Pittsburgh council refuses to OK controversial $1,200 payment to ex-city worker

Pittsburgh City Council on Wednesday refused to authorize a controversial $1,200 payment to a former city employee for his work as a contractor amid widening concerns over the use of city credit cards.

Council voted unanimously to not approve the payment to Mario Ashkar following warnings by Controller Rachael Heisler about the propriety of his hiring and more than $18,000 that the city has paid him over the past year.

Council’s vote came during its weekly review of charges on municipal credit cards, known as p-cards, and following media reports on the controversy.

Heisler on Friday raised alarms with council members that Ashkar had received $18,460 in payments to his PayPal account for contracting work after he had been fired from his city job in the Office of Special Events.

Heisler said that the payments seemed to violate city rules regarding the use of p-cards, which are not to be used for professional services.

Mayor Ed Gainey’s spokeswoman Maria Montaño agreed Tuesday with Heisler’s assessment that the payouts were an improper use of the city’s p-card system. The cards are meant to be used for minor expenses like food purchases, subscriptions or conference registrations.

Several council members said they wanted to tighten safeguards to ensure similar problems don’t arise again. They also called for additional information about how the payments to Ashkar were permitted to occur starting last summer.

Councilperson Bob Charland, D-South Side, said he would not vote to authorize any p-card transactions “until more robust safeguard policies” are in place.

“Pittsburgh taxpayers trust us to make sure that money is spent properly,” Charland said. “I will not be voting to support a system that has potential for misuse of those funds and that trust.”

Charland and Councilwoman Theresa Kail-Smith, D-West End, voted not to approve any p-card payments Wednesday.

Other council members voted to approve p-card transactions to pay for things like event refreshments, staff training and Zoom subscriptions.

An anonymous tip alerted Heisler to the issue after Ashkar, 36, of the city’s North Side, was charged in connection with several ethnic intimidation incidents.

It is unclear who in city government made the payments to Ashkar. Heisler has not accused Ashkar of any wrongdoing in the incident.

Montaño said city employees involved in making payments to Ashkar will face “standard” disciplinary actions. She declined to elaborate on the discipline or identify those employees.

Heisler said that the payments could conflict with the state’s ethics laws, which prohibit former municipal employees from working as contractors for their former public employers for at least a year. She said she would forward the matter to the State Ethics Commission in Harrisburg.

The administration, however, has rejected Heisler’s concerns, saying the payments did not conflict with the ethics act because of the nature of his positions.

Related:

• Pittsburgh controller probes $18K in payments to ex-city worker

• Gainey aide defends administration over controversial contractor payments

• Pittsburgh man arrested in connection with ethnic intimidation incidents on North Side

Jake Pawlak, director of the Office of Management and Budget, said the controversy shows there are “opportunities to improve our procedures.”

Heisler told council she did not oppose p-cards generally, but wanted to investigate the situation with Ashkar.

Pawlak told Heisler at the council meeting that the administration was in the process of gathering information she had requested for her probe.

Charland questioned why Ashkar was permitted to work as a contractor for the city after previously being fired from a different department. Officials have not provided any details on the circumstances surrounding Ashkar’s termination.

According to Pawlak, Ashkar has not done any work for the city since he was named as a suspect in a series of ethnic intimidation incidents.

Police charged Ashkar May 8 in a series of incidents that occurred last month. Investigators said they became aware of the incidents on April 22.

Pawlak said Ashkar has done no work for the city since April 23 and the p-card charge that came before council was for work conducted prior to that date.

Pawlak said Ashkar’s work involved coordinating with farmers market vendors and attending farmers market events.