Starting Tuesday, the Westmoreland County Prison will be run by a privately employed administrator in what could be the first step toward privatizing the troubled county lockup. But officials with the United Mine Workers, the union that represents the prison's guards, claimed Thursday the county is threatening their jobs and pledged to battle tooth and nail to keep the prison in county government's hands. 'We are going to fight this,' vowed UMW Local 522 President Donald Svetkovich. The county commissioners voted unanimously yesterday to hire Cornell Corrections Inc. to provide a three-member team to run the prison for 120 days, starting Jan. 30. The Houston, Texas-based company will provide a project overseer, a warden and a security specialist at a cost not to exceed $89,222. Cornell was one of three national firms that answered an inquiry by the commissioners to provide temporary services in the wake of the security scandals that cost former warden Kurt Scalzott his job in December. Last summer, state police arrested convicted drug dealer Ronald Whethers of Fayette County and members of his drug network - including two prison guards - and charged them with helping Whethers sell drugs while he was an inmate. The arrests sparked a state grand jury investigation that found the prison was rife with security problems, lacked discipline and was plagued by poor management. The Cornell team replaces Sheriff Chris Scherer, who had agreed to step in as acting warden after Scalzott's dismissal. Prior to the commissioners' vote, the county prison board, which is made up of commissioners Tom Balya, Tom Ceraso and P. Scott Conner; Scherer; District Attorney John Peck; and Controller Jeffry Pavetti, agreed to recommend the hiring of Cornell Corrections. But the proposal was greeted with hostility by a contingent of prison union officials attending the meeting. They said the county was threatening their jobs, wasting taxpayer money on people who don't live here and ignoring qualified warden candidates from the current staff. Svetkovich, the union president, provided the commissioners with a number of newspaper articles about Cornell-run institutions, including one story about Cornell hiring three felons. But Balya suggested that those running 'glass prisons' shouldn't throw stones. 'Well, in all fairness to Cornell, all companies in America have made mistakes ... and frankly, someone could look at Westmoreland County right now and say the same thing,' he said. 'This proposal is only for 120 days,' Balya added. 'I think it gives us the opportunity to judge firsthand the capabilities of Cornell rather than reading anecdotal evidence.' But corrections officer Brad Tomasello, Local 522 vice president, said all the media reports of the prison controversies have unfairly branded the entire staff as incompetent. He complained that strangers are getting a fairer deal than the staff. 'All we ask is the opportunity to do our jobs regardless of what the newspapers say about us ... get rid of the trash like you are supposed to do, but the people who do their jobs don't deserve (the bad reputation),' he said. 'This house is not broke,' Tomasello told Balya, 'it just needs a little repair. You want to tear it all down.' Ceraso, the prison board chairman, said the private firm is the only way to get an unbiased view of the prison that the public will accept. 'There is not a governmental agency willing to come in and do a personnel evaluation,' Ceraso said, turning away suggestions that the state Department of Corrections be called in 'and make a recommendation on disciplinary matters.' 'At this time I think it's a good idea to have a set of eyes from outside the county ... something the people of Westmoreland County see as an independent investigation.' Ceraso said he is not in favor of turning over the entire prison operation to Cornell, but said he would keep an open mind. When union members claimed county officials were acting hastily, Ceraso said he thought they had waited long enough. 'For you to say we are in a hurry - frankly, there are people working in that prison for eight months who should possibly be in jail,' Ceraso said. Conner, an early champion of complete privatization of the prison, said he was pleased by yesterday's vote. Balya, who first raised the privatization idea in the meeting that resulted in Scalzott's dismissal, said if Cornell does a good job, he would be interested in exploring how the temporary contract could become permanent. 'I want to see how well Cornell can manage the facility and see how many problems we have been able to solve with them,' he said. Scherer and Pavetti, on the other hand, made it clear that they also wanted to pursue a search for a warden to hire - and buttress the prison board's power compared with the board of commissioners. 'I see this, personally, as a short-term solution. I believe that we can only recommend a contract to the commissioners ... but I think I should also point out that it is the inherent prerogative of the prison board to hire a warden, and if this board opts to hire a warden, that power rests with this board and not the board of commissioners,' Pavetti said. Later, after the vote was taken and the commissioners moved on to other business, prison union officials reiterated they are upset and vowed to fight the takeover, even in the political realm. 'They want to take our jobs. How about the United Mine Workers campaigning for Home Rule (and) take their jobs?' Svetkovich said.

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