Sheriff’s race pits incumbent against ex-colleague
Pittsburgh detective trying to unseat Mullen
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
It's the kind of thing that happens to every Pittsburgher. The guy on the next bus seat turns out to be your cousin’s prom date. The Giant Eagle cashier once lived next door to your grandma. The guy challenging your re-election worked for you at your old job.
That’s the situation Allegheny County Sheriff Bill Mullen faces in his third, and potentially most difficult, re-election bid. Pittsburgh homicide Detective George Satler, who had then-police zone commander Mullen as his boss when he joined the Pittsburgh force a quarter-century ago, is now vying for his job.
“It’s his right to run,” Sheriff Mullen said. “There was never a falling out.”
“I’m not looking to attack [Sheriff Mullen] in any way,” said Detective Satler of his first bid for office. “He’s got the office into the playoffs. I want to take it to the Super Bowl.”
When Sheriff Mullen took charge in 2006, by most accounts, the office could barely play an exhibition game.
With a $19 million budget, the office performs numerous functions: arresting fugitives, transporting prisoners, providing courtroom security and serving documents in civil lawsuits. It also carries out “sheriff’s sales” when property owners fail to pay their mortgages.
But a decade ago, Sheriff Mullen’s predecessor, Pete DeFazio, was mired in an ethics scandal, ultimately pleading guilty to coercing employees to support his campaign. Sheriff Mullen prides himself on professionalizing the office since then, using civil-service tests to guide promotions and investing in technology. “We were literally keeping records on 3x5 cards, so we computerized that,” he said.
Sheriff Mullen also touts steps he hasn’t taken. He cites work to reduce the number of sheriff’s sales in half, by helping mortgage holders renegotiate loan terms with lenders. And in 2012, when a judge ordered the removal of the long-running Occupy Pittsburgh protest camp on a Grant Street parklet, he did not forcibly remove demonstrators, as happened elsewhere. “I said, ‘It’s February. Let me handle it.’ We’re not trying to show up like stormtroopers.”
The small group of remaining occupiers eventually departed, without a single arrest.
“We were really, really tired,” said Helen Gerhardt, a former occupier. But Sheriff Mullen “definitely deserves some credit” for the peaceful outcome, she said.
Detective Satler said he had no
complaints with how that protest was handled, but faults the sheriff for not being more assertive elsewhere. He has criticized the department for not hiring more black females, saying he’d take a personal approach to recruitment by visiting college campuses.
In speeches, he’s groused, “There’s about 10,000 outstanding warrants down at the sheriff’s office right now. Every one of them has a victim. I’d like to get that number drastically reduced.”
On a conference call with party leaders Thursday, Sheriff Mullen called it “absolutely not true” that warrants were being ignored, or that they all had victims. “Those warrants are not like rape warrants ... or homicide warrants,” but involved less pressing matters like parole violations. “We constantly knock those down, but they keep piling up.”
Asked about hiring practices, he said that of the 53 people he had hired, four were African-American women, although he acknowledged, “We would like to hire more minority females.”
“Law enforcement agencies across the country have difficulty with this,” said Vic Walczak, the legal director of the Pennsylvania ACLU. While the group has sued Pittsburgh for its hiring practices, Mr. Walczak said the sheriff’s department “is not an agency we’ve had a lot of dealings with, which is good for them.”
Sheriff Mullen’s backers include a group of LGBT Democrats and a political committee representing county deputies. Tom Leheny, who heads the committee and who also once served with Detective Satler, said, “George is smart and a very hard worker.” But while managing a crime scene required organizational skill, he said, the choice “comes down to administrative experience. George has never run a budget.”
Detective Satler has his champions too, including the Chartiers Valley Democratic Chairs Committee, a group of suburban Democrats.
“Bill Mullen is a class act, but I think Satler brings a different perspective and enthusiasm,” said Marty Schmotzer, a member of the committee.
Detective Satler’s most prominent supporter may be County Treasurer John Weinstein, whom Detective Satler said he met through his wife, Jennifer, who ran for Common Pleas Judge in 2013.
Mr. Weinstein chaired that campaign: His nephew now works as Judge Satler’s tipstaff. Mr. Weinstein did not respond to requests for comment, but when asked whether Detective Satler would feel obliged to hire Mr. Weinstein’s associates, campaign manager Nick Bonesso said “absolutely not.”
Detective Satler said that because “I am self-funding my campaign, I will not owe anyone anything.”
Campaign records show Detective Satler seeded his campaign with $100,000 he describes as family money. Sheriff Mullen, whose previous re-election bids faced no more than token opposition, began 2017 with $13,895, although the campaign claims to have $100,000 on hand now.
While the campaign has been relatively genteel so far, there have been flashes of controversy as the county’s Democratic committee prepares to endorse a candidate March 5.
The Satler campaign has objected to a letter the Mullen campaign sent to Democratic leaders that identified two top party officers, county chair Nancy Patton Mills and vice-chair Austin Davis, as supporters. Sheriff Mullen’s campaign manager, Marty Marks, said the sheriff “mistook encouraging and supportive remarks from them as an endorsement. … I should have [confirmed] that their names could be included on our public list of supporters. The mistake was mine.”
Ms. Patton Mills said she was sending committee members a postcard stating that party officers, as a matter of policy, don’t support candidates prior to the endorsement. The Satler campaign hoped the statement would specifically renounce Sheriff Mullen’s letter.
“If there’s even a perception that the party leadership is supporting one candidate or another,” said Mr. Bonesso, “the whole system breaks down.”