The city's placed its top park ranger on leave, amid concern from the City Auditor's Office that his private security firm was being paid to patrol a city park.

As first reported by the Mercury, Ranger Supervisor Hasan Artharee owns Safeguard Security Inc, which was awarded a contract to patrol Holladay Park this summer—part of new programming bankrolled by the Lloyd Center.

Artharee swore in internal letters that he'd had no idea his company was even up for the job—his father, a former aide to Mayor Charlie Hales, handled the contract. And since the city wasn't paying out any money to Safeguard, parks officials and Parks Commissioner Amanda Fritz decided to let the deal play out. Artharee pledged to avoid his employees' work at Holladay Park, and report to supervisors any interactions he had with them.

But the muddled deal has set off alarm bells in City Hall. Willamette Week first reported earlier today that Artharee was placed on paid administrative leave last Friday. A parks spokesman confirms the move, and City Ombudsman Margie Sollinger says it came one day after she sat down with parks officials with concerns about Artharee's contract (she'd been tipped off to the arrangement).

"What I did share was information that I thought they had not yet known about or considered," Sollinger says. She declined to go into specifics, saying she's waiting for the City Attorney's Office to respond to her concerns. No one's offering a specific reason for Artharee's being placed on leave.

Internal documents released earlier this month show Artharee and parks officials ran the Safeguard contract past city attorneys, but the City Attorney's Office declined to show its written opinion on the arrangement to the Mercury, citing attorney-client privilege.

Parks spokesman Mark Ross says Artharee's company is still patrolling Holladay Park, and that he knows of no plans for the nearly $1,500-per-week contract to end. He says the city's "taking measures to remind employees about City HR policies" regarding conflicts of interest. Sollinger, though, says the concerns she brought to city officials don't touch on the city's conflict of interest policy.

Sollinger says she hopes to hear more about the city's reaction to her concerns today, and that "a public accounting needs to happen" regarding the situation.

Artharee founded his security company in 2009, and became the city's park ranger supervisor in 2012. Artharee says he hasn't managed the company since he got a job with the city, though he still retains 100 percent ownership and earns income through Safeguard.

The city's not the only one concerned about the contract. Laborers' Local 483, the union that represents park rangers, was also looking into the arrangement.

Update, 3:05 pm: Rodrigo Rodarte, who works with Biederman Redevelopment Ventures, the company that hired Safeguard, says there are no plans to cancel the contract.

"We only have about three weeks left on the contract," Rodarte says. He says he spoke with Baruti Artharee, Hasan Artharee's father and Safeguard's general manager, earlier this morning, and the city's concerns didn't come up.

Though the stepped up programming—involving classes, performances, and activities in Holladay Park—is most prevalent during the summer, Rodarte says there are plans for events this fall.

"We haven't discussed whether we're going to get security for those yet," he says. "I would assume we're not."