Philly Sheriff Rochelle Bilal doesn’t want to discuss her $6,662 party at Chickie’s & Pete’s

Clout enters February still thinking about the holiday season and the big party we hear Philadelphia Sheriff Rochelle Bilal threw with public money in December but now doesn’t want to talk about.

How big? The tab was $6,662 at Chickie’s & Pete’s in South Philly.

That would pay for 889 orders of that restaurant’s famous Crab Fries.

Clout had questions. Bilal and Teresa Lundy, a communications consultant paid by the Sheriff’s Office, offered only dodges.

We wanted to know who was invited to the party — at least one Sheriff’s Office department was excluded — and why public funds paid for it.

We also had questions about the account used to pay Chickie’s & Pete’s in two checks, one for $3,899 on Dec. 21 and another for $2,763 on Jan. 5.

The city’s Finance Department, which must approve the creation of new bank accounts for spending public dollars, confirmed that an account created by the Sheriff’s Office last July issued those checks.

Clout first contacted Lundy three weeks ago with a text and voicemail to the same mobile phone she used to call us this week. She denied getting our messages and then requested details about the expenditures.

“I’m guessing this was with city dollars,” Lundy said with a sigh. “Never a dull moment.”

Lundy also wondered why we hadn’t filed a right-to-know request for information, a process that usually takes weeks or even months.

She emailed us a day later, not with answers, but asking for all the information we had given her the day before.

Since the Sheriff’s Office was clearly in no rush to answer questions, Clout filed a right-to-know request Wednesday.

Lundy used that request Thursday to justify further delay, saying the Sheriff’s Office needed “legal guidance from the law department.”

Won’t be the first time Bilal, a Democrat first elected in 2019 and seeking a second term this year, has to talk to lawyers about how her office spends money.

Bilal’s first chief financial officer, Brett Mandel, lasted just five weeks in that job before he was fired and ushered out by armed deputies. His offense: raising concerns about how Bilal spent public dollars.

Mandel sued, and the city settled the case, paying him $258,668, his attorney $128,322, and $77,802 for a lawyer to represent Bilal.

That $462,792 tab was paid for with — you guessed it — public funds.

State Sen. Doug Mastriano, the Franklin County Republican trounced by Gov. Josh Shapiro in the 2022 race for governor, ended the year with more than $1 million in the bank and at least one unhappy donor — his former running mate, Carrie Lewis DelRosso.

DelRosso, a former state representative from Allegheny County who ran for lieutenant governor, transferred $175,000 from her political action committee to Mastriano’s campaign from August to November.

And she wanted a refund.

“Although no amount was ever discussed, I requested donations raised back to my PAC,” DelRosso told Clout in an email Thursday. “I did my job and left everything on the field. I was shocked to find out how much money was left over in his PAC as I expended all of my resources.”

Mastriano gave her $25,000, DelRosso said.

Mastriano, who doesn’t respond to requests for comment from media organizations that dare to ask questions he doesn’t want to hear, did not respond to a request for comment.

He is still grumbling about “establishment” Republicans not funding his campaign last year. In a Facebook video this week, Mastriano complained about Ronna McDaniel winning another term last week as chair of the Republican National Committee.

“We need change at the national level,” Mastriano said. “The exclamation point for us was the RNC walked away from Pennsylvania.”

Mastriano did not explain why he left about 15% of the money he raised for his campaign last year in the bank, while constantly caterwauling about a lack of resources during and after the election.

The heat keeps coming for Helen Gym after she denounced the Union League last week and then attended a cocktail party there Monday that was packed with developers who could help fund her Democratic bid for mayor.

The United Democratic Ward Leaders of Color on Thursday tweeted its “great disappointment” in Gym, a former City Council member, calling her a hypocrite.

“Her actions are a slap in the face to true democracy,” the group, led by former City Councilmember Jannie Blackwell wrote. “Black and Brown voters should assume that they are unable to trust Helen Gym, who has shown she has no conscience to do what is right versus what is political convenient.”

Gym, who had joined other local politicians in castigating the Union League for an event honoring Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, swiftly apologized after images of her at the private club started spreading Monday on social media.

Bob Brady, chair of the Democratic City Committee, said the letter tweeted by the Black ward leaders was also read aloud at the party’s Policy Committee meeting Tuesday while the decision on whether to endorse a mayoral candidate was considered.

Brady added that he does not control a Twitter account in his name that “liked” the Black ward leader group’s tweet about Gym on Thursday.

“I don’t twit,” Brady told Clout.

Clout provides often irreverent news and analysis about people, power, and politics.