Allegheny County Treasurer John Weinstein on Friday accused one of his opponents in the race for county executive of violating city rules for who can hold government jobs.
But his campaign news conference immediately raised questions about whether Mr. Weinstein followed county ethics rules himself in the process of calling out a rival.
In the morning event at the county courthouse, Mr. Weinstein said that Pittsburgh City Controller Michael Lamb employed a non-city resident in his office for 15 years. In a statement Friday afternoon, Mr. Lamb acknowledged that someone in his office had “violated the established rules,” but did not go into specifics.
“When a government employee in my office violated the established rules, they were immediately dismissed,” Mr. Lamb said. “It’s unfortunate that isn’t the standard some in this race hold themselves to.”
He did not say who was fired, when or for what reason. The city controller’s office didn’t respond to questions seeking to clarify whether residency rules requiring most categories of local government workers to live within city limits also apply to its office, and whether the employee in question lives in the city.
The controller’s office employs about 60 people, compared with about 7,000 county government employees — a point Mr. Weinstein seized on Friday.
“How can we trust someone to lead Allegheny County [when] as the city’s fiscal watchdog, [he] clearly could not even keep his own house in order?” Mr. Weinstein said.
His handling of the news conference quickly drew scrutiny. The event on the courthouse’s grand staircase involved county-owned equipment and personnel in violation of county protocols, according to a person familiar with county facilities, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
By late Friday afternoon, county GOP Chairman Sam DeMarco said the effort broke a county rule barring such overt use of government resources for politicking. He pointed in part to a provision preventing government workers from engaging in political activity in county workplaces and during working hours.
“John Weinstein is so ethically challenged, he can’t hold a press conference on ethics without breaking the law,” said Mr. DeMarco, an at-large member of County Council.
The Weinstein campaign rejected the criticism, saying the event had been planned for outdoors but moved inside because of the weather. The campaign followed protocol, requested a podium and paid a county invoice the same day for the event, a campaign representative said.
“And if there’s anything else, as we receive the invoice, we make the payment,” she said. The campaign didn’t immediately provide a copy of the paid invoice.
Mr. Weinstein’s salvo Friday followed growing public scrutiny of the longtime, politically powerful treasurer. The Post-Gazette reported earlier this month that the FBI had approached the local sewer authority about Mr. Weinstein's activity as a board member there, and that a member of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Pittsburgh had expressed concerns about Mr. Weinstein’s work there to county and city leaders. The Post-Gazette has also reported that a political ally floated a secret deal last year to return Mr. Weinstein to the powerful Alcosan board shortly after he was removed, a proposal that raised legal and ethical concerns.
Mr. Weinstein, who has not been charged with any wrongdoing or publicly identified as the subject of any investigation, last week denied any involvement in an attempt to get him back on the sewer board.
On Friday, Mr. Weinstein dismissed the Post-Gazette’s reporting on the FBI’s interest in him as “political innuendo” before slamming Mr. Lamb’s campaign as being “on life support.” The employee in Mr. Lamb’s office who Mr. Weinstein claimed doesn’t live in the city earned about $77,000 a year before Mr. Lamb fired the employee this week, Mr. Weinstein said.
Mr. Weinstein called for an investigation of Mr. Lamb by District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr., a political ally who spoke at Mr. Weinstein’s campaign kickoff in January. Mr. Weinstein said he learned about the allegedly non-resident worker this week through a letter from an anonymous person in Mr. Lamb’s office.
He received through the mail a copy of the letter, which addresses Mr. Zappala, Mr. Weinstein said. Mr. Zappala’s office didn’t comment Friday.
On Wednesday, Mr. Lamb introduced what he called a “Pledge of Good Governance” urging political candidates to refuse gifts from people trying to exert influence, among other promises. He touted the commitment at a news conference with local leaders including County Council member Tom Duerr and Matt Dugan, the chief public defender challenging Mr. Zappala for reelection as district attorney.
They promoted the pledge after the county retirement board last week tabled a measure that would restrict political donations from firms that manage the county’s pension money. Led by Mr. Weinstein, the board oversees the retirement system for county workers.
Mr. Weinstein had called the bill “not in the bounds of the law.” Mr. Lamb called it “common-sense reform.”
“We’ve got to recognize that the days of throwing contracts to your political donors and throwing jobs to your friends and family [must] be over,” Mr. Lamb said Wednesday. In his statement Friday, he said some officials “have displayed a concerning pattern of behavior of not taking accountability for unethical conduct and abusing the power of their office.”
Earlier in the day, Mr. Weinstein said the pension measure will be considered next month after a committee reviews it. He described it as having been improperly drafted.
“No one was ever against it,” Mr. Weinstein said.
Adam Smeltz: asmeltz@post-gazette.com, @asmeltz ; Hallie Lauer: hlauer@post-gazette.com
First Published: March 24, 2023, 4:49 p.m.
Updated: March 24, 2023, 9:38 p.m.