Payments to a controversial former contractor by the city’s director of Parks and Recreation violated some policies, but do not warrant termination or further discipline, an investigation by the Office of Municipal Investigations found.
Deputy Mayor Jake Pawlak told reporters Wednesday morning that Parks and Recreation Director Kathryn Vargas ran afoul of city personnel and contracting procedures in retaining Mario Ashkar to help with city farmers’ markets. He said disciplinary action had already been taken, including a review of the proper use of “p-cards,” or city purchasing credit cards, that were used to pay Ashkar. But he said no further action would be taken.
Mayor Ed Gainey's administration "believes hardworking, exemplary employees who make honest mistakes should be allowed to learn from those mistakes and have an opportunity to do better,” Pawlak said. “Director Vargas has led her team to do great work in service to Pittsburgh residents, and we have every confidence that she will continue that work with the energy, empathy and integrity that she has always made the center of her public service.”
The circumstances surrounding Ashkar’s work for the city drew attention this spring, after Ashkar, who uses they/them pronouns, was charged in connection with ethnic intimidation on the city’s North Side in May. Authorities said security footage depicted Ashkar removing an Israeli flag from a North Side home and tossing it in the trash. City Controller Rachael Heisler then raised questions about Ashkar’s hiring and the use of a P-card to pay them.
The announcement of OMI’s findings came one day after District Attorney Stephen Zappala’s office served a search warrant to the mayor’s office, seeking the OMI report and the investigative file.
Word of the search warrant began circulating Tuesday afternoon, and Pawlak said that "Given that we received the warrant yesterday, we wanted to make sure that we released this information alongside that.” He added that the investigation into the payments took two months to complete, and the mayor’s office planned to release its findings this month even before the search warrant arrived.
Pawlak said the warrant came as little surprise: Zappala had previously requested the documents, he said, but the city responded that it couldn’t provide the records without a court order.
Zappala has been critical of Gainey over a number of issues, particularly during the DA’s bid for re-election last year. But Pawlak said the warrant dealt with the Ashkar case and did not ask for data on the use of P-cards in general. The city maintains about 70 of the credit cards for purchasing. Pawlak said the mayor’s office has not been served with any other warrants.
“We feel that there’s ultimately no basis for a criminal investigation,” Pawlak said. “I think this is another example of the district attorney's office pursuing an issue that has received media attention.”
Zappala’s office did not respond directly to a WESA request for comment. But it did release a copy of the search warrant, which asked for the OMI file on Asharkar “and any investigative file associated with the ... use of all purchasing cards” between July 2023 through this week.
In the affidavit used to obtain the warrant, a detective in Zappala’s office writes that the office received a thumb drive — purportedly from the city controller’s office — containing documents related to the payments and Ashkar’s work for the city. Based on questions about the payments and reports of other investigations, the affidavit asserts, the office asked to review the OMI file, but was told they would have to request a copy from city solicitor Krysia Kubiak.
Kubiak ultimately told investigators that the material involved personnel matters and couldn’t be turned over, though the affidavit asserts that “OMI has shared their files with this office numerous times [and it is] not standard procedure for OMI to require the solicitor to sign off on providing a file.”
The affidavit says that Ashkar “was being improperly paid” and that “individuals in the City of Pittsburgh are not cooperating with the Office of the City Controller and the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office.”
‘Error in judgment’
OMI found that the payments to Ashkar did not violate the city’s policy for purchasing cards, contrary to concerns previously raised by Heisler. The policy prohibits P-card payments for professional services, but OMI found that Ashkar’s services didn’t fall under a definition of “professional” as someone employed “in an occupation requiring a high level of training and proficiency.”
But OMI found that the contract should have been approved by City Council because the amount of money paid in 2023 exceeded a limit of $10,000, a rule laid out in city code. And it said Vargas should have composed a formal job description with HR or other officials for the work, due to the length of Askar’s employment.
According to the report, Vargas was aware that Ashkar had previously been terminated from their job as special events coordinator in the Department of Public Safety for poor performance and calling off unexpectedly. But “Director Vargas saw potential” in Ashkar, it noted, and Pawlak said Vargas felt Ashkar could assist the city’s farmers' market operations.
The report says “there is no evidence to show that she had some prior personal relationship,” but does not discuss whether there were any ties between Ashkar and members of the mayor’s office. Pawlak told reporters that there were not, based on internal discussions.
In a statement, Gainey called Vargas a valuable member of his team.
“I know the passion, empathy and thoughtfulness that Director Kathryn Vargas brings to the job each and every day,” Gainey said. “I know she regrets her error in judgment and is doing everything necessary to ensure that her actions and processes align with city policies.”
In an afternoon statement, Heisler said “there remain outstanding questions” about Ashkar’s work for the city, including “the lack of any written agreement between parties” about the terms of their work. In a list of “physical evidence” used to compile its findings, OMI lists an email exchange in which Vargas claims to have a contract with Ashkar, but there is no mention of OMI reviewing the contract itself.
The city does not plan to change its P-card usage policy, but has instituted additional monitoring processes for the cards, Pawlak said.
“We're now able to proactively identify instances where if we're using the same vendor for substantially similar services multiple times, we would migrate to a different form of contract and a different form of payment,” he said.
Heisler has said the hiring of Ashkar might also have violated state ethics provisions. The State Ethics Commission cannot confirm or deny an investigation is underway. While it does make findings public, they typically take many months to complete and no finding was available as of Wednesday.
Bob Charland, a member of council who has been outspoken about his concerns surrounding the city's use of P-cards, said that he was “deeply dissatisfied” with the administration’s lack of communication to council about the investigation.
Charland has for months voted against approving any P-card payments, something he said he would do until "additional safeguards are in place." He said Wednesday that he would continue voting no “until the process is rectified.”
“I’m wary of the administration’s ability to manage these P-cards without making payments to their friends, and I view a thorough investigation by the District Attorney as a necessary and welcome next step,” he said.
Chris Potter contributed to this report.
This story is developing and will be updated.
