The 2024 election is coming, and Pennsylvania is once again at the center of the political universe. More than most other places, Allegheny County voters will have a say in what comes next at the White House, in Congress and in Harrisburg. 

The stakes are high. What do you want to know about the upcoming vote?

The presidential race, potentially a rematch between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, is expected to hinge on just a few swing states. Pennsylvania is the largest. 

Not sure how important Pennsylvania is? Biden has already visited the Keystone State upward of 30 times since becoming president. He’s paid more visits here than to any state but his home of Delaware. 

Control of the U.S. Senate could hinge on Pennsylvania’s contest between Democratic Sen. Bob Casey and a to-be-nominated challenger. Control of the closely divided U.S. House could be tipped by the swingy 17th Congressional District, now held by Democrat Chris Deluzio of Aspinwall.

And the political order in Harrisburg would change if Democrats can flip three state Senate seats and control the upper chamber. One of their three targets is in Allegheny County — the 37th District seat held by Republican Devlin Robinson of Bridgeville.

With so much on the ballot, and so much at stake, things can get confusing fast for voters. PublicSource is aiming to keep readers informed on the 2024 election at a local level.

Tell us what you want to know using the form below. Check as many boxes as you want next to topics that interest you. Most important: Use your write-in vote to tell us what else you want to know about the 2024 election season in Southwestern Pennsylvania.

You can also find our stories on Facebook, X and Instagram. PublicSource will strive to meet your needs between now and November — and beyond.

The post Election 2024: What do you want to know? appeared first on PublicSource. PublicSource is a nonprofit news organization serving the Pittsburgh region. Visit www.publicsource.org to read more.

Updated (1/25/24): The Pittsburgh Public Schools board on Wednesday passed a motion to table a resolution for appointing student board representatives, shelving it indefinitely.

Board member Jamie Piotrowski said she supports amplifying student voices and the board should create a consistent program through the policy committee instead of passing a resolution. She added that passing a resolution to appoint two students would not represent the whole student body, including many English language learners or students with disabilities. 

“This is a resolution that then becomes very difficult to find in Board Docs and then as the board changes, this program could essentially disappear,” she said.

Board member Sala Udin, who introduced the initial resolution and voted against tabling, said he made many changes to the resolution based on recommendations from board members, adding that the board would be “sending a very negative message to the students” if they tabled the resolution. 

“We need to be lifting them up, not muzzling them,” he said. 

The board plans to have conversations in the upcoming policy committee meetings to decide a plan forward.

Reported (1/23/24):

Pittsburgh school board considers adding student seats

Pittsburgh Public Schools is expected to vote tomorrow on a proposal to add two high school student representatives to its board. 

Those in support of the resolution, proposed by board member Sala Udin, include students who say they lack input in decisions about their education.

“We must ensure that the voices of students not only have room in the superintendent’s vocal point but also the actual policymaking body of this system,” said Allderdice High School senior Pavel Marin, during a public hearing on Monday night.

The resolution, if passed, would add two students from 11th and 12th grade to serve as liaisons between the board and the student body, and they will be required to submit a monthly report. 

Students would be selected by a committee of high school principals and the superintendent would make a suggestion to the board before the start of the next school year. The students would not be given voting power or access to executive sessions in which privileged information is discussed. 

During a public board meeting last week when the resolution was introduced, board member Devon Taliaferro urged the board to examine their governing process before adding student voices. She said the board should explore other options that involve more students such as the Superintendent’s Student Advisory Council [SSAC], a student-led panel that discusses school-related issues with the administration. 

School officials, while saying they support more student input, appear undecided on the proposal.

Board member Dwayne Barker said while he wants to prioritize student voices, he does not want to rush the process of adding student representatives to the board. The board could hold multiple listening sessions at schools, led by students, to increase student voice in the district, he added. 

“We know it’s long overdue,” said Barker. “Student voice is certainly important.” 

Board President Gene Walker said he supported the idea of student board members but the board should work to clearly define the students’ role to create a positive experience. 

“There’s some work that we need to do internally, from a governance standpoint, to put us in the right position to be able to do that effectively,” he said. 

In a written statement, former board member Pam Harbin said the resolution confines the district to a single method and the board should consider other ways, such as electing student representatives. She added that the board should take feedback from students to make the process meaningful and equitable. 

Last year, the PPS board gave itself a failing grade in a self-evaluation, as reported by WESA.

Za’Morrie Reeves, a junior at Allderdice, intends to apply to be a student board representative if the resolution is passed. 

Reeves, who is also part of the SSAC, said he believes student board members would involve students at policy-making and districtwide levels as opposed to SSAC’s work in individual schools. 

“I can help by just being a voice for those students who either don’t feel comfortable using their voice or don’t know where to use your voice,” he said.

Lajja Mistry is the K-12 education reporter at PublicSource. She can be reached at lajja@publicsource.org.

The post Updated: PPS shelves proposal for student board appointments appeared first on PublicSource. PublicSource is a nonprofit news organization serving the Pittsburgh region. Visit www.publicsource.org to read more.

A year after its director was plucked into the service of the state, the Allegheny County Health Department remains without a long-term leader. 

The Board of Health and new County Executive Sara Innamorato have just begun an effort to fill what a spokesperson called “a vital position for the administration.”

“The director and the [board] have broad responsibilities that range from infant mortality and the opioid epidemic to air pollution and food safety,” wrote Abigail Gardner, the county’s communications director, in an email to PublicSource. “Leading the Health Department is highly technical and process-oriented work,” requiring understanding of law and regulations and “a massive amount of genuine public engagement.”

Unclear at this point is the public’s role in the selection process. Gardner wrote that “it is likely that there is some kind of piece of the process that will involve public input.”

At its Jan. 17 quarterly meeting, the Board of Health did not discuss plans to choose a director, and Acting Director Patrick Dowd declined comment.

Some advocacy organizations are setting out their expectations up front. 

On Dec. 7, a coalition of 35 organizations and 37 individuals under the banner of the Equitable and Just Greater Pittsburgh Network petitioned the county to prioritize health disparities and social determinants of well-being in its choice of a new director.

“The Health Director’s role and the Health Department affect so many aspects of people’s lives,” said Jason Beery, director of the network, convened by UrbanKind Institute, a Pittsburgh-based “think-and-do tank.” A new director would likely want to be involved in issues including air quality, housing health and the county’s development of a climate action plan, he said, so it’s important to hire someone “with certain qualities that we think would best address some of the complex health challenges and health outcomes that affect all of our communities and municipalities.”

Important department, leadership vacuum

Debra Bogen served as the county’s health director from early March 2020, as the pandemic shutdown loomed, until January 2023, when Gov. Josh Shapiro announced her nomination as state secretary of health. Bogen serves as the acting secretary because Republican lawmakers’ concerns have prevented state Senate confirmation. Dowd, the acting director, is a former Pittsburgh City Council member with a doctorate in history.

