Cable Advisory Committee - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon, and welcome to the standing committee's meeting for Monday, 05/18/2026. All council meetings will be livestreamed on the city's website. And for guest speakers, please do not turn off your microphones. Our first order of business is roll call. Will the clerk please take the roll?

Mister Charland? Here. Mister Cargill. Miss Gross. Mister Lavelle.

Here.

Mister Mosley. Miss Salimetra. Here. Miss Warwick. Here. Mister Wilson. Miss Strasburger, chair?

Here.

Five members present.

Thank you. Our next order of business is to amend the agenda. Can I have a motion to amend the agenda?

So moved.

Second. All in favor?

Aye.

Aye. 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 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 doctor Ronald Lynn Miller.

Doctor. Ronald Miller. Downtown, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I'm the Global Intelligence Society candidate for president 2028. For those of you who are unaware of this, this is a nexus of individuals and institutions, which are committed who are committed to the use of optimal information and intelligence in the formation of law at every level.

It is an extension of the Center for Global Studies International Interdisciplinary, which I founded in 1999. What I did was to make connections with and inclusion in 21 primary disciplines, which include physics, astronomy, chemistry, history, geology, and so on, I do have a very firm commitment to the insinuation of science and scientific methodology into everything that we do. In other words, what is the evidence for something? One of the the the most important of the initiatives which I have sponsored and continue to sponsor is the initiative concerning the vote. And we heard people talk this morning about the importance of it.

We hear people in the media generally talking about it, but Katie KA, WPXI, and others, they do not really focus on the core problem. The core problem as far as I'm concerned is that our voters, our people, our citizens are not able to check to make sure that their vote has not been misapplied or misplaced. When we have asked now thousands of people across The United States, do you want your vote to be lost? We have yet to find anybody who says yes. Do you want your vote to be applied to somebody that you don't think you voted for?

When we put it in a crude sense, you think you voted for Trump and in 2024, and what happened was that your vote was transferred to or applied to Biden. There is almost hysteria when it comes to this. Now our our people who trust you as as as counselors to do something about that, to affirm the vote, are not, in my view, at all coming to terms with this core problem. I put it to you many ways on many occasions, but as far as I can tell, not one of you, and not mister O'Connor, not mister Gainey, be able to say, I checked. I made sure that I voted for myself if that was the case.

In other words, you can't prove it. You can't even prove it for yourselves. If that's true, it means that the entire process is based on an empty black democratic antidemocratic hole.

Thank you. Our next registered speaker is chief Ikohana Hal Makena. Not seeing chief Ikohana Makena, we will move on to those in the audience wishing to speak. Are there any speakers in the audience wishing to preach podium? My

name is Yvonne F. Brown. I live at 715 Mercer Street. That's the high rise at the top of Bedford with a 192 apartments. As I told the young girls that were here today, I bring a sign because if you see something you can remember, you hear it, you might forget it. But the way I feel, if I know, I know it. Now here is my sign. I was listening this morning when doctor Miller was talking, and I do wanna tell you something. I've been to his center, and everyone should go. You should actually see the different rooms.

It depends on what subject, the different color rooms. He has one room that he's done with stucco. It is beautiful. Stucco, I didn't know anything about that until I moved to California where they put it on the outside of their buildings. And I can remember coming remember coming to California, and I was looking at the colors. Houses were bright yellow, orange. They also did the Christmas trees at summer at Christmas time, they put that stuff on it. It would be green or yellow trees. They had different colors, but that stucco would fall off. But the main reason why I'm keep I tell you, I keep coming down because you need to know the truth.

And you need to know how we feel, not how you feel because you come from a different may come from a different age. It could you could be older or younger. I'm much older than you. You might not believe it because I move real fast, and I talk kinda fast. But I want you to understand that I would come and tell you it had problems when mister Lavelle told me he miss Brown, he keep talking about the bus system.

You better go to county council. And when I went, he had the Whit Watson, who is our councilman, when the president, Patrick, the one that they're talking about, they wanna get rid of. When he said, we have a audit. We have a citizen citizen that that had had a complaint, and so we write a letter to the bus company. Or did he say, oh, wait a minute, mister Walton, the wit. That's your your will you write a letter? No. Can't nobody come down here and tell me what they need in their neighborhood. I live across the street. I know what they need.

They need a security more than they need buses, but we have to take two buses down to the bottom of the two buses to get to the bottom of the hill. I want you to understand Patrick, and his last name, I can't pronounce correctly, should be president of council. And the only reason why, he walks to talk. When he walks, he does the same. He does what he says. When I went down there, he has said we have a problem for our citizens. And then I saw him actually sit through a 100 people that had signed up. My time is up. Vote for Patrick, please. Be careful.

