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SALT LAKE CITY — Four Salt Lake parking compliance officers have been fired for allegedly accepting free pizza in exchange for not writing tickets.
Matthew Rojas, spokesman for Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski, confirmed that "the city has terminated four employees for allegedly abusing their position as compliance officers in exchange for pizza."
"The city takes fraud, waste and abuse very seriously," Rojas said. "Changes have already been made to prevent this from happening again."
But the owner of the restaurant said no such deal was ever made to avoid parking citations.
"There’s no deal with anybody," Amrol Hararah said. "No free slices. Three dollars. Everybody can afford $3."
Hararah has been running Sicilia Pizza Kitchen, 35 W. 300 South, for 20 years.
"To set up free parking for $3 a slice is not worth it. I never have any deal with the city. I never have a deal with anybody,” he said. "You think this is worth jeopardizing somebody’s job?"
Hararah said his employees have their own parking on the west side of the restaurant. And he said those times when they have parked out front, they have been ticketed.
Hararah did say he has allowed parking enforcement officers to use his loft as a break room to get out of the cold and rest. That started about three years ago, he said. But he insists he never handed out free pizza.
"Everybody paid, because I cannot afford for everybody in the city to have free stuff,” he said. "I’m a business owner, I’m running a business. I’m not running a charity."
Related story:
Salt Lake City's parking ticket amnesty program now underway
On Tuesday, Salt Lake City launched a 90-day parking ticket amnesty program. The program is designed to help settle extremely overdue parking tickets issued before July 1, 2014.He said a representative from the city asked him for more information two months ago.
"I was completely surprised," Hararah said, adding that he doesn't believe any of his employees took bribes without his knowledge.
Rojas, however, said three separate investigations were conducted by the city's Human Resources Department, Finances Department, and the Unified Police Department to avoid a conflict of interest.
Because the employees have the right to appeal their terminations, Rojas said he could not expand on his comments.
