Our way of life

Since Fayette County’s incumbent Democratic commissioners are “getting things done,” which has led to the region’s highest unemployment rate and the second-biggest population loss of the state’s 67 counties, one of our neighbors in the patch asked a very interesting question:

“Where would Vince Vicites or Vince Zapotosky work if they didn’t hold elected office?”

We doubt that it would be the private sector -- you know, the place where Fay-Penn Economic Development Council keeps saying there are 400 good-paying jobs that can’t be filled. Where those jobs are, however, continues to be the Fayette County equivalent of a CIA secret.

Our guess is that either or both of the Vinces would cash in some political chips and resurface in some public sector (i,e., “government”) position. A quick review of their work history shows that they appear to be born and bred for feeding at the public trough.

Here is Vicites’ work history, taken straight from his campaign website:

1983-87, Administrative Officer, Department of Auditor General
1987-88, Assistant Director of Personnel, Carlisle Hospital.
1989-95, Director, Fayette County Solid Waste Management Department.
1996-present, Fayette County Commissioner.

That gives Vicites a grand total of one year (1987-88, working for a hospital) of non-government employment, in the last 28 years. It is well worth noting that when he came back to Fayette County in 1989, it was by decree of former county Commissioners Fred Lebder and Bob Jones, who hired him in a county job as Solid Waste Management director.

Two years later, in 1991, Vicites was running for county commissioner on a ticket with -- drum roll, please -- Fred Lebder. What an amazing coincidence!

But an even more amazing coincidence is that once Vicites won election as commissioner in 1995 on his second try, one of the first things he did was eliminate the high-profile job he’d held as Solid Waste Management director. Those duties suddenly weren’t important enough to warrant their own county department (which had consisted of Vicites and a secretary), so they were folded into the job of county manager.

Some cynics here in the patch think the political system gave Vicites the Solid Waste Management job to help grease the skids for his ascension to county commissioner. Since the job no longer required a full-time department head once Vicites was elected, that theory gives us pause.

Zapotosky’s work history isn’t as easily quantified as Vicites because less of it is available on the Internet. But we do know this much: He held staff positions with former U.S. Reps. Austin Murphy and Frank Mascara. That wouldn’t be newsworthy if the mantle had passed peacefully from Murphy to Mascara in a friendly manner. But the men were bitter political rivals toward the end, with Mascara challenging Murphy for the seat the latter had long held.

Of Zapotosky, we can document this much: He was paid $60,098.68 back in 2002, as “field representative coordinator” for Mascara. That’s a nice chunk of change for nine years ago -- and a $10,000 jump from the $46,999.96 Zapotosky was paid in 2001 for holding the same position.
If you want to verify, check it out yourself at this link:
http://www.legistorm.com/person/Vincent_E_Zapotosky/54858.html

We also know that after Mascara lost his seat in redistricting in 2002 -- and Zapotosky lost his $60,000-a-year government job -- Zapotosky surfaced as a candidate for Fayette County commissioner the next year, in 2003.

After losing in that race, Zapotosky landed a job as director of administrative services at the Douglas Education Center in Monessen, which he held until winning a commissioner’s spot on his second try in 2007. So the 47-year-old can at least lay claim to having worked a few years in the private sector in his adult working life.