A Sunday-morning debate between Mayor Ed Gainey and his Democratic primary challenger, County Controller Corey O’Connor, featured sharp exchanges on housing and city finances — and further remarks from Gainey about the departure of former police chief Larry Scirotto.
Hosted at the Pittsburgh firefighters union headquarters by the Young Democrats of Allegheny County, the 45-minute forum touched on a wide array of topics. But none more contentious than Scirotto, whose decision to rekindle a longtime interest in refereeing college basketball angered city councilors who’d sought reassurance that he would abandon the side gig.
When asked Sunday by moderator Lauren Williams about Scirotto’s departure in October, Gainey denied there was an agreement in advance to let Scirotto referee basketball games. He said that when Scirotto broached the topic during the hiring process, “I said, ‘No, we got 71 homicides.’” But when the matter came up after the homicide rate dropped by more than a third, Gainey said, subordinates told him, “This may work.” There was also discussion of tying the refereeing sojourns into a youth program that would shore up ties with police and the community.
Initially, Gainey said, Scirotto “was excited“ by the proposal, but weeks later Scirotto said he was worried about a no-confidence vote amongst rank-and-file officers, and about media scrutiny. “He said, ‘You know [WPXI investigative reporter] Rick Earle, he’s following me around. He might get on the plane.’” Gainey said he tried to allay those concerns — “WPXI ain’t planning to pay Rick Earle to go around to no basketball game to see if you’re doing it,” he said — but the next day Scirotto resigned.
Gainey said that several days later Scirotto went on KDKA radio in late October to say that his partner “has been called back to Texas because the virtual reality job that he had was canceled. He has to go back to a physical job in Texas.”
Gainey said Scirotto had told him the same thing after he resigned, and that he told Scirotto that staying close to a partner “is not something you need to be embarrassed about.” Gainey said he didn’t reveal the information publicly “because my job is to make sure I was building morale,” and he didn’t want to speak out before Scirotto did.
O’Connor brushed aside that account. “The reason this story came out is the chief was caught in Michigan State refereeing a game.” (The story was initially reported by WPXI's Earle.) By concealing the fact until it was already becoming public, he said, the administration was “putting lives at risk, you’re putting our officers at risk.”
O’Connor also scoffed at Gainey’s mention of turning Scirotto’s refereeing side gig into a youth programming opportunity, details about which have been murky. O’Connor called it a “Band-Aid situation” to say “we got caught on Sunday, now let’s put a plan together where we’re going to take kids all across the country to watch him referee … Who was going to pay for all these kids to fly to California?”
Williams, the moderator, shifted topics — “moving on to dating in Pittsburgh,” she said brightly, before asking the candidates how they would make the city more vibrant. (“I would rely on city council members to help me” address such issues, O’Connor said, joking that council member — and political ally — “Bob Charland is here. I know he struggles to date.”)
There were other moments of contention, as when Gainey said that “When I came in, the city was on fire” — a claim that has become a theme for his campaign’s early days. Gainey said that when he took office in 2022, he inherited a city that had underinvested in policing and public works vehicles.
That was a partial rebuke of O’Connor, who’d been on council for the better part of a decade when Gainey took office. And O’Connor countered by flagging the city’s wobbly financial position and what he said was Gainey’s failure to use federal COVID aid more effectively. Re-electing Gainey, he said, would mean “four more years of a declining population with zero growth. … We are not creating jobs. We are not creating wealth. We are not creating homeowners in this city. “
“You want to talk about a city on fire?” O’Connor asked. “It’s on fire right now.”
O’Connor, who served on City Council for more than a decade himself, touted his work on high-profile legislation including a bill requiring large employers to offer paid sick-leave benefits to workers. Asked by Williams whether his political career stemmed from nepotism — he is the son of the late Pittsburgh Mayor Bob O’Connor — he said, “I have the ability to do this job starting day one, and that’s why I’m running. No legacy here. This is about me.”
O'Connor did find himself on defense at least once, when questioned about an interview he did with radio talk show host Colin Dunlap — who some have accused of being transphobic for statements that include remarks about transgender athletes. Dunlap has maintained he is not transphobic, but O’Connor said Sunday that he hadn’t been aware of the controversy and “don’t have any plans of going on that show in the future. … [We] will not make that mistake again.”
The Young Democrats are expected to announce their endorsement late tomorrow, after voting concludes.
