May 27, 2007 By Amy Zalar 3 min read

A Chalk Hill man upset at being passed over for a county job despite his belief that he was more qualified than winning candidate brought his case Tuesday to the Fayette County commissioners. Lou Scheggia, who had applied for the position of residential building inspector technician in the Fayette County Office of Planning, Zoning and Community Development, said the man who was hired, Joseph Cesarino, has fewer certifications than Scheggia does.

The job entails handling the five state-mandated inspections of residential buildings under construction throughout the county in the municipalities where the county handles the Uniform Construction Code.

During public comment at the agenda meeting, Scheggia said he has four of the certifications to perform inspections, while Cesarino only has three, and because of that, Scheggia said he should have been hired.

“I thought they would take the guy with the highest number (of certifications),” Scheggia said.

Of the certifications in general, electrical, mechanical, plumbing and energy conservation, Scheggia said he only lacks the electrical certification.

Scheggia said he additionally has the certification of building code official, which is not necessary but helpful because he could sign permits in the absence of UCC official Paul Pato.

Tammy Stenson, director of the Fayette County Office of Planning, Zoning and Community Development, said the job was initially advertised as a residential building code official, but none of the applicants possessed all the five certifications required for the position. She said a new job of residential building code technician was then created with a lower salary, and the four individuals who originally applied, none of whom had all five required certifications, were all interviewed.

Jim Moore, the county’s human resource director through Felice Associates, said there was more than one criteria considered in the hiring process, in addition to how many certifications the applicant possessed. He previously confirmed Cesarino possessed three certifications.

Moore said it was decided that whomever got the job would have to qualify for all five certifications within a year. Moore said he had a discussion with Pato and Stenson after the interviews, and felt Cesarino was more qualified than the other applicants. Moore said other criteria that factored into the decision were communication skills, familiarity with construction and education relevant to the job.

Scheggia said he has experience with zoning, more than 20 years of dealing with land use appeals, two college degrees, and served in the Army Guard and Army Reserves.

The county enforces the UCC for 34 of the 42 municipalities in the county, and issues building permits and demolition permits for both residential and non-residential structures.

The UCC code was mandated by the state for municipalities to handle, and the county opted to handle the work for the municipalities that didn’t want to take it on themselves. The county UCC office was established in August 2004.

Moore previously said Commissioners Vincent A. Vicites and Angela M. Zimmerlink were the first two to sign the hiring request.

In action during the agenda meeting, the commissioners voted to place on Thursday’s agenda a motion to ratify the hiring of Cesarino as residential building inspector technician at $11.77 per hour, effective June 18.