Although Westmoreland County District Attorney Nicole Ziccarelli described the crash she had in her county-provided SUV last year as minor, it resulted in a nearly $33,000 repair bill.
According to documents obtained by the Tribune-Review under the state’s Right-to-Know law, the 2021 Ford Explorer XLT four-wheel drive SUV assigned to Ziccarelli when she took office in January 2022 sustained substantial damage when she crashed on a snowy road in Murrysville in the early hours of Dec. 18.
Police records indicated Ziccarelli hit a tree and a vehicle parked in the driveway of a home on Cherry Drive shortly after 3:30 a.m.
In a crash report Ziccarelli filed two days later with the Westmoreland County Human Resources Department, she claimed “blizzard” conditions caused the crash.
“As I approached the stop sign at the corner of Cherry Drive and Windover Road, I hit black ice and couldn’t stop,” Ziccarelli wrote. “My vehicle was propelled forward into a small sapling tree and pushed into the driver’s-side bumper area of a parked car.”
Police said the crash caused airbags to be deployed on Ziccarelli’s vehicle, which had to be towed. No injuries were reported.
Ziccarelli said she was returning from assisting a grieving friend when the crash occurred, according to the police report and a statement from the district attorney last month.
Repair estimates prepared by the Collision Shoppe by Jason Mignogna LLC in Unity total more than $32,700. An itemized list of damages includes about 180 items, including fixes to the SUV’s front end, roof, door and electrical system and replacement of air bags.
Repairs are ongoing, according to Greg McCloskey, the county’s director of operations.
The car is valued at $33,000, according to the county controller’s office.
A consortium of Pennsylvania counties, under an insurance policy through the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania, is paying to repair the damage.
Melanie Jones, spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office, issued written responses Wednesday to a series of crash-related questions posed to Ziccarelli by the Tribune-Review.
“DA Ziccarelli has voluntarily paid for the $2,500 deductible out of her own pocket so the cost does not fall onto the taxpayer,” Jones wrote.
Meanwhile, Ziccarelli has maintained the damage was minor, and, on Wednesday, her office defended her use of the vehicle.
“As the chief law enforcement officer of the county, DA Ziccarelli is on call and available and must be able and prepared to respond to any major incident at all hours within the 1,000 square miles of Westmoreland County, barring any personal commitments. Her act of compassion would not have prevented her from responding (to) an incident should the need have arisen,” Jones wrote.
The SUV is one of about 50 take-home vehicles leased by the county and assigned to employees. Three elected officials — Ziccarelli, Sheriff James Albert and Coroner Tim Carson — have take-home vehicles, McCloskey said.
Records indicate the vehicle used by Ziccarelli was leased to the county in February 2021 and originally assigned to a county detective who retired at the end of that year. It had been driven 5,710 miles when it was assigned to her, McCloskey said.
Documents obtained by the Tribune-Review show the vehicle had been driven 19,226 miles when it was towed following the crash. Ziccarelli lives in Lower Burrell, about 26 miles from Greensburg.
County policy allows employees to use take-home vehicles for minimal personal use.
Each employee issued a county vehicle is required to submit monthly logs detailing how they are used.
Ziccarelli submitted no monthly logs, according to county officials. Carson, who, like Ziccarelli, took office in January 2022, submitted logs for one month, but it did not contain any details.
Carson said his failure to submit mileage logs was an oversight and that he only used his take-home vehicle to commute to work from his home in Scottdale and when called out on official county business.
“I just don’t use it for personal use,” Carson said. “I take my kids to school in the morning and use my personal car, then go home, get the county car and go to work.”
Sheriff James Albert, in office since January 2020, submitted logs for six months last year and said a deputy within his office is responsible for filing that paperwork.
“I make an effort to use the county car only when I need to,” Albert said.
Logs submitted for his vehicle indicate the car assigned to Albert was driven 10,175 miles through November 2022.
Ziccarelli, via email, said, as district attorney, she has “met every county requirement” and uses her personal vehicle outside of work duties.
The county last year implemented new IRS rules that require Ziccarelli to be taxed for the personal use of her take-home vehicle.
County Deputy Controller Rege Garris said Ziccarelli claimed 60% of the miles put on her county-provided vehicle in 2022 were for personal use. As a result, the county reported to the IRS that she received an additional $5,250 in income for the personal use of the car.
The elected coroner and sheriff are exempt from tax rules, and their income was not adjusted for their personal use of a vehicle, Garris said.
Westmoreland’s vehicle policy has been updated over the years, including in 2010 when county commissioners barred themselves from having take-home cars.
In 2015, the county sold most of its vehicle fleet and signed a contract with Enterprise to lease vehicles on a five-year rotating basis. As part of that restructuring, employees involved in two accidents within one year are required to complete a safe driving course before they are permitted to drive a county vehicle.
Commissioner Sean Kertes said no changes to the county’s take-home vehicle policy are expected. He said there are no plans to force elected officials who are assigned those vehicles to comply with requirements.
“We will have to sit down and discuss this as a board to see if we can make sure they (elected officials) follow the policy,” Kertes said.
