An Allegheny County Council member recommended a colleague to fill a vacancy on the county ethics commission while it investigated a complaint against him, documents provided to the Tribune-Review show.
Councilman Bob Macey, D-West Mifflin, sought to nominate a qualified candidate, attorney Tonya B. Johnson, to the commission but did not try to influence its handling of the complaint, said attorney Phil DiLucente, who represents Macey in an ethics investigation into a job he took in 2013 in state Sen. Jim Brewster's office.
Council members, however, said they felt uneasy about Macey recommending Johnson, so they put her appointment on hold. Johnson's appointment and the reappointment of two other ethics commission members have been idle since September.
“To me, it was problematic,” said Councilwoman Barbara Daly Danko, D-Regent Square. “You clearly have an ethics issue, and you're trying to change the composition of the board? It's almost like putting one issue on top of the other.”
Macey said he did not advocate for Johnson's appointment to the commission while the investigation proceeded. He declined to comment further. DiLucente said the complaint is active.
Johnson, an oil and gas attorney from West Mifflin, said she didn't know about the ethics complaint against Macey or what delayed her confirmation. If appointed to the board, she said she would not participate in discussions or decisions about the complaint.
Macey's reappointment to the Southwestern Planning Commission, a transportation and economic development agency, was postponed by questions about the ethics investigation. County Executive Rich Fitzgerald asked council to reappoint Macey in December. Fitzgerald withdrew his nomination twice as it approached a 45-day deadline. Council approved Macey on April 4.
“Certainly, there is a cloud over Macey while this is pending, and we need to have it be resolved one way or another,” said Danko, who voted against Macey's re-appointment.
In May 2014, former county council member Caleem “Jay” Jabbour filed the complaint with the county Accountability, Conduct and Ethics Commission alleging Macey's job as a constituent services representative in Brewster's senate office violated the county's ethical standards of conduct. Complaints filed with the ethics commission are confidential, but Jabbour, a Democrat and political rival of Macey's, sent the Tribune-Review a copy of the complaint.
“He knows it's an infraction, that it's against the ethics code. He was aware of it when he took the position,” Jabbour, a former West Mifflin council member, told the Trib last year.
Jabbour died in December. He was 82. Arlene Jabbour, 65, of West Mifflin said her husband was certain Macey's second job violated the ethics code and that he should step down. She ran against Macey in 2013, and her husband wanted her to run again.
Macey said the complaint was moot after Jabbour's death.
Brewster, a Mon Valley Democrat, hired Macey in October 2013 to work part-time in his McKeesport office. Macey, 66, makes $21.15 an hour in Brewster's office and $9,000 a year as a council member.
The county ethics code prohibits council members from being employed on the “personal staff” of a local, state or federal elected official. Macey has said his job in Brewster's office does not violate the county ethics code.
On Sept. 11, council's Committee on Appointment Review considered the reappointment of Ronald Stone, an ethics professor at the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, and attorney Daniel Garcia and the appointment of Johnson to the ethics commission. Council President John DeFazio nominated Johnson at Macey's request, DiLucente said.
Macey, Danko, committee Chair Jan Rea, R-McCandless, and Councilwoman Sue Means, R-Bethel Park, attended the meeting.
Macey participated in interviews with each appointee, according to minutes of the meeting. He thanked Stone and Garcia for their service and for the commission's emphasis on confidentiality, according to the minutes. He told the committee he mentioned the vacancy to Johnson and thought she would be an asset. Johnson said she met Macey through their service together on the board of the West Mifflin Community Foundation.
The committee approved the three appointments, submitting their names for a final vote a week later. That vote didn't happen.
Rea, who requested to delay a vote on the ethics appointments, said council's solicitor advised her not to comment.
Danko said she suspects it was because of the ethics complaint.
Councilman Bill Robinson, D-Hill District, said he advised Macey to stay out of the ethics commission appointments. Robinson said council members grew more uncomfortable the more Macey talked. The more Macey involves council, the more likely other members could be questioned by the ethics commission, Robinson said.
“Sometimes you just have to say, ‘It's over,' as painful as it is,” Robinson said. “The decision is Bob's. It's not going to be an easy one.”
Aaron Aupperlee is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 412-320-7986 or aaupperlee@tribweb.com.
