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A Republican nary to be found in county row offices, study says
Friday, March 03, 2000 By Mark Belko, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
If voter registration records are any indication, the Allegheny County treasurer and clerk of courts offices give new meaning to the term Democratic stronghold.
In fact, based on a study by the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy, a conservative think tank, the next registered Republican hired in either of those two offices would be the first.
The survey, which examined the party registration of the employees in the 10 county row offices, did not find one person of the 176 working in either of the two offices to be registered as a Republican.
Of those employees, 154 -- 62 in the clerk of courts office and 92 in the treasurer's -- were registered Democrats.
The remaining 22 either were not registered or the registration could not be determined.
Overall, 93 percent of the employees in all row offices were registered Democrats, according to the study. Another 5.4 percent were Republicans and 1.5 percent were independents or listed no party.
The percentages were based on the 791 row office employees whose registrations were available.
Registrations were not found or could not be determined for another 209 employees, leaving open the possibility that another stray Republican or two or three could be on the payroll.
Nonetheless, Colleen Hroncich, the research associate for the Allegheny Institute who spearheaded the study, said she was surprised by the results.
"I would say I was shocked that it was so blatant, really," she said. "It's pretty hard to put it to chance."
That the row offices are heavily Democratic hardly is a revelation. After all, Democrats controlled county government for some 60 years before former GOP commissioners Larry Dunn and Bob Cranmer broke the stranglehold in 1996. That was followed by Republican Jim Roddey's victory as the county's first ever executive in November.
However, all row offices except one jury commissioner, which is required by law to be a Republican, are still controlled by Democrats.
Hroncich saw the findings as evidence of the kind of spoils system Roddey is trying to eradicate as part of his proposed merit-based personnel system.
Though she noted she did not mean to imply that there were no merit-based hirings in the row offices, she added, "It's hard to believe that every qualified employee happened to be a Democrat."
Treasurer John Weinstein, who was elected last November but who has worked in the office since 1992, said he did not know how all those Democrats got on his payroll. But he said it was not his doing.
"I'm only 36 years old. There are people who have been here since I was 6. There are people who have been here a long time and who weren't hired by me," he said.
Weinstein insisted that he does not ask about party affiliation when hiring.
"It's not a criteria I use when hiring, whether they're a Republican or a Democrat," he said. "I welcome applications from Republicans, independents. I don't care what they're registered."
Sheriff Pete DeFazio blamed the high percentages on the late Sheriff Eugene Coon, saying Coon, a former county Democratic chairman, never hired a Republican.
The Allegheny Institute survey found that 98.7 percent of the employees in the sheriff's office whose registrations were available were Democrats.
DeFazio, whose own hiring practices have come under fire, said he had hired 12 Republicans since he took office. "Whether they're independents or Republicans, I could care less," he said. "I would never ask that question."
Deputy Prothonotary Michael Lamb questioned the accuracy of the institute's findings, not that he was all that fazed by the survey results showing that 98.6 percent of the employees in his office were Democrats.
"I don't even know if the people here are registered to vote, let alone what they are registered," he said.
Clerk of Courts George Matta, who was elected in November, could not be reached for comment.
Roddey's merit-based personnel system would require all county departments and row offices to hire from the top 10 percent of scorers on civil service like exams. The plan has come under fire from some row officers, who don't believe Roddey has authority over their offices, which are independently elected and created under the state constitution.
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