Sheriff Rochelle Bilal reverses course, announces office shakeup amid mounting criticism of auctions
Bilal told City Council in April that sheriff sales were running smoothly. They weren’t. Now, the sheriff said she has a plan to “modernize and streamline” the process.
Sheriff Rochelle Bilal has announced a major restructuring of her office to reduce chronic deed-processing delays following property auctions — a problem she previously claimed she’d fixed.
Among several leadership changes, Bilal said Monday that she has hired an undersheriff, although her spokesperson would not confirm the identity of the new second in command.
A press release about the shakeup also outlined other planned improvements, such as the creation of a public-facing “deed tracker” that would allow winning bidders at sheriff sales to follow the status of their deeds.
Philadelphia’s independently elected sheriff is charged with auctioning off thousands of tax delinquent and foreclosed properties every year, but numerous bidders say they’ve waited a year or more after paying to get a deed of sale.
Last month, Bilal was hit with a court order demanding she speed up this process, or face consequences.
The “comprehensive operational reorganization plan” the sheriff unveiled Monday includes the hiring of sales technicians to improve customer service around sheriff sales, which have been plagued by complications since Bilal took office in 2020.
In addition to the post-sale delays, almost all tax-delinquency sales were halted between 2021 and 2024 after Bilal attempted to award a no-bid contract to an online auction house without the approval of city contract lawyers.
Now, more than halfway into her second term, Bilal said things are going to get better.
“The Philadelphia Sheriff’s Office continues to evolve to meet the needs of the public we serve,” Bilal said in a statement. “This reorganization represents our commitment to operational excellence, accountability, and ensuring residents have greater access to information and services.”
The announcement comes just six weeks after Bilal told City Council, during a pitch to increase her office’s budget by more than 50%, that sheriff sales were going “full blast.” She said processing delays after auctions have been resolved and that any ongoing delays were the buyers’ fault.
“If you believe them that run to the newspaper — ‘Oh I ain’t got my deed’ — well they never tell them they didn’t pay the invoice,” Bilal told Councilmember Cindy Bass at the April hearing.
But interviews with real estate agents, investors, and attorneys, as well as court documents and city records, showed that is not true. Some even said the problems had gotten worse since The Inquirer first started tracking the delays in mid-2024.
At April’s budget hearing, City Council members praised Bilal and declined to press her on the deed problems.
City judges have proven less deferential.
Last month, in response to a lawsuit over the delays, the judges filed a court order threatening to appoint a “special master” to oversee auctions if Bilal doesn’t get a handle on the situation.
The May 13 order, signed by Common Pleas Court Judge Paula Patrick, supervisor of the court’s commerce division, requires Bilal to come up with a plan for “promptly” delivering deeds and distributing post-sale funds, which must occur before a property can be resold.
The same day the order became public, the sheriff announced the retirement of Undersheriff Tariq El-Shabazz, a lawyer who oversaw deed filing and was previously the office’s highest paid staffer.
While the sheriff’s office said in Monday’s press release that it is “pleased to announce the appointment of a new Undersheriff,” Bilal’s spokesperson, Teresa Lundy, did not give the person’s name.
“It is accurate that the names of new hires were omitted from the release,” Lundy said in an email. “As of now, I have not confirmed the hiring of the new undersheriff or any other specific positions.”
The good-government group Committee of 70 has called for abolishing the sheriff’s office. President and CEO Lauren Cristella noted that Bilal “spent years resisting accountability” and appears to have taken action in response to lawsuits and a court order.
“Philadelphians shouldn’t need to sue their own government to get basic services fulfilled,“ Cristella said. ”Reorganization plans are only as meaningful as their implementation.”
The Inquirer’s journalism is supported, in part, by the Lenfest Institute for Journalism and readers like you. News and editorial content are created independently of The Inquirer’s donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.