The 300-person department’s responsibilities include:

• Monitoring air quality, enforcing emissions regulations and allocating the Clean Air Fund
• Inspecting restaurants and otherwise enforcing food safety measures
• Enforcing housing health rules
• Striving to curb violence, overdoses and other causes of death
• Preparing the public for health emergencies like the pandemic.

The director is technically chosen by the nine-member Board of Health. Eight members continue to serve despite expired terms. The slots are some of many that Innamorato can use to shape the county bureaucracy after 12 years of former Executive Rich Fitzgerald making appointments. Gardner did not provide a timeline for reappointing or replacing members, or for hiring a director.

“We look forward to continuing to dig in with them and understand the expertise the board could use going forward to meet the moment or urgent public health needs,” Gardner wrote.

At its meeting, the board reelected as its chair Lee Harrison, a physician and epidemiology professor at the University of Pittsburgh. He has served on the board since 2001, was last reappointed in 2017 and has continued though his term expired in 2020.

‘Hard to get information’

Innamorato’s transition team has posted the health director position on its job opportunities website, indicating that it wants candidates for the $270,000-a-year position who:

• Will focus on racial and economic health disparities
• Has experience making “a measurable impact” on community health
• Is ready to support marginalized communities
• Can craft “an inclusive strategy” to fill vacancies in the department
• Will partner with governmental organizations, nonprofits and businesses to address health challenges.

A medical doctorate is “highly desirable,” according to the posting, though a candidate with a doctorate in public health may be considered.

In its letter to the Board of Health, the Equitable and Just Greater Pittsburgh Network called for a health director conversant in the social determinants of health — the effects that economic, environmental, political, social and cultural factors have on well-being.

The letter also noted the longstanding disparities in health care in the county, some of which improved in recent decades but many of which remain stark. 

The local health system’s failure to bring Black residents’ life expectancy and chronic disease rates in line with those of white residents was magnified by the COVID-19 pandemic. The department pledged to work on closing gaps in care driven by racism and the lack of culturally appropriate health access in announcing a five-year plan a year ago.

A new director should also have experience in policy implementation and commit to transparency, openness, accountability, accessibility, cultural humility, collaboration and public participation in budgeting, according to the letter.

“It’s been hard to get information out from [the Health Department] in the past, and considering it is a department focused on public health, it feels like a lot of that information needs to be made public, and there needs to be clarity on why the department is making certain decisions,” said Beery in an interview with PublicSource. He also outlined the network’s views during the public comment portion of the board meeting.

The four-year-old network has never weighed in on a personnel decision before, according to Beery. Member groups would like to see some kind of public input process, potentially including representatives of underrepresented communities, areas burdened by pollution or other health threats and groups directly affected by health policy.

The network has not yet received a response to its letter, which was sent to the department, the Board of Health members and several Innamorato transition team chairs.

Beery said that a thorough and prompt process would be ideal, but added that the network is not trying to be antagonistic. “There is an amount of grace that we would show any new person in this kind of executive role,” he said.

Less patient was Clairton resident Kim Meachem, speaking at the board meeting as the department moves toward issuing a new operating permit for U.S. Steel’s Clairton Coke Works.

“We are sick and tired of coming before this panel to tell you the same story over and over and over again,” she said, “and not seeing any results.”

Charlie Wolfson is PublicSource’s local government reporter and a Report for America corps member. He can be reached at charlie@publicsource.org or on Twitter @chwolfson.

Rich Lord is the managing editor at PublicSource and can be reached at rich@publicsource.org.

The Jewish Healthcare Foundation has contributed funding to PublicSource’s healthcare reporting.

The post County’s top health post, vacant for a year, ‘vital’ to Innamorato administration appeared first on PublicSource. PublicSource is a nonprofit news organization serving the Pittsburgh region. Visit www.publicsource.org to read more.

Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan, and nonprofit newsroom producing investigative and public-service journalism that holds power to account and drives positive change in Pennsylvania. Sign up for our free newsletters.

HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania will need to spend at least $5.4 billion to close the gap between rich and poor school districts, according to a long-awaited report approved by a divided panel of policymakers Thursday.

The report was backed by Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration and won near-unanimous support from legislative Democrats who served on the Basic Education Funding Commission.

It recommended changing the formula Pennsylvania uses to fund public schools to reduce year-over-year fluctuations in poorer districts’ state funding, while also calling for increased investments in school construction and an expansion of the education workforce.

It passed the commission 8-7.

“I think we’ve at least laid out a blueprint now, where within five years … we’ll be able to say we have or have not made progress, and here’s what we need to continue to do,” said state Rep. Mike Sturla, D-Lancaster, who co-chaired the commission.

The Basic Education Funding Commission — which consisted of six Democratic legislators, six Republican legislators, and three members of the Shapiro administration — was reconvened last spring to address a landmark state court ruling that found Pennsylvania is unconstitutionally underfunding poor school districts.

Any change to the way the commonwealth funds education will need to win support from the Democrat-controlled state House, Republican-controlled state Senate, and Shapiro, a Democrat.

Alongside the Democratic-authored report that passed the commission, Republicans authored their own. It failed to pass in a 6-6-3 vote, with Shapiro’s representatives abstaining.

Common ground exists. Both major parties agree the state must rewrite its education formula to stabilize poorer districts’ annual funding. Policymakers in both parties also agreed that all 500 districts should receive at least as much state funding as they did in the 2023-24 fiscal year, which would prevent deep funding cuts in districts currently losing population.

Both reports also highlight school construction, teacher recruitment, and reforms to charter school payments as areas of agreement.

But in a divided General Assembly, the increased spending favored by Democrats who control the state House will likely require policy concessions to appease the state Senate. The Republicans who control that chamber support alternatives to public schools, including a taxpayer-funded voucher program.

Threading the needle between the two stances will require compromise, which has been elusive in the past year.

Adequate funding, or student choice?

In the Democratic-authored report that ultimately passed, lawmakers based their $5.4 billion goal for new spending on “adequacy targets” — the bar at which they believe districts are serving students at an acceptable level.

This measure sets a baseline amount of per-student spending, then adds in additional spending based on a district’s student body and factors like poverty and level of English proficiency. If a district spends less than the resulting number, it is missing its adequacy target, the report said.

Commission members wrote in the Democratic report that this measure was drafted in response to feedback during hearings across the commonwealth.

“Many criticisms of the current formula centered around the idea that it allocates what is available instead of determining what is needed to meet the needs of districts,” the authors wrote.

They added, “Out of PA’s 500 school districts, 387, or 77%, have an adequacy gap.”

In addition to the proposed $5.4 billion infusion — which would be doled out to districts over seven years — the report says the state should implement a mandatory, annual $200 million increase in school funding to account for cost increases. While education funding has routinely increased in recent budget deals, the exact number has been the subject of backroom haggling between top policymakers, which creates more uncertainty for districts.

