Money meant for hiring deputies funded executive raises; the sheriff sought to double her salary

In April 2023, Sheriff Bilal appeared before City Council seeking nearly $2 million in new support for an office she described as “consistently underfunded” and “severely short in deputies.” Her budget director, Craig Martin, told Council: “It’s a money shortage and a body shortage,” saying the office needed the money to fill 79 vacant deputy jobs.

Records showed Bilal had “recently diverted hundreds of thousands of dollars intended to hire more uniformed staff — including deputies — to fund hefty raises for her executive staff and other office workers,” the Inquirer’s Ryan W. Briggs and William Bender reported. In September 2022, finance officials authorized $506,000 in pay increases for the office’s exempt staff.

Bilal also sought to more than double her $136,083 salary. The proposed 109% raise would have brought it to $285,000, making her the highest-paid elected official in Philadelphia; city charter provisions barred it, and she received a 5% raise, to $142,751, under the charter’s cap on yearly raises for elected officials. At the hearing, Councilmember Jim Harrity told her: “We need to give you more respect, and give you guys more money.”