Penn Hills Employees Accused Of Lying About Residency
PENN HILLS (KDKA) -- Several Penn Hills employees are accused of lying about where they live.
In Penn Hills, police officers can live within five miles by air of the city. Paramedics must live in the city limits – same with code enforcement officers.
City employees tell KDKA Investigator Marty Griffin the 10 fired or about to be fired Penn Hills employees lied about where they lived.
In some cases, they set up phony addresses with phony bills, creating a fraudulent situation and at the same time, violating the city's residency requirements.
"That's life – that's things that happen unfortunately, but fortunately we have a standard – if you're not doing something correctly things happen," Bill Merola, Jr., a business owner, said.
Merola works in a family business that's succeeded in Penn Hills for decades with a very high standard. He knows a number of Penn Hills police officers and has done work in their homes. He got early word of the firings and understands rules are rules.
"It's never easy to see somebody go or let somebody go," he says, "but unfortunately it's in the contract so that's what happened."
Sources close to the investigation say Penn Hills made certain of their case by having private investigators follow the employees.
City leaders were not available for comment on the firings, calling it a personnel matter.
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