MMQB: Row Office Revolt?
Council holds marathon hearing on decision to move Sheriff's Sales online
Welcome to Monday Morning Quarterback, a deep-dive into prominent issues facing Philadelphia and the Commonwealth.
This week, I want to give you (and me) a break from the City budget and tax policy. While these topics are incredibly important, they can be dryer than an overbaked soft pretzel. đ„ đ„š So today, weâre going to take a break from the budget and discuss the fallout related to the Sheriffâs decision to move Sheriffâs sales online, and whether there is appetite for reforming the Cityâs oversight of Row Offices.
đłïž City Council Recap: April 29, 2021
City Council had an impassioned session last week, inspired by President Joe Bidenâs address to Congress last night which outlined his infrastructure plan to âBuild Back Better.â Council Majority Leader Cherelle Parker committed City Council to doing everything in its power to ensuring housing stability for Philadelphia residents, including continuing to fight for a long-term moratorium on foreclosures and Sheriffâs sales.
Legislatively, Council passed a number of substantive bills including:
Bill allowing certain restaurants with sidewalk seating to apply to have live, outdoor entertainment. (210135-AA)
Bill prohibiting the marketing and selling of drug paraphernalia without the proper permits and city approval. (210135-AA
Bill expanding domestic violence protections to victims of coercive control. (210249).
Council also kicked-off budget hearings today, with the top Administration officials laying out the Mayorâs Five-Year plan for the city.
Row Office Revolt?
Philadelphia Sheriff Rochelle Bilal found her office on the hot seat at a recent City Council hearing held related to her decision to restart Sheriffâs sales in the midst of the pandemic and move the process online. Historically, a bidder had to be physically present at the sale in order to purchase a property. Recently, the Sheriffâs office announced a contract with a company âBid4Assetsâ that would move sales online and allow purchasers to bid remotely.
Depending on who you ask, the decision to move the Sheriffâs sales to a digital platform is just a long overdue modernization of an obsolete bureaucratic process. But other people point to the Sheriffâs Officeâs scandal ridden history as a reason why Council is right to be concerned about this no-bid contract. After a grueling six-hour City Council public hearing, the Sheriffâs office agreed to seek approval for an additional sixty (60) day sale moratorium from the First Judicial District, which was subsequently granted. However, this action was not enough to stave off renewed calls for the elimination of this Row Office and the consolidation of its duties into other existing agencies.
The idea of amending the Cityâs Charter to put an end to the indictment magnet that has been the Sheriffâs office has its merits and its cheerleaders, but does it have the necessary political support to actually happen? Probably not. But is there an achievable compromise somewhere between abolishment and business as usual? Now might be the time to try it.
Something in the Water?
More so than any other elected office, the Sheriffâs office seems to regularly be the subject of corruption investigations or employee lawsuits. The Sheriff position itself is a holdover from colonial England, with a modern portfolio that includes: 1) providing courtroom security, 2) transporting prisoners and 3) conducting Sheriffâs sales on foreclosed or tax delinquent properties.
Philadelphia has had four Sheriffs since 1988, each with a âpull up a chairâ story to tell about their tenures.
Sheriff John Green, the longest serving Sheriff in Philadelphia history (1988-2010) was sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty to receiving more than $675k in bribes âin exchange for giving $35 million in no-bid work to a businessman who became the officeâs biggest vendor.â
Sheriff Green was then replaced by longtime aide Barbara Deeley, who served as one of the governmentâs star witnesses against him with a grant of immunity from prosecution. Sheriff Deeley served briefly until 2011, when the vacant seat was won by former State Representative Jewell Williams. Sheriff Williams was accused by a number of employees of sexual harassment, intimidation and retaliation, with at least six separate lawsuits filed by former employees since 2017. Voters ousted the scandal ridden Sheriff Williams and swept in current Sheriff Rochelle Bilal who campaigned on reforming the Sheriffâs office and âhelping families stay in their homes.â This reform agenda appealed deeply to voters tired of the seemingly weekly scandals and allegations of mismanagement to emerge from the Sheriffâs office.
