Saying they have no intention of holding up new Mayor Ed Gainey’s nominees to lead key departments, Pittsburgh City Council unanimously confirmed a pair of nominees to positions that one council member deemed the “most important” of all: public safety director and city solicitor.
The nine-member body voted Tuesday to confirm Lee Schmidt as public safety director and Krysia Kubiak to lead the city’s law department as solicitor.
“We want to work with the administration, we want to work with their team, and I do think [the mayor] has some really good support,” Council President Theresa Kail-Smith said, remarking that she believes the mayor is entitled to have his own team around him.
The confirmations come as the city continues to deal with the aftermath of the Fern Hollow Bridge collapse, an event that continues to test the city bureaucracy and demands time, resources and policy solutions.
Mr. Schmidt, in particular, takes over the vast public safety apparatus — including police, fire and EMS — under a mayor who swept to office last year in part because of his commitment to fostering a cultural change in the police department in wake of the widespread racial justice protests in 2020.
Mr. Schmidt, 46, has been with the Public Safety Department for five years, starting in an administrative role with the police bureau in 2017 then eventually getting a promotion to assistant director of operations and administration in early 2020.
Mr. Schmidt told the Post-Gazette last week that he wouldn’t change much in the way the department handles law enforcement and that his views on policing were not affected by the protests and the calls for police accountability.
He did say that he believes coordination within the department and a more proactive approach would improve the relationship between all of the department’s bureaus and the community at large, stressing that public safety “looks different from one neighborhood to the next, from one section of the city to the next and even from, sometimes, block to block.”
The police “serve a purpose,” Mr. Schmidt said, and it’s about having accountability when mistakes are made.
“I told the officers the other day, ‘I don’t believe anyone got into policing to cause anyone harm,’” he told the Post-Gazette. “I think everyone got into public safety to make a difference and make their community safer.”
Ms. Kubiak, tasked with leading the department that handles all matters of law relating to the executive and legislative branches of city government, brings more than 20 years of experience in regulatory and policy issues. She recently served as director of state regulatory strategy and government affairs for Duquesne Light.
Julian Routh: jrouth@post-gazette.com; Twitter: @julianrouth
First Published: February 15, 2022, 5:10 p.m.