Thank you. Next speaker, please. Are there any further speakers? There being no further speakers, we will move on to our standing committee's agenda. Our first committee is the finance and law committee. New papers, bill four seventy eight.

Resolution authorizing the mayor and the director of the office of management and budget to enter into an agreement or agreements with the Richard King Mellon Foundation for the purpose of receiving grant funds and amount not to exceed $25,000 for the economic development marketing by the mayor and the economic development team.

To approve.

Second. Discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor of bill four seventy eight, please say aye.

Aye. Aye.

Geez. Affirmative recommendation. Bill four seventy nine. Resolution authorizing the issuance of a warrant in favor of Meyer, Unkovic, and Scott for expert legal services for litigation filed in the common police court of Allegheny County, amount not to exceed $18,420 over one year.

Motion to approve. Second. Discussion?

Seeing none, all those in favor of bill four seventy nine, please say aye. Aye. Affirmative recommendation. Madam chair,

we read four eighty nine and four ninety together.

Certainly.

Bill four eighty nine, ordinance amending the Pittsburgh code of ordinances, title one administrative article nine, boards, commissions, and authorities. Chapter one seventy nine d, records management advisory commission, repealing chapter one seventy nine d in its entirety. And bill four ninety, ordinance amending the Pittsburgh City Code title one administrative article five legislation. Chapter one fifty four records management division by adding a new section one fifty four zero three records retention schedules.

Motion to approve. Second.

Discussion. Discussion. Councilperson Charlene.

I believe we have our archivist here to talk about this.

Get that entrance. Go from the back. From the archives.

Yeah. From the archives.

Nick

Hartley, records management manager, city clerk's office. So, Nick, I appreciate the email that you sent us kind of explaining the giving us the heads up on what's gonna be happening here. And I know you and your team put a lot of work and a lot of thought into this. Would you like to walk us through what we're looking

at here?

Yeah. So the bills before us would allow us to put in place a mechanism to formally adopt records retention schedules. Retention schedule is just a list of all the records department either creates or receives, a description of them, and how long they're gonna retain them. These do exist, but only informally, and so that creates a little bit of confusion. So this would allow us to create a manual that would describe a schedule for records common to all departments, and then a process, an approval form for departmental records retention schedules.

Awesome. Well, I I I know that other members, I'm seeing them kinda sit up here. I know they've got some questions, but I just wanna thank you for putting, you know, the thought into this. I can tell you, at least from my perspective, when I was moving from being a staffer to being a council member and trying to figure out what we're supposed to keep and what we need to get rid of, how challenging that was, and and how helpful your team was just you know, we gave you everything and threw out a lot of it, but trying to make sure, you know, we're not we're not losing things, you know, all the time. Really just appreciate your help and always appreciate your, your guidance there. Thank you. Excellent.

You. Further discussion? Councilwoman Gross.

Thank you. Appreciate it. Amit, could you also kind of give the audience, I think, an overview of how far we've come? Because it's been a little while since we addressed the fact that, you know, ten years ago or so now, this the I think you were the first person hired. Mhmm. And to to have city at the in the city archivist role, and there's now a team and so much records have not only been recovered, preserved, cataloged,

but

then there is, made more publicly accessible. So maybe just give us

a little background as well so

people understand, like, what what's happening here and what Yeah.

Thank you. Yeah. This whole effort kind of originated with the Commission on City Archives in 2012 or 2013 that led to the creation of the position you mentioned. And then in 2018, we created our records management division. And at the time, we chain we just changed the name and the makeup of the Commission on City Archives, and so that's this other piece of legislation.

It kind of it's brought the the effort up to a point, and now we're just trying to solidify our efforts to to make sure that all departments have a records retention schedule. But, yeah, those first couple years were heavily devoted to collecting. We're Pittsburgh's in a really unique situation and that we're very old, but we didn't we never started an archive. Yeah. Our friends in Philadelphia, their archive was written into their charter in the fifties.

So we had a lot of catching up to do. And yeah. So those first couple years, we're collecting. We've collected over 10,000 cubic feet of records, and we have a website where we allow the public to access a lot of that. We've digitized all of the city council basically, it's legislative record, legislation meeting minutes going back to 1816. And yeah. So But also across city other the city

departments too.

So, again, creating this kind of, like, library of records. Mhmm. Did it actually exist?

No. No. And so far, we launched our digital repository online, I think, maybe three years ago. We have well over a million pages of records on there, and, that effort just continues abase.

