Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey is close to nominating the city’s acting police chief, a 30-year veteran officer, to lead the police bureau on a permanent basis, City Council President R. Daniel Lavelle said Wednesday.

If Gainey presses ahead with Christopher Ragland, he will have to make the case for a nominee who does not have universal backing from City Council or rank-and-file officers, and who has been rejected in recent years by at least two Allegheny County suburbs to run their departments.

While the mayor’s spokesperson would not disclose Gainey’s pick to run the bureau, Lavelle, a close Gainey ally, confirmed that Ragland was the top choice to lead a department beset by staffing problems and low morale.

“I do expect the administration to send over their recommendation for him to be nominated as permanent chief in the very near future,” Lavelle said.

Ragland, 53, of Downtown told TribLive he expects Gainey to make a decision “within the week.”

At the end of October, Ragland took the helm of the 759-member force following the abrupt departure of Larry Scirotto, who resigned amid controversy over a secret deal with the mayor to allow him to resume moonlighting as an NCAA basketball referee.

A swift nomination for an inside candidate would contrast with the process used by the Gainey administration to hire Scirotto, which entailed a national search that cost Pittsburgh $80,000 and occurred largely behind closed doors.

With the city facing financial challenges, officials have allocated no money for a similar effort to find a new chief, and Councilman Anthony Coghill, D-Beechview, the public safety chair, has said he opposes undertaking another national search.

Late Wednesday afternoon, the city scrambled to extend a 90-day window for Ragland to continue as acting chief.

Under the city code, Ragland might have needed to vacate his position Thursday if no permanent nomination for chief was made or if council didn’t vote to extend Ragland’s tenure, according to Lavelle.

Lavelle circulated a memo, obtained by TribLive, that asked his colleagues for “interim approval” to extend the 90-day period for another 30 days. Council will consider the measure at its Feb. 4 meeting.

Anticipation of Gainey’s move this week divided City Council members.

It also triggered a wave of Grant Street insiders, retired officers and community group volunteers to press the mayor, who faces numerous challengers in his reelection bid, for their preferred candidate.

Gainey gauged officers’ temperature about the chief post when he visited the city’s six police precincts and the bureau’s headquarters this month.

Ragland has also made the rounds, meeting Downtown in the past two weeks with several council members.

A question of timing

Ragland spent nearly half of his Pittsburgh police career on the city’s North Side, culminating with a tenure as Zone 1 commander. He became an assistant chief during Scirotto’s time as chief.

“An acting chief can keep the ship off the rocks and keep it from sinking,” Ragland said. “However, to plot a course and sail to a destination, there has to be permanency to that position. I have no desire to see this organization tread water.”

Ragland cited his command-group leadership during the pandemic, his role expanding Downtown’s police substation and steering police initiatives in the Northview Heights neighborhood among his accomplishments.

“I have no desire to participate in the politicization of this position,” Ragland said. “It would be an honor to lead this organization as its chief of police, a responsibility that I do not take lightly.”

Ragland has made no secret of his ambition to run a police department.

He was named a finalist in Mt. Lebanon’s police chief search in 2022 but didn’t make the final cut.

Ragland also sought the chief position in Ross, which instead hired Cristyn Zett, a 23-year Pittsburgh police veteran.

Scirotto promoted Ragland to deputy chief from assistant chief so he could run the department while Scirotto was out of town officiating basketball games.

As acting chief, Ragland’s salary is $175,000.

Lavelle said he believes council will vote to appoint Ragland if Gainey nominates him.

“I would fully expect him to be confirmed,” Lavelle said. “I’ve had a good working relationship with him.”

Coghill isn’t convinced the time is right to name a candidate for chief.

“Gainey should wait until after the primary,” Coghill said. “I don’t know why the rush.”

Gainey will face Allegheny County Controller Corey O’Connor, a former city councilman and son of late Pittsburgh Mayor Bob O’Connor, in the Democratic primary in May. Two Republicans — retired Pittsburgh police officer Tony Moreno and businessman Thomas West — are running for the GOP nomination.

At least six council members met with Ragland in the past two weeks.

Lavelle was not among them, however. Councilman Khari Mosley and Councilwoman Deb Gross did not respond to calls and emails seeking comment.

Councilwoman Erika Strassburger, D-Squirrel Hill, said her meeting with Ragland didn’t revolve around a potential appointment.

“When it came up, he said he would love to be confirmed,” Strassburger said. “It wasn’t the main goal of the meeting. He wasn’t lobbying us.”

Strassburger said she and her colleagues expect Ragland to continue as acting chief. Coghill echoed that sentiment.

“I think he would fly through as acting chief,” Coghill said, “but I can’t say the same about permanent chief.”

No playbook for hiring

Coghill told TribLive he has contacted at least four police officers, three of them in Pittsburgh and none of them Ragland, who he feels should be considered for the permanent post.

He declined to provide TribLive with those officers’ names.

He also said he reached out to a former Pittsburgh police commander, Jason Lando, who was one of the three finalists during the search that led to Scirotto’s hiring.

Lando is now police chief in Frederick, Md., which has about 85,000 residents, a third of the size of Pittsburgh.

The third finalist in that search — former Boise, Idaho police Chief Ryan Lee — recently joined Baltimore’s department as its chief of detectives.

The way cities go about hiring new police chiefs can vary greatly, according to Chuck Wexler, executive director at the Police Executive Research Forum, a Washington-based think tank that helped Pittsburgh select former police Chief Robert W. McNeilly Jr.

Some cities, Wexler said, take months to launch formal searches. Others quickly choose a new leader from within their own ranks.

“In many ways, someone in an acting capacity is being assessed for how they might do permanently,” Wexler said. “It’s really a tryout, if you will.”

Wexler said it’s not unusual for a mayor to make a quick decision with little public process, especially when the mayor has confidence in the acting chief.

Ultimately, though, there’s no standard practice for how to choose a new top cop.

“There’s no one way to do things,” Wexler said.

Changing the process

Leadership at the union representing most Pittsburgh police officers was critical this week of how the Gainey administration is selecting Scirotto’s successor.

“Why’d you change the process?” said Robert Swartzwelder, police union president. “You did a national search last time. Why not this time? Was that just window dressing?”

Swartzwelder said he has talked with elected leaders about who he believes are the best officers for the permanent chief position, among them several high-ranking supervisors.

He deferred questions about Ragland.

“That’s the mayor’s call,” Swartzwelder told TribLive. “I don’t know what the hurry is now.”

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