Pittsburgh City Council discusses Chief Larry Scirotto's retirement
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Pittsburgh City Council felt blindsided when Chief Larry Scirotto announced his retirement last week. It followed the surprise to members that he was officiating college basketball games.
Councilmember Erika Strassburger said the fact that the mayor's office did not tell the council about a deal to let Chief Scirotto officiate again breaks a line of trust with them. Many members wanted to know why the chief was allowed to hit the court again after he told the council he wouldn't.
For several hours on Tuesday afternoon, Pittsburgh City Council pressed Mayor Ed Gainey's office on how this situation exploded. Earlier this month it was revealed that Chief Larry Scirotto was officiating Big Ten basketball games. The city and chief were working on a plan to make it work, and then, this past Friday, the chief announced he would retire.
Between the search, salary, and pension of the chief, Councilman Anthony Coghill says the city paid a lot to not get too much.
"So, it's cost us millions of dollars to hire the chief for a year and a half," he said, with the expected money needed to pay out the chief's pension.
A point of contention for much of the council was how they learned about this situation. Councilmembers said no one from the mayor's office ever told them about the conversations Scirotto and the mayor had about him wanting to officiate. Deputy Mayor Jake Pawlak says they planned to inform them, but word got out to the media before they could.
"Those plans were for dates after the media story broke," Pawlak said during the hearing.
Mayor Gainey gave the impression last week that if homicides went down, the chief and he could visit the idea of him officiating. Deputy Mayor Pawlak said there was more to it than just A leading to B.
"That's an oversimplification. There was no specific trigger or if this happens, then this happens," Pawlak said.
With a new search for a chief, there are questions about the mayor's office's job in keeping someone in charge.
"Four-plus years of the Gainey administration, we will have had a chief for 18 months," Councilmember Bob Charland said.
That would be clarified to be 24 months as former Chief Scott Schubert was here for six months of the current administration.
Deputy Mayor Pawlak expressed confidence in former Acting Chief Thomas Stangrecki and current Acting Chief Christopher Ragland.
The council also probed the mayor's office about the next steps. They don't want a repeat of this latest situation.