Where to find the money to fund increased state spending remains an open question — and a top GOP concern.

Some public education advocates, including leaders of a major state union, want to tap the state’s now-flush rainy day fund, sitting at about $6 billion.

“We have the means and responsibility to give our students and educators the world class education system they deserve right now,” Arthur Steinberg, president of the Pennsylvania chapter of the American Federation of Teachers, said in a statement Thursday. The union represents educators and other support staff in urban districts.

Dan Urevick-Ackelsberg — an attorney with the Public Interest Law Center, which represented plaintiffs in the initial school funding case — said the fact that the Democratic proposal includes a concrete funding target is a big deal.

“The timeline is very long and the number is lower than we proposed,” he said. “We’ll try to convince the governor to get that number up, but we also know this is a really serious, meaningful first step.”

Republicans’ plan mirrored Democrats’ in that it adjusted the funding formula to protect shrinking and poor districts from big funding shifts.

However, legislative Republicans said they did not want to suggest a dollar amount, arguing instead that the number should be decided during budget negotiations later this year.

“Never have you seen this commission — or for that fact, really any other commission — offer that specific dollar recommendation,” said state Sen. Kristin Phillips-Hill, R-York, the Republican co-chair of the commission, after Thursday’s meeting. “We respect the General Assembly, the governor, and the process and believe that we will see this come to fruition in the next budget process.”

The Republican-introduced report that failed to pass the commission called for lowering pension costs, consolidating districts to reduce duplicative costs, and creating a taxpayer-funded voucher program to cover private school tuition for students in public districts with low test scores.

“Comprehensive solutions, not funding alone, are required to ensure all school districts have the resources necessary to supply students with comprehensive learning opportunities that meet 21st century academic, civic, and social demands,” the GOP report stated.

The more GOP recommendations that are adopted in a final deal, “the easier some of the other conversations around the dollars will become,” said state Rep. Jesse Topper, R-Bedford, the ranking Republican on the state House Education Committee.

The next steps are in the hands of Shapiro, who will deliver his annual budget address in a little less than a month.

Members of the administration are “the ones that are going to be making a budget proposal here soon,” Sturla said. “They’re the ones who are going to be pushing part of this. They’re one of the biggest seats at the table.”

In a statement Thursday, Shapiro said he looked forward to his speech as a starting point, noting the report included a number of his priorities, such as increased spending on mental health and school construction.

“We must approach this responsibility with hope and ambition — because this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for us to do right by our kids, to fund our schools, and to empower parents to put their kids in the best position for them to succeed,” he said.

‘Thorough and efficient’

The Pennsylvania Constitution requires the General Assembly to “provide for the maintenance and support of a thorough and efficient system of public education to serve the needs of the Commonwealth.”

In a lawsuit filed by the Philadelphia-based Education Law Center and Public Interest Law Center almost a decade ago, six districts argued the state’s formula for funding schools failed to meet that standard and discriminated against students based on their location.

Pennsylvania uses two formulas to decide how much state money to send to each school district, one of which is generally seen as outdated and inequitable. The other, which accounts for poverty and the number of students learning English, was designed in 2016 in light of the lawsuit.

Only new money appropriated by the legislature moves through the so-called “fair funding formula.” At the moment, that represents roughly a quarter of the $7.8 billion the state sends directly to school districts to support K-12 education.

After receiving state funding, districts are left to pad out much of their budgets through property taxes, which vary widely and tend to disproportionately burden poor areas.

Lawyers for the General Assembly, which until last year was completely controlled by Republicans, spent years trying to have the case thrown out, arguing that the issue was not within the court’s jurisdiction and that the new funding formula had rendered the case moot.

That effort failed, and Commonwealth Court heard oral arguments in the case for 13 weeks between November 2021 and February 2022. Judge Renee Cohn Jubilier, who was elected as a Republican, delivered an 800-page decision a year later siding with the schools.

She stopped short of identifying any one solution, instead writing that changes do not need to be “entirely financial. The options for reform are virtually limitless.”

“All witnesses agree that every child can learn,” wrote Jubelirer. “It is now the obligation of the Legislature, Executive Branch, and educators, to make the constitutional promise a reality in this Commonwealth.”

Last fall, the commission held 11 hearings across the commonwealth, from Pittsburgh to Hazleton to Hanover, collecting testimony on Pennsylvania’s education system. But as policymakers listened in to craft the final report, debates over education policy drove the Capitol’s contentious year.

Legislative Republicans, who control the state Senate, have focused on structural changes to public education, such as expanding vocational education, while offering alternatives through private schools. For instance, the state Senate passed a budget bill last June that included $100 million in public money for private school vouchers.

Shapiro has shown support both for public and private education.

As attorney general, his office filed a 2022 brief in favor of the districts’ arguments for more state funding. His first budget spent more than $10 billion on K-12 education, a new record, and included funding for special education, school meals, student-teacher stipends and vocational education.

But Shapiro, to the consternation of public school advocates, has also repeatedly said he backs using tax dollars to fund private school vouchers.

Should the legislature and Shapiro fail to find common ground, the state could end up back in court.

At a news conference in early January, PA School Works, a coalition that includes the Education Law Center and other public education advocates, argued that addressing the ruling will cost at least $6.2 billion.

They called for a $2 billion down payment within the coming fiscal year, with the rest spent over the following four years. That number, advocates noted, doesn’t include needed spending on school building repairs or pre-K.

“We are prepared to go back to court to defend the rights of those families,” Deborah Gordan Klehr, executive director of the Education Law Center, said at the news conference.

Spotlight PA’s Katie Meyer contributed reporting.

BEFORE YOU GO… If you learned something from this article, pay it forward and contribute to Spotlight PA at spotlightpa.org/donate. Spotlight PA is funded by foundations and readers like you who are committed to accountability journalism that gets results.

The post Pennsylvania needs to spend $5.4B to close gap between rich and poor schools, Dem report says appeared first on PublicSource. PublicSource is a nonprofit news organization serving the Pittsburgh region. Visit www.publicsource.org to read more.

Advocates for reform at the Allegheny County Jail received new hope at Thursday’s Jail Oversight Board meeting. New County Executive Sara Innamorato attended along with two other new board members, continuing her shakeup of county government.

Innamorato’s mere attendance of the board’s meeting was notable after her predecessor, Rich Fitzgerald, was criticized for sending a proxy to its meetings for almost his entire 12-year tenure. That criticism grew especially loud in recent years as a string of deaths in the county jail drew attention to the Fitzgerald administration’s management of the lockup. 

“This is going to be a place where there is productive dialogue,” Innamorato told reporters after the meeting. “It doesn’t mean that everything that the community demands of us is going to happen instantaneously, but there is going to be an honest answer.”

