Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Paul Quahliero will earn more on overtime as a deputy than as a lieutenant.
By VIRGINIA ROSS
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- The Democratic candidate for Lawrence County sheriff has requested a demotion, and the county has obliged.
Earlier this year, Perry Quahliero was promoted to lieutenant in the county sheriff's office, replacing Charles Adamo, who was named warden of the county jail. The county salary board, at a meeting Tuesday, agreed to allow Quahliero to return to a deputy sheriff's post.
Quahliero had faced Adamo in the May primary. But after a series of recounts Adamo conceded the race for the Democratic party's nomination to Quahliero. At that time, Quahliero was a full-time deputy sheriff.
Sheriff Robert Clark explained that though Quahliero, with an annual salary of $28,374, is making $2,000 more as a lieutenant than he did as a deputy, he is not paid overtime.
"He works a lot of hours he doesn't get paid for as a salary employee," Clark said. "He would rather get the overtime pay."
Board's actions
On Tuesday, the salary board, made up of Clark, the three county commissioners and county Controller Mary Ann Reiter, created a new deputy sheriff's post to accommodate Quahliero's request and eliminated the lieutenant's position he held.
The base pay for a full-time deputy sheriff is $26,365. The salary board also created an additional full-time deputy sheriff's position but, citing financial concerns, denied Clark's request for the creation of a full-time clerk/typist position.
Meanwhile, Quahliero continues to campaign for the sheriff's position and will face Republican Thomas Wharry in next month's general election.
In other matters, the board, at the request of Reiter, increased the base pay for the deputy warden's post at the county jail from $34,500 to $39,500. Adamo, who was named warden earlier this year, has begun interviewing candidates for the position.
"The base pay hasn't been increased for five years," Reiter said. "We wanted to give the warden a comparable wage to offer applicants."
She said she determined the increase by applying annual cost-of-living increases to the previous base pay for the past five years.