Editorial: Allegheny County should set policy for pay increases

In 2019, a list of pay raises in the Pennsylvania governor’s office brought criticism.

Gov. Tom Wolf handed out increases to some of his top staffers, ranging from 7.7% to 36%.

It wasn’t that anyone questioned the work. People questioned the timing, which came just after the governor’s second inauguration, when he didn’t have to run for office again and political criticism didn’t sting quite the same way.

There also was the fact that high-ranking government officials don’t exactly make the median state income, which was under $32,000. The highest salary increase was more than that — about $33,000.

So this is definitely the kind of thing other elected officials would heed when giving out raises, right?

Allegheny County says otherwise.

Since 2019, several county staffers have posted considerable increases, which definitely can be attention-grabbing in the midst of a financial crisis that is hitting the area — and the nation — hard.

County Manager William McKain has seen his pay increase by more than $75,000 since 2019, now topping $235,000. Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald’s chief of staff, Jennifer Liptak, has gotten a total of more than $56,000 in raises in that time, now sitting at $182,000.

Senior Deputy County Manager Stephen Pilarsky saw his salary increase $44,000 to $160,000, while budget and finance director Mary Soroka’s raises total nearly $25,000 to sit at $143,750. That’s a total of $200,000 in increases for four people who now, collectively, make more than $720,000.

The totals are important because they show the percentage — averaged together, up 38%. McKain’s is more than 46% alone.

Are these employees worth that much? Not for us to say and also not the point.

What is a problem is that county council members say they were unaware of the increases, which were merely mixed into the stew of Allegheny County’s $360 million 2022 budget, which is more than 40% salaries.

“I voted for this budget, yet I had no idea that these raises were included,” council President Pat Catena, D-Carnegie, said. “I would not have voted for the budget had I known someone was going to get a (large) increase.”

Another issue is top salaries like McKain’s and Liptak’s are purely the prerogative of the county executive. Fitzgerald, like Wolf, is term-limited, which makes the bumps seem like parting gifts that will cost the county taxpayers for a longer time as they will impact pensions.

Catena introduced a bill to add more transparency to the process, saying council members should have the information before voting, which is true. But that puts all the onus on the staff that prepares and presents the budget and none on the council members who should be asking questions about not just what they are seeing in the budget numbers but what they aren’t seeing, too.

If council really wants to show attention and action, it shouldn’t just be about transparency. There should be policy and limits about specific approvals for pay raises beyond certain numbers or percentages.