Allegheny County Treasurer John Weinstein on Friday said he never tried to orchestrate political deals behind closed doors in order to regain power and position on the county’s influential Alcosan board.
The statement came after Schuyler Sheaffer, a former campaign manager for state Rep. Emily Kinkead, said that County Councilwoman Bethany Hallam offered Kinkead a political “deal” in April 2022 to help Weinstein solidify his position on the Alcosan board.
Weinstein, who is running for county executive in a multi-candidate race, said he did not make deals with Hallam to secure the board seat.
“I look forward to this race moving away from deliberate smear tactics from my opponents and instead turning to a discussion of ideas about how best to move this region forward,” he said.
Weinstein has not been charged with any wrongdoing.
Weinstein’s days were numbered on the sewer authority board in early 2022, as Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald was seeking to replace him first starting in February and eventually succeeding on April 26 of that year.
Hallam acknowledged she met with Weinstein in 2022 to talk about Kinkead’s campaign, but denied any deal was proposed or offered to Kinkead.
Weinstein is running for county executive, and Hallam is running for reelection for her seat. Both will be on the Democratic Party’s primary ballot this May.
Sheaffer, who managed Kinkead’s 2022 campaign, said Hallam met with him on the afternoon of April 11 in his North Side apartment.
He said she told him that Weinstein “has a deal” for Kinkead: if Kinkead resigned her Alcosan board seat, Weinstein would give her any other board seat she wanted. Sheaffer also claims that Weinstein would pull his financial support for Kinkead’s primary opponent at the time, small business owner Nick Mastros.
“It was a quid pro quo, it was said in one breath,” said Sheaffer.
Weinstein in a statement Friday evening denied the allegations of backroom dealing.
”I will no longer accept my more than two decades of service to our taxpayers being dragged through the mud on the basis of rumors, outright falsehoods, and innuendos slung by competitors,” he said. “I did not speak with either a board member or another elected official about the expiration of my Alcosan term.”
Sheaffer said he contacted Kinkead and legal counsel after meeting with Hallam. Kinkead contacted House Democratic leadership over the matter, he said.
Lawyer Efrem Grail said he was also contacted by Kinkead that week but declined to elaborate.
Kinkead said she called Grail after hearing of the alleged deal to see if she had a duty to report it to the authorities.
Kinkead represents the state House 20th District, which includes North Side neighborhoods, Bellevue, West View, Avalon and Ross. She said she spoke with Hallam about potentially meeting with Weinstein because Kinkead heard Weinstein was supporting her primary opponent by convincing some local labor unions to fund that campaign.
She said that during her later conversation, Hallam shared a “thought” about how to help Weinstein and Kinkead. She described Hallam’s proposals as “not a direct offer,” and that Hallam didn’t represent it as speaking for Weinstein.
Sheaffer said Kinkead had a conversation with Hallam on the evening of April 11, separate from his conversation with Hallam.
“It was more of a, ‘Oh — here’s a thought I had where everybody can be happy’: Maybe, if maybe, you give up your seat on the Alcosan board, then (Weinstein) could be appointed to it. And then everyone would be happy, and he could call off the dogs in your primary,” Kinkead said.
Hallam said she doesn’t know where this story is coming from. She said she set up a meeting with Weinstein after talking with Kinkead, because Kinkead was under the assumption Weinstein was the motivation behind Mastros’ primary campaign.
“I have had many conversations with him (Weinstein) but never was it a ‘you do this, you do this for an Alcosan seat,’” Hallam said.
Hallam also questioned how the alleged deal would have worked logistically. She said a vacancy created on the Alcosan board by Kinkead’s absence would trigger a city-appointed seat. Weinstein doesn’t live in the city of Pittsburgh and would have needed the support of Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey.
Weinstein agreed.
“Even had the other member resigned, I would not have been eligible for that position, which is exclusively reserved for city-based appointed,” he said.
Featured Local Businesses
There is a city-appointed Alcosan member who doesn’t reside in the city. Shannah Tharp-Gilliam was appointed in 2019 by former Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto and she lives in Forest Hills.
Regardless, it is unclear if Weinstein would have had support from Gainey or Pittsburgh City Council.
Hallam acknowledged that Weinstein was likely upset after being pushed off the board, and probably even wanted back on the board. Weinstein was first appointed by Fitzgerald in 2012.
“I definitely told (Kinkead) that John wanted to be on the Alcosan board because he mentioned that, and he was upset that he got kicked off,” Hallam said. “He thought that it was a personal attack that Fitzgerald kicked him off. But I don’t know how he thinks that Emily’s vacancy would get him on the board.”
Alcosan is in the process of a multi-billion dollar upgrade of the region’s sewage system.
Hallam said she believes this story is being pushed by Fitzgerald because “he has a mutual enemy” in Weinstein and her. Hallam has clashed with Fitzgerald dozens of times throughout her more than three years on council, including helping to gather support to override one of his vetoes and opposing his proposals.
“I have been an outspoken critic of his in my entire first term and I am not going to stop doing that because that is my job,” said Hallam. “I knew it was going to get me enemies along the way by speaking out against the county administration, and this is the result of it.”
Fitzgerald said Hallam is “not good at taking responsibility for the things she is doing” and denied allegations that he is pushing the story out to the media.
He said he believes Hallam has a close alliance with Weinstein, and her recent involvement with him shows that.
“There is an obvious close political relationship, which is kind of counter to what (Hallam) is trying to portray,” Fitzgerald said.
Hallam denied any close relationship and said other apparent associations with Weinstein made in certain media also don’t add up.
In March 2022, after Fitzgerald first proposed the idea to boot Weinstein from the Alcosan board, Allegheny County Council narrowly rejected two of Fitzgerald nominees for the board.
Hallam acknowledged that progressives on the council formed a coalition with other members to vote down those appointments. But she said that was part of a process to also vote down Fitzgerald’s attempt to replace a progressive member of the county’s Jail Oversight Board.
She said Weinstein was kicked off the Alcosan board at a month later when council unanimously voted for Allegheny County Councilman Paul Klein to sit on the Alcosan board.
“They are presenting it in a way that we are protecting Weinstein,” Hallam said, “but we replaced him at the next opportunity.”
Ryan Deto is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Ryan by email at rdeto@triblive.com or via Twitter .