Some day Westmoreland County commissioner Tom Ceraso will get over the inconvenience of having to carry two cell phones: one issued by the county and used to make calls for county business and one he owns, used to make personal calls.
But as of now, Ceraso is miffed at the decision by his colleagues - commissioners Tom Balya and P. Scott Conner - to prohibit county workers from making personal calls from county-issued phones, and eliminating reimbursement for county-related calls made on personal phones.
Ceraso calls the move "ridiculous." We call it good business.
We see no reason why county employees should have to have a county-owned phone, paid for by taxpayers, available for their personal use, just as we see no reason why workers can't use county phones, and only county phones, to conduct county-related business.
If there were any room for negotiation, it would involve the use of county-owned phones for personal use. If a policy could be put in place, and effectively monitored, by which county workers would be allowed to use phones for personal use, provided they reimbursed the county, we would have no problem with it. There may come times, in an emergency for example, where use of a county phone for non-county business becomes necessary.
Allowing officials to use their own phones to conduct county business, and then be reimbursed, is another story because it may very well wind up costing taxpayers more.
While the new policy may create an inconvenience for Ceraso and others (apparently Balya and Conner don't feel there exists much of an inconvenience), the measure will help control costs and save taxpayers money. County officials say the new policy is the first step in an attempt to overhaul how county-issued phones, 137 of them, are distributed, used, and paid for. When service for those phones, currently administered by three providers, is consolidated, the county could save as much as $21,000.
If it takes inconvenience to save taxpayers money, we're all for it, and hope more such inconveniences are on the horizon.
