When it comes to minority hiring, the Rev. Martha Sanders thinks Mercer County falls well short of numbers that would be considered reasonable by most standards.

On Thursday, Rev. Sanders began a process she hopes will raise the bar on those standards by requesting a meeting with county commissioners.

"My main concern is that when you look at the numbers, there is less than 1 percent minorities hired by the county and zero percent managerial," Rev. Sanders said. "And I don't see a commitment from the county to actively recruit minorities."

Commissioners Olivia M. Lazor and Kenneth A. Seamans agreed to meet with Rev. Sanders at an upcoming work session to discuss the issue, although no date was determined. Commissioner Cloyd E. "Gene" Brenneman was absent from Thursday's meeting.

Rev. Sanders is a former Farrell councilwoman and mayoral candidate who also has served as a spokeswoman for the Shenango Valley Ministerium, an organization composed of area ministers who speak out on social issues. She said she was satisfied, as a first step, that commissioners agreed to meet with her.

As for her goal at that meeting, Rev. Sanders said: "I'm hoping to get them convinced that they need to do a better job in minority recruiting and hiring than has been done in the past."

Rev. Sanders said the numbers cited were gleaned from a Mercer County Regional Planning Commission report "from some time back."

She also noted there was what she said was a qualified minority candidate from Farrell who had applied for the clerk of the works position for the new county jail project recently, but wasn't considered.

"The county does exercise a procedure that doesn't eliminate any potential employees' opportunities to get a position here," Mrs. Lazor said.

"We don't look at race, we don't look at creed, we don't look at color. We look at the qualifications of the individual."

The county, Mrs. Lazor added, now processes all of its applicants through Mercer County Career Link.

Anyone who comes to the courthouse for a position such as clerical, she said, is processed through Career Link.

You can e-mail Herald Political Writer Jeff Greenburg at jgreenburg@sharonherald.com.