When you run for office, it’s all about selling yourself to the voters. You are the product, and the price is a ballot.

But after you win, the job becomes only partially marketing. The rest of the time is spent doing the mundane work of the office you have taken: signing documents, supervising employees, grappling with the bottom line of budgets.

Nicole Ziccarelli started doing that part this month when she settled into the chair of the Westmoreland County district attorney.

On Monday, she made her first move related to doing the work rather than running for the job. It was hiring two of her top staffers and getting the paychecks through the salary board.

First Assistant District Attorney Chuck Washburn will receive an annual salary of $130,288. Chief Detective Ronald Zona will pull in $100,598.

This is a combination of increasing the pay without increasing the amount put out by the county. How does that happen? Longevity.

Washburn steps into the shoes of Assistant District Attorney Allen Powanda, who spent 10 years in that role and is expected to continue litigating for Ziccarelli. Zona takes over from Mike Brajdich, who did the job for 45 years before stepping down in December.

That is a long time to build up the periodic increases that come with regular performance reviews and annual assessments. But the base pay for the positions hadn’t been changed in more than 40 years, according to Ziccarelli. The increases put the positions more in line with comparable jobs.

Controller Jeffrey Balzer and Commissioner Sean Kertes, members of the salary board, said they were comfortable with the increases because the bottom line of the DA’s budget wasn’t growing.

What is important for Ziccarelli to do now is keep that budget in mind going forward — and not just for the rest of the year. The salaries were last set for these positions in the late 1970s, and that shows just how much decisions made today can affect the way an office is run for decades, even after the person in the big chair leaves.

The people who are hired, the contracts that are signed, the way that an office is run — all of it sets a tone for how the money is spent because the costs of doing business never go down with time. They only increase.

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