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Row offices employing many pals Party committee members and relatives compose 14% of payroll Sunday, June 18, 2000 By Jeffrey Cohan and Mark Belko, Post-Gazette Staff Writers
Among Friends
The daughters of two Allegheny County Council members, the brother of the county clerk of courts, the son of a Common Pleas senior judge, the wife of one city councilman and the sister of another, and a host of Democratic committee members all have at least one thing in common.
They have found work in the county's row offices.
In fact, the payrolls of the offices are populated with scores of people who are politicians' relatives, members of local Democratic committees or relatives of committee members, the Post-Gazette found.
Some examples:
In many of the row offices, employees with political connections are as plentiful as file cabinets.
Among the 978 employees in 10 county row offices dominated by Democrats, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette identified at least 133, or 14 percent, who serve as Democratic committee members or who are relatives of politicians.
The awarding of jobs to political insiders is a practice that's as old as politics itself, but with a new county government bringing with it a push for reform, patronage hiring has been a contentious issue between County Executive Jim Roddey -- who made patronage hiring a campaign issue -- and the long-established row offices.
While Roddey and County Council have been able to settle most of their differences on the county's administrative code, they still are far apart on the issue of whether the county's merit-based hiring system should apply to the row offices.
Among the 133 cases of clear patronage hiring found in the paper's investigation, the treasurer's office led the way with 32 politically connected employees in a work force of 102. But the treasurer is by no means alone in hiring the Democratic Party's faithful. A total of 101 people were found working for the prothonotary, clerk of courts, register of wills, recorder of deeds, controller, sheriff, coroner and district attorney.
Many of the workers predate the current elected row officers. But most of the current batch of row officers have continued reaching into the political vineyards to fill positions.
In some cases, the row offices have provided soft landings for elected or public officials who have lost elections and jobs.
For instance, former acting Register of Wills Martin Madigan is now a $41,400-a-year real estate supervisor in the sheriff's office. Logan, who was an aide to former Commissioner Mike Dawida, is a $47,000-a-year supervisor in the district attorney's office.
Tim Joyce, another former Dawida aide, is a $48,000-a-year grants administrator in the treasurer's office. He is the son of former Prothonotary John P. Joyce, who died April 16, and has worked in other county offices.
Merit hiring is said to hinge on the 'will to change.'
Row officers defent political hires
In other cases, family ties cross row offices.
For example, Dennis Skosnik is Sheriff Pete DeFazio's chief deputy. His wife, Darlene, a North Fayette committeewoman, is a deputy in the clerk of courts office. Dennis Skosnik's niece, Kelly, was a summer intern last year in the register of wills office.
Likewise, Mildred Devich, a Democratic committeewoman in Braddock, is a data clerk in the treasurer's office. Her husband, Milan, also a Democratic committee member, works as a clerk in the recorder of deeds office.
The Post-Gazette's findings support an Allegheny Institute for Public Policy study that showed that 93 percent of row-office employees are registered Democrats. The conservative think tank's study came out in April.
Of the 11 row officers, only one is a Republican, Jury Commissioner Allan Kirschman. And he controls only half of the smallest row office, sharing power with Democrat Jean Milko. None of the employees in that row office were found to have political connections.
With only a few exceptions, Democrats have controlled the rest of the row offices for the past 60 years.
County row officers say their employees' political ties are, for the most part, irrelevant. They said the people they hired won the jobs because they could do the work, not strictly because of their political connections.
And in most cases, the jobs they dole out are low-paying and clerical in nature, they said, not political plums. County clerical positions typically pay between $17,000 and $26,000 per year.
"You're not working for the county to get rich," Prothonotary Coyne said. "Nobody is beating down the door for these jobs."
The row officers involved said it was the quality of the person that counted most, not the connection.
In Gary Matta's case, Zappala said his new employee attends law school at night and "has aspirations to become a prosecutor." Zappala said he has known the Matta family for years and that Gary approached him about working part time. George Matta, he said, had nothing to do with it.
George Matta said he found out about his brother's hiring while walking to the courthouse from the county parking garage with Zappala.
"If it were any other job, I probably would have told [Gary] I don't want him to work here," George Matta said. "In this case, I find it quite justified [in] that he wants to be a prosecutor."
Zappala said Lynn Ricciardi worked for him as a law clerk when he was in private practice more than a decade ago, before she had even met Gene Ricciardi and before he became a city councilman.
"Lynn had a relationship with Steve Zappala before she had a relationship with Gene Ricciardi," the councilman said.
