We’ve disagreed far more often than we’ve agreed with the public policies of departing Allegheny County Chief Executive (ACE) Rich Fitzgerald. But we will give credit where credit is due.
Chief among our issues with the three-term ACE was his steadfast refusal to back new and regular rounds of property reassessments to slay the gross inequities of a system deeply out of whack and sorely mismanaged.
Fitzgerald, as so many pols have, cast his red-herring net far and wide to cover the lack of political will to do what not only was morally right but right and proper under the rule of law. And that recalcitrance will only continue to enrich too many taxpayers at the expense of others.
But we’ll also give Fitzgerald credit for standing up to an Allegheny County Council attempting to run roughshod over the county Home Rule Charter and other legally binding strictures.
Not long after the council decided to freelance what it could and could not do under the charter and seize wage-establishing power for county employees, Fitzgerald went to court on behalf of preserving the separation of legislative powers from those of the executive.
And last week, he prevailed in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court.
It was in June that County Council passed an ordinance establishing a new, higher minimum wage for county employees — $18 hourly in 2024, $19 in 2025 and $20 an hour come 2026.
After the council overrode his veto of the legislation, Fitzgerald challenged the wage-setting move in court, arguing that setting wages not only was in the sole purview of the executive branch of county government but violated state labor law and union contracts.
The court agreed. Had it not, the estimated $30 million cost to pay those higher wages surely would have led to a tax increase, Fitzgerald argued. And we would agree, given we can’t imagine a commensurate cut in spending to pay for those higher wages.
From Judge Daniel Regan’s ruling, in part:
“[County Council’s] budget responsibilities do not include wage-setting. Wage-setting rests with the Executive Branch,” per the charter which, in reality, is the county’s constitution.
And neither does the county’s administrative code harbor any council-led wage-setting authority, Regan ruled.
Of course, this matter is not settled. At least one county councilor is talking of an appeal and/or amending the charter to allow such council-setting wages. The latter would have to go before the electorate.
But the matter could be moot (if not muddied) if the incoming chief executive, an avowed “progressive,” decides to support the establishment of higher wage floors. Still, the collective bargaining issue would remain.
This was a clear-cut case of the County Council overstepping its County Charter-defined powers and limitations. Hear! Hear! for Judge Regan’s ruling. Pooh, pooh to the freelancing outliers who believe the rule of law is a quaint notion, if not a dead letter.
Colin McNickle is communications and marketing director at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy (cmcnickle@alleghenyinstitute.org).
