Sheriff: Rescinding 2006 court order could save at least $250K in overtime

A judge is scheduled to hear James Albert’s legal argument April 2.

By RICH CHOLODOFSKY
TribLive

Westmoreland County Sheriff James Albert has asked a county judge to rescind a two-decade-old court order that requires his deputies to transport jailed inmates to district judge offices for preliminary hearings.

Albert said the move could save taxpayers at least $250,000 in annual overtime costs and refocus his deputies’ job duties to allow them to perform other mandated functions, including the serving of warrants.

“It has become an unnecessary burden on the sheriff’s office,” Albert said Tuesday of the court-imposed transportation directive. He claims the order, first issued in 2006, added duties that no other sheriff’s office in Pennsylvania is assigned.

On April 2, Westmoreland County Common Pleas Judge Chris Scherer will hear Albert’s argument to vacate the order — a directive issued by former Judge Daniel Ackerman while Scherer was serving as county sheriff in 2006. President Judge Christopher Feliciani issued a similar order in February after Albert raised public concerns about the ability of his office to adequately transport inmates to preliminary hearings.

In an interview Tuesday, Albert said the transportation requirement has forced him to no longer assign deputies to work late afternoon and evening shifts to serve warrants issued later in the day. That function has been accomplished by paying out overtime for deputies to work longer hours.

Five deputies were assigned overtime duties on Tuesday, he said.

According to the Westmoreland County controller’s office, deputies accrued more than 17,000 hours of overtime in 2025. That translated to $658,000 in overtime paid out to deputies last year.

Overtime paid to sheriff’s deputies accounted for about 11% of the $6 million in overtime paid to all county staff. The sheriff’s department had the fourth-largest overtime bill in county government, behind Westmoreland Manor, 911 and the jail.

“If we didn’t have to transport inmates (to preliminary hearings), we could put about five deputies on the second shift and another two on the third shift. As it is now, we have to hold over deputies almost every day,” Albert said, noting that just one deputy is currently assigned to work the second shift and none are put on an overnight shift.

Since the first court order was issued in 2006, Albert said, the requirement for his deputies to serve warrants has increased. A policy shift enacted in 2011 moved that work from constables to the sheriff’s office; Albert said his deputies are now responsible for serving as many as 30,000 warrants.

Difficulties hiring and retaining staff have also become a concern. Albert said his department is assigned 70 deputies and currently has about eight vacant positions that he has struggled to fill.

“This is the year 2026, not 2006. We need to return to the numerous lawful duties of a deputy, not the unnecessary add-ons that may have worked back in the year 2006,” Albert said.

He suggested mandated sheriff’s office duties are limited to the transportation of inmates to the courthouse for common pleas court hearings, courtroom security and warrant service. Transportation of inmates to local district judge offices for preliminary hearings is the legal requirement of local police departments and the state police, he contends.

Constables also could be enlisted to perform some transportation duties, Albert said.

Westmoreland County Controller Jeff Balzer suggested transportation costs could be mitigated by increased use of video conferencing, using equipment already installed at the jail and throughout the district court system.

“We paid for all this equipment, so they should start using it,” Balzer said.

Albert maintained that Westmoreland County is the lone Pennsylvania county where sheriff’s deputies are required to transport inmates to preliminary hearings.

Mike Manko, spokesman for Allegheny County Sheriff Kevin M. Kraus, said Tuesday the duty to transport jail inmates to preliminary hearings in Allegheny County is assigned to constables.