She was mostly quiet Thursday as residents made comments to the board, but longtime advocates made note of her presence.

“I am actually heartened to see our county executive here,” said Tanisha Long, an organizer with the Abolitionist Law Center. “We haven’t had one here in years.”

After public speakers repeatedly aired concerns about a lack of medical staff in the jail, Innamorato asked jail officials how they are trying to speed hiring of nurses and other staff. One responded that they hope to boost hiring incentives for medical staff. 

Judge Susan Evashavik DiLucente, who sits on the board as the newly-elected president judge of the Court of Common Pleas, tried to reset the board’s tenor after 2023 was marked by internal debates between members and anger from community members. 

After one advocate, Marion Damick, criticized the board for its performance last year, DiLucente responded, “We’re off to a new start, with a lot of new members, and it’s going to be a new day.”

Another board member, County Controller Corey O’Connor, welcomed the board’s new members, saying their approach to questioning jail officials “is different than what we had in the past, and having the county executive here as well, we’re able to get a lot more information.”

Poor jail conditions and deaths of incarcerated people were a major issue in the campaign for county executive last year. Innamorato, a progressive Democrat, pledged as a candidate to take a more active role in the oversight board and jail management.

Innamorato was not the board’s only newcomer. DiLucente, elected president by her fellow Common Pleas judges late last year, and Judge Eileen Bigley replaced Judge Elliot Howsie and Judge Beth Lazzara, respectively. 

The board’s three citizen-member seats were empty Thursday. Innamorato’s spokesperson told PublicSource the executive will nominate new members this month. They will need County Council approval to serve.

Several speakers said Thursday that their hopes for a more productive board are mixed with deep-seated frustration with slow progress.

“If we are not your partners, we will be your adversaries.  And we do not want to do that,” said Dave Swanson, a Mennonite pastor and member of the Pennsylvania Interfaith Impact Network. “We want to work together.”

Another resident gave a solemn reading of the names of people who died in the jail as public attendees and board members stood. 

“This is an ongoing and persistent problem where our loved ones are going into the jail and they are not leaving,” Long said. “My hope is that with this newer board that these are problems we can begin to solve.”

O’Connor and Sheriff Kevin Kraus are holdovers from the last two years. So is County Councilor Bethany Hallam, a political ally of Innamorato who harshly criticized Fitzgerald’s jail management practices and often quarreled during meetings with Howsie, the board’s former chair.

While the board and the jail have fresh leadership, many problems will persist. A staffing shortage continues, stretching correctional officers thin and often requiring overtime. The jail’s medical staff has dozens of vacancies, raising more safety concerns. And some major aspects of the jail’s operation, like the arresting practices of local police departments and the judges’ choices of which defendants to confine in the jail, are entirely out of Innamorato’s control.

The jail is without a permanent leader after Warden Orlando Harper retired in September. The state appointed an interim leader to serve while Innamorato and council decide on a permanent replacement.

“I think a lot of people in this room are in general hopeful about what we can do as a new board, [with] a new warden,” resident Jodi Lincoln said during the public comment period. “The possibilities to improve the jail feel more real than ever before.”

Charlie Wolfson is PublicSource’s local government reporter and a Report for America corps member. He can be reached at charlie@publicsource.org.

The post Innamorato brings ‘new day’ to Jail Oversight Board, but deep issues remain at lockup appeared first on PublicSource. PublicSource is a nonprofit news organization serving the Pittsburgh region. Visit www.publicsource.org to read more.

Allegheny County executive Sara Innamorato made quick work of setting herself apart from her predecessor Wednesday, announcing a wage hike for potentially hundreds of county employees. 

Innamorato’s new policy, which sets a wage floor for full-time county workers at $18 per hour in 2024 and $22 per hour by 2027, is similar to a 2023 law passed by County Council then overturned by a court challenge filed by the administration of then-Executive Rich Fitzgerald.

Innamorato said on the campaign trail she supported the bill, and made good on that statement just a day after she was sworn in as Fitzgerald’s successor. She said the new policy is vital to retaining and attracting workers to carry out the work of county government.

“Once I learned we had 1,000 open positions at the county, I knew improving our workforce pay and benefits was going to be an immediate action for my administration,” Innamorato said at a press conference outside her County Courthouse office.

It’s unclear exactly how many employees will benefit from the action, though Innamorato’s spokesperson said “hundreds” of employees will see an increase when the $22 floor goes into effect. A PublicSource analysis showed that more than 1,000 full-time employees earned less than that in 2022, though some may have received raises since then.

Innamorato also announced a new wage floor for part-time workers, increased from $12 to $15 per hour.

The increases will not immediately affect union workers, though Innamorato indicated equivalent hikes would be incorporated into each union’s next collective bargaining agreement. Thousands of county workers are unionized, encompassing public safety workers and service workers, among others.

The announcement suggests an immediate shift in the relationship between the executive and legislative branches of county government. Innamorato took an issue that divided the two sides so deeply last year that Fitzgerald and council ended up in court over the legality of the wage legislation. A judge later sided with the executive branch, leaving Innamorato with  sole authority to set wages. She gave council what it wants in this case.

Innamorato said the move is already accounted for in the 2024 budget and that she would need to do further work with her budget staff to determine resulting costs for future budget years. She said any cost estimate would take into account the savings associated with employee retention and a revitalized workforce.

She also announced adjusted employee benefits aimed at improving retention and hiring. Employees will receive three weeks of paid vacation, with added time for long-serving employees, and they will no longer have to wait to access sick time and parental leave, she said.

“The county has record low unemployment right now, and that means hiring is competitive,” Innamorato said. “And the county cannot compete if we are not recognizing the work-life balance that people need to be successful.”

She also announced prospective employees will no longer be subjected to drug tests, except when collective bargaining agreements require it.

Charlie Wolfson is PublicSource’s local government reporter and a Report for America corps member. He can be reached at charlie@publicsource.org.

The post Innamorato raises minimum wage for county employees, mirroring law Fitzgerald vetoed appeared first on PublicSource. PublicSource is a nonprofit news organization serving the Pittsburgh region. Visit www.publicsource.org to read more.

Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan, and nonprofit newsroom producing investigative and public-service journalism that holds power to account and drives positive change in Pennsylvania. Sign up for our free newsletters.

HARRISBURG — As the 2024 presidential election approaches, the people who run voting in Pennsylvania say the commonwealth must prepare to be at the center of national scrutiny.

These officials, who administer elections on the county level, argue the state should update its century-old Election Code, make long-sought adjustments to mail voting processes, and strengthen the system against bogus fraud claims.

Former President Donald Trump propagated baseless theories about widespread election fraud in Pennsylvania and other key swing states after his 2020 loss, efforts that resulted in a large number of lawsuits in the commonwealth and subjected election workers to intense scrutiny and harassment.

