Cash-strapped Pittsburgh is owed more than $1 million in uncollected bills for police security
Pittsburgh, a city strapped for cash, is owed more than $1 million in uncollected bills for police security.
At one point, the city had more than $2 million in uncollected bills, though recent increases in collection efforts have knocked the number in half.
In the past two years, Cheerleaders Gentleman's Club has hired Pittsburgh Bureau of Police officers to provide additional security 21 times.
The city pays the officers up front and waits for reimbursements. But it is still waiting. To date, Cheerleaders owes the city more than $107,000 in unpaid bills.
"We're working with them to collect payment," Pittsburgh Public Safety Director Lee Schmidt said. "We've shut off their service until they're at least caught up and current with us."
Cheerleaders had no comment, but the gentleman's club is not alone. The city provided KDKA a list of 505 unpaid invoices from its secondary employment trust fund, which provides businesses and other groups with police security for hire.
Until recently, the total of unpaid bills topped more than $2 million. But Schmidt says the city has redoubled its collection efforts and has whittled that down to about $1.2 million.
"My assistant director, that's mostly what she's been doing for the past couple of months," Schmidt said.
Two years ago, the controller's office conducted an audit of the Police Secondary Employment Program, citing the large amount of unpaid bills. But Schmidt says collections have always been challenging, and there has been turnover in the police staff overseeing the fund.
It wasn't until the outgoing Acting Police Chief Christopher Ragland red-flagged the bills about four months ago did the city began its crackdown.
"Hopes are ongoing forward we'll have a much better collection rate and ensure that money is flowing into that trust fund," Schmidt said, "in the way it needs to and the way it should."
Schmidt says that in the future, a private vendor running the program will take over collection duties from the police.
"The city would actually get paid up front and the vendor would be responsible to do the collection," Schmidt said.
With new efforts, Schmidt believes that the lion's share of that $1.2 million will be reimbursed in the coming months and that this will never get out of control again.
