PITTSBURGH — Members of Pittsburgh City Council grilled members of the mayor’s administration about the departure of Chief Larry Scirotto for more than three hours on Tuesday.
Many of the questions were aimed at the chief and Mayor Ed Gainey.
The mayor did not attend the meeting either.
>> Pittsburgh Police Chief Larry Scirotto to retire after mounting pressure over side job
Council members were clearly angry and upset that they knew very little about the chief’s return to officiating when he told them during a public hearing just 17 months ago, that he was done with refereeing.
They also criticized the administration for withholding information.
They said most of what they learned came from our reporting.
“Learning about his refereeing is something we learned from the media, not something we had a discussion with you about, not something you came to tell us. Do you feel it’s important to let council know when something like that is happening?” said City Council member Bob Charland.
Council members grilled the Mayor’s administration about a secret deal the mayor made with Chief Larry Scirotto that allowed him to revisit the possibility of returning to officiating college basketball after a year with the city.
The administration said it was not a written agreement, but a verbal agreement the mayor made with the chief when he was hired.
The mayor told 11 Investigates last week that he agreed to allow Scirotto to return to officiating because the murder rate had dropped.
Council members said they were not told about the agreement to revisit refereeing, and they said it could have influenced their decision to confirm the chief.
“To find out that he had a private conversation with the mayor that we will revisit it. Why is that not told to us? That is just unconscionable to me,” said Councilman Anthony Coghill.
Council members called out the administration, accusing them of a lack of transparency.
They said they had no idea he had returned to officiating until 11 Investigates broke the story earlier this month that he had already done a game in Michigan.
“Council found out through a media report not that he had planned to ref big ten games but he had already refed a game,” said Councilmember Erika Strassburger.
The administration told council that Scirotto had nine weeks of vacation based on his previous service to the city.
He spent more than 20 years as an officer in Pittsburgh before he left in 2018.
The administration said he would use his vacation, comp time and weekends to referee basketball.
“He would be permitted to us to use his own vacation time and days off to pursue that other interest of his,” said Deputy Mayor Jake Pawlak.
But 11 Investigates learned he planned to do up to 65 games in the Big Ten Conference which would take him away for more than four months and possibly up to five months straight.
The Big Ten conference is made up of 18 teams from the east coast to the west coast. The closest schools to Pittsburgh are Penn State University in State College and Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio.
The Big Ten also includes UCLA and USC in California and Oregon and Washington.
Scirotto could have been gone from the start of the season in November until the end of March or early April.
The police officers’ union previously blasted the move, saying that Scirotto would essentially become a part-time chief.
The union said the Bureau needs a full-time chief to deal with the manpower shortage and all of the changes that Scirotto implemented during the past 17 months.
While some members of council praised Scirotto’s efforts during his time here, others said Scirotto left the department with some morale serious issues.
“You did away and destroyed what you thought was a good ole boys’ club, and created another good ole boys’ club,” said Council member Theresa Kail-Smith.
Council also questioned why they were never told about an audit that was done when Scirotto was the chief in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida that accused him of refereeing on work time.
Scirotto denied the allegations.
“To me, I felt that should have been shared with this council before we interviewed him,” said Coghill.
Councilman Coghill was also very upset about Scirotto’s pension nearly doubling to more than $90,000 a year for just 17 months of work.
Councilman Coghill asked the administration if that was the plan from the beginning and they said it was not.
Council also questioned Acting Police Chief Chris Ragland about his plans for the future of the department.
Councilmember Barb Warwick said she wants Ragland to improve community policing and put officers in neighborhoods.
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