Lynn Ricciardi coordinates senior-citizen programs, including one that electronically contacts elderly people each day to make sure they are OK.
Before transferring to Zappala's office, she had worked for the county's Economic Development Department and county administration.
"She's absolutely qualified," Zappala said.
Logan's involvement in politics may end up costing him his job in the DA's office, Zappala said. The Monroeville mayor is running for state senator in the 45th District.
Zappala said he has told Logan that he will have to step down while campaigning.
"I think people want my office to be apolitical," Zappala said.
Council President DeFazio said neither he; his wife, Marsha; nor his brother, the county sheriff, had anything to do with his daughter being hired.
DeFazio said his daughter, a teacher, had worked in the treasurer's office as an intern and rejoined it after returning from New Mexico, where she had been living.
"My daughter is a college graduate. She's working on a master's degree. She's more than qualified for the job," he said. "She's overqualified for what she does. She doesn't want to work there. She wants to get out of there."
He said he supported a ban on nepotism in county government.
"I am absolutely against nepotism. I personally would never hire a relative, because everybody talks about it," he said.
Coyne describes city Councilman Jim Ferlo as a "good friend." But the prothonotary said the councilman did not exert any influence to get his sister hired. Lyn Ferlo, who handles appeals paperwork, was hired on merit, he said.
"I think Jim knew there was an opening and told her to come down and see me. I interviewed her. She was sharp. She was real good," he said.
"She's critical in this office," Deputy Prothonotary Michael Lamb said. "She's great. She's a very vital employee."
Hairston, Coyne said, had been a city paramedic. He injured his back and was looking for work. Coyne concedes that Euzell Hairston called and asked him if there were any openings for his son.
Coyne said he was glad to hire him because Hairston was a college graduate and qualified to do the work.
County Councilman Schwartz has said that he did not ask the sheriff or anybody in his office to hire his daughter, who obtained her job seven weeks after her father took office. Mullen, Sheriff DeFazio's executive assistant, has said Schwartz's council position had nothing to do with his daughter's hiring.
He said the younger Schwartz, an $18,630-a-year real estate clerk, was qualified for the job "credential-wise, personality-wise."
"If someone's brother is a committeeman or is from a political family, we don't punish them for that," he said.
Mullen said DeFazio, whose hiring practices have come under fire in the past, soon plans to unveil his own merit personnel system, one that may limit him to selecting deputies from among those who score in the top 20 percent of the civil service examination. Right now, he has his pick of anyone who passes the test.
George Matta called Zeleznik "extremely qualified." He said Zeleznik had served as controller for Waste Management before joining the clerk of courts office.
Judge Zeleznik said he had nothing to do with the hiring of his son. He noted that he has been a senior judge for 41/2 years.
"I don't have enough clout to take the cork off a bottle," he said.
Likewise, another court employee, District Justice Tibbs, said he had nothing to do with the hiring of his wife, Shelia, by former Clerk of Courts Joyce Lee Itkin.
"I would have gotten her a better spot if I was able to," he said, chuckling.
Tibbs said his wife had a long history with the county, first working for Penn State Cooperative Extension and then the Kane regional centers. He said she was working for the county before they were married.
She was one of 11 county employees to sue the county and then-Commissioners Mike Dawida and Bob Cranmer in 1998, claiming that they were fired from their jobs because of their political affiliation, including their "real or perceived, affiliations and association" with former Commissioner Larry Dunn.
After working on a temporary basis with the Housing Authority, she landed a job in the clerk of courts office.
"She is an excellent worker. Everywhere she goes, they want her back," her husband said. "She's not your average political hack type of employee. She's there on merit."
Skosnik's wife, Darlene, joined the clerk of courts office earlier this year after 16 years with the treasurer's office. Skosnik himself joined the sheriff's office about 25 years ago. The two were high school sweethearts.
Skosnik said he had nothing to do with getting his wife hired in either the treasurer's or clerk of courts office. She started as a temporary employee under the late treasurer, Jay Costa, did a good job and was hired full time, he said. His wife did not become a committeewoman until 1998.
But regardless of their qualifications or competence, the sheer number of politically connected people on row-office payrolls is damaging, County Executive Roddey said.
"Whether it's fair or unfair," he said, "it undermines the public's confidence in government."
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Gary J. Matta, brother of Clerk of Courts George Matta, is listed as a clerk-typist in District Attorney Stephen Zappala's office, another row office. He was hired in April to interview criminals for placement in alternative-sentencing programs.