Pittsburgh’s police chief will take a pay cut to keep his job as an NCAA basketball referee

PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh Police Chief Larry Scirotto says he will take a $20,000 pay cut to match the salary of the department’s new deputy chief when Chief Scirotto officiates 60 to 65 NCAA basketball games this season.

Chief Scirotto told Post-Gazette news partner KDKA-TV that he offered to take the pay cut, which Mayor Ed Gainey accepted, saying the mayor “believes it could help reassure the residents we serve while also rewarding the deputy Chief (Christopher) Ragland in his new role (as deputy chief).”

Contacted directly by the Post-Gazette, the chief declined requests for comment and referred questions to Gainey’s office. Reached by phone earlier this week, mayoral spokeswoman Olga George said the mayor’s communications staff would not respond to PG’s list of specific questions. She cited an ongoing labor dispute involving a number of the newspaper’s employees.

According to the mayor’s preliminary budget, the mayor was expected to earn $187,254 in 2025, a slight increase from $185,400 this year. He was hired in 2023 at a budgeted salary of just under $160,000.

Some members of the city government were under the impression that Chief Scirotto would not continue in his duties as long as he headed the Pittsburgh Police Bureau.

“We have talked about it and he will not be doing it at this time,” Gainey said on May 3, 2023, introducing Chief Scirotto as his candidate for top cop.

Two weeks later, during city council public interviews with Director Scirotto, Councilor Anthony Coghill asked him to confirm his intention to put the job aside.

“I know you pledged not to pursue this profession while you’re here as Pittsburgh’s police chief, right?” Coghill asked.

Chief Scirotto replied, “That’s right.”

However, both Gainey and Chief Scirotto indicated that the plan was always to revisit the NCAA appearance once the chief had settled in and made changes to both the department and the city’s crime statistics.

“That was my intention at that point,” Chief Scirotto told WTAE-TV, referring to his response to Coghill last year. “The mayor and I have had very clear conversations. There was no doubt (if it would change), whether this department would look different, whether this city would be in a different state and whether we would be safer.”

The meeting concluding the agenda, i.e. a meeting to collect information, is scheduled for Tuesday at 1:30 p.m. in the City Council chambers. It was convened by Coghill, who said the board should hear from the director before approving his salary for 2025.

Last week, the executive announced he would return to officiating college basketball, which he actually did a few days earlier while working an exhibition game in Marquette, Michigan, between Michigan State and Northern Michigan.

He told local NPR affiliate WESA that the game is becoming more and more popular.

“There are no secrets and there never have been,” he told the station on Wednesday. “And it never will be. I have a very clear schedule, and the mayor and director of public safety know when I’m gone.

“They also know who will rule when I am gone,” he said.

That person will be Ragland’s deputy chief, who will receive the new title of deputy chief – a position that was eliminated from the city budget several years ago.

The chief’s $20,000 pay cut will go toward increasing Deputy Chief Ragland’s $146,000 salary in his new position.

“No one in this city should have to worry about their safety with Deputy Chief Ragland at the helm,” Judge Scirotto told WESA, referring to what could happen if he is on the court while Pittsburgh a crisis was developing.

The boss said he would use his nine weeks of vacation and normal days off – Friday, Saturday and Sunday – to make time for his job duties and related travel.

“It’s not like I’m going or I have to find another time for it,” he told the radio station. “This is the time that was given to me under the contract.”

In a statement released last week after his boss’s announcement, Gainey said Chief Scirotto “has approached us regarding the possibility of stepping down from his role in order to continue his judicial work on a part-time basis….”

The chief told WESA that he did not give the mayor an ultimatum; rather, if his duties were “a distraction to the office” – or meant he “couldn’t perform in the way we both expect from the office” – he would retire.

He also said that his return to office will facilitate the implementation of a new youth program that he plans to launch in cooperation with the HEAR Foundation, called Refs and Rooks. The idea, he said, is for officers and young people to train together as judges and earn certifications at the end of the program.

“They go to training together. They will grow together. They will learn together. They will referee together,” he told the radio station. “How fun will it be to watch them grow together towards what could be a career in any field, whether it be law enforcement or service?”

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