Jason Lando and Sheldon Williams face Pittsburgh City Council questions under oath

Two of Pittsburgh Mayor Corey O'Connor's nominees for major city roles were in the hot seat on Wednesday, as they answered questions from city council members under oath.

Jason Lando, the city's acting police chief, and Sheldon Williams, the acting public safety director, were under oath, with that requirement being something that gives the council grounds to remove officials if they find out they lied under oath.

Lando and Williams were the first mayoral nominees to be placed under oath for these interviews.

Lando comes back to Pittsburgh after more than two decades with the bureau. He rose to commander before leaving the department to become the police chief in Frederick, Maryland. He was a finalist for the Pittsburgh job back in 2023, which ended up going to Lary Scirotto.

Williams was a city paramedic in the 1990s and also served as a police detective for 14 years and had been teaching recently at Pitt's emergency medicine program as well as consulting for the Department of Homeland Security and with FEMA.  

If approved for the public safety role, Williams would be Pittsburgh's first Black director of the department.

The requirement to field questions under oath comes after Scirotto returned to refereeing college basketball games, something he did as an officer, but had told the council he would not officiate games as long as he was police chief. 

Some council members said they did not think Scirotto was as forthright with them as he should have been.

Councilmember Anthony Coghill said he felt Scirotto was hired under pretenses and put forward legislation, which was approved.