Fitzgerald ups ante in minimum wage saga with lawsuit aimed at County Council

Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald has filed suit against Council for passing a new minimum wage policy which he claims is unconstitutional.

Fitzgerald has from the outset opposed the underlying bill introducing a minimum wage schedule that would guarantee all county employees earn $20 per hour by January 2026. Following its passage on June 6 by a 10-4 majority, Fitzgerald announced the following week he had vetoed the legislation, however, the majority held and council overruled the veto on June 21.

In a heated statement, Council President Pat Catena referred to Fitzgerald's move as "Trump-like," and accused the executive of throwing "temper tantrums."

"Now, after consistently losing at every turn with this bill, he's willing to throw County employees under the bus in a last ditch effort to assert his rapidly waning authority," Catena says.

"Maybe some of the mud you throw against the wall there will stick."

Fitzgerald claims his opposition is constitutional rather than ideological, stating today in a press release, "there is a legitimate disagreement on whether the executive branch or the legislative branch has the legal authority to set wages."

"It’s an important legal question that requires immediate review and determination by the Court, especially since my administration is in the process of preparing the 2024 budget," he adds.

Allegheny County adopted a home rule charter in 2000, creating its own set of statutes and standards for governance.  Fitzgerald claims under those terms, responsibility for employee compensation rests exclusively with the administration rather than county council.

The civil suit, which seeks a "declaratory judgment" against the wage bill, was filed in Allegheny County's Court of Common Pleas, according to Fitzgerald's release.

Fitzgerald maintains he supports minimum wage standards in the abstract, pointing to his own introduction of a $15 hourly wage minimum that he says he is committed to raising additionally. Fitzgerald is term-limited and will leave office at the end of 2023.