The end of the year is too far away.
Westmoreland County Register of Wills Sherry Magretti Hamilton has had a bad year. She’s been held in contempt of court by two judges. Multiple orders have attempted to force her to do her job. There have been hearings. A conservator was put in charge of her office in an attempt to get the work done. She was under the gun to get four months of money turned in to the county treasurer.
There were exhortations from both parties for her to just quit and save taxpayers from paying both her and her replacement. She resisted. On June 12, she claimed she absolutely would not resign.
On June 17, she agreed to as part of a deal with judges to change her criminal contempt conviction to a civil offense.
But she would only do it by the end of the year. That’s still six months away.
“God has a plan, and I trust that,” she said.
But as conservator Jim Antoniono continues to try to right the sinking ship that is the register’s office, more problems continue to be uncovered. This time, it was with wrongly docketed and incomplete adoption records.
A deep dive into the records is ongoing. Other county personnel have been shuffled to help complete that. Yet another hearing is slated for Tuesday.
And, this week, Hamilton’s longtime deputy Rona Beluschock was removed from her duties. On Tuesday, Antoniono fired office solicitor Sean Logue, who Hamilton hired in May after firing previous solicitor Michael Nestico.
Everyone is dealing with the consequences of Hamilton’s poor management of an important office — except Hamilton.
Yes, she has agreed to step down. And yes, the almost $90,000 salary she earns will no doubt help her pay the $10,000 fine levied in the contempt case.
But it isn’t the people’s responsibility to give her the money to pay her debt for failing to serve them.
Hamilton is doing nothing to earn her salary, and every day seems to provide more evidence of how much has not been done.
The end of the year is too far away. Hamilton should step down now.
