Pittsburgh City Council members were furious Tuesday after learning that three top aides to Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey knew of a secret deal to allow Police Chief Larry Scirotto to return to officiating college basketball after a year. at work, but they didn’t say anything.

The boss last week. announced his resignation amid Controversy over his return to arbitration Big Ten basketball games, a side job he had promised to quit while serving as boss.

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

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

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

“I know you have committed to not practicing that profession (officiating) while you are here as our Pittsburgh police chief, correct?” Coghill asked Scirotto.

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

“Still, no one informed the council,” said Councilman Anthony Coghill, D-Beechview.

“That’s right,” Pawlak responded.

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

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

‘Kept in the dark’

During the hour-long meeting, council members criticized the Gainey administration for not being transparent with them about the chief’s plan to begin moonlighting or an audit that alleged Scirotto had been arbitrating the city’s time in his previous position as Fort Lauderdale’s top leader. police.

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

In a letter to city leaders last week, Scirotto said he would be out of office until his resignation date on 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 arbitration earlier this month. They could not say when those meetings took place 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 doing double duty there by working as a referee while being paid for his police duties.

Pawlak, Frank and Schmidt acknowledged that they were aware of the audit before Scirotto was hired, but 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 carried out, the auditor was later fired, and Scirotto dismissed it as politically motivated.

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

Council members criticized the administration for not recognizing Scirotto’s return to officiating until news reports showed the boss had officiated a game at Michigan earlier this month.

Pawlak said the administration intended to make a public announcement on the matter more than a week later.

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

“Instead, they kept us in the dark,” he said.

Strassburger noted that the mayor and the head of government subsequently gave various and contradictory explanations about the agreement.

Pulling a ‘quick’

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

Officials have teased the launch of a youth initiative to teach children how to referee basketball, but no details have been released.

Gainey had also indicated that Scirotto planned to take children with him when he officiated NCAA games, but officials said Tuesday that they believed those comments actually referred to a local mentoring program that would simply teach them how to officiate.

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

Lying is a fireable offense for lower-level police officers, police union President Robert Swartzwelder said, prompting Kail-Smith to note that those officers would not be allowed to resign and collect their pension. complete as Scirotto is doing.

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

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

Council members credited him for his efforts to connect with the community, boost recruiting and ensure the office ran as efficiently as possible.

“I think the chief has done some very good things for me and my district, and I really appreciate the work and his willingness to always take a phone call,” said Councilman Bob Charland, a South Side Democrat. “But ultimately it looks like the chief was able to make a quick decision in the city.”

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

Pension increase

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

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

Schmidt told the board that Scirotto told him he planned to officiate about 40 games, mostly on weekends. The boss in a public statement previously said he intended to work up to 65 games this season.

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

Since Scirotto has already resigned, council members said they were less focused on how he might have balanced both positions and more concerned about what they classified as a communication failure on the part of the administration.

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

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

Find the next boss

Coghill said he has full faith in the leadership of the public safety department and the police office. He asked that a new leader be appointed from the ranks of the force.

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 secret process. Members of the search committee signed confidentiality agreements with the city.

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

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

As mayor, Gainey will nominate a new chief, but the council will have to approve his choice.

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

“No decision has been made yet on who to appoint or even the process by which that would happen,” Pawlak said.

Chris Ragland, a 30-year veteran of the office, now serves as interim chief.

Pawlak said Scirotto had chosen him for the role and that he had previously assumed acting chief responsibilities when Scirotto was out of town.

Ragland, who was previously deputy chief, will earn the chief’s salary of $185,400 per year until a permanent replacement is selected.