'It's win-win for everybody,' says Tom Ceraso

When Westmoreland County Commissioner Tom Ceraso rejoins the Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County next month, he will become the highest-paid employee at the largest public water authority in the state.

Ceraso should be quite familiar with the authority.

The commissioner from New Kensington started there as a meter reader, rose to vice president of the union and has been on a leave of absence since he was elected a county commissioner in 1999 so he could retain his pension benefits, just in case he ever returned.

But during that decade, the authority has managed to creep back into Ceraso's public life, and not always in a positive way:

• In 2005, he and authority manager Chris Kerr took a lobbyist-paid trip to the Masters golf tournament in Augusta, Ga. Ceraso repaid the $3,000 cost of the trip after the junket became public and said he would no longer accept such gifts.

It was Kerr who stepped forward to defend Ceraso's unusually long leave of absence, saying it is permitted under authority rules. Ceraso disclosed the arrangement with the authority when he ran for office.

• Two years later, the public design firm that employed Ceraso's wife was hired as a subcontractor to design the authority's headquarters in New Stanton. Ceraso denied having any role in the selection and said lawyers advised him there were no ethics violations with regard to his wife's employment.

• Ceraso campaigned in 1999 as a proponent of the 14-year contract awarded to Research Development and Management Inc., a Forest Hills firm, to manage the authority.

It was RDM that offered him the $125,000-a-year job running the authority's distribution system.

"I don't think there's anything improper with what they did," Ceraso said in a phone interview Saturday. "Obviously, I have a history being in that business. Over my 10 years as county commissioner, I was able to stay in touch with water and sewage issues because of my background with the authority."

Ceraso said he supports RDM because the private sector can run authority business more cost-effectively.

Ceraso served on the Governor's Task Force for Water and Sewage Sustainability and a statewide sewage advisory committee dealing with state Department of Environmental Protection violations. He said his work as a commissioner allowed him to develop relationships with municipalities across the authority's service area.

"It's a win-win for everybody," Ceraso said.

RDM is paid $950,0000 a year to oversee authority operations — including hiring. However, Ceraso's salary — identical to that of the assistant manager who is retiring June 1 — will come from funds collected from water customers.

"It's a good win for the authority. He understands the water business and county business," said authority board member Jerome DeFabo Sr.

As a commissioner, Ceraso, whose father was once the authority's solicitor, voted to either appoint or reappoint DeFabo and the other four members of the authority board.

Ceraso is returning to an agency that provides water to about 120,000 residential customers throughout much of Westmoreland County and parts of Allegheny, Fayette, Indiana, Somerset and Armstrong. It has a $42 million annual budget, 275 full-time employees and a $15 million payroll.

It operates four water-treatment plants and a distribution network of 58 tanks that store up to 98 million gallons of water, more than 2,220 miles of pipe, 40 pump stations, and more than 8,000 fire hydrants. It provides sewer service to about 5,000 customers in Avonmore, White Oak and Ligonier Borough.

The journey's start

The path to Ceraso's new position ran directly past Resource Development and Management Inc., the firm whose ties to the authority are not without controversy.

Through it all, Ceraso has been the company's staunch defender.

In 1999, when two county commissioners wanted to thwart RDM's contract with the authority — claiming it had been penned behind closed doors with no proposals from other companies — Ceraso stood up to defend the firm.

"We put our trust in RDM to run the place. We lay the budget out for RDM to run and they bring in the numbers," said board member Joseph Dreskler Jr.

RDM President Joe Hohman said Ceraso was the lone candidate considered for the job. "If the board had a problem with a candidate, we would not have gone forward with him," Hohman said.

Political ties

RDM's political ties run deep in and outside of Westmoreland County.

Hohman is a former planning director in Allegheny County.

Shareholder James Dodaro is a longtime fixture in Allegheny County politics and is a former member of the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission and solicitor for Allegheny County.

And RDM principals and employees have long been faithful political donors to Ceraso and his fellow Democrat, Commissioner Tom Balya.

Not a typical arrangement

RDM's agreement in Westmoreland County is unique among large public water utilities.

"Most of our large operations are run in-house by full-time operators and management staff," said John Brosious, deputy director of the Pennsylvania Municipal Authorities Association.

A Regional Water Management Task Force study, conducted in 2006 at the University of Pittsburgh to explore the potential to regionalize public water service in southwestern Pennsylvania, identified Westmoreland's authority as a "regional system that can work."

Ty Gourley, who oversaw that study, said the authority's set-up, where an appointed board of directors works with a private manager, could be the wave of the future. "A publicly accountable board with a private manager is a useful mode for folks to consider," Gourley said.

Westmoreland County's authority, created in 1942, operated for decades under management from the private sector. In the early 1990s, the authority hired RDM to oversee the transition from private management to in-house administrators.

In 1999, the board opted to return to private management. Kerr, who had been an authority employee, was hired by RDM and assigned to run the authority.

Additional Information:

At a glance

Highest paid employees of Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County

1. *James Ray, assistant manager, $124,800

2. John Ashton, production manager, $112,500

3. Mark Shaffer, manager operations/distribution, $104,500

4. Max Fontaine, manager of engineering, $103,000

5. William Castelli, water distribution facilities superintendent, $98,300

6. David Connolly, general foreman, $97,300

7. Ronald Mellinger, distribution superintendent, $91,800

8. Gary Sheridan, land management superintendent, $91,700

9. John Paul Shuey, construction superintendent, $90,500

10. Stephen Miller, IT superintendent, $88,000

* Westmoreland County Commissioner Tom Ceraso will assume Ray's job next month