Another scandal — and yet another reason why the sheriff’s office should be abolished | Editorial

Another month, another scandal at the Philadelphia Sheriff’s Office.

In recent years, the department — under the leadership of Sheriff Rochelle Bilal — has lost guns in its custody (two were illegally sold by deputies), hired a top deputy who moonlights as a defense attorney in violation of city ethics rules, employed a former city police officer accused of sexual assault, and has repeatedly failed to collect weapons from gun owners who are subject to protection from abuse orders. To add insult to injury, the sheriff also tried to double her own salary last year.

These failures, among many others, are part of why this board has called for the office to be abolished and endorsed Bilal’s strongest primary opponent last May.

Unfortunately, after a successful reelection bid in November, Bilal’s tenure continues — as do the missteps and incompetence. The latest is the sheriff’s office’s apparent inability to sell off tax-delinquent properties, one of its core functions.

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At the heart of the issue is Bilal’s decision, made without the support of the city’s Law Department, to turn over sheriff’s sales to an online real estate auction website called Bid4Assets. The move, which garnered immediate criticism from City Council members in 2021, was done without issuing a public request for proposals.

Bilal’s office defended the move, saying it was authorized to enter the pact because of a set of emergency powers city departments were granted during the pandemic.

But now, the office is failing to hold property sales altogether, a move that encourages tax delinquency, calcifies blight, and spurs the risky investing practice of land speculation.

For their part, Bilal’s team has blamed the city’s Law Department, claiming that they cannot move forward with sales absent the required paperwork from city lawyers. The Law Department has asserted that Bilal’s decision to enter into a six-year contract with Bid4Assets without its oversight violates the City Charter — which would nullify the contract. If that agreement is invalid, any auctions conducted by the website would be illegal and subject to reversal.

To resolve the dispute with the Law Department, Bilal should meet with acting City Solicitor Renee Garcia and agree on a path forward to restore sales and resolve the outstanding Bid4Assets contract issues.

But given the long-standing concerns around the office, that should just be the start. The city’s political leadership must once again take up the cause of trimming the city’s row offices — starting with the sheriff.

Under Mayor Michael Nutter, the city abolished the Clerk of Quarter Sessions, an office charged with collecting fines, maintaining records, and staffing courtrooms. At the time, the city was losing out on about a billion dollars in uncollected forfeited bail money and had millions of dollars sitting in accounts with no records indicating where they came from or to whom they belonged.

The performance record of the sheriff’s office is, if anything, worse.

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Still, getting city leaders to take the situation seriously has been a challenge. During last year’s mayoral primary, this board asked each campaign if they would support abolishing the office. Many candidates, including Cherelle L. Parker, refused to comment. Only Allan Domb — the real estate mogul and former City Council member, whose ability to self-fund largely insulated him from the need to engage in political niceties — clearly and unequivocally supported the move.

When Nutter signed legislation abolishing the Clerk of Quarter Sessions, he called it a “tangible piece of proof that government can be reformed.” If Philadelphia fails to change course at the sheriff’s office, it will be a disturbing sign that when it comes to this kind of needed overhaul, Philadelphia has given up.