Standing Committees - Regular Meeting

13:21 – 13:36•ESErika Strassburger

Good morning and welcome to the Standing Committee's meeting for Wednesday, October 7th, 2026. All council meetings will be live streamed on the city's website. And for guest speakers, please do not turn off your microphones. Our first order of business is roll call. The clerk, please take the roll.

13:52 – 14:24•ESErika Strassburger

Thank you. Our next order of business is to amend the agenda. Can I get a motion to amend? All in favor? Aye. Agenda is amended. Our next order of business is public comment. I would like to remind all speakers that the rules of council state that comments are limited to matters of concern, official action or deliberation, which are or may be before city council and profanity will not be permitted. Please state your name and neighborhood for the record. You will have three minutes to speak. Our first registered speaker is Matthew King.

17:56•ESErika Strassburger

Our next registered speaker is Dr. Ronald Lynn Miller.

18:14•ESErika Strassburger

Our next speaker is Dr. Ronald Lynn Miller.

21:22 – 21:40•ESErika Strassburger

Thank you. Our next speaker is Chief Ikohana Halmakina. Don't believe Chief Ikohana is with us today. We will move on to Ava Meadows.

24:58•ESErika Strassburger

Thank you. Your time has expired. You can present anything by writing to the clerk.

25:05•ESErika Strassburger

Thank you. Having exhausted our registered speakers, we will now take comments from those in the audience wishing to speak.

34:29•ESErika Strassburger

Thank you very much. Next speaker, please.

37:43 – 37:57•ESErika Strassburger

Thank you. Next speaker, please. Are there any further speakers? Seeing none, we will move to the standing committee's agenda. Our first committee is the Finance and Law Committee. We have new papers, Bill 926. Bill 926.

38:34•ESErika Strassburger

Yes, thanks, Council Member. Council Member Warwick. And Council Member Warwick, we see your hand as well.

38:49•ESErika Strassburger

You can just introduce yourselves and your title.

38:58•ESErika Strassburger

And please get as close as you can to the microphone so folks at home can hear.

44:11•ESErika Strassburger

Thank you. Council Member Warwick, followed by Councilman Mosley.

44:35 – 44:46•KMKhari Mosley

Yes, could you tell us a little bit more about the Organization Partners for Public Good and where we could potentially find more information about other cities they work with? and some of their other best practices that we may be able to replicate here in Pittsburgh.

46:17•KMKhari Mosley

Absolutely. So would the best place to find out more information would just go to their website or is there other publications?

46:53 – 47:23•ESErika Strassburger

Thank you. Further discussion first round? I just had a couple questions. One, to note that, as mentioned, this is an amendment to an existing bill. So we approved it last year. This is to expand the scope. But I don't see, fortunately, don't see the term inclusive, using procurement for inclusive workforce development, job quality, and local economic empowerment. So assuming in addition to the additional priorities here, we will still be working with them to try to foster an inclusive workplace development. Yes. All of that.

47:40 – 48:19•ESErika Strassburger

Thank you. And then in addition to recouping costs when services aren't performed to our standards or et cetera, which sounds great, I know that with government procurement, lowest responsible bidder gets it. And the word responsible, I think, is a big workhorse word. Right, like what is a responsible bidder? Could this feedback loop help you and procurement understand what is termed a responsible bidder? So if they haven't done the work, they end up on some list. I don't know if we can debar or not, but they end up on some list and we say, eh, they did not perform the work two other times, th

48:47 – 49:19•ESErika Strassburger

Yeah. In my mind, hopefully that opens up doors to newer vendors that are really hungry for the work. Absolutely. They might not be able to compete in the same way cost-wise, but they're hungry for the work. They're going to do a good job. Maybe they're diverse vendors as well. So that would be a great outcome. Okay. Further discussion by council members? Seeing none, all in favor of Bill 926, please say aye. Aye. Affirmative recommendation. Thank you both. Thank you. Thank you. Bill 927.

49:55•ESErika Strassburger

Discussion, I see Council Member Warwick.

