Nov 18, 2018 3 min read

Westmoreland County commissioners approved a resolution that will clear the path for out-of-county applicants to be hired for certain county positions.

Previously, the policy required those who wished to work for the county to live within its borders. At their Thursday meeting, however, the commissioners moved to hire from anywhere for correctional officers at the county prison, telecommunication officers in the public safety department, aging care managers at the Area Agency on Aging and county caseworkers at the Children’s Bureau.

“Unfortunately, we have critical positions and we don’t have enough applicants to fill those positions,” said Commissioner Gina Cerilli.

However, Cerilli said that if a qualified applicant from Westmoreland County is applying, that applicant would receive priority.

Officials said one of the factors for doing so is Allegheny County’s decision to move its public safety operations closer to Pittsburgh.

“We’re maybe able to get some of the Allegheny public safety employees that would rather drive here because it’s closer,” said Cerilli.

Cerilli didn’t have the exact number of positions available at the meeting, but did say that open positions are continually being advertised on the county website.

A lot of the positions, according to Commissioner Chuck Anderson, are 24-hour, on-call positions or shift positions, which require specific applicants, and there just aren’t enough in Westmoreland County.

“It’s a bad position. But it’s not a bad position to be in because unemployment is down,” said Anderson.

The county has, from time to time, had to release the residency requirement to locate qualified applicants, such as for nurses at Westmoreland Manor. This, however, is likely the largest pool of open positions for which they’ve vacated the requirement, the board said.

“County government isn’t immune to the same workforce challenges as local businesses are facing,” said Commissioner Ted Kopas. “So we need to react to that and adapt to make sure we have a qualified and stable workforce.”

Kopas said it just reinforces everything the county is attempting to do with “Westmoreland County: Reimagined,” the county’s newly revamped strategic plan. The plan laid out the workforce crises businesses in the county are and will be facing in the future and the types of solutions the county needs to take to combat that.

“We need people. We need workers,” said Kopas.

Anderson added that the county is in competition with everyone else.

“We have good jobs here. We have good benefits at the county. And this goes along with bringing young people in to get good jobs, raise a family here and all the rest of the stuff that goes along with that,” said Anderson.

Job openings can be found on the county website at www.co.westmoreland.pa.us/jobs.aspx.

In other business, the commissioners honored one of its longtime county workers with a certificate of special recognition. Diane Testa, a longtime employee at Westmoreland Manor, was recently named 2018 Fiscal Director of the Year by the Pennsylvania Coalition of Affiliated Healthcare & Living Communities.

“This is a very deserving award for Diane, and I am proud to present it,” said Cerilli, before presenting Testa with the commissioners’ certificate of special recognition.