And I have to give a shout out to the previous city council person, Patrick Dowd, who sat in the seat, who was a PhD in history, who acknowledged that there was, you know, the the the problem Yeah. The the oversight

Oh.

Of us not having a city archive. Yeah.

Yeah. That's And

I I think he famously even took his staff down into basements of buildings that found boxes of records that were old and important that weren't, you know, stored or even known about. Right? And I'll acknowledge that this this body as well had to deal with, you know, in the lead crisis that Peter Broussier and the city experienced, again, almost ten years ago now, there were no records of what material your your water service laterals were. We even asked the city architect, like, if you find maps with any records on it and then literally, like, disintegrating records were found and digitized at the time, but they weren't adequate. We had to literally send camera crews out to every single household in the city and look at the pipe under the ground in front of your sidewalk.

So, that that's a really concrete example. But it's been incredible to, have all the histories and records secured that have been across city in so many ways. And so I don't have the full text in front of me or open on my phone, but it's, to create basically put in our ordinances because it isn't there. That's the just kind of understanding what you said that there be an adopted schedule for records or that the commission themselves? Well, how how will it work?

It will we'll have we'll distribute a records retention manual, and in that manual, it will include a citywide general schedule. So these would be records that most departments are likely to have in common. And then that manual will also describe the process to create departmental records retention schedule.

And can you give me a general summary of, like, what that process of department will do?

Basically, they'll work with us. We'll ask the department what records do you create or receive that kind of document your business functions. And then we we generally don't tell departments how long to keep records unless we want to send them to the archives. It's usually kind of unwritten practice. They they're very very well aware of, you know, the requirements around records retention. So this will just enable us to have all of that information written down so it's easier to pass to successive.

And then there's a, I suppose, a trigger in case departments completely change because sometimes we restructure what our city departments are. As an example to the public, like, Domi, which most of you have heard of, didn't used to exist ten years ago. It's only DPW, and then Domi was created. So there would be some going back to the commission, I guess, to figure out who's supposed to keep what.

So the commission will under the, I think, four eighty nine bill four eighty nine, we would just eliminate that. And so the anytime a schedule needs updated or, you know, just reviewed by a new administration, it would just go through like a three pronged approval process, department director, law department, and city clerk.

Great. Okay.

Appreciate it. Thank you. That's all I have, madam chair.

Thank you. Further discussion? Councilman McConkow.

Thank you, madam chair. Thanks for the work you do, Nick. I think it's very important to keep these records. So you said back to 1816? Mhmm. You have record of 1816?

Yes.

And Pittsburgh had a city council and a mayor in 1816? Mhmm. Was that right? Yeah. Yeah. Was it, like, in handwriting, or was it

in Yes. 1816 through

I wanna fit right back fit right in back then. You know?

The first fifty

the first fifty years

are handwritten. Yeah. I'm sorry.

The first fifty years are hand they are handwritten, but we have all of it online. Wow.

Yeah. Mhmm. Interesting. I'd be interested in seeing not old minutes. I don't know. I wanna pour over old minutes, but just to see how they kept their records. It's pretty cool. Yeah. Yeah. Mhmm.

I can we, you know, we can give you a tour of our facility anytime.

We'll check it out. Yeah.

They were fighting about rent to rent that.

Were they? They're probably building a public works division. Thanks, Nick.

Any further discussion? Alright. Seeing none.

All those in favor of

bills 489490, please

say aye. Aye.

Affirmative recommendation. You very much for all

your work. With the EPA. You're getting I just saw

That moves us on to invoices. Is there a motion on invoices? No.

Not. I'm not sure.

Discussion? Seeing none. All those in favor of invoices, please say aye. Aye. Invoices are approved. That moves us on to P Cards. Is there a motion on P Cards?

To move.

Say again.

Discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor of P Cards, please say aye. Aye. P Cards are approved. That moves us to Public Safety and Wellness Committee chaired by councilman Coghill.

Bill four seventy one, resolution authorizing the mayor, the director of the office of management and budget, and the Department of Public Safety safety to enter into an agreement or agreements with the National Association of County and City Health Officials for the purpose of receiving grant funds from the post overdose training and trauma informed practices amount not to exceed $25,000 for training and support of the city's office of community health and safety.

A motion to approve brief discussion.

Second. Discussion comes

from I really don't have any questions. I know Laura is here, though, in case anybody did, but it's pretty self explanatory. So, no comment from me, and I just wanted to open it up to anybody else in case they had something.

Seeing none. All those in favor of bill four seventy one, please say aye. Aye. Affirmative recommendation. That moves us to public works and infrastructure committee chaired by councilwoman Sala Netro.

