But for City Council, which has the power to initiate such a change, eliminating the antiquated sheriff\u2019s office isn\u2019t on the agenda. <\/p>\n
The Inquirer attempted to contact all 17 Council members last week, and five said they opposed or were skeptical of proposals to eliminate the sheriff\u2019s office \u2014 a long-troubled holdover from before Philadelphia\u2019s city and county governments merged in 1854. The modern iteration of the office has limited law enforcement powers, but controls the flow of vast sums of city money. <\/p>\n
Six Council members acknowledged they may be open to a conversation about abolishing the office at some point \u2014 and some said that the missing money was a sign the office\u2019s internal changes are not working. Six declined to comment or didn\u2019t respond to inquiries. <\/p>\n
And though all the Council members who responded to The Inquirer expressed dismay over the recently located $20 million, as the city\u2019s schools and other agencies are in desperate need<\/a> of funds, none clearly stated they were in favor of eliminating the sheriff\u2019s office. <\/p>\n Most important, Council President Kenyatta Johnson<\/a> \u2014 a staunch supporter of the Bilal and who controls the flow of city legislation \u2014 objected to the notion that the sheriff\u2019s office should be abolished with its tasks folded into other branches of government, as has been proposed by the good government group Committee of Seventy and a state oversight board, the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s an independent body, and so right off the top, I know I don\u2019t support abolishing it,\u201d Johnson told reporters last week. \u201cBut it probably is due for some reforms to make sure that particular office operates in a more efficient and transparent manner.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: Philly sheriff\u2019s office reneges on court-supervision deal, tells judge it found $20 million in city money<\/a><\/p>\n Anti-corruption advocates have for generations called for the elimination of independently elected \u201crow offices\u201d<\/a> like the sheriff and register of wills. Led by officials elected in races often determined by party politics, the offices tend to operate with less oversight over hiring and awarding contracts than regular city agencies. The city\u2019s previous five sheriffs have seen corruption or sexual harassment scandals unfold during their tenures.<\/p>\n \u201cWe should get rid of it, and turn [the office\u2019s tasks] over to a highly competent technocrat working with the mayor and Council,\u201d State Rep. Jared Solomon (D., Phila.) said in an interview. \u201cThe office has been plagued with corruption and incompetence and mismanagement for all of modern history.\u201d<\/p>\n The discovery that the sheriff\u2019s office failed to transfer $20 million \u2014 mostly proceeds from delinquent property auctions owed to the city to cover unpaid taxes and other costs \u2014 should be a wake-up call, he said. <\/p>\n \u201cAt a moment in time when my constituents can\u2019t afford their prescription drugs or figure out how to put food on the table or pay their gas bill, she lost $20 million,\u201d said Solomon, who represents parts of Northeast Philadelphia<\/a>.<\/p>\n Johnson said Council would examine what happened with the missing money, which came to light as the result of judicial hearings into the office\u2019s operations.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will be taking a close look at that $20 million and why it wasn\u2019t distributed to Philadelphia,\u201d Johnson said, \u201cand so our team would take a deeper dive to get answers regarding that particular issue, and then go from there.\u201d<\/p>\n But he declined to commit to holding a public hearing on it, a common mechanism for Council members to demand accountability. <\/p>\n Council has squabbled with the mayor\u2019s administration over much smaller sums. Lawmakers have recently bemoaned a $1.4 million cut to the Mural Arts<\/a> Program, and they are currently locked in a tense behind-the-scenes battle<\/a> with Parker over $2 million in funding for the Philadelphia Activities Fund, which Council members dole out to community groups. <\/p>\n For Lauren Cristella, president of watchdog group Committee of Seventy, Council\u2019s response to the multimillion-dollar discovery in the sheriff\u2019s office falls short. <\/p>\n \u201cCouncil is the only group that can provide a long-term solution for these issues and we welcome their efforts to solve this problem for the people of Philadelphia,\u201d she said. \u201cThis office has been in dire need of reform for over 40 years. From failing to perform the most basic duties to misplacing millions of dollars, self-dealing, and secret slush funds, the same problems repeat regardless of who is elected.\u201d<\/p>\n Bilal and her spokesperson, Teresa Lundy, did not respond to questions about the missing money and Council\u2019s response. <\/p>\n Shortly after she won the Democratic primary in 2019, Bilal told The Inquirer she was open to the possibility<\/a> of eventually abolishing her own office. But Lundy, Bilal\u2019s campaign manager at the time, interrupted the interview to say that was not on the table. <\/p>\n \u201cNo, right now,\u201d Bilal said then, \u201cbut if there\u2019s a situation where we need to evaluate that in order to save the city money \u2026 then we will have that conversation.”