureau directors since June after commissioners fired election JoAnn Sebastiani after a troubled year on the job.

Kline’s job was created in the aftermath of a problematic primary election that saw delays in the mailing of ballots, issues involving printed ballots sent to voters and on machines at the precincts. Officials revamped election bureau functions and installed an office manager as part of reorganization approved this summer.

Meanwhile, a full-time director for the election bureau has yet to be hired. Commissioners said a renewed focus on finding a new director will come after the Nov. 2 election.

Kline’s salary is a departure from the department’s previous pay scale.

Sebastiani, who was hired after serving as the deputy director of the county’s tax office, earned an annual salary of $53,000 to run the election bureau. Her predecessor resigned in August 2020 earning about $69,000 a year.

Commissioners said they have not decided on a salary range for the new director.

“This is a position that is going to have a lot of accountability, similar to that of the director of the election bureau. Quality assurance is one of the important things that lacked in the previous office (leadership),” said Commissioner Doug Chew.

Kline holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting and management from the University of Pittsburgh and a master’s degree in energy business from the University of Tulsa.

“He brings from his previous position quality assurance experience that fits our needs,” McCloskey said. “He will take our core functions, identified as weaknesses, and restructure them and create processes around those functions.”