50:31•ESErika Strassburger

We have a few people coming to the table, Councilmember.

52:20 – 52:32•ESErika Strassburger

Thank you. Further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor of Bill 927, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Affirmative recommendation. Bill 928.

53:07 – 53:26•ESErika Strassburger

Discussion? So I think we're requesting, the request is for both Bill 927 and 928. Thank you. So we'll look forward to seeing that. All in favor of Bill 928, please say aye. Aye. Affirmative recommendation. Thank you all. Thank you. Bill 929.

53:43•ESErika Strassburger

Discussion? Seeing none, all in favor of Bill 929, please say aye. Aye.

54:16 – 54:42•ESErika Strassburger

Discussion? Seeing none, all in favor of Bill 930, please say aye. Aye. Affirmative recommendation. That takes us to invoices. Is there a motion on invoices? Second. Discussion? Seeing none, all in favor of invoices, please say aye. Aye.

54:45•ESErika Strassburger

Invoices are approved. That moves us to interdepartmental transfers. Is there a motion on transfers?

54:55 – 55:06•ESErika Strassburger

Discussion? Seeing none, all in favor of transfers, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Transfers are approved. Is there a motion on P-cards?

55:10 – 55:24•ESErika Strassburger

Discussion? Seeing none, all in favor of P cards, please say aye. cards are approved. That takes us to Public Safety and Wellness Committee, chaired by Councilman Coghill.

55:50 – 56:02•ESErika Strassburger

Seeing none, all in favor of Bill 918, please say aye. Aye. Affirmative recommendation. That takes us to Public Works and Infrastructure Committee, chaired by Councilwoman Salinetro.

57:00 – 57:29•ESErika Strassburger

I would actually love to have our folks from Public Works up to the table just to understand a little bit more about these two bills, one that we actually just gave an affirmative recommendation to. Good morning. Good morning. Lisa Tapa, City Forester.

57:33 – 57:59•ESErika Strassburger

Thank you. So obviously the one before us is a tree inventory for Arsenal Park, but the one before was for our Howard Riverfront Trail. I guess my question is how common are these inventories that are sort of larger and sort of more site-specific? Is this something that we do all throughout the city? We just happen to be hitting these two areas now. Or is this a newer kind of setup?

58:25•ESErika Strassburger

And would this be restitution in the form of money, or would it be planting elsewhere in the city?

59:29 – 59:43•ESErika Strassburger

Great. Well, especially with the first one, but for both, I mean, it seems like it's a relatively small cost for a big bang for the buck, and especially with partners that we have, Lawrenceville Together or whatnot. So great to see that. Thank you. Sure.

Yes, thank you. I just wanted to say how much I appreciate Forestry working together.

59:55•ESErika Strassburger

Oops, do I get cut off? Nope, we have you.

Okay, thank you. I just want to appreciate, shout out to Hornsfield Together, to Forestry, and to many, many residents who have worked for so many, so many years before I was elected to make these improvements to Arsenal Park. And if you are not familiar with it, it's definitely one of the... lovely historic parks, a medium-sized park that serves residents far wide. And the city has invested money in recreational improvements, but

So I just wanted to give everyone a shout out for working on it. Thank you, Madam Forrester.

1:00:53•ESErika Strassburger

Thank you. Thank you. Further discussion? Councilman Mosley.

1:01:00•KMKhari Mosley

First of all, I want to thank you for all your partnership today. I do like that title. Councilwoman Gross, we'll have to start calling you Madam Forrester everywhere you go.

1:01:18 – 1:01:30•KMKhari Mosley

My counsel, particularly helping out Ms. Bias, helping coordinate that multi-layer approach over on Negley Avenue. But my question is just out of curiosity, what caused the damage on the trees along the Ohio River Trail?

1:02:54•KMKhari Mosley

Well, thank you for joining us today, and thank you for your work. Thank you, Madam Chair.

1:02:57•ESErika Strassburger

Thank you. Further discussion? Seeing none. Oh, did you have a question?

1:03:04•KMKhari Mosley

Oh, okay. You're not going to be able to live that one down now.

