DA pushes for more documents in inquiry into Pittsburgh police staffing study contract

Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. has requested further documents and information from the city of Pittsburgh regarding nobid contracts amid an inquiry into a police staffing study released earlier this year.

In August, Mr. Zappala submitted a right-to-know request with the city, asking for all records pertaining to the police staffing study. On Monday, his office submitted an additional right- to- know request with the city’s Law Department for records pertaining to Pittsburgh’s waiver of the competitive bid process. He has asked for all records related to any no- bid contracts dating back to Jan. 1, 2020.

The police staffing study was done by Matrix Consulting Group, a San-Francisco based company, under a contract with the city. Mr. Zappala said at the time of his original inquiry in August that his inquiry stemmed from “a number of concerns” that had been brought to his attention.

The city granted a waiver of competitive process for the staffing study, which eliminates the requirement to allow other contracts to bid competitively on a project. The city claimed that the waiver was justified because Matrix already had a relationship with the city as a consultant on “police-related litigation.”

Mr. Zappala said that he found contradictions in the timelines laid out by the company and by the city.

The staffing study said the “project began in March 2022 with a process of extensive input from both internal and external stakeholders,” but the city’s no-bid contract was dated July 12, 2022, one month after City Council approved the contract.

“Based on Matrix’s own admissions … it was already at work for about three months collecting sensitive city information and holding interviews, even though the city purports that the process to award it a no-bid contract had not even commenced until May 31, 2022,” Mr. Zappala said in a statement. “Such a glaring contradiction suggests that the city process documents may be pretextual and mere window dressing for a preordained outcome.”

The city also justified the no-bid waiver by saying that Matrix was the “only known company” to provide this type of services. In 2005, a similar study was done for Pittsburgh by the International Association of Chiefs of Police. Its findings differed from that of the Matrix study.

Jake Pawlak, the city’s director of the Office of Management and Budget, acknowledged during an August news conference that the city was aware of the IACP study. At the time that the Matrix study was being commissioned, city leadership believed that it might be used to guide future negotiations with the police union and wanted the study to be from an “independent voice,” Mr. Pawlak said.

Mr. Zappala said that nothing was submitted to show Matrix was the only company capable of doing this work and that by removing the competitive bid process, the city took away an opportunity where other companies could have “demonstrated their ability to provide the same services as Matrix.”

Matrix was paid $180,000 for the study.

“The lack of disclosure, and perhaps abuse of the no-bid contract process by the city, warrants further inquiry,” Mr. Zappala said in a statement.

The city has up to one month to respond to rightto-know requests.

The study — which found that the city budgets for the correct number of cops but that some patrol officers should be reassigned to other roles — was released in July, over a year after it was first commissioned.

The city budgets for 900 officers, which the study said was adequate, but at the time the study was released, there were about 790 officers on staff.

“This recommendation is shocking given the ongoing daily chronic mandatory overtime assigned to Pittsburgh Police officers,” Mr. Zappala said in a statement.

Mr. Zappala, who is running for re-election under the Republican ticket despite being a lifelong Democrat, criticized Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey last week, saying city leaders are “not allowing police to do their jobs, which is causing the spike in crime Downtown.”

Mr. Gainey responded by saying Mr. Zappala was “focusing on getting re-elected, and not doing any real work in helping make Pittsburgh safe.”

When the district attorney’s office initially requested documents regarding the staffing study in August, Mr. Pawlak said he believed the requests were “frivolous” and “either misguided or politically motivated.”

The mayor’s office declined requests for comment Monday evening.