Search warrant served on City of Pittsburgh unsealed

PITTSBURGH — A search warrant served on the City of Pittsburgh has just been unsealed.

The initial search warrant seeking information and documents from the administration of former Mayor Ed Gainey was served in March by the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office and immediately sealed.

11 Investigates previously reported that the DA’s office is looking into no-bid contracts and money funneled through Stop the Violence grants.

Former Mayor of Pittsburgh Ed Gainey didn’t answer our call today. We wanted to ask him about the accusations included in a 9-page search warrant affidavit.

Detectives are investigating his use of no-bid contracts and alleging he used vendors and subcontractors that he favored, instead of allowing a fair bidding process.

Detectives with the DA’s office interviewed the former attorney for the city council, plus a number of city council members.

According to the warrant, City councilman Anthony Coghill told investigators a lot of the problems regarding the no-bid contracts and financial irregularities revolve around the Stop the Violence money.

Coghill said entities that receive Stop the Violence money would request amounts like $25,000 and be awarded a grant for $70,000. Coghill believed this to be a slush fund for Mayor Gainey.

Coghill also allegedly told detectives the money was just being given out to anyone Mayor Gainey’s administration wanted to give money to.

City Council’s former attorney Dan Friedson explained (to investigators) these professional services contracts were the Gainey Administration’s way of benefiting their friends and supporters and assisting in circumventing the campaign finance laws.

Another concern was the snow removal fleet.

Investigators noted that after the major snowstorm in January of this year, an assessment of the snow removal fleet showed it was in bad condition, and should have been addressed earlier.

City controller Rachel Heisler told investigators she was made aware of a snow preparedness fleet study and that she requested a copy of this study, but no one has been able to find it for her.

We contacted every city council member mentioned in the warrant, but we didn’t get a comment from any of them.

Several organizations named in the warrant have shared comments. Here are their statements:

BikePGH

“BikePGH was surprised to see our organization listed in the DA’s search warrant. To be clear, BikePGH has not received major funding from the City of Pittsburgh, and specifically, we have not received funding on the level that would require a bid.

“We have always been transparent about where our funding comes from and how it supports our mission, and this information is publicly available online. On the City of Pittsburgh end, for verifiable information anyone can search funding, contracts, and legislation via Open Book, Fiscal Focus, and Legistar, the City’s legislation search tool.

“We are seeking clarification about how and why BikePGH came to be incorrectly listed in the warrant and are committed to ensuring the public has an accurate understanding of our funding and relationship with the City.”

Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy

“For 30 years, the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy has partnered with the City of Pittsburgh to care for and improve the city’s parks. Our work with the City has always been governed by formal agreements, clearly defined scopes of work, established approval and reimbursement processes, and extensive publicly available documentation. We take our responsibility as a steward of public and private resources seriously and remain committed to transparency and accountability in everything we do.”

You can view the search warrant document in its entirety below.

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