Westmoreland County employees suspended amid investigation into alleged unauthorized raise

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Two Westmoreland County employees have been suspended without pay as an investigation is underway into whether they gave themselves an unauthorized pay raise.

Westmoreland County Purchasing Department Director Kristopher Cardiff and his assistant director Kristen Coyne were suspended on Aug. 15, the county said, over an extra half hour of pay every day last year that was allegedly never authorized.

According to payroll records from the Westmoreland County Courthouse, Cardiff received $5,397.84 in overtime while Coyne received $3,619.36.

Four other purchasing staffers who make up the rest of the department also received between $2,000 to $3,000 in overtime, according to documents. Those staffers continue to work at the courthouse and have not been suspended.

County Controller Jeffrey Balzer said the purchasing department takes care of overseeing equipment and supplies.

"All the stuff we don't do through the bid process, they take care of all the parts and pieces for the offices -- supplies, computer supplies, whatever it may be, whatever we may be purchasing that's not done through the bid process," Balzer said.

Balzer said some other departments within the county were authorized to go from working 6.5 hours to 7 or 7.5 hours, which may have been why the pay irregularity took longer than usual to discover by the payroll department.

"Everything here was based on six and a half hours. Over the last couple years, we've increased that in a couple different areas to seven, seven and a half, so it would have looked natural to the people looking at it. But in review, someone said, 'Did they get the same thing or not?' And I'm like, 'Well, I don't know. Let's check on it,' and that's how it came out. So, once they determined what it was, they sent it down to HR," Balzer said.

KDKA-TV reached out to Cardiff, who said in a statement, "They are definitely false, and I was completely blindsided and shocked by this entire situation."

Cardiff said he sent a statement to the county after his suspension explaining that there was a meeting held on July 28, 2023, with the HR director and finance director where he received authorization to revise the department schedule from 6.5 to 7 hours, "to cover the updated delivery route addition at the Westmoreland County Community College DHS offices."

Cardiff said, "This was done very openly where the Department of Finance and payroll department could see clearly what I was doing, there was no attempt to do anything wrong and I wasn't hiding anything, I was merely doing what I was told I was authorized to do to deal with a problem that had arisen in my Department because of a change of circumstances."

He went on to say, "I would have ceased this directive immediately upon notification, however that notification was not received until a full year later, with an unexpected suspension notice."

County commissioners and the Human Resources Department are now investigating.

Commissioner Ted Kopas said he was unable to comment Thursday due to the ongoing investigation but did confirm that the county's fiscal department is now overseeing the Purchasing Department while the investigation continues.

"This is government working. You know, when we find a mistake, and if it's our mistake, then it's my mistake and I take 100% responsibility, but I don't look at it as a mistake as much as this is what we do. We review, we find things, we fix them," Balzer said.