Darryl Jones, Pittsburgh’s longtime fire chief, remained on paid leave this week while under internal investigation, as he and the mayor who sidelined him refused Friday to say what prompted the surprise move four days earlier.
TribLive has learned that city and state records show the embattled chief, who has led the most stable and fully staffed of the city’s public safety squads over four mayoral administrations, has failed to regularly file required financial disclosures about potential conflicts of interest.
It was not known whether the lack of filing has any bearing on the ongoing investigation.
Jones amended his 2025 financial disclosure form with the City Clerk’s office Thursday, just days after local media reported on his administrative leave, which began Monday, and TribLive began seeking the documents.
On Friday, Jones maintained he’s done nothing wrong in connection with his contracting and teaching work, which has included out-of-state travel and courses at a Maryland fire academy.
“I’m not speaking on the investigation at all,” Jones said in a Friday phone call. “All the time I teach, it’s on my time. It’s on personal time. It’s on vacation time — this is strictly on my time.”
Jones would not say Friday whether his side job in fire instruction was part of the city investigation. Neither would Mayor Corey O’Connor.
“It’s just a personnel matter. We’re looking into it, and as soon as we’re done, we’ll let everybody know,” said the mayor, who spoke with TribLive at a fire bureau promotion ceremony Friday at the City-County Building.
O’Connor also declined to say when the investigation might wrap up or whether the probe is looking at any possible criminality.
“I don’t know that,” O’Connor said. “I’m not a lawyer. I can’t tell you that.”
Jones, 65, of the city’s Strip District, a veteran firefighter whose career started in Aliquippa, has led Pittsburgh’s fire bureau since Sept. 24, 2007.
His salary this year is $159,140.
R.L. Sligh Ltd.
The website for the National Fire Academy in Emmitsburg, Md., identified Jones as the instructor for at least 10 courses, all listed as being taught in person, in 2024 and ’25.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency, which oversees the fire academy, declined to answer questions this week about Jones’ work status or how much he has been paid.
Jones has catalogued much of his teaching work on social media.
He’s mentioned teaching at the Maryland fire academy twice on Facebook in the past year and has posted separate photos of FEMA presentations at least three times since September.
Jones’ social media feed showed him at a conference in Portland, Ore., in December and teaching a class in Detroit last month.
Jones said he’s been paid to teach fire classes as a contractor through his company, R.L. Sligh Ltd., but declined to say how much he’s made.
R.L. Sligh Ltd. was incorporated in Pennsylvania on Sept. 15, 2020, state records show. Online records indicate an annual report is overdue for the company, which is named for Jones’ maternal grandfather and lists an address in Pittsburgh’s Brookline neighborhood.
The State Ethics Commission disclosure forms require Jones and other public employees to name sources of income only if they exceed $1,300 a year, city and state officials told TribLive. Jones said he hit that threshold last year but declined to elaborate.
When Jones filed a Statement of Financial Interests with the ethics commission last year, R.L. Sligh Ltd. was not listed, according to online records.
The chief filed a separate statement with the city’s ethics hearing board in 2019. Jones updated it Thursday with two amendments, adding the name and address of his consulting company, according to the city clerk’s office.
Missing forms
Even if Pittsburgh does not keep financial disclosure records past the suggested five-year window, the city should still have Jones’ annual disclosures from 2021 to ’24, according to Melissa Melewsky, media law counsel for the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association.
“In my experience, public employees comply with the law — or they should,” Melewsky told TribLive on Friday.
“If (income disclosures) are not on the forms, why are they not on the forms if it’s public information?” she added. “Where is the money coming from? That indicates where there could be a conflict of interest.”
Jones said he has tried to file the financial disclosures annually. He did not explain further. He could not verify which years he tried to file the forms — or which years he didn’t.
The absence of those forms could lead to fines or penalties, according to the state’s top ethics official.
“I can’t speak to a specific example,” Mary Fox, executive director of the State Ethics Commission, said Friday. “But when we review information that someone has not filed or they’ve filed deficient notices — we would pursue a civil process.”
That process could lead to as much as $1,250 in fines, she said.
Few controversies
While city police and first responders have struggled with recruitment and retention, and five chiefs led the police force during former Mayor Ed Gainey’s sometimes-tumultuous tenure on Grant Street, the fire bureau under Jones has consistently maintained staffing levels — and largely avoided controversy.
Last year was an exception.
Jones, who also serves as Pittsburgh’s top emergency management official, drew ire from elected leaders after it was discovered he was out of town during severe storms that felled trees, tore roofs off homes and left thousands of Pittsburghers without power.
Jones acknowledged in May 2025 that he did not alert Controller Rachael Heisler or members of City Council that he would be away or tell them who would lead the city’s fire bureau and emergency management team while he was gone.
The city code requires the controller, clerk and council members to be notified by department leaders such as Jones about absences.