1:03:10•ESErika Strassburger

Thank you. Seeing none, all in favor of Bill 923, please say aye. Aye. Affirmative recommendation. Bill 924. Thank you. Thank you.

1:04:17 – 1:04:29•ESErika Strassburger

Thank you. Further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor of Bill 924, please say aye. Aye. Affirmative recommendation. Bill 925.

1:05:00 – 1:05:12•ESErika Strassburger

Seeing none, all in favor of Bill 925, please say aye. Affirmative recommendation. That moves us to Land Use and Economic Development Committee, chaired by Councilman Wilson.

I'll defer to the bill sponsor. There is an amendment on the table here for 768.

Thank you, Mr. Wilson. I'm chair. Thank you. I would like to motion to amend.

Thanks. So we just have been working with CDBG and OMB to move these expiring CDBG funds, or soon to be expiring CDBG funds. I'll be amending this one and moving it forward, and the next bill after this we're still working on, so I'll motion for a hold on the next one.

1:06:24 – 1:06:47•ESErika Strassburger

Further discussion on the amendment? Seeing none, all in favor of amending Bill 768, please say aye. Aye. Bill is amended. Further discussion on the bill as amended? Seeing none, all in favor of Bill 968 as amended, please say aye. Aye. Affirmative recommendation. Bill 969.

Thank you. Ms. Wilson, do you mind if all motions go forward for four weeks?

1:07:42 – 1:07:55•ESErika Strassburger

Sorry, did I hear four weeks? I just want to be clear. Four weeks. Okay. Seeing no discussion, all those in favor of a four-week hold for Bill 769, please say aye. Aye. Bill will be held for four weeks.

Listen to approve. Discussion. Discussion. Yeah, I just want to know, is it a coincidence that it will be T?

That in B2, the parking area letter will be T? Since there's the T that goes through?

Yeah, like how in the olden days they had the sticker on the window. Or you look up and you see the sign and it says, you know, this is permanent area T. Or it could be A, double A. I'll look into that today and I'll get back to it.

1:09:12•ESErika Strassburger

Okay. All in favor of Bill 914, please say aye. Aye. Affirmative recommendation, Bill 933.

I was curious about this one. Is there anyone here to speak to the bill? I guess now. All right. It's not a big deal. I'll just ask throughout the week. Thank you.

1:10:19 – 1:10:50•ESErika Strassburger

Thank you. And so we'll be looking for any kind of information for Bill 933. I think this is city planning is what I have here. So any kind of information that we can receive in writing requested by city planning before next Tuesday's final vote. Thank you. Okay. All in favor of Bill 933, please say aye. Aye. Affirmative recommendation. Bill 934.

1:11:25 – 1:11:38•ESErika Strassburger

Seeing none, all in favor of Bill 934, please say aye. Affirmative recommendation. That moves us to Recreation, Youth, and Senior Services Committee, chaired by Councilmember Barbara Warwick.

Second discussion, I mean kind of. Yeah, maybe a little discussion question. I just want to know why this, like, we just had all these different, you know, on these different contracts with people. I think we just had a bill on that. I don't know. I know it's over the 5,000, but it just seems like.

1:12:23•ESErika Strassburger

These are our rules. So the public works did propose to, for this to come via.

1:12:36 – 1:12:49•ESErika Strassburger

Yes, and our rules state that more than $5,000, even if they're split up into different, even if it's slightly over $5,000 or if it's split up into different purchases, that it should be a warrant. So this is the warrant.

Yeah, but from my understanding, like if we have a contract with Staples... you know as long as it's under the the minimum like state requirement or maybe we have our own but i think like you know so for instance like it's under 25 000 we already have that company on their contract then we can buy like doors and like we don't see doors anyway it's not a big deal i'm just surprised this came to us they must not have a contract with someone

1:13:21•ESErika Strassburger

I don't know if there's anyone from Public Works who can speak to this today or no, or would you rather just... I believe a director... Would you like to call them to the table or would you like to not call them to the table? It's up to you. Okay.

