DA’s office expands probe into contracts between City of Pittsburgh, Matrix Consulting Group

PITTSBURGH — The Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office is doubling down and digging into the way the city of Pittsburgh does business.

It all comes down to a police staffing report the city commissioned that the DA Steve Zappala calls shocking. He suggests the outcome may have been pre-determined.

RELATED COVERAGE >> Channel 11 Exclusive: Police staffing study suggests Pittsburgh has enough officers

Zappala has expanded his information request for documents as the probe continues to widen — he’s now requesting all no-bid contracts by the city for the past three years.

This comes after saying he found irregularities with that no bid police staffing study done by Matrix that indicated the city had more than enough patrol officers, even though the city has lost officers at an alarming rate, and many are mandated to work overtime just to cover shifts.

Channel 11 spoke to Zappala about the report last month. At that time he said he didn’t think there were enough officers for Pittsburgh.

“There’s no substance to it. There’s a lot of conclusions that are reached, but there’s no basis for the conclusion,” Zappala said.

Last month, Zappala requested all records and documents related to the $180,000 taxpayer-funded study.

RELATED COVERAGE >> DA’s office requests records of contract between City of Pittsburgh, Matrix Consulting Group

On Monday, he said in those documents he found those irregularities. Among them, the city’s no-bid contract with Matrix was dated July 12 of last year, but Matrix said the project actually began in March, four months before the contract was signed.

While the city said Matrix was the only company that could do the study, Zappala said the city didn’t offer any supporting evidence.

“The use of public money by the City administration for a no-bid contract resulting in the Matrix Reports that recommend defunding the City police while the City is torn by rising violence, is irresponsible, dangerous and disturbing. What is more, the lack of disclosure, and perhaps abuse of the no-bid contract process by the City, warrants further inquiry,” Zappala said in a statement.

The city’s communications director, Maria Montaño, released a statement accusing Zappala of playing politics and claiming that the study suggests finding ways to maximize existing resources. She said she hopes Zappala finds time to prosecute those who have caused harm to people in the city. Montaño’s full statement is below.

“We would encourage current District Attorney Zappala to read the Matrix Study, which does not in any circumstances advocate for defunding the police. What it does do is talk about how great our response time is, and looks to find ways to maximize existing resources. Matrix remains to be the only company that would utilize actual city data to form its conclusions.

Once again, the current DA is busy playing politics, and while we are glad that he seems to have found his office in order to send out campaign style press releases in an election year we hope that he is able to find the time to prosecute those who have caused harm to people in our city and answer the tough questions regarding major high-profile cases. Pittsburgh deserves answers, and we hope he finds them soon.”

Matrix Consulting Group President Richard Brady also sent a statement to Channel 11, refuting three main issues they say were either “not true or are misrepresentations of our experience and our relationship with the City on a staffing study of the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police” in Zappala’s letter. Brady’s statement reads:

1. The reference to a start date of March 2022 in our report is simply a typo. We did not begin any billable work on the project until July 2022. These facts are comprehensively substantiated by work documents, internal time accounting systems, and communication related to the project. We refute any allegation that billable work was performed prior to this.

2. We never stated that we were uniquely qualified to perform this project. The City reached out to us for a proposal to develop a staffing study of the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police, and we provided a proposal which outlined our approach to conduct such a study.

3. The report that your office issued, provided by Mr. Earle, states that our company “repeatedly and intentionally misrepresented its qualifications”. We would like to know what you are referring to, as we take pride in the integrity and the truthfulness of our qualifications and experience.

It is disappointing that no attempt was made to contact us prior to this letter being written. We eagerly await the opportunity to discuss this matter further and refute these claims. Ultimately, we expect a retraction of these claims.

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