Tube City Almanac

October 08, 2009

City Releases OT Records; DA Still Investigating

Category: News || By

An investigation into possible abuse of overtime pay by some city police officers remains ongoing, says a spokesman for the district attorney's office.

But as far as the city is concerned, "it's a closed matter," Solicitor J. Jason Elash said.

"We have no proof to this day --- no evidence --- that anyone got any inappropriate money," he said. "We don't know of any specific amount that was ever paid unfairly."

City officials on Wednesday released to the Almanac, Daily News and Post-Gazette a list of all requests for so-called "court pay" filed in 2008 by police officers.

. . .

The information was provided under orders from the state Right-to-Know Office, which was acting on a complaint filed by Post-Gazette reporter Moriah Balingit.

The office ruled Sept. 21 that the city had "failed to provide any basis ... for withholding the requested records," which Balingit formally requested in July.

The records released are a raw tabulation of some 1,221 requests for overtime pay, filed by 53 members of the police department, for attending trials and hearings in hundreds of criminal court cases.

. . .

There are no indications in the 28-page file as to which overtime requests --- if any --- might be improper or incorrect.

"I know everyone anticipated seeing findings, but that's not what we have," Elash told the Almanac Thursday.

. . .

Police officers in most municipalities, including the city, are entitled to "court pay" for attending trials when they would otherwise be off-duty. The so-called "court cards" documenting their attendance are to be signed by a judge.

In March, KDKA-TV and the Post-Gazette reported that seven police officers had been disciplined for submitting requests for "court pay" when they hadn't actually attended trials.

But Elash said those reports were not strictly accurate.

"There were irregularities in the way the court cards were being handled, and procedures were violated," Elash said. "We disciplined those officers for violations of those procedures ... but we have no clear evidence of a pattern and there's no clear evidence of even one pay period" that included fraudulent pay.

Media reports in March and the resulting public outcry prompted Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala Jr. to recommend that an outside investigation be conducted to see if any laws were broken.

. . .

At the city's expense, certified public accountant Edward Datemasch of Plum compiled a list of all requests for court pay during a three-day period in May.

Each entry includes the date for which overtime pay was requested, the officer's name, the case number and the defendant's name.

In a cover letter to Elash dated May 12, Datemasch noted that in some cases the handwritten requests were "difficult to decipher" or that defendants' names and case numbers were "difficult to read and required judgment to decipher."

Zappala spokesman Mike Manko on Thursday told the Almanac that "the information provided to us is still being reviewed."

. . .

Manko would not comment on how investigators were examining the records, or how much longer their investigation will take.

But presumably, checking each of the 1,221 court cards would require pulling each case folder, verifying that the officer named on the card was called to testify on the date in question, and then verifying that the officer appeared in court that day.

"We were provided with raw data," Manko said. "Part of our review involves checking the records of court cases. Beyond that, I can't comment."

. . .

The city will wait for a ruling from the district attorney's office before taking any further action, Elash says.

"They may come back to us and say they have a case," he says. "But I personally, and the mayor, feel there is no issue. From the city's point of view, this is a closed matter."






Your Comments are Welcome!

Leave it to government to have such a backwards way to pay people. If this was a private business, this would be way different. Do you think employees at Wal Mart or Best Buy hand in handwritten time cards? Give me a break. This should all be digital by now. Maybe an Offficer in court gets a code when he/she appears, texts that code to a number, or types it into a program on his compputer, or even emails it to someone(does anyone email anymore?Since twitter and facebook, I sure don’t)and gets paid, if it is the same code the judge has on file for that instance, its good, if not, s-o-l, or something like that. When I opened this website and saw the picture, I thought it was a picture from 1982. C’Mon, if your going to make it this easy to do it, of course it will be done. Hell, I would have done it, when is someone going to go through all this antiqudated paperwork to verify it? Probably never, someone just happened to in this case. Are they going to check every officer in Allegheny County? I dont think so…
Adam - October 08, 2009




I know this is a big political issue in the city, so I wade in cautiously. As an outsider, I am flummoxed not by what this or that person did, but by the whole process. Paper copies? Seriously? In 2009? It’s a system that’s ripe for corruption. Why is this not computerized with appropriate security measures at each level. This is very 19th century bookkeeping.
Dan - October 09, 2009




Adam,

Or even simpler yet…have the officer sign in/sign out to a computer when they arrive/leave court! Boom, number of hours were just calculated. Compare that to the start/end time of the case before the judge (also entered into the same system) as your QA and fraud detection at a minimum.
Dan - October 09, 2009




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