1:13:32 – 1:14:21•KMKhari Mosley

He had a good birthday recently, so it's... And Madam Chair... Yeah, you know, Director Emeritus had a call with me, I guess about two weeks ago, you know, about this. And this was, and he can speak to it with more specificity than I can, but it was just a part of getting Homewood Pool together. There was an oversight in ordering these. So when everything, you know, got ordered for the fantastic new public asset that we have in Homewood, it was oversight in ordering these chairs. So they had to get called in because you need lifeguard chairs for safety. But I'll let Director Emeritus speak to

Well, I mean, we do waive the PCAR rule sometimes for especially stuff like this. So, you know, I mean, anything we can do in the future to help, I mean, you know, or any sort of rule in the contracting, I'm interested because... Uh, you know, this certainly needed, this is like, you know, just ordering like a new storm door. So I just, I just wanted to, you know, just touch base on that.

1:16:49 – 1:18:58•ESErika Strassburger

I'll just say here, and you do not have to say, Director, thank you. I think this highlights one of the challenges of our system. When we follow the rules, right, it looks unnecessary. But there really isn't, aside from a waiver, which in this case I would argue, and I want to thank our council budget office for flagging this, like there isn't actually a process for... this kind of scenario where it's not an overage, a P-card or a reimbursement that's like, this is the only way to do it, it has to be a credit card purchase because of a state requirement, or this is a quarterly telecom bill tha

1:21:30•ESErika Strassburger

Thank you. We have some members at the table.

1:23:01•ESErika Strassburger

Thank you. Further discussion? Councilman Wilson.

There's no amendment. There's just some clarification. Clarification. Okay, sorry.

And the concern was that this would go to like...

Yeah, what was the concern about the pay for residency? What was that concern?

1:25:07•ESErika Strassburger

Thank you. Further discussion? Councilman Coghall.

1:27:00•ESErika Strassburger

Thank you. Further discussion? Second round, Council Member Warwick.

1:29:26 – 1:31:19•ESErika Strassburger

Thank you. Further discussion? So I'll add, so the request, I think, is both to the body of the bill and the title, so it's clear, you know, at no cost to the city, before next Tuesday so that we can amend at the final bill, final passage then. I'll also say, I think this is great, the fact that it really is, aside from, Kevin, some of your time at no cost to the city, and in an ideal budget year, we would have an artist-in-residence, not just consultant, but position, as originally imagined, on staff to allow for this to happen in not just downtown, but every neighborhood in the city, right?

1:31:22•ESErika Strassburger

Affirmative recommendation. Thank you both. Bill 932.

1:31:49 – 1:32:06•ESErika Strassburger

Discussion? Seeing none, all in favor of bill 932, please say aye. Affirmative recommendation. That moves us to Innovation and Performance Asset Management and Technology Committee, chaired by Councilwoman Gross.

1:32:30 – 1:32:50•ESErika Strassburger

Second. Discussion? Seeing none, all in favor of Bill 919, please say aye. Affirmative recommendation. That moves us to our final committee of the day, Intergovernmental and Educational Affairs Committee, chaired by Councilman Mosley.

1:33:28 – 1:33:39•ESErika Strassburger

Seeing none, all in favor of Bill 950, please say aye. Aye. Affirmative recommendation. New papers. Bill 917.

1:33:59•KMKhari Mosley

Motion to hold for a cable cast public hearing. Second.

1:34:03 – 1:35:16•ESErika Strassburger

discussion seeing none all those in favor of holding bill 917 for a cablecast public hearing please say aye aye that bill will be held that exhausts our standing committee agenda we do have meeting announcements tomorrow Thursday October 8th with sessions at 11 and 11 30 a.m. council will hold a briefing to discuss matters related to that 2026 NFL draft Next week, Council will hold their regular meeting on Tuesday, October 13th, and Standing Committee's meeting on Wednesday, October 14th, both at 10 a.m. Speaker registration will close at 9 a.m. Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. Next Tuesday, Oc

1:38:31•ESErika Strassburger

All in favor? Aye. Meeting is adjourned.