Westmoreland County waives residency requirement for government workers
Westmoreland County commissioners waived for one year a residency requirement Thursday for all government employees, and officials suggested the change could become permanent.
A policy was enacted decades ago to ensure that employees at the courthouse and other county facilities were county residents. It was previously waived for certain essential positions such as nurses at Westmoreland Manor and guards at the jail to facilitate hiring for hard-to-fill jobs.
Residency requirements were also waived for new employees in other departments, such as 911 dispatchers and children’s bureau caseworkers, during the covid-19 pandemic. That was expanded in 2022 to include all county workers to help beef up the workforce.
“It’s worked very well,” said Commissioner Sean Kertes of the waivers. “Now we’re going to look beyond Westmoreland County to hopefully fill positions. We’re looking at this every year.”
The county has about 1,800 employees. There are 219 vacancies, including 98 unfilled jobs and nursing positions at the Manor, according to the county’s human resources office. In recent years, there have been more than 250 vacancies.
Information on how many employees live outside the county was not available Thursday.
Allegheny County continues to operate with a general residency requirement for its workforce, according to spokeswoman Abigail Gardner. New employees have one year to relocate into the county after starting work, she said.
Allegheny County has about 5,000 employees and 1,000 job vacancies. Gardner said the residency requirement was lifted to help fill numerous nursing vacancies at the four Kane Community Living Centers and guard positions at the Allegheny County Jail in Pittsburgh.
Westmoreland commissioners said hiring has improved as a result of the lifted residency requirement, and officials said a permanent rescinding of the policy could be beneficial to the county’s efforts to attract new residents.
“It allows us to invite people to take a job with the county and move here to be closer to their job,” Commissioner Doug Chew said.
Rich Cholodofsky is a TribLive reporter covering Westmoreland County government, politics and courts. He can be reached at rcholodofsky@triblive.com.
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