Members of the county salary board resolved any differences they had over the hiring of the county’s first procurement director and approved the hiring before the county commissioners ratified the move Wednesday.

The salary board unanimously voted to hire Shawn Pugh to the newly created position at an annual salary of $81,006.77 effective Sept. 26. The commissioners, who also serve on the salary board, ratified the hiring at their meeting, which followed the salary board meeting.

Controller Benjamin Holland, the fourth member of the salary board, sent a letter last month to county solicitor Wil White asking if Pugh had been offered a salary.

In the letter, he said he read a newspaper article about Pugh resigning his current job as Slippery Rock’s borough manager to become the county procurement director, and wondered if he had actually been offered the job.

The salary board created the position and a salary range at its May 11 meeting, but didn’t set the salary, Holland said in the letter.

At Wednesday’s salary board meeting, Holland said he voted against the salary range at the May 11 meeting, and said the salary is too high.

“I think the salary is excessive,” Holland said.

However, he thanked the board for listening to his concerns.

Leslie Osche, chairwoman of the commissioners, said the county has a compensation policy that is used to establish wages and ranges of wages, and the salary offered to Pugh was in the mid-point of the range created for the position.

Commissioner Kevin Boozel said he looks at the position and not the applicant when deciding a salary, and he approves of the salary offered to Pugh because of his experience.

Pugh started in Slippery Rock in 2020 after working for 20 years in the criminal justice system for the county.

When he left that county job, his salary was $60,000 and his position was a grade 10 on the salary range scale, Osche said. With promotions, he might have been making $71,000 a year now, she added.

“Certainly the $81,000 was as good as it’s going to get,” Osche said.

Holland said creating the position is one action and approving the salary is a separate action. The county’s hiring policy has been followed, he said.

Commissioner Kimberly Geyer said Holland should have contacted the commissioners with his concerns instead of contacting the media.

She said it is difficult to find employees with needed skills, and the approved salary was the maximum she supported.