Sheriff’s new mascot points to the same old lack of accountability | Editorial

It is fitting that the Philadelphia Sheriff’s Office now has a mascot because top cop Rochelle Bilal has turned the department into a clown show.

Past sheriffs have gone to prison and cost the city tens of thousands of dollars to settle sexual harassment claims. But Bilal has somehow managed to take the scandal-plagued office to new lows.

The latest scandal involves a slush fund the sheriff’s office used for hundreds of off-budget purchases totaling more than $3 million. The purchases included $9,250 for a custom-made, 6-foot-tall foam mascot uniform known as Deputy Sheriff Justice, which debuted at the 2023 Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Thousands of dollars were spent on food and entertainment, including $6,600 for a party at Chickie’s & Pete’s and $8,000 for professional DJs. Another $40,000 was spent on branded merchandise including polo shirts, backpacks, and fidget spinners.

The sheriff spent another $300,000 for a pop-up health-care clinic, while $32,000 went to a communications firm run by Bilal’s former campaign manager. The office even purchased Rochelle Bilal trading cards. The sheriff has defended the spending, including arguing that the DJs were hired to boost employee morale, and the mascot was created to enhance community outreach and anti-bullying efforts.

Details of the off-budget expenditures come thanks to the dogged reporting by The Inquirer’s William Bender and Ryan W. Briggs. The reporters combed through 17 months of sheriff’s office bank records to identify nearly $3.2 million that flowed into an account controlled by the sheriff called Operation Cost Payable.

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This was not the first time dubious spending by Bilal’s office has been flagged. A 2022 audit by the city controller and an opinion issued by the city Law Department said the off-budget expenses violated Philadelphia’s Home Rule Charter.

Four years ago, Brett Mandel, a top aide to Bilal, was fired after he questioned the slush fund expenditures. Mandel filed a whistleblower lawsuit, and in 2021, the city paid him $465,000 to settle the matter.

This Editorial Board has weighed in on Bilal’s bumbling tenure of entitlement and mismanagement four other times this year, and it’s only April. Even before Bilal’s arrival, this board, along with good government groups and past mayors, had called for the sheriff’s office to be abolished and turned into an appointed position accountable to the mayor.

But Philadelphia remains a one-party town with a high tolerance for corruption and incompetence. Mayor Cherelle L. Parker, City Council President Kenyatta Johnson, and other Democratic Party officials have taken a see-no-evil approach to the comedy of errors that continues to play out at the sheriff’s office.

No one in Parker’s administration would respond to questions from Inquirer reporters about Bilal’s off-budget expenditures. The silence speaks volumes.

Even worse, Johnson praised Bilal during a recent budget hearing in which the sheriff’s office was seeking to increase its budget by nearly 40%. “I just want to thank you for your hard work and your dedication and working in partnership with members of Council and the city of Philadelphia,” Johnson said with a straight face.

Perhaps Johnson has been reading the dozens of fake stories Bilal posted on her website claiming phony accomplishments. Or maybe he’s just clueless. Regardless, Johnson’s praise was embarrassing since Bilal’s tenure has been an unmitigated disaster.

It’s laughable now, but Bilal was elected as a reformer in 2019. But before taking office, she threw a party for former Sheriff John Green as he was headed to prison after being convicted for taking $675,000 in bribes.

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Bilal raised eyebrows after awarding a no-bid contract in 2021 to an online auction company to conduct sheriff sales. Questions raised about the legality of the contract forced the sales to be put on hold, costing the city millions in lost revenue and adding to blight.

The upshot is the sheriff’s office has not performed one of its main functions for three years. Meanwhile, the scandals continue.

In 2022, a sheriff’s deputy was arrested and charged with reselling two of the guns used in the shooting outside Roxborough High School that left a 14-year-old boy dead and injured four teens. In 2023, Bilal’s top legal adviser, Undersheriff Tariq El-Shabazz, was found moonlighting as a defense attorney representing some of the same people the sheriff’s office arrested for outstanding warrants.

Last year, Bilal diverted funds designated to hire more uniformed staff to give hefty raises to executives, including an attempt to more than double her salary to $285,000. The proposed 109% raise would have made Bilal the highest-paid elected official in the city.

In 2009, the Committee of Seventy, the good government group, issued a report that detailed why the sheriff’s office should not be an elected office. Then-Mayor Michael Nutter supported abolishing the department.

Years later, the sheriff’s office remains a monument to arrogance, waste, and incompetence. No matter how many Bilal trading cards Deputy Sheriff Justice hands out.