Westmoreland's former elections director claims political coercion and scapegoating in federal lawsuit
Aug. 24—JoAnn Sebastiani, former director of the Westmoreland County Election Bureau, claimed in a federal lawsuit filed Monday against all three county commissioners that she was "scapegoated," belittled and discriminated against before she was fired without adequate cause.
Sebastiani, 63, had been on the job for 10 months when she was fired in June for what commissioners said was a series of errors and office leadership failures that plagued the election bureau during the November 2020 presidential election and the May 2021 primary.
Sebastiani is scheduled to hold a news conference Tuesday morning at her lawyer's Butler office.
According to the four-count lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh, Sebastiani claimed commissioners routinely criticized her work, blamed her for staff mistakes and refused to take responsibility for their roles in creating problems that arose both before and after the elections.
Sebastiani also accused commissioners of political coercion and claimed the secretary for Commissioner Sean Kertes ordered her to switch her voter registration from Democrat to Republican.
"(The) secretary then told plaintiff that, if anyone asked why she switched parties, to say that it was because she did not like that the Democratic vice presidential candidate was African American," Sebastiani claims in the lawsuit.
Commissioners hired Sebastiani to run the election bureau last August after she served five years as the deputy director of the county's tax office.
Sebastiani claimed in the lawsuit she was given assurances her inexperience in running elections would not be an issue but said she was undermined by her own staff, made recommendations to commissioners that were ignored and blamed for problems caused by private vendors, other employees and elected officials.
She contended she was mistreated by county leaders and subjected to verbal abuse for speech and memory issues that were caused by a concussion she received while on the job in the tax office in 2018.
In March, Sebastiani claimed she was distraught and anxious about the lack of support and asked to be transferred back to the tax office.
"The commissioners denied plaintiff's request, explaining that, although they understood Plaintiff was extremely upset, they were going to address the personnel issued in the Election Office and build the office around (Sebastiani)," according to the lawsuit.
Commissioners announced an overhaul of the election bureau in June that included the hiring of four middle managers and that a job search was underway for a new director. In July, commissioners publicly confirmed Sebastiani's firing.
Kertes and Commissioner Doug Chew, both Republicans, declined to comment on the lawsuit. Commissioner Gina Cerilli Thrasher, a Democrat, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Sebastiani is seeking an unspecified amount of compensatory and punitive damages in the lawsuit.
The election bureau is currently being run by Scott Ross, the director of the county's information systems department. Public Works Director Greg McCloskey, who prior to the May primary, was temporarily reassigned to assist Sebastiani.
Rich Cholodofsky is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Rich at 724-830-6293, rcholodofsky@triblive.com or via Twitter .
