Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Sheriff: Controller wrong on overtime payments
WEST CHESTER >> Citing federal labor law, Chester County Sheriff Carolyn “Bunny” Welsh on Monday filed an appeal of the demand by the county Controller’s Office that she repay more than $67,000 in overtime payments made to her live-in boyfriend, a K-9 Unit supervisor in the Sheriff’s Office.
“The controller either knew or should have known … that care of the service dogs after a deputy’s shift has ended must be compensated as overtime pursuant to federal law,” the appeal filed on behalf of Welsh by attorney William Gallagher of the West Ches
ter law firm of MacElree Harvey stated.
The appeal cited not only the 1938 Fair Labor Law, but also case law and U.S. Department of Labor guidelines issued on compensation for K-9 handlers, such as Lt. Harry McKinney, with whom Welsh has been romantically involved for more than 20 years, lives with and owns a home and business with, and who is the subject of the contested overtime payments.
“Animal care is required 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and all deputies assigned to the K-9 unit are required to provide such care after normal working hours, therefore the K-9 deputies are required to be compensated for at-home care,” the appeal states. Because some of the deputies who are certified K-9 handlers in the office choose to take their K-9 at-home care overtime as comp time does not mean that McKinney “was exempt from overtime payment requirements.”
The appeal asks that the controller’s demand for repayment of tax dollars to McKinney, and thus indirectly
to his partner Welsh, be dismissed by a Common Pleas judge. Who will eventually decide the case is uncertain, because of the conflict Chester County jurists would have hearing a dispute between two county elected officials — one of whom is responsible for courtroom security. The matter will likely be assigned to an out-of-county judge chosen by the Administrative Office of the Pennsylvania Courts.
Welsh’s filing also argued that the county had suffered “little or no financial loss” from the overtime payments, because it billed unspecified “outside agencies more than the cost of the deputy’s overtime.” The appeal offered no evidence of that billing or the deputies involved, however.
County Controller Margaret Reif wasted little time in firing back, focusing on the way that Welsh sought to enrich McKinney, as opposed to others in is position.
“The form and content of the appeal filed by Sheriff Welsh was expected,” Reif said in a statement to the Daily Local News. “Although it attempts to change the subject, it does not add anything new to the process and does not change the underlying facts of this matter.
“Sheriff Welsh authorized over $67,000.00 in overtime for her partner, which funds either directly or indirectly added to her household income to her benefit,” Reif added. “Mr. McKinney was the only K-9 handler to receive overtime for ‘care of the dogs.’
“As we have stated before, there appeared to be two separate policies in place: one for Mr. McKinney, which included overtime, and one for the rest of the handlers, which was strictly (compensatory) time,” Reif said. “We look forward to hearing the testimony of Carolyn Welsh and Harry McKinney, under oath and hope a jury has an opportunity to hear the evidence.”
In July, Reif filed a court “surcharge” against Welsh demanding that she repay $67,335.25 in “exorbitant overtime payments” made to McKinney over a three-year period. The unusual filing, available under state law to collect inappropriate expenses by county elected officials, alleged that McKinney routinely submitted overtime requests for hours he spent caring for the dogs he owns at home that were not permitted under county policy and practice. The requests were normally for about 10
hours per week, but sometimes as high as 23 hours for one day, according to the controller’s filing.
Beginning in 2016, McKinney was paid several times more in overtime that he had been in previous years. He was paid $20,014 in overtime in 2016, $27,368 in 2017, and $19,951 in 2018. In 2015, he was paid $3,722 in overtime, according to the filing. No other K-9 handler was paid regular overtime for care of their dog, in accordance with a policy put in place in 2014 by former Chief Deputy Sheriff George March that determined such activity was a part of a deputy’s normal work day, the filing contends.
They are currently permitted to spend 30 minutes of their work day for canine care, plus one hour on the weekend. If they work more than 40 hours in a week, the K-9 handlers are entitled to one hour of overtime, according to Reif’s surcharge.
Welsh, the longest serving elected official in the county government, announced last year that she would not seek a sixth term as county sheriff after drawing fire from some in the county for her robust support of President Donald Trump and other controversies.
Reif, who was the first Democrat elected controller in the county’s history, in 2018 began an investigation into the way in which the Sheriff’s Office raised funds for a non-profit organization intended to support the K-9 Unit, and the purposes for which those funds were spent. When auditors in her office raised questions about the propriety of those expenses, Reif turned their report over to the county District Attorney’s Office, which in turn referred the matter to the state Attorney General’s Office. That agency’s review appears to be ongoing.
The controller said she had taken the step of filing the surcharge against Welsh because she believed tax dollars had not been spent properly with regard to McKinney’s overtime payments, which she said made him the highest paid deputy in the Sheriff’s Office.
In her Monday response to Reif’s surcharge, Welsh hit back at the controller’s accusation that McKinney is listed as a lieutenant in the office, even though his official job classification puts him at a rank far lower. Welsh said that McKinney had never been “promoted to the rank of lieutenant.”
Rather, that title had been bestowed on him in an “honorary” capacity when he returned to the Sheriff’s Office in 2008 after having worked for the county Health Department. Welsh said he held that position “during all or part of his past employment in the Sheriff’s Office.”
He maintains a Deputy Sheriff-1, or DS-1, job classification, however, that allows him to claim overtime, unlike the Deputy Sheriff-IV classification for a ranking lieutenant, which would bar him from being paid for more hours worked over 40 per week.
The controller’s filing had noted that McKinney, although listed as a DS-1, has none of the duties that such deputies are responsible for, such as courtroom security or prisoner transport.
“Honestly, we are unclear what an ‘honorary’ lieutenant is,” Reif said in her statement. “You either are a lieutenant, with all of the duties and responsibilities that come with that, or you aren’t.”