'In the dark': Pittsburgh council rips Gainey cabinet over secret deal with Scirotto

Pittsburgh City Council members were livid Tuesday after learning that three top aides to Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey knew about a secret deal to allow police Chief Larry Scirotto to return to refereeing college basketball after a year on the job but said nothing.

The chief last week announced his resignation amid controversy over his return to officiating Big Ten basketball games, a side gig he had promised to give up while serving as chief.

Council approved Scirotto as chief in May 2023 “under the explicit understanding that he would not officiate college basketball,” Councilwoman Erika Strassburger, D-Squirrel Hill, said.

Yet Jake Pawlak, director of the Office of Management and Budget, Chief Operating and Administrative Officer Lisa Frank and Public Safety Director Lee Schmidt acknowledged during a tense council meeting that they were aware of a deal the mayor cut with Scirotto to allow him to start refereeing again after a year.

Councilman Anthony Coghill, D-Beechview, showed a video clip from Scirotto’s interview with council last year before he was approved as chief.

“I know you have committed to not pursue that profession (refereeing) while you’re here as our Pittsburgh police chief, correct?” Coghill asked Scirotto.

Gainey and Scirotto agreed behind the scenes that the two of them could discuss Scirott’s return to officiating basketball games after a year, Pawlak said.

“Yet nobody informed council,” said Councilman Anthony Coghill, D-Beechview.

“That’s correct,” Pawlak responded.

Council members said they should’ve known before approving Scirotto as chief that after a year, he might take a second job that would require him to frequently travel around the country.

“We hired him under false pretenses as far as I’m concerned,” Coghill said.

‘Kept in the dark’

During the hourslong meeting, council members criticized the Gainey administration for not being transparent with them about the chief’s plan to start moonlighting or an audit that alleged Scirotto had been refereeing on city time at his prior position as Fort Lauderdale’s top cop.

Scirotto on Tuesday declined to comment on the situation. He was not present at the council meeting, though he was invited to attend.

In a letter to city leaders last week, Scirotto said he would be out of the office until his resignation date Friday.

Officials could not provide details about the conversations Scirotto had with Gainey or other leaders before he was hired or when exactly he got the mayor’s blessing to resume refereeing earlier this month. They could not say when those meetings occurred, and there is no written contract or agreement.

Council members criticized top Gainey administration officials for not sharing with them the Fort Lauderdale audit that accused Scirotto of double-dipping there by working as a referee while being paid for his police duties.

Pawlak, Frank and Schmidt acknowledged they were aware of the audit before Scirotto was hired, but they had not read it.

“The conclusion of the audit was that there were no sustained concerns,” Pawlak said by way of explanation.

The audit was never acted upon, the auditor was subsequently fired and Scirotto has dismissed it as being politically motivated.

“I felt that should be shared with this council,” Coghill told Pawlak. “You kind of weeded it out for us and decided it wasn’t important.”

Council members lambasted the administration for not acknowledging Scirotto’s return to officiating until news reports showed the chief had refereed a game in Michigan earlier this month.

Pawlak said the administration intended to have a public announcement about it over a week later.

Strassburger said that announcement should’ve come before Scirotto’s first game.

“Instead, we were kept in the dark,” she said.

Strassburger noted that the mayor and chief subsequently provided varying and contradictory explanations about the arrangement.

Pulling a ‘fast one’

Gainey said a decrease in homicides prompted them to reexamine whether Scirotto could resume refereeing. Officials Tuesday said that was a factor in their decision, but the deal had always been that they would discuss it again after a year.

Officials have teased the launch of a youth initiative to teach kids to officiate basketball, but no details have been released.

Gainey had also indicated Scirotto planned to take kids with him when he refereed NCAA games, but officials on Tuesday said they believed those comments were actually referring to a local mentorship program that would simply teach them how to referee.

Councilwoman Theresa Kail-Smith, D-West End, accused Scirotto of lying to council about his intentions to resume refereeing.

Lying is a fireable offense for lower-level police officers, police union president Robert Swartzwelder said, prompting Kail-Smith to point out those officers would not be allowed to resign and collect their full pension like Scirotto is doing.

Despite heavy criticism over transparency and the refereeing decision, council members lauded Scirotto for his work as chief, and many said they were disappointed to see him leave.

“Chief Scirotto was a tremendous chief,” Strassburger said. “He did a great job representing the city.”

Council members credited him for his efforts to connect with the community, boost recruitment and ensure the bureau operated as efficiently as possible.

“I think the chief has done very good things for me and my district, and I really appreciate the work and his willingness to always pick up a phone call,” Councilman Bob Charland, D-South Side, said. “But ultimately, it looks like the chief was able to pull a fast one on the city.”

Coghill said he felt Scirotto’s 18-month stint as chief is not worth the cost to the city.

Pension bump

Pittsburgh spent $80,000 on a national search that resulted in Scirotto’s hiring. Plus, Coghill said, Scirotto’s pension will now surge to around $95,200 a year from about $50,000 because of his time as chief.

Pawlak, Frank and Schmidt said they had believed Scirotto could juggle refereeing with his duties as chief. He had nine weeks of vacation time per year, Schmidt said.

Schmidt told council Scirotto told him he planned to referee about 40 games, mostly on weekends. The chief in a public statement previously said he intended to work up to 65 games this season.

Pawlak said city policy allowed Scirotto to work a second job.

Since Scirotto has already stepped down, council members said they were less focused on how he might’ve balanced both jobs and more worried about what they classified as a communication failure from the administration.

“I don’t think the administration has been transparent with council,” Coghill said, calling the lack of communication around the refereeing deal and audit “incompetent” and “unconscionable.”

Coghill, who heads council’s public safety committee, said he plans to vet potential candidates more carefully when considering Scirotto’s replacement.

Finding the next chief

Coghill said he has complete faith in the public safety department’s leadership and the police bureau. He called for a new chief to come from within the force’s ranks.

He said he would not support spending taxpayer money on another large-scale national search 18 months after the costly process to select Scirotto.

That search was a largely secretive process. Members of the search committee signed nondisclosure agreements with the city.

Kail-Smith said she believed the process was flawed from the beginning.

She and other council members said they want more council participation and more public transparency as officials choose a new chief.

As mayor, Gainey will nominate a new chief, but council will need to approve his pick.

Officials did not immediately provide details on what the process to replace Scirotto will look like.

“No decisions either about who to name or even the process by which that would occur have been made yet,” Pawlak said.

Chris Ragland, a 30-year veteran of the bureau, is now serving as acting chief.

Pawlak said Scirotto had chosen him for the role, and he has assumed acting chief responsibilities before when Scirotto has been out of town.

Ragland, who was formerly an assistant chief, will collect the chief salary of $185,400 per year until a permanent replacement is selected.