The botched handling of investigations of two Pittsburgh Police officers reads like a Dilbert cartoon.
The strip pokes fun at ineptitude in the workplace and pointless office practices such as meetings about meetings and reports about reports. But the case of the city’s Office of Municipal Investigations is not funny, and an investigation of these misplaced investigations is not as redundant as it might seem.
City police Cmdr. Eric Holmes and Officer Tonya L. Montgomery-Ford organized a consulting firm with Nate Harper, their former chief who is now in prison on a conviction for conspiracy to commit theft and tax law violations. After the Post-Gazette reported that information in February 2013, an investigation took place — in Cmdr. Holmes’ case, for moonlighting in a full-time position at Slippery Rock University while he was a city sergeant. Cmdr. Holmes remained on the job and Officer Montgomery-Ford was placed on paid leave.
What is most galling about their cases is what occurred after last year’s OMI probes: Nothing.
During the administration of former Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, Kathy Kraus was head of OMI, but she issued no findings before Bill Peduto became mayor in January. When city officials looked in the database used for such matters — notably not until early this year when Officer Montgomery-Ford demanded to return to work — no records were found.
In June, the officer sued and, since then, the city has conducted new investigations, oddly without the subjects’ involvement. Cmdr. Holmes was told Aug. 15 that he was formally cleared, but Officer Montgomery-Ford is still in limbo.
The Peduto administration can easily pin this slip-up on its predecessors, but it has shown a lack of curiosity about what happened to the first round of investigations and the records. Meanwhile, the city continues to pay Officer Montgomery-Ford who is off duty through no fault of her own.
The blame for this debacle may not lie with current city officials, but they’re the ones who must determine what went wrong so that this sort of cartoonish, sloppy work doesn’t happen again.
First Published: August 26, 2014, 4:00 a.m.
