The Pittsburghc City Council tentatively approved a $200,000 police brutality settlement yesterday involving an off-duty police sergeant’s 2004 actions at a hot dog shop. Deven W. Werling had filed a federal personal injury lawsuit in which he alleged that Sergeant Mark A. Eggleton roughed him up at the Original Hot Dog Shop in Oakland, Pennsylvania, according to a story in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Coming to this tentative approval was not without controversy for several reasons. To begin with, the city councilmen debated whether this decision on the settlement should be debated in public, considering the strange circumstances surrounding Eggleton. After the Pittsburgh Office of Municipal Investigations found that Sgt. Eggleton contradicted himself under oath, he was fired. This dismissal was reduced to a five-day suspension last October, and Eggleton has since returned to his job as a police sergeant. While Pennsylvania state law does allow governmental bodies to discuss personnel matters and legal settlements behind closed doors, Councilman William Peduto argued that Eggleton’s situation was not an executive session manner and should thus be decided in public. The council then voted 7-1 to tentatively approve the personal injury settlement, with Peduto the lone dissenter. The final approval could come this Tuesday, according to the story.

Peduto also used this case to review the city’s practice of allowing private businesses to hire off-duty police officers. While the Original Hot Dog Shop had to pay Eggleton close to $40 an hour per hour for this off-duty work, it does not have to pay the city any money. This has caused concern since the city has to pay when its officers are sued for actions occurring when working off-duty jobs. After shelving a plan for the city to charge businesses $4 or $5 an hour to employ off-duty cops in November, Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl has said that he will introduce a new plan this April, according to the story. Of further interest, Peduto is running against Ravenstahl in the city’s May 15th Democratic primary.