Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey took to social media but turned away news media as he sought Friday to settle any Juneteenth celebration controversy."I want to be clear with the people. Let me be clear. The city was never, never going to cancel Juneteenth and never issued any directive around canceling Juneteenth. That statement was false," Gainey said in brief remarks streamed on his Facebook page at around noon. "And we were very clear that it was never going to be canceled. And in regards to our department, our Pittsburgh Bureau of Police, they will be patrolling the event. Our EMS crews will be on hand, and our fire department as well."While the mayor was talking, it was not with reporters, and not answering questions."No, sir. The mayor made in a statement on Facebook via the social media platform. So everyone will be able to hear directly from him exactly what's going on," Gainey's press secretary, Olga George, told Pittsburgh's Action News 4."As mayor and as an administration, we have made major commitments to make sure that Juneteenth is treated with the utmost respect and dignity that it deserves. Last year, we worked hard to make Juneteenth a successful event, with the city providing nearly 200,000 in financial and in-kind support," Gainey said in his Facebook video."Our administration also embraced the debt owed by the private event promoter for previous years of Juneteenth celebrations," Gainey said. "This week, the city of Pittsburgh's provided a $125,000 grant to support Juneteenth and will also provide nearly $80,000 in in-kind support through the work of our Department of Public Safety."When he first heard about Gainey's comments, William "B" Marshall, founder of the Western PA Juneteenth Celebration, said, "We are so grateful that the mayor has come out to make these statements today because what they have been doing in the background is sending me emails telling me that they were not providing security for the Juneteenth celebration."But, regarding additional security for planned Juneteenth celebration fireworks in Point State Park, the mayor says it's up to Juneteenth to pay for security to screen bags of people entering the park."It is on the private event promoters to comply with all regulations associated with the event. For Juneteenth, this means hiring security to secure bags at Point State Park in advance of a fireworks display," Gainey said.Marshall still sees a problem."From this announcement today, fireworks may be in jeopardy. So fireworks may be in jeopardy because we see that the city doesn't want to take the responsibility to check bags for the security of the event," Marshall said. "The city is a cosponsor of the Juneteenth celebration. Just the way that they said they're going to provide police security down there, it is on them. This a requirement of them that they want to do bag checks."Marshall says the city's grant to the Juneteenth celebration is from federal funds and is restricted via contract to paying artists, not for security.