Dec 9, 2003 By Paul Sunyak 6 min read

Acting on moral principle rather than any legal requirement, the Fayette County commissioners agreed Monday to pay approximately $35,000 in legal fees racked up by two employees of the county Tax Assessment Office. Chief assessor James A. Hercik, CPE, and assessor Candace McCahill have incurred those fees defending their state-issued assessor licenses in an action prosecuted by the Pennsylvania Department of State.

The case involves complaints arising from several Fayette county property owners, including state Rep. Larry Roberts (D-South Union). But since the charges were levied against Hercik and McCahill as individual licensees and not as county employees, the county’s insurance carrier has refused to cover those costs.

County solicitor Joseph E. Ferens Jr. said Monday that while he could find no case law that requires the county to cover the assessors’ legal bills, his personal opinion was that the commissioners should do so on moral grounds.

“I think the right thing to do right now is pay Jim’s legal fees,” said Ferens, who noted that failure to foot the bill would send a message to other department heads that “Fayette will not stand behind you if you’re performing your job.”

Hercik, who has incurred about $30,000 of the legal fees, said having an assessor’s license is a condition of his employment and that the only place it can be put to use in the Commonwealth is in a municipal government job.

“I can’t take my assessor’s license out in the street (and set up shop),” said Hercik, pointing out the conundrum.

While all three commissioners voiced support for Hercik, outgoing Commissioner Sean M. Cavanagh pinpointed Roberts as the root cause of the problem. Cavanagh said that Hercik inherited a system that went astray under the direction of former chief asssessors Eugene Porterfield and Richard A. Kasunic, neither of who was targeted in the disciplinary action.

“Larry Roberts, instead of going after all these people who implemented this (corrupted assessment) system, goes after Hercik,” said Cavanagh. “Again, (it’s) Larry Roberts at the root of this problem. Larry Roberts gets to say, ‘Well, I went after Jim; I didn’t go after the county.’ I stuck it to him.

“Mr. Larry Roberts, for the record, is an expert at railroading people. I think he stinks as a public official and needs to be bounced (from office).”

Roberts, contacted in Harrisburg, said he found it “kind of funny” that the commissioners had agreed to pay Hercik’s legal fees when they are currently mired in the financial dilemma of an unbalanced budget.

“They’re struggling with the budget and they’re going to go out and pay somebody’s legal bill?” said Roberts, who added, “I don’t really have any response to his comment. I really don’t.”

However, Roberts then said, “I think it’s a dangerous precedent for them to be setting, to be taking on personal (legal) expenses when the insurance company says that they’re not liable.”

Commission Chairman Vincent A. Vicites also voiced support for Hercik, but expressed a preference for keeping the county’s payment to “what is currently owed” with a pledge to monitor any future legal fees for possible payment.

Vicites said he feared that the appeal process, which is sometimes lengthy and costly, could saddle Hercik and McCahill with even higher legal fees. “I think we should help Jim if we can,” said Vicites, adding that he doesn’t want to see an open-ended county financial commitment on the matter.

Commissioner Ronald M. Nehls, who like Cavanagh is leaving office, said he thinks the county should holds its insurance company’s “feet to the fire” in an attempt to make them cover the costs. In the interim, Nehls said, “I’m for having the county pay for Jim and his assistant’s costs.”

Ferens recommended a proviso that the county’s legal payment be contingent on a final licensing board decision that exonerates Hercik from either exceeding his authority or from acting outside the scope of his employment.

Ferens said either of those circumstances would make it hard to defend Hercik’s actions, even from a moral plateau. But Ferens added that in his opinion, Hercik “was acting in his capacity as an assessor for Fayette.”

Cavanagh said payment for the legal bills of Hercik and McCahill should be included in the 2004 budget because the commissioners should defend the actions of employees they believe had done a good job. Cavanagh said that while Hercik has to dip into his own pocket to defend himself, the state has big resources to pay for his prosecution.

“It’s the right thing to do,” said Cavanagh, who touted Hercik as a strong advocate of the countywide real estate reassessment that went into effect this year. “It’s getting close to the end of the year. (Hercik) wants to know if he’s getting coal in his (Christmas) stocking.”

The commissioners also voted on three personnel matters during Monday’s meeting.

Vicites abstained on a vote to hire Gina Mahoney as a part-time program specialist/administrative assistant in the Human & Community Services Department, saying he hadn’t had enough time to review the matter.

“I just found out about this Friday,” said Vicites.

Dave Rogers, the county’s Human Resources consultant, said Mahoney recently resigned as a full-time fiscal manager in the same department, but was willing to stay on in a part-time role at $9.22 per hour, $3 less than she had been earning.

Cavanagh thanked Mahoney for her professionalism and dedication, and noted that she had resigned as he predicted after the commissioners refused to raise her salary to a level commensurate with her duties.

“You would let the finances (there) go haywire” instead of fixing the problem via a salary increase, Cavanagh told Vicites.

Cavanagh and Nehls voted to hire Mahoney in the part-time role, with Cavanagh noting that her dedication to department head Michelle Grant Shumar was the driving force behind her willingness to stay on in a reduced capacity.

In another matter, the commissioners decided to table a decision on hiring a new Building & Grounds Department director at $23,361 per year. Rogers said his recommendation of Pat Zungri at only 8 a.m. Monday was the result of a “race to the finish” between two qualified candidates.

Cavanagh said that he disagreed with Rogers and would prefer to hire the other finalist, Sean Mahoney, whom he believed had more useful skills. With Nehls taking the position that he would hire whomever Rogers recommended, Cavanagh termed the decision a stalemate.

Vicites said he thought the next administration should make the choice and Cavanagh concurred, noting that he thinks incoming Republican Commissioner Joe Hardy “knows plenty” about the needs of a building and grounds department.

In a third personnel matter, one where Vicites again abstained do to lack of foreknowledge, Cavanagh and Nehls hired Janigan Brogkon III as a care management director in the county Mental Health/Mental Retardation Agency, at a salary of $33,361 per year.