Allegheny County row officers fight back
PITTSBURGH -- Allegheny County's elected row officers fired back Thursday at critics who want to eliminate their positions, calling plans to merge the elected officials into the county's executive branch nothing more than political grandstanding.
"I've never, in 28 years of public service, heard a constituent say, 'These damn row offices!'" Allegheny County Democratic Chairman and Pittsburgh City Controller Tom Flaherty said.
Keeping the row offices -- which manage everything from filing court documents to sending tax bills to serving warrants -- elected is the only way to keep them accountable to the people of Allegheny County, Flaherty and other Democrats argued.
Council is considering putting a measure on the ballot next year to reduce the county's elected row officers from 10 to two. Only the controller and district attorney would remain elected.
Democratic County Executive Dan Onorato supports the consolidation plan. Other Democrats, including many who hold the row office jobs now, argued Thursday it wouldn't produce the savings or efficiency that supporters tout.
Coroner Cyril Wecht defied council members to find any waste or nepotism in his office. Creating an appointed medical examiner's office to replace his world-famous team would cost the county at least $500,000 more each year because the county would have to pay considerably higher salaries, Wecht said. Wecht, who makes $64,000 as the elected coroner, said it would cost around $200,000 to replace just him with a similarly qualified medical examiner.
Treasurer John Weinstein handed council a list of accomplishments he said his office would have been unable to perform under the proposed new system. One example, he said, was preserving the 2 percent discount for property taxpayers who pay their taxes by an early deadline each year.
"The county commissioners wanted to do away with that and I fought to keep it," Weinstein said. "The budget director at the time wanted to fire me, but I didn't work for him."
Clerk of Courts George Matta challenged council to form a second Home Rule Charter committee to study the benefits of consolidation. The current proposal is nothing but a politically motivated cosmetic change, he said.
Democrats traditionally dominate the row offices. Currently all but one -- one jury commissioner seat mandated by law to go to a Republican -- are Democrats.
Though they sponsored the bill to consolidate the offices, council Republicans were conspicuously absent from Thursday's hearing. Among the missing were Councilman Tom Shumaker, R-Pine, and Councilwoman Eileen Watt, R-Cheswick, who represent the Valley.