<\/p>\n \u2018Every decision is political\u2019<\/p>\n The sheriff\u2019s office is responsible for serving warrants, transporting prisoners, providing courthouse security, and auctioning off tax-delinquent or foreclosed real estate. Critics assert most of these functions could be handled by the city\u2019s police force or court administrators, without an elected leader.<\/p>\n To eliminate the sheriff\u2019s office, Council would have to approve an amendment to the Philadelphia Home Rule Charter that would go before city voters in a ballot question. <\/p>\n The Inquirer\u2019s survey of Council members revealed that isn\u2019t likely to happen any time soon. <\/p>\n Four members \u2014 Johnson, Mark Squilla<\/a>, Cindy Bass<\/a>, and Jim Harrity<\/a> \u2014 clearly stated they opposed doing away with the office. <\/p>\n A fifth, progressive Councilmember Kendra Brooks<\/a>, said that without \u201cclear answers\u201d on how the city could carry out the office\u2019s functions, she\u2019s \u201cnot sure the calls for abolition are the right move.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPhiladelphians should make decisions about the office and will get to weigh in next year,\u201d when Bilal is up for reelection, she said. (Bilal will face a challenge from corporate security consultant Jennifer Vrana in the Democratic primary in May. Other candidates may join the race.) <\/p>\n Four Council members \u2014 Nicolas O\u2019Rourke, Jamie Gauthier<\/a>, Nina Ahmad<\/a>, and Isaiah Thomas<\/a> \u2014 said they were open to discussing the possibility of eliminating the office. Thomas said the discussion would have to be about eliminating all the city\u2019s row offices, not just the sheriff. Ahmad said: \u201cEverything\u2019s on the table.\u201d <\/p>\n Two other members \u2014 Rue Landau<\/a> and Mike Driscoll \u2014 didn\u2019t rule out the possibility, but said they need more information. Landau wants Council to examine the office\u2019s structure and functions in the next city budget cycle, if not sooner, a staffer said. And Driscoll said he first wants to see what happens in the court case, which stems from a lawsuit over the office\u2019s alleged failure to transfer deeds following sheriff\u2019s sales.<\/p>\n \u201cDepending on how that plays out, perhaps City Council needs to get involved,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The other six members gave noncommittal answers or did not comment. <\/p>\n Councilmember Quetcy Lozada<\/a> said she was not prepared to discuss the possibility of abolishing the office. Majority Leader Katherine Gilmore Richardson<\/a> said she hopes intervention by the courts would result in a \u201cbetter management process.\u201d (Bilal this summer agreed to independent oversight of her real estate division, but is now seeking to block any outside supervision.)<\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: Philly judge imposes six months of outside supervision for sheriff\u2019s auctions<\/a><\/p>\n Councilmember Anthony Phillips<\/a> declined to comment. Councilmembers Brian O\u2019Neill and Curtis Jones Jr. did not respond to requests for comment. An attempt to reach Councilmember Jeffery Young Jr. was unsuccessful. <\/p>\n Former Councilmember William J. Green IV said he\u2019s not surprised the current Council remains uninterested in eliminating the office. <\/p>\n When he introduced a bill in 2010 to eliminate the sheriff\u2019s office, Green said he was inundated with calls from Democratic ward leaders who told him the issue was a nonstarter due to an unwritten agreement in local politics. <\/p>\n To appease the city\u2019s various political factions, the local Democratic Party often employs blunt racial math<\/a>, such as setting aside slots for white and Black candidates when deciding judicial election nominations. <\/p>\n Green said he learned a similar logic applied to row offices, explaining why some politicians are protective of the current arrangement. Black officials, he says he was told, controlled the sheriff\u2019s office, while white officials ruled the register of wills\u2019 office, another relic of the city\u2019s now-defunct county government that lives on as a pool of patronage jobs<\/a>. <\/p>\n \u201cThere was definite racial politics involved in each office and who was expected to be the nominee,\u201d Green, who is white, said in an interview. \u201cThe bill went absolutely nowhere.\u201d<\/p>\n Green said he\u2019s not surprised little has changed since. <\/p>\n \u201cI think you can find among most elected leaders in Philadelphia a lack of core convictions or guiding principles, and so every decision is political,\u201d Green said. <\/p>\n Bilal, the city\u2019s first Black female sheriff, burst onto the political scene in 2019, when she shockingly dethroned Sheriff Jewell Williams, whom multiple women had accused of sexual harassment, and two other candidates in a crowded Democratic primary. <\/p>\n She ran that year without the Democratic City Committee\u2019s blessing and with endorsements from anti-establishment progressives, including the activist group Reclaim Philadelphia and District Attorney Larry Krasner<\/a>.