A former Westmoreland County official faces multiple felony charges over allegations of defrauding nearly $10,000 by manipulating employee work hours. Kristopher R. Cardiff, the county's ex-director of purchasing, is accused of adjusting payroll records to compensate employees for a 7-hour workday instead of the allocated 6.5 hours. According to court documents cited by TribLIVE, the unauthorized time adjustments lasted from August 2023 to August 2024.
Cardiff's scheme appeared to have begun with a proposal to increase work hours, which the county's salary board declined. Despite the rejection, Cardiff alleged that employees should unjustly shrink their lunch hour by 30 minutes to increase their pay. Investigators said he is now facing charges after an internal review caught the disparity while preparing for the 2025 budget. Cardiff has been released on a $10,000 unsecured bond, and his preliminary hearing is scheduled for Dec. 12, as reported by WPXI News.
The financial impact of the deceptive timekeeping was not trivial. Cardiff allegedly benefited by approximately $5,400 out of the total misappropriated funds, with his annual salary at $70,314. While five other employees also received extra pay, amounting to around $4,400, none of them currently face charges. Kristen Coyne, Cardiff's deputy, who believed the change had been approved, was instructed to adjust the timesheets manually and subsequently received over $3,600 in additional pay. She and the other employees were dismissed from their jobs. Still, they will not face criminal charges, as confirmed by Melanie Jones, a Westmoreland County District Attorney's spokesperson.
