Letter to the editor: We need qualified candidates in Westmoreland commissioner race

County commissioners receive a base annual salary above $90,000. They manage a budget of $365 million. That salary is attractive to many unqualified people, aspirational for some and just a nice gig for well qualified retirees.

Patricia Fritz, former Westmoreland County chief deputy sheriff, seems a good example of unqualified. Fritz’s campaign advocates implementation of a competitive bidding process for county contracts and a 5% cut in senior citizen county property taxes. Fritz worked for 23 years as a supervisor for PennDOT. That last is a qualification to drive Uber.

County commissioners already use competitive bidding. A 5% discount is less than $25 a year for most households.

Fritz appears unqualified and cynical, and the 5% discount seems in violation of 18 U.S. Code 597 — expenditures to influence voting.

Qualified candidates should have: administrative and management backgrounds — not mere supervision; education and experience with budgeting, accounting, finance, purchasing, project management, hiring/firing, contract/agreement negotiation and dispute resolution; experience in performance monitoring and reporting using capacity, utilization, efficiency, critical success factors and on-time data; experience with cost/benefit, net present value and lowest cost of ownership calculations; and an understanding of expense vs. investment. These are not the skills of supervisors or career politicians. They are the skills of CEOs, successful entrepreneurs and professional, managerial and educational people — especially those with relevant business-related degrees.

Regardless of party affiliation, I’d like to see the best qualified candidates elected, wouldn’t you? Vote wisely.

Jim Baker

Greensburg