<\/p>\n Most ward leaders stood by Williams in the 2019 election, party chair Bob Brady said at the time. But in 2023, when Bilal was already facing accusations of mismanagement, the party endorsed Bilal for reelection. <\/p>\n Before running for office, Bilal was a 27-year veteran of the Philadelphia Police Department<\/a> and a former leader of the Guardian Civic League, the union for Black officers. <\/p>\n Nearly two centuries of reform<\/p>\n The dispute over the sheriff and Philadelphia\u2019s other elected row offices stems from a 172-year-old effort to fully combine the city and county of Philadelphia. <\/p>\n Prior to 1854, the city of Philadelphia, which then was composed only of modern-day Center City<\/a>, was one of dozens of local governments with separate jurisdictions across the county. The fragmented townships and boroughs lacked a unified police force, driving public safety concerns after a series of riots erupted targeting Black people and Catholic immigrants.<\/p>\n That year, Harrisburg approved the Act of Consolidation for Philadelphia, merging the city, county, and other local governments into a single entity. But the sheriff and a string of other county row officers were carved out of the merger.<\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: WITH EACH NEW SHERIFF, SAME OLD PROBLEMS: The history of Philly\u2019s scandal-plagued elected office.<\/a><\/p>\n The debate over Philly\u2019s parallel governments raged for decades, with the focus shifting to corruption. Party-backed candidates for these obscure offices typically cruised to victory, often doling out jobs in return for political endorsements.<\/p>\n The enactment of Philadelphia\u2019s 1952 Home Rule Charter and state legislation in the 1950s and \u201960s brought a new wave of reform, legally placing most elected row offices under city control, and transforming several more \u2014 including the coroner and prothonotary \u2014 into appointed positions. The city now had the power to abolish most of the remaining row offices via referendum and fold their duties and staff into other departments.<\/p>\n But Council has never voted to initiate such a referendum for the sheriff and register of wills.<\/p>\n In 2008, Mayor Michael A. Nutter proposed eliminating the sheriff\u2019s office, the register of wills, and the clerk of quarter sessions, another row office relic that auditors found had lost track of millions in mishandled bail, fines, and court fees.<\/p>\n (Mayors can propose legislation and use their bully pulpit to encourage Council to adopt it. Ultimately, Council has the power to approve a Home Rule Charter amendment eliminating the sheriff\u2019s office and send it to the voters. Mayor Cherelle L. Parker<\/a> has not proposed eliminating any row offices.) <\/p>\n Nutter succeeded in doing away with only the clerk of quarter sessions. <\/p>\n In 2025, the Pennsylvania Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority, the state-appointed board that oversees the city\u2019s finances, called for both Philadelphia\u2019s sheriff\u2019s office and register of wills to be axed<\/a>.<\/p>\n There are procedural differences between the two. Under state law, Philadelphia cannot unilaterally dissolve the register of wills office without state authorizing legislation, while the city has final say over the sheriff\u2019s office. <\/p>\n \u2018We\u2019re looking into it\u2019<\/p>\n The revelations about missing money and records have spilled out of Court of Common Pleas hearings over the past six weeks.<\/p>\n Real estate investors who bought foreclosed or tax-delinquent properties at sheriff sale \u2014 but never received a deed \u2014 filed suit, leading Judge Paula Patrick to issue a May<\/a> order demanding Bilal explain the chronic delays<\/a>.<\/p>\n After a tense first hearing in August<\/a>, Bilal agreed to allow independent oversight of her real estate division, but reneged on the deal weeks later. <\/p>\n In September, a deputy undersheriff testified that the backlog had been cleared and that Bilal\u2019s office was auditing revenues linked to the stalled sales for any lingering discrepancies. Under questioning from the judge, the deputy revealed that the audit had already uncovered $20 million from sales in just the past year that should have gone to the city.<\/p>\n Instead, the money had been stuck in limbo in several sheriff\u2019s office bank accounts. The deputy said it was disbursed to the city after this discovery, and that the office was reviewing earlier years for other unclaimed funds.<\/p>\n Parker told NBC10 that week<\/a> that she had not been briefed on the millions owed to the city. Asked last week about the money, the mayor\u2019s spokesperson, Joe Grace, said: \u201cWe\u2019re looking into it.\u201d He declined to answer questions or make anyone available in the treasurer\u2019s office for an interview.