Pittsburgh council wants answers about Scirotto's referee deal with Gainey

Pittsburgh City Council will try today to uncover details about how lame-duck police Chief Larry Scirotto struck a secretive deal with Mayor Ed Gainey to return to part-time college basketball refereeing while also running the city’s police force.

Council is expected to question Public Safety Director Lee Schmidt and Acting Chief Christopher Ragland, who is replacing Scirotto on an interim basis, during a public meeting this afternoon.

In light of Scirotto’s abrupt decision last week to step down, council also wants to discuss hiring his permanent replacement.

Councilman Anthony Coghill, D-Beechview, called for the meeting before Scirotto announced his resignation Friday amid controversy around his decision to resume a part-time NCAA refereeing gig that would force him to frequently leave the city during the basketball season.

The purpose of the meeting was originally to help council members and the public understand how Scirotto would juggle both jobs.

Now, Coghill said, its focus will shift to the circumstances that led to Scirotto’s resignation and the process of finding a new chief.

Coghill said he does not expect Scirotto to attend the meeting, though he is invited. Scirotto’s retirement is effective Nov. 1, but he told city leaders in a letter Friday that he will be out of the office until then.

Trust and transparency

Coghill said he has many topics he’s hoping to address at the meeting, including questions surrounding Scirotto’s pension, the selection process that recommended him and the poor communication that surrounded his refereeing announcement.

When Scirotto was named police chief in May 2023, he told council members he would quit refereeing.

But after word leaked out that Scirotto had quietly resumed his officiating job earlier this month, the mayor said they’d agreed only that Scirotto would step away from refereeing for a limited time and they’d revisit the topic.

Coghill wants to know why that arrangement was so secretive.

He’s also interested in an audit conducted in Fort Lauderdale when Scirotto was leading the Florida city’s police force.

The audit, which TribLive obtained last week, alleged Scirotto was double-dipping and being paid for work as police chief while he was actually on the court. No action was ever taken on the audit, and Scirotto has dismissed it as being politically motivated.

“It’s going to be mostly about transparency for me,” Coghill Monday.

Councilwoman Erika Strassburger, D-Squirrel Hill, said she feels the Gainey administration needs to rebuild public trust after the controversy surrounding Scirotto’s departure and the furtive nature of the deals he made with the mayor.

She highlighted her worries about the fact Scirotto refereed a game before publicly announcing he’d return to officiating basketball. The chief and the mayor, she said, came forward with information only after facing media pressure.

“Then a plan was devised to turn it into an opportunity to help kids or whatever it was,” Strassburger said.

Gainey had said Scirotto would take local youth to games he was refereeing but no details were released about such an initiative.

Strassburger said Tuesday’s conversation should be “a forensic look at how we got to this point.”

“I really am disappointed not only with [Scirotto’s] decision to retire and choose refereeing over serving as police chief, I’m really disappointed in the factors that led up to his retirement,” she said. “It’s going to take work to repair that trust with me.”

Choosing a new chief

A public, transparent process to choose a new chief, she said, is one step in the right direction. She said she’s hopeful that conversation will begin at Tuesday’s meeting.

Coghill, too, said he wants to begin discussions about how to ensure the search to replace Scirotto is public and provides council members with enough information to make an informed decision. He said he plans to more thoroughly vet candidates himself this time around.

“The whole process should be open,” he said, adding he hopes the new chief will be someone who works or has worked in the bureau and who can commit to prioritizing the city’s police force.

The selection process that resulted in Scirotto’s hiring was a largely closed-doors affair, and members of the selection committee signed nondisclosure agreements with the city.

Tuesday’s meeting also could be an opportunity for council members and the public to learn more about Ragland, a 30-year veteran who has been serving as assistant chief and will now lead the 750-member police bureau, said Councilwoman Barb Warwick, D-Greenfield.