In conversations with Spotlight PA, four election directors said there are a few concrete changes that would shore up Pennsylvania’s system against frivolous fraud allegations as the 2024 election — which could again feature Trump as a candidate — approaches.

Most of them are measures that election officials have pushed for consistently since 2020, but which polarized state lawmakers have not delivered. They include clarifying the state’s mail voting rules, allowing poll workers to count ballots before Election Day, and raising the bar for challenging results.

Administrative changes

Many of the policy changes that election directors want center around giving poll workers more time to do their jobs. Namely, they say the deadline for requesting a mail ballot should be earlier and that poll workers should be allowed to start counting mail ballots before 7 a.m. on Election Day, a process commonly known as pre-canvassing.

Currently, Pennsylvania voters can request a mail ballot up to a week before Election Day, which officials said leaves too little time to get ballots back to voters in time.

“Seven days is not very much time to receive an application, process the application, print and mail the mail ballots, for the voter to receive that ballot, to vote, and return it,” said Seth Bluestein, a Philadelphia commissioner who is one of three people charged with overseeing the city’s elections.

Election workers also don’t have much time to open and process mail ballots at the moment.

Since 2020, the first major election in which Pennsylvania used no-excuse mail voting, election workers have said the current rules make it very difficult to quickly release unofficial results. Pennsylvania’s slow pace in releasing vote counts during that election was a major factor in Trump’s ability to foment conspiracy theories about fraud.

Since then, pre-canvassing has been used as a bargaining chip during election law debates in the state Capitol. A 2021 omnibus bill passed by the Republican-led state legislature offered former Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf pre-canvassing in return for expanded voter ID requirements — a GOP priority. Wolf vetoed the bill because of that provision.

For election directors, pre-canvassing is more practical than political.

“We’re already working 14- to 16-hour days,” said Tonia Fernandez, who has served for four years as Erie County’s election director. “We’re constantly putting out fires, dealing with issues, and overseeing the process of canvassing.”

Fernadez says pre-canvassing would spread out the work that election workers have to do and create a more manageable schedule.

Ballot counting has gotten easier since 2020, partly because county workers now have more experience under their belts and because the state has allocated money for hiring more poll workers and purchasing equipment.

There is a catch: Counties that accept grant money from the state for elections must process and count their mail ballots without stopping until finished.

Erie County received over $900,000 in state funding from Act 88, and Fernandez said she’s not sure how the counting provision will affect her process in the upcoming presidential election. She already oversaw a midterm that featured nonstop counting, but 2024 will be even bigger.

“Before the election integrity grants were offered we would spend two or three days pre-canvassing and canvassing,” Fernandez said, noting that this approach gave “everyone the chance to sleep.”

Updating the code

Forrest Lehman, an election director in Lycoming County, said his priorities have shifted since the 2020 election.

“If you had asked me this a few years ago, I think my list would have largely aligned with other directors,” Lehman said, referring to expanded pre-canvassing and other measures designed to give workers more time to process ballots.

But now, he’s more concerned with strengthening the system against misinformation.

“It’s not pre-canvassing anymore, it’s not tinkering around with deadlines or even with mail ballot requirements,” he said. “It’s protecting our post-election processes and our certification processes from people who want to prevent democracy from functioning.”

In the aftermath of the 2020 election, Lehman said he saw requests for recounts that he felt were based on “dubious” evidence and that were resulting in expensive litigation.

Lehman wants the state legislature to update the cost to file recount petitions to account for inflation. The state Election Code set the price at $50 in 1937, which is equivalent to over $1,000 in 2023. Both Lehman and Fernandez, the Erie County election official, said that amount would better reflect the cost to counties when they have to administer recounts.

Lehman also argued there should be a penalty for counties that fail to certify elections. Currently, the main recourse the state has against a county that holds up certification is a lawsuit. Lehman pointed to the federal Electoral Count Reform Act as a possible model; the bipartisan federal law raised the threshold for Congress to object to a slate of electors during presidential elections.

Lehman also suggested criminal penalties for anyone who harasses or tries to intimidate county election officials and poll workers, and he said he supports creating a process whereby counties could defend themselves in court if recount petitions were filed.

“I think all of us have a suspicion that [2020]’s all just a dress rehearsal for next year,” said Lehman. “And the expectation is that it’s all going to happen next year if we’re not prepared.”

Some election directors also say holistic updates to Pennsylvania’s Election Code would create a well-oiled election process and head off false claims of fraud.

The code is outdated. The bulk of its language was written more than 80 years ago, and some of its provisions are even older.

Because of this, counties’ actual administration practices sometimes must diverge from what is written in state law. Election directors rely on guidance from the state and their county legal counsel to navigate these gray areas in the law, but the situation can lead to misunderstandings and lawsuits from people confused about the law. It also leaves the door open for bad faith efforts to sow mistrust.

Thad Hall, election director in Mercer County, said one area that he thinks is particularly ripe for an update is language about technology, which is broadly inapplicable in the 21st century.

“The whole problem with the code is it’s written for paper, but we have an electronic process,” Hall said.

For example, the state Election Code currently requires each polling district to have two different workers keep lists of the voters who check-in. But Hall said that would not be necessary when using electronic pollbooks, which would record voters as they checked in.

“It makes it easier for everybody,” Hall said. “Right now, I have to have two people go around and their whole job all day is just to write [voters’] names in a book. A lot easier if the system gave us leeway as to how we handle these check-ins.”

Hall added that electronic pollbooks also streamline communication between precincts and election directors, as they provide up-to-date information on the number of votes cast in each precinct, allowing him to instantly check if the right number of ballots is being uploaded for every precinct. If he saw a pollbook was offline, he would know there was an issue in that precinct.

The chance for change

All of the election directors who spoke with Spotlight PA questioned whether the state legislature would be able to pass any of the changes they’re asking for.

Fernandez was the most optimistic, saying she hopes that after the 2022 general election, Republicans would begin to support mail ballots and find areas of compromise with Democrats in the state legislature.

To some extent, her hopes came true — GOP rhetoric against mail voting has shifted slightly. That change could be seen shortly after state Sen. Doug Mastriano (R., Franklin), who badly lost his gubernatorial bid to Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, said in a post-concession radio interview that he didn’t see how Republicans could win elections without “embracing” mail voting.

But that change in attitude hasn’t translated to legislative progress on election issues.

As recently as October, the state legislature has been unable to pass an election reform bill. As part of an effort to move the date of the upcoming primary so it would not conflict with Passover, state House leaders tried to pass a proposal that also rolled in pre-canvassing along with a more contentious provision that would expand voter ID requirements. The bill overwhelmingly failed to pass the state House.

