Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald addresses Allegheny County Council on Tuesday, June 20, 2023, at the Allegheny County Courthouse in Downtown. (Photo by Stephanie Strasburg/PublicSource)
Overriding County Executive Rich Fitzgerald’s veto for the second time in a year, council reasserted its right to set pay policies.
by Charlie Wolfson, PublicSource
Brushing aside the executive branch’s objections, 10 Allegheny County Council members voted Tuesday to override County Executive Rich Fitzgerald’s veto and enact a minimum wage for county employees.
The new pay floor, the first of its kind in Allegheny County government, will require the county to pay all workers at least $18 per hour starting in 2024, $19 per hour in 2025 and $20 per hour in 2026. Fitzgerald Tuesday evening did not rule out a legal challenge to the new law.
“Agreeing to work for the county should not necessarily entail taking a vow of poverty,” Council President Pat Catena said at Tuesday’s meeting. “Balancing our budget must never be dependent on forcing our employees to take that vow on a daily basis.”
Voting to push the law through were councilors Olivia Bennett, Jack Betkowski, Tom Duerr, Bethany Hallam, Paul Klein, Michelle Naccarati-Chapkis, John Palmiere, Bob Palmosina, Anita Prizio and President Pat Catena. Opposing the measure, as they did when it initially passed on June 6, were Sam DeMarco, Nicholas Futules, Bob Macey and DeWitt Walton. Suzanne Filiaggi missed the June 6 vote and voted against the override Tuesday.
Fitzgerald wrote in a message to council members that his veto was more focused on process and separation of powers than substance. He referenced a legal opinion from the county solicitor that said that the county’s Home Rule Charter gives the power to set wages only to the executive branch, not the legislators. He also claimed that the law is invalid because the executive has sole power to negotiate collective bargaining agreements, and the new wage scheme would contradict some existing agreements.
The council’s own solicitor wrote a legal opinion blessing the bill before it passed, saying that the charter instructs council to legislate an administrative code, which can involve setting wages. The bill also stipulates that it would not supersede any existing collective bargaining agreements, most of which expire at the end of 2024 and all of which expire before 2026, when the $20 minimum wage kicks in.
Some councilors also pointed out that Fitzgerald backed a similar law in 2001 when he was a council member, going as far as to cosponsor a bill that would have established a minimum pay rate for some county workers, adjusted for inflation each year. That bill narrowly failed despite Fitzgerald’s support. Nodding to the 2001 bill, Catena called Fitzgerald a “hypocrite” last week after he vetoed the 2023 bill.
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