<\/p>\n Some Council members have questioned Bilal\u2019s management in the past, including her office\u2019s handling of millions more in fee revenue that the city controller in 2022 said was meant to flow into city coffers. The Inquirer reported Bilal had instead diverted the money into an off-budget bank account ex-staffers called a \u201cslush fund\u201d that paid for mascot costumes<\/a>, DJs, and a $600,000 ad campaign<\/a>, among other discretionary expenses. Bilal has also drawn two prior court orders<\/a> linked to chronic understaffing and security lapses in the court facilities her office patrols.<\/p>\n Additionally, Bilal\u2019s office delayed the collection of an estimated $35 million in tax revenue<\/a> because it failed to auction off tax-delinquent properties between 2021 and 2024 as a result of a contract dispute involving an online auction company. <\/p>\n Parker, during her first budget address in March 2024 described that money as \u201cdollars that could have been invested in classrooms and in rec centers or on building affordable homes.\u201d <\/p>\n This year, Bilal returned to Council, seeking to increase her office\u2019s budget<\/a> by more than 50%. (Ultimately, Council approved only a fraction of that, a $146,000 funding increase, bringing her office\u2019s budget to $35.8 million.) She was greeted with enthusiasm by several lawmakers, who thanked her for her work.<\/p>\n \u2018We\u2019ve seen all the criticism\u2019<\/p>\n The sheriff enjoys close political relationships with many of the Democrats<\/a> on Council, and some have fiercely defended her.<\/p>\n In March, during Women\u2019s History Month, Council members heralded Bilal for her leadership, and she accepted an honorary resolution on behalf of the women in her office.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve seen all the criticism,\u201d Bass, a longtime ally of Bilal\u2019s, said as she presented the citation. \u201cAnd let\u2019s be clear, accountability is essential, but the challenges facing the sheriff\u2019s office did not begin with Sheriff Bilal.\u201d<\/p>\n But the $20 million revelation seems to have altered the conversation. Over the last two weeks, a handful of members pointed to the news as a sign that the sheriff\u2019s internal reforms had not taken hold.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s money that was supposed to go to the city, and we\u2019re in a financial bind right now,\u201d Harrity said. \u201cThey need to get their act together.\u201d<\/p>\n Brooks said that it\u2019s clear the office\u2019s revenue collection and distribution issues are \u201csystemic,\u201d and she encouraged Bilal to work with the courts to establish independent oversight \u2014 a move that Bilal now publicly opposes. <\/p>\n And Gauthier said that she was particularly \u201csurprised\u201d by the finding given that Bilal has repeatedly asked Council to increase her office\u2019s yearly budget.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to understand why that happened, how that happened, and we need to understand that before we\u2019re in another conversation about millions of dollars being needed,\u201d Gauthier said.<\/p>\n But it\u2019s largely up to Johnson whether that understanding happens in public or behind closed doors.<\/p>\n Gilmore Richardson \u2014 the Democratic majority leader who has in the past sharply criticized city departments that have misspent or lost track of taxpayer dollars \u2014 said that she called Johnson shortly after learning of the undisbursed money. She said she trusts that \u201che\u2019ll be working to ensure that we can adequately address this.\u201d<\/p>\n Solomon, who has been a rare vocal supporter of abolishing the office<\/a>, said that despite the reform\u2019s lack of popularity on Council, he\u2019s heartened that some members said they are open to the conversation. <\/p>\n \u201cYou seem to be seeing a growing number of folks \u2014 and maybe it\u2019s after the $20 million marker \u2014 who seem to be saying, \u2018Let\u2019s figure out a path forward,\u2019\u201d Solomon said. \u201cOther municipalities do this. They function with efficiency, and the sheriff is effective, and they\u2019re not losing $20 million.\u201d<\/p>\n Acknowledgment<\/p>\n The Inquirer\u2019s journalism is supported, in part, by the Lenfest Institute for Journalism and readers like you. News and editorial content are created independently of The Inquirer\u2019s donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer\u2019s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com\/donate<\/a>. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org\/supporters<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to article \u2022\u00a00:00 min After a top aide to Philadelphia Sheriff Rochelle Bilal confirmed in court last…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":307203,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,71,70,125971],"class_list":["post-307202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-philadelphia-sheriff-office-city-council-abolish"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307202\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792069452_302_circle_outline_footer_light_theme.png\"\/)
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