“They just literally can’t pass a bill that is nondescript, it’s like it’s not in their DNA. And I do not understand why,” Hall said of lawmakers repeatedly adding politically divisive elements to bills that could otherwise get bipartisan support. “Is there any political advantage to passing the bill? Absolutely not. Will it make elections work better? Absolutely, yes.”

Both Lehman and Bluestein echoed Hall’s sentiments, saying they doubt any election law would change in time for next year’s races.

“The state-level actors, the courts, the legislature will have no one to blame but themselves. We’ve been very clear about what we need. They all refused to provide it,” said Lehman. “The can just keeps getting kicked down the road. And as long as that keeps being the case, the counties are going to have to be the adults in the room.”

BEFORE YOU GO… If you learned something from this article, pay it forward and contribute to Spotlight PA at spotlightpa.org/donate. Spotlight PA is funded by foundations and readers like you who are committed to accountability journalism that gets results.

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Sara Innamorato asked local leaders at her inauguration ceremony Tuesday not to fear change as she begins trying to cure what she sees as major shortcomings in county government. Hundreds witnessed Innamorato take the oath of office as the fourth Allegheny County executive at Downtown Pittsburgh’s Byham Theater, including former Executive Rich Fitzgerald, who finished his 12th and final year as executive Tuesday morning.

Movers and shakers in the local Democratic party were on hand to watch the start of a new era for county government as it switches hands from Fitzgerald’s more moderate, development-minded approach to Innamorato, a leader of the progressive movement that has seized power in municipal and county government over the past five years. Even more change: Innamorato, 37, is the county’s first female executive.

Innamorato began her inaugural address just after 12:30 p.m. by thanking both Fitzgerald and another former executive in attendance, Dan Onorato, for their service to the county. But she quickly pivoted to a 30-minute speech that homed in on where county government has fallen short — and how she will change its course.

She lamented the county’s slow economic recovery from the pandemic, its relatively small immigrant population and economic and health disparities affecting marginalized people. 

Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato’s historic inauguration on Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2023, at the Byham Theater in downtown Pittsburgh. Innamorato, a lifelong resident of the county, became the first woman to hold the position. At top left, her family, with her mother at center, Kim Innamorato, applauds. (Photo by Stephanie Strasburg/PublicSource)E

“In too many cases, those differences stem from shortcomings in our approach to economic development, to social services and to justice,” Innamorato said. “We don’t need to be ashamed of these facts and where we fall short, but we do have to acknowledge it.”

Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey, one of Innamorato’s political allies, said he saw her potential while the two served in the state House together from 2019 through 2021.

“I watched how hard she fought for working class families,” Gainey said. “… She never wavered and she never backed down.”

After bitterly fought primary and general elections that were partly defined by endorsements and giant campaign donations from political committees of labor unions, the region’s top labor leader held one of just two speaking slots before Innamorato’s inaugural address.

Darrin Kelly, the president of the Allegheny/Fayette Central Labor Council of the AFL-CIO, which endorsed rival Democrat John Weinstein in the primary but backed Innamorato in November, set high expectations for Innamorato’s dealings with organized labor in the coming years.

“Working families will have a place at the table in this administration, not because it’s the political thing to do, but because it’s within her heart,” Kelly said.

Innamorato closed her address saying the county can overcome major challenges — homelessness and population stagnation, to name two — but not without some major changes.

“You won’t find anyone more enthusiastic than me about fries on salads and cookie tables,” she said. “But nothing about loving tradition means you have to fear change.”

Charlie Wolfson is PublicSource’s local government reporter and a Report for America corps member. He can be reached at charlie@publicsource.org.

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Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato, to be sworn into the region’s highest elected office today after campaigning on a “county for all,” has been thrust into leadership of a government roiled by internal lawsuits and big personalities. 

She will need to confront urgent policy problems, from homelessness to the jail to the environment, working alongside a County Council that spent the last few years aligning itself in opposition to her predecessor, Rich Fitzgerald.

Fitzgerald, who began his political career as a member and then president of council before ascending to the executive’s office in 2012, saw the legislative branch work in recent years to override his vetoes and elect a vocal critic as its president in Pat Catena. In the last year alone, the legislative and executive branches have been locked in three lawsuits over who has the power to do what in county government.

For council members, who serve part-time and many of whom did not sign on to be political combatants, Innamorato could present a new beginning and a reset. The biggest change they hope to see?

“Transparency, first and foremost,” said Councilor Bobby Palmosina. “For us to work together.”

Fitzgerald’s loudest critic over the last four years, Councilor Bethany Hallam, an Innamorato ally, is cautiously hopeful for what’s to come.

“I’m really optimistic, but again I’m still forever being cautious because I know the power that that office holds,” Hallam said. “… I’m optimistic that Sara will do what is right, always. And council will be there to support her in doing that and also to make sure that she does.”

Pressing issues for Innamorato — and council

In an echo of Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey’s ascent two years ago, Innamorato has a host of pressing policy problems to attend to.

Two of the most prominent county government agencies, the Health Department and the jail, are leaderless. Her hires for those roles could define the early part of her tenure and will have a lasting impact on criminal justice and public health policy in the region.

The county’s largest agency, the Department of Human Services, has been struggling to deal with an increase in the number of unhoused people. The agency made the controversial decision to shutter a winter seasonal shelter on Smithfield Street last year, leading to confusion among its clients and anger among advocates and some council members. 

Tent encampments remain in pockets of the city, illustrating the work that remains for the county under new leadership. 

A string of deaths in the Allegheny County Jail brought heated criticism upon Fitzgerald during his final term, and made the facility a key issue in the election to replace him. Innamorato will be closely watched as she tries to turn the facility around, but she will have to contend with a staffing shortage. Jail union leadership says there are too few officers and medical staff to safely operate the lockup.

Innamorato has stressed the need to stop incarcerating minors in the jail, and instead house them in a facility specially designed for children. But an effort to reopen the Shuman Juvenile Detention Center spun into controversy over Fitzgerald’s decision to not only bring in a private operator, but one that is facing lawsuits alleging negligent care elsewhere in Pennsylvania. The contract with Adelphoi to run the center includes no simple exit clause for the county, which could limit Innamorato’s options for years.

Innamorato will inherit a property tax assessment system that most experts view as broken and that was the source of litigation against the county. She campaigned on instituting a countywide reassessment, which would require an extensive overhaul of the existing system and, if her own campaign statements are followed, built-in protections for vulnerable homeowners.

Council will play a role in each of these issues, whether by considering budgets or vetting and confirming the key department leaders Innamorato selects. 

Lawsuits, not communication

Catena said council was “constantly blindsided” under the Fitzgerald administration, citing major plans to reopen a juvenile detention center and to close a homeless shelter made without its input. 

The plan to reopen the Shuman Juvenile Detention Center with a private operator, which Catena said council learned of at the same time as the public, triggered one of the lawsuits between council and Fitzgerald. Council argued in legal filings that its consent is required to allow the private company, Adelphoi, to use the Shuman site. 