However, two years into her term, like her predecessor, Sheriff Bilal has found herself on the receiving end of three whistle-blower lawsuits brought by former senior staffers âwho say they lost their jobs in 2020 after exposing serious wrongdoing - including alleged financial impropriety and sexual harassment.â
No-Bid, Bid4Asset Contract
The most recent news story featuring the Sheriffâs office involves an no-bid contract to a company called Bid4Assets (Ironic, right?). Council Majority Leader Cherelle Parker and City Council caught wind of the plan to restart and move Sheriffâs sales online and immediately introduced a resolution authorizing hearings on the decision. In an op-ed she authored following the marathon public hearing, the Councilwoman lays out her concerns for the virtual switch:
During the hearing, it became clear that online auctions may have a substantially negative effect on the Philadelphia housing market by opening our city to bulk buyers and speculators anywhere in the world (speculators who are notorious for not paying property taxes), allowing them to purchase properties without ever stepping foot within city limits.
It also became clear that Bid4Assets, the company tasked with managing these sales, will be collecting up to a 10% premium on all sales in Philadelphia, while the rate in neighboring Bucks County is only 1.5% â a contract so lucrative for Bid4Assets that WHYY called it a âwindfall for the private company.â
Making an already problematic contract even more problematic was the fact that the Law Department never signed off on the contract, an apparent violation of the Home Rule Charter. Now, the City is left scrambling to figure out next steps. As reported by WHYY:
What should happen next isnât totally clear, according to sources involved in city discussions. Invalid contracts would need to be amended or possibly voided and reissued, but more complicated is the status of hundreds properties sold at auction under the terms of a voided contract.
Where do we go from here?
In light of the recent controversy, a number of groups have renewed calls to eliminate the Row Office and fold its functions into other departments. There is precedent for such action. In 2010, Mayor Michael Nutter signed legislation passed by City Council and approved voters that abolished the Clerk of Quarter Sessions âwhich was responsible for maintaining court records, staffing courtrooms, and collecting bail money and fines in criminal cases.â In fact, the Charter is littered with abolished elected positions, including the Coroner and Recorder of Deeds.
What made the abolishment was the Clerk of Quarter Sessions politically possible was a scathing audit regarding the mismanagement of funds, coupled with the approaching retirement of a long serving official, for an office that most people have never heard of. In other words, the planets were aligned. Barring a major public outcry, it is a scenario unlikely to play out again with this Row Office at this time. Procurement just isnât sexy.
However, the solution to ensuring an efficient and ethically run Sheriffâs office doesnât require abolishing it. Rather than amend the Charter to eliminate an office, an alternative solution would be adding an office to its rank - that of the Inspector General.
Inspector General
The Cityâs Inspector General is charged with rooting out fraud and corruption from City ranks. It is an office that has paid for itself multiple times over, saving taxpayers an estimated $90+ million dollars over the last decade and resulting in the arrest or indictment of almost 100 city employees on corruption, fraud or theft charges.
Unfortunately, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) exists only at the pleasure of the Mayor. The Office was created through a Mayoral Executive Order and can go away with the stroke of the pen. This also means that the Inspector General only has jurisdiction over the departments and agencies that fall under the Executive Branch. The Sheriff, as well as all other independently elected offices, are not subject to the investigatory jurisdiction of the OIG.
Past calls have been made to make the OIG permanent and expand its jurisdiction to cover all government agencies. But without the political will, there hasnât been a way.Â
The calls for Sheriffâs Office reform arenât just about improving the City bureaucracy of more efficiently shuffling papers from one pile to another. Itâs about ensuring that the people who are unfortunate enough to find their names on the Sheriffâs list arenât preyed upon by outside speculators eager to turn a quick buck. Itâs about ensuring that those people get every single cent that is coming to them from their sale, rather than unnecessarily enriching an out of state company at their expense. Itâs about making sure that people have protections from a system when they are at their most financially and emotionally vulnerable. Itâs about keeping people in their homes when possible and otherwise ensuring a fair and thoughtful system of collections when not.
With that, Iâll leave you with the words of former Inspector General Amy Kurland, a woman I worked alongside while in the Nutter Administration and someone who I deeply admire:
But integrity is not like picking up trash or filling a pothole. It is more elusive and has to influence everything we do. We must be vigilant every day and continue to reinforce the message that integrity is our bedrock principle. We must constantly remind ourselves and our colleagues that working in public service isnât merely about earning our paychecks; because we work for the public, we also must earn the publicâs trust by doing our jobs the right way â openly and honestly.
Letâs make integrity our bedrock principle and enshrine the Office of the Inspector General permanently in our Charter. The best time to do it was ten years ago, the second next best time is now.
MMQB ran long this week, so no Reader Poll or Question of the Week, but if you have ideas for either for the next edition of MMQB, send them my way!