By Mary Pickels
Tribune-Review
GREENSBURG, Pa. — Fayette County’s salary board decided Wednesday to create 10 part-time corrections officer positions for the county jail, paying each $15.62 per hour.
The board took no action on Warden Brian Miller’s request to create two lieutenant positions for the aging Uniontown facility.
Miller said prior to the meeting that he sought the part-time positions, which will supplement his existing staff of 15 part-time corrections officers, to reduce full-time staff overtime.
The jail houses a population of 260 inmates, with 90 more housed in rented jail cells in Greene, Butler, Bedford and Cambria counties.
Full-time officers handle the transportation of those inmates, Miller said.
“Butler, Bedford counties, some of those are two-hour, one-way drives. You are looking at three-quarters of a day tied up getting inmates there, unloading them and checking them in,” Miller said.
The warden said efforts are made to restrict sentenced inmates to outside housing, but some prisoners must be transported back and forth for Fayette County court proceedings.
“What do you do when all of the sentenced inmates are outsourced and they keep coming?” Miller said.
The facility has six lieutenants, he said.
Commissioner Al Ambrosini, a member of the salary board, said Wednesday that three lieutenant positions were created in recent months, replacing the position of shift commander overnight and on weekends.
A new prison, one option being discussed by the county Prison Working Group, would have a different management structure, Ambrosini said, along with programming aimed at reducing recidivism.
Also Wednesday, the salary board acted on the recommendation by county human resources director Dominick Carnicella regarding pay rate equity for county chief deputies and directors.
At an anticipated total cost of $25,000 or less, those positions would be compensated at the same pay scale, board members said.
The amounts of increases will be determined by the county’s human resources department and will differ depending on experience and years of service.
“We are trying to cure an equity imbalance,” Ambrosini said.
Row offices and department directors can plan for and submit pay increase recommendations for their chief deputies in the fall, as 2014 budget meetings get under way, the board said.
Commissioner Angela Zimmerlink voted against the motion, questioning a decision with little time to review.
“Have any of you row officers seen these numbers before today?” she asked, suggesting the plan could have been presented in the summer months.