The executive branch treated the arrangement as a professional services contract, which does not require council approval. The case is pending in the Court of Common Pleas, though the county has sent initial payments to Adelphoi and construction has begun at Shuman.

In June council passed a law setting minimum pay levels for county employees, wading into the day-to-day administration of government and causing Fitzgerald to sue to overturn the law and preserve the executive branch’s authority over wages. A judge ultimately ruled in Fitzgerald’s favor, though an appeal is still possible.

The third intra-government lawsuit was filed by Councilor Bethany Hallam, possibly Fitzgerald’s most outspoken critic. She asked a judge to confirm that Fitzgerald and two other elected officials were breaking the law when they sent proxies to meetings of the Jail Oversight Board, on which they serve by statute. Fitzgerald’s solicitor argued in filings that the law permits Fitzgerald’s behavior and that Hallam lacked standing to sue. The case is pending.

The legal back-and-forth is a reminder that the county’s system of government – formed in 2000 – is still relatively new. Innamorato is only its fourth chief executive. 

“A lot of the disagreements could have been resolved if there was an open line of communication between the two entities,” said Tom Duerr an outgoing Democratic councilor who did not seek re-election last year.

Sam DeMarco, one of two Republicans on council, pointed the finger at Catena and other council members for communication breakdowns, and said Fitzgerald has typically been responsive.

“So this breakdown is one-sided, and coming from [council members] and not from [Fitzgerald’s] office,” DeMarco said.

Innamorato enters

Innamorato entered politics as a staunch progressive, originally a member of the Democratic Socialists of America. She left that group in 2019 and has sounded a more pragmatic tone in recent years, though not forsaking a “people-powered politics” and social justice focus. 

Regardless of how much Innamorato has moved ideologically since 2018, when she entered office as a state representative, she stands firmly to the left of Fitzgerald and his predecessors. 

Council members were cautiously optimistic that Innamorato will be a willing partner.

“She has a job to do, we have a job to do,” Catena said. “And everyone wants to just move the county forward at this point.”

Palmosina predicted that for Innamorato, “being a fresh face, more of a younger generation” could work to her advantage, and he predicted that she will have an “open-door policy” and “more dialogue with me and the rest of the members.”

Many eyes will be on Hallam, who has an ideological friend in the executive’s chair after making a name for herself as a foil to Fitzgerald. Hallam said she still takes her executive branch accountability role seriously even with Innamorato replacing Fitzgerald.

“There are absolutely going to be times that Sara does things that I disagree with, that council disagrees with,” Hallam said. “And that’s what makes government so sexy.”

Hallam said she will continue her push to make council a more independent body, including by seeking the authority to approve and reject government contracts, a power Pittsburgh City Council possesses but County Council lacks. She also said she wants council to have a bigger staff so members can pursue more expansive legislative agendas. 

One of council’s two newcomers this year, Bethel Park Democrat Dan Grzybek, said he sees council as a potential asset to the executive because of the members’ ground-up view of their respective communities. 

“Whenever you have that relationship with the county executive, you’re able to much better utilize the local nature of county council, and the ability that we have to know our communities a lot better than the high-level administration can,” Grzybek said.

DeMarco predicted that some of his colleagues will try to “push the envelope” on what legislation it can pass under an inexperienced executive and try “to usurp her powers.” 

Duerr, a campaign professional, said he worries that while Innamorato brings a fresh face to county government, council may fall back on habits formed during the past four years.

“I’m worried that this council sees everything as a nail and they are a hammer, and try to push things through and sue their way through what I see as pretty ordinary disagreements,” Duerr said. 

Charlie Wolfson is PublicSource’s local government reporter and a Report for America corps member. He can be reached at charlie@publicsource.org.

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During this holiday season, around 900 people are known to be sleeping outside or in shelters in Allegheny County.

Housing and homelessness were ever-present concerns in the Pittsburgh region this year. But even as tents went up and shelters swung shut, new leadership came knocking on the doors of power with pledges of responsiveness and equity.

With COVID-driven funding expiring fast, though, the long-haul effects of the pandemic may be just beginning for the city, the Pittsburgh Public Schools and other local institutions.

In so many areas of life in our region — education, environment, equity, public health and safety — the gears of history continued to turn, and sometimes to grind, in 2023. PublicSource highlighted emerging trends and dug deep into the data, documentation and human-level impact.

Here are some of the stories we reported, many of which will echo into 2024 and beyond.

What happens after a camp is cleared?

The year 2022 closed with the City of Pittsburgh removing an encampment along Stockton Avenue on East Allegheny’s edge and sweeping aside with it a longstanding agreement.

The tents went down just as Allegheny County’s new Second Avenue Commons shelter prepared to accept displaced people while the Smithfield United Church of Christ’s basement doors creaked open.

If anybody thought those developments would noticeably blunt the effects of the housing crisis, they were quickly disabused of that notion.

The early days of Second Avenue Commons were marked by staffing problems and safety questions, while this autumn saw ramped-up evictions from its single room occupancy units. The Smithfield shelter, meanwhile, became a haven for hundreds but a bugaboo for Downtown businesses, until its June closure demonstrated just how tattered America’s safety net has become.

“I understand that it can’t exist indefinitely, but this haphazard closure is going to cause death and we need to hold people accountable for that.”

Aubrey Plesh, founder of Team PSBG, which operateD the shelter at the Smithfield United Church of Christ, Downtown

With cold weather’s return came a slow-motion rollout of the county’s and city’s plan for emergency shelter. The persistent presence of at least 200 people on the street, though, left leaders looking for… 

A path to long-term affordable housing

The affordable housing shortage has been well documented for at least a decade, though never so viscerally evident as it was in 2023. Yet one of the most versatile tools for addressing housing needs — the Housing Choice (Section 8) Voucher — had become rusty and blunt by the time PublicSource documented concerns of landlords, tenants and former Housing Authority of the City of Pittsburgh [HACP] insiders. That reporting spurred pledges of prompt improvements in customer service in the program, but the year ended with curbs on the portability of vouchers.

City development officials, meanwhile, scrambled to preserve affordable units that might otherwise fall into disrepair or convert to market-rate status. A $50 million federal grant raised hopes for more and better Hill District homes.

County-level interests sought to bring to the boroughs some of the models that have taken root in the city. And after nearly a decade of inactivity, the Pittsburgh Land Bank slowly began the process of reclaiming abandoned city property, sidestepping legal obstacles that held up progress. 

While fears of gentrification have been most pronounced in Pittsburgh, housing market forces don’t stop at the city line. That’s why Sara Innamorato was quizzed about the issue during her successful run for county executive, which has everybody asking …

Will a fresh approach on Grant Street really change things?

