Amrol Hararah, owner of Sicilia Pizza & Kitchen in downtown Salt Lake City, had a problem, according to KUTV.
His arrangement with the city cops who write parking tickets was simple. Hararah and his employees kept a Sicilia Pizza & Kitchen menu visible on their car dashboards and got warnings instead of citations for parking illegally, according to a Salt Lake City investigation obtained by the station. In return, the parking cops got free pizzas and a place to rest out of the weather, KUTV reported.
Then Hararah received two parking tickets. So he visited City Hall to complain, according to KUTV, but city officials were not receptive.
It turned out the city had already gotten wind of the scheme when a rookie officer on the team complained about being bullied into going along with the pizza payoffs, The Salt Lake Tribune reported. After an investigation, the city fired the officer and three other parking compliance officers, who are not sworn police, for accepting the free pizzas.
Matthew Rojas, spokesman for Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski, told the publication that three of the officers have appealed their dismissals.
Hararah, who has not been charged with any crime, denied any pizza payoffs and said Sicilia Pizza & Kitchen provides employee parking, according to The Salt Lake Tribune. He told the publication that he complained to the city because he felt harassed by the number of parking tickets he’d received.
Rookie parking officer Jeff Clegg told KUTV that he was informed about the arrangement during his training.
“If I see a menu of the restaurant in the lower left hand corner of the vehicle, it is either an employee or the owner’s (of the restaurant) vehicle and we are not to cite those vehicles,” Clegg told KUTV. He said he and his colleagues received free pizzas in return. The deal had been ongoing for at least the past two years, Clegg told the station.
When Clegg complained to city officials that he feared being harassed if he didn’t go along with the arrangement, the city investigated, Lisa Shaffer, director of Salt Lake City Public Services, told Fox13. Clegg and three other parking enforcement officers were placed on administrative leave during the investigation, then fired for accepting the free pizzas.
“We’re talking about public trust, and we’re talking about public funds,” Shaffer told the station. “The city absolutely does not tolerate any impropriety when it comes to those two things.”
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