Pittsburgh police Chief Larry Scirotto keeps dribbling his way into controversy over his side hustle as an NCAA basketball referee.

Three years ago, he was the subject of an audit about his officiating while running Fort Lauderdale, Fla.’s police department.

The auditor alleged that Scirotto was double dipping — being paid for working as chief in Fort Lauderdale while at the same time refereeing and traveling to games.

But the auditor was fired, his report never went anywhere, and on Thursday Scirotto dismissed it as politically motivated.

“No comment about his hit piece,” he told TribLive. “I won’t explain.”

Now, Scirotto is under scrutiny once again for his refereeing, and two Pittsburgh City Council members told TribLive they are unhappy they knew nothing about the audit when they voted last year to confirm Scirotto as Pittsburgh’s chief.

“Shouldn’t this have been shared? Shouldn’t we have known about this?” asked Councilman Anthony Coghill, who chairs the public safety committee. “[The audit] is obviously very concerning to me — and I’m sure to my colleagues, as well.”

Whistleblower complaint

Upon being hired in Pittsburgh after a national search for a new police chief, Scirotto said he and Mayor Ed Gainey agreed that he would not referee.

That agreement lasted less than 18 months.

Last week, the issue of Scirotto’s moonlighting reemerged when he said he and Gainey agreed on his return courtside to referee up to 65 games a season after his hiatus from the basketball court.

That immediately prompted condemnation by the police union and questions from Coghill, D-Beechview, who wondered aloud: “Do you want to be a referee or do you want to be a police chief?”

The Fort Lauderdale probe, conducted by a veteran auditor with the city, was prompted by a whistleblower.

Auditor John Herbst accused Scirotto of violating police department policy in relation to his refereeing.

Fort Lauderdale fired Herbst in February 2022 before he formally completed his work, alleging that he ran a “rogue investigation.”

The auditor, a 16-year veteran of Fort Lauderdale government, declined to discuss his report with TribLive.

Scirotto was fired two weeks later for an unrelated issue concerning allegations that he discriminated against white police officers in the department by promoting minority candidates.

Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantolis on Thursday defended Scirotto, who unsuccessfully sued the city for $10 million after being fired.

“Larry was a very promising individual,” Trantolis told TribLive. “He came with some great ideas … and for that reason, I think a lot of the ‘old guard’ tried to push back.”

Trantolis confirmed no investigation into Scirotto occurred after Herbst was fired.

A second Fort Lauderdale leader, however, told TribLive she stood behind Herbst and his work.

“John was 100% doing his job correctly,” former Fort Lauderdale Commissioner Heather Moraitis, who stepped down in 2022, told TribLive. “I have the highest regards for him and I appreciate that he was auditing this whole situation … to determine if there any wrongdoing.”

“I do believe the police chief of a large city should only have one job,” Moraitis added.

Puzzling statements

On Thursday, the Gainey administration continued to stonewall, either ignoring or refusing to answer TribLive’s questions about the audit and whether it was part of the vetting process by the national search committee that recommended Scirotto.

Gainey, however, has made puzzling statements about Scirotto.

He said last week that Scirotto had approached him about “possibly needing to step down from his role in order to pursue this part-time refereeing gig.”

Scirotto, who is making $185,400 this year, leads a 750-officer department.

During a tour of homeless shelter Thursday morning, Gainey said Scirotto plans to take juveniles with him on his refereeing trips. The mayor refused to elaborate or answer any questions.

Scirotto did not answer questions about Gainey’s comments.

Pittsburgh police Assistant Chief Chris Ragland will assume the role of deputy chief to take control of the bureau when Scirotto is traveling to referee, according to the chief.

Scirotto said he will take a pay cut next year to offset the increase in Ragland’s salary.

It’s unclear how much Scirotto will earn per game. Top collegiate conferences pay refs up to $3,000 per game, according to Slate and the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

Scirotto was hired in 2023 after Pittsburgh approved a contract to pay a California consulting firm up to $80,000.

At the time, then-council President Theresa Kail-Smith abstained from a preliminary vote on the measure over concerns that her council district had been excluded from public engagement on the matter.

On Thursday, Kail-Smith gave a measured response about the current furor swirling around Scirotto.

“I think this is a conversation between the mayor and chief, City Council and the public safety director, that needs to happen,” Kail-Smith said. “We need to be confident that what we’re doing is in the best interest of the public.”

Members of the search committee signed nondisclosure agreements with the city. Public Safety Director Lee Schmidt said in May 2023 that the process of selecting a police chief “is not really a public process.”

Scirotto was one of the three finalists for the job.

Police union weighs in

Robert Swartzwelder, the head of the union representing Pittsburgh police’s rank-and-file officers, called the audit, which he learned about Thursday from TribLive, “problematic.”

Fort Lauderdale’s policies about outside employment, which are outlined in the audit, appear similar to those in Pittsburgh, Swartzwelder and others told TribLive.

Swartzwelder said he was not told about the audit when he and other Fraternal Order of Police members staffed a panel to interview candidates for police chief.

“Who knew what when?” Swartzwelder said. “For the FOP panel, there was no information on this audit or that any investigation was conducted.”

City Controller Rachael Heisler on Thursday raised concerns both about the audit, which she also did not know existed, and Scirotto’s arrangement with the mayor to return to officiating while serving as Pittsburgh’s chief.

“We still don’t have all the details,” Heisler said.

The controller’s office, she said, needs to ensure that any work agreement “is fiscally responsible and, most importantly, that it won’t have a negative effect on either public safety or the morale of an already over-burdened police force.”

Staff writer Julia Burdelski contributed to this report.

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