In what will be the last Allegheny County election season to feature direct six-figure contributions to candidates, Democrat Innamorato barely overcame Republican Joe Rockey’s large fundraising edge. (Conversely, District Attorney Stephen Zappala ran as a Republican, and bested billionaire-backed Democrat Matt Dugan.)

Innamorato’s pledge to focus on the “struggle of everyday people” has a different feel from outgoing County Executive Rich Fitzgerald’s recent emphases, which have tended toward consensus building with business, labor and multiple levels of government, plus stable property taxes.

Innamorato has said she’d like to address increasingly skewed assessments, but also wants to reduce a reassessment’s impact on those least able to afford tax hikes.

Innamorato also heard “alarm bells” in the county’s selection of nonprofit contractor Adelphoi to take over the Shuman Juvenile Detention Center. But she will become executive amid heightened attention to violent crime, which the county has sought to address with a $50 million effort to beef up prevention efforts.

That’s a lot on the plate of the likely most prominent member of what we’ll call … 

Southwestern Pennsylvania’s pandemic-forged leadership class

Innamorato follows political ally Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey to Grant Street, but also joins dozens of new leaders who replaced longtime executives in both the public and private realms.

Also reaching prominence this year were Pittsburgh Police Chief Larry Scirotto (who promptly disappointed some accountability advocates) and University of Pittsburgh Chancellor Joan Gabel (whose statements on Israel and Gaza left some dissatisfied).

The three years of turnover at the top that followed the Great Resignation may be remembered as a pivot point for the Pittsburgh region, but it won’t likely herald an extended and unanimous chorus of Kumbaya. Exhibit one: Gainey and UPMC (now led by Leslie Davis) show no signs of reaching an accord on any obligations the healthcare giant may have to the city’s coffers.

And the city’s bank balance? It’s likely to get leaner, as federal American Rescue Plan Act funds run dry. 

Gainey won’t be the only local leader scrambling for funds because … 

Schools will likely be scraping by

The Pittsburgh Public Schools are expecting similar headwinds as relief funding dries up and costs mount.

To get through the next budget year, PPS needs to draw nearly $30 million from its depleting rainy day fund. But even then, glaring inequalities persist, with students in some schools feeling they’re being taught in a “playground” instead of a rigorous educational setting.

The district also faces challenges over disparate student outcomes, variable teaching quality and uneven costs maintaining a patchwork of buildings that far exceed the needs of a shrinking student pool.

Graduates of high schools in Pittsburgh and suburban districts may be wise to review university balance sheets before filling out applications as … 

Higher ed weathers storms of its own

Higher education fairs little better in a city that’s hinged its revival on an “eds and meds” economy. 

Many newer workforce entrants are questioning the value of a degree altogether. The Community College of Allegheny County lost about half of its student body between 2010 and 2022 – and even a steep drop since the 2020 pandemic doesn’t account for the whole picture, one of steady decline.

Alarm bells rang out from Chatham University’s sedate Squirrel Hill campus in summer, when faculty learned the university faced a $12 million budget hole. To close the gap, President Rhonda Philips laid off department staff, trimmed administration salaries and slashed faculty pension contributions.

Chatham faculty answered with an early unionizing effort they hope will strengthen their position as the administration seeks to patch its deficit. That push can be viewed as one of many efforts aimed at …

Leveling society’s playing field

Campus concerns early in the year were focused primarily on safety for LGBTQ students, and when Pitt’s response wasn’t satisfying, an effort to bring the issue before the Board of Trustees resulted in criminal charges and student conduct hearings. At Duquesne University, a bid to rename Lambda to the Queer Student Union stagnated amid ongoing tension between the school’s Catholic orientation and the growing push for LGBTQ inclusion.

Nearly every university is grappling with diversity in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court decision ending affirmative action in admissions.

That ruling was also seen as a potential warning shot for other programs meant to undo effects of discrimination, and lent some urgency to the Gainey administration’s pledge to refresh the data behind race-conscious programs. Equitable law enforcement remained a work in progress, too, as a mayor elected in the wake of George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis police didn’t immediately dent the racial skew of his own department’s activities, or make “driving while Black” a thing of the past.

Equity efforts increasingly overlap with the ongoing environmental and climate catastrophe, and nowhere is that more newsworthy than in …

A region still fueled by fossils

Pollution from coal, manufacturing and other fossil fuels continues to plague a region still trying to shrug off the nickname “Smoky City.”

After Shell Chemical Appalachia opened its giant new petrochemical plant in Beaver County, a PublicSource investigation revealed a litany of malfunctions where, in many cases, the Department of Environmental Protection largely relied on Shell to assess its own missteps and the validity of public complaints.

In October, the Biden administration announced funding for two hydrogen hubs spanning stretches of Pennsylvania, although a proposal centered around Pittsburgh did not make the cut. Opinion is fiercely split on whether hydrogen has a role in the transition to clean energy or merely extends our fossil fuel dependence.

To some, natural gas extracted through fracking offers another pathway to weaning off coal and its carbon-heavy cousins. But families living less than 900 feet from a well pad in Washington County say their health and quality of life has suffered accordingly, while state legislation to keep drilling away from homes fell flat this summer.   

Climate change and air quality are daunting big-picture problems, and if you’re yearning to feel good about humanity, it might be advisable to look at …

Spirited neighborhoods rising to challenges

If the arc of history bends toward justice, the end of that rainbow can seem elusive — but perhaps it will end in the Hill District.

The neighborhood is still wary about developer promises after witnessing one of urban renewal’s most infamous injustices when the city razed the Lower Hill District and built the Civic Arena and parking lots. But leadership at the Bethel AME Church, victimized by the wrecking ball in 1957, believe they have a pact that will partly redress that tragedy with affordable housing.

Similarly, Wilkinsburg’s population losses created both a need for redevelopment and fear of gentrification. The apparent collapse of a push to merge the borough into Pittsburgh may invite civic leaders to build on the community’s strengths.

Pittsburgh’s growth depends on its embrace of diversity and its willingness to welcome newcomers, and nowhere was that more evident than in Beechview. The South Pittsburgh neighborhood hosts the biggest concentration of Latino residents in the region, and its business district — once crippled by disinvestment and fraud — features what may be the region’s most bilingual main street.

As PublicSource enters its 13th year of writing, photographing and otherwise pursuing stories for a better Pittsburgh, there’s plenty of room for improvement — in the region and the media. Also ample is the spirit of determination to solve problems, whether they’re as concrete as the shortage of affordable housing or as intangible as equity in education. We’ll continue to seek and share truth, whether it’s in the form of professionally reported investigations or community members’ essays. We hope you’ll continue with us on that journey, and thank you for your readership and support.

Rich Lord is the managing editor at PublicSource and can be reached at rich@publicsource.org.

Jamie Wiggan is deputy editor at PublicSourceand can be reached at jamie@publicsource.org.

Fact-checked by the PublicSource staff.

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