Deferred papers, bill 300, resolution providing for the issuance of a warrant in favor of a Felino Construction Inc in the amount of $481,320 for the purpose of emergency snow removal at various locations in providing for the payment of the cost thereof over one year. Motion to approve. Discussion?

Second. Discussion, councilwoman. This we did receive some backup, for the invoice, and I did forward it on to all members. And I really would prefer that John McClory, the director, be here to approve, you know, what he saw matches what, you know, what the invoice says. So I'd like to hold it for another week so that, he's unable to be here today because of the the celebration today for the public works week. So he'll he'll be here next week to discuss, so I'd

like to hold it one week.

Second. Discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor of a one week hold for bill 300, please say aye. Aye. Bill will be held one week. Thank you very much. That moves us to bill four fourteen.

Resolution authorizing the mayor and the director of finance on behalf of the city of Pittsburgh to enter into an agreement or agreements or amendments thereto with various parties for the purpose of accessing city property while certain railroad crossings at Lock Way East and Lockway West Council District 7 are being upgraded or removed at no cost to the city. Motion

to approve discussion. Second. Second. Discussion? And can I hold this for I need to

make a motion to hold this for two weeks at the discretion of the council members area? Second.

Business. Second discussion? Oh, no. Seeing none, all those in favor of a two week hold on bill four fourteen, please say aye. Aye.

Was a petition.

Will be held two weeks. That moves us to bill four eighty seven.

Petition from the residents of the city of Pittsburgh requesting a public hearing before city council regarding reopening Serpentine Drive in Park to cars. The Squirrel Hill Historical Society Board and the people signing this petition feel that this road was intended for vehicular traffic, including bikes, but not trucks and not intended for pedestrians who have many nearby trails to walk on that go to the same places. Serpentine Drive is the only road on the Eastern side of Schenley Park that keeps traffic inside the park instead of sending it on long hazardous detours on nearby residential streets, including one that has no sidewalks. Except for the Panther Hollow Bridge, it is the only road that connects the north side of the park with the south side without forcing traffic to leave the park. It is also a safer connecting road to Oakland from the Greenfield Bridge.

The petition is valid in accordance with the Home Rule Charter. Motion to approve.

Second. Discussion? I'll defer to councilwoman, councilmember Warwick since this is her district, then councilman Wilson.

Yes. I just wanted to say, say I mean, I have some thoughts about the language in the petition, but there's another petition as well asking to have a public hearing to this one came in a few days ago.

Okay.

At any rate well, my question is, I guess because I I my my question is procedural. I'd like both hearings to be on the I mean, just have one hearing, basically. So should I hold this, or should I just motion motion for a public hearing and then wait till next week and motion for the next one?

Council president.

It doesn't matter the order. You can certainly pass this hold it for a cable cast public hearing today. Okay. We can hold the one next week, and then we simply have to work with the clerk to make sure it fits your schedule so that we can hold them simultaneously.

Okay. Sounds good. Oh, sorry. So motion to hold for public hearing. Second. Second. Discussion?

Councilman thank you. Yeah. Councilman Wilson.

At some point. I mean, it's not my district, and I don't I don't know much about the subject. I just want so process was really just a question I had. So this one was the same like, it showed up on our under the council presence, like, receiving this one also was, like, received

Correct.

As well?

Yeah. Okay. That's how this one start? Okay. Yep. So there's two petitions. One's, like, four cars and one's against Yep. Yeah. Got it. Thank you.

Further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor of Cablecast public hearing for bill four eighty seven, please say aye. Aye. Bill will be held for public hearing. New papers, bill four fifty nine.

Resolution approving the recommendation made by the director of the Department of Mobility and Infrastructure that the concrete portion of Elwell Street from Mere Street to Pittsburgh city limits be paved with asphalt in accordance with section four seventeen o six of the Pittsburgh code of ordinances. Motion to approve. Second.

Discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor of bill four fifty nine, please say aye. Aye. Affirmative recommendation, bill four seventy five.

Resolution authorizing the mayor and director of the Department of Mobility and Infrastructure on behalf of the city of Pittsburgh to enter into a cooperation agreement with Friends of the Riverfront for the repaving of Hazelwood Trail located between Blair Street and the Hot Metal Bridge. The estimated cost preparation and completion of work is $125,000. Motion to approve.

Second. Discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor of bill four four seventy five, please say aye. Aye. Affirmative recommendation, bill four seventy six.

Resolution granting unto h g Blair LLC, their successors and assigns the privilege and license to construct, maintain, and use at their own cost and expense, new foundation footings below the sidewalk that will extend into the right of way at no cost to the city, 5th Ward, 6 6th Council District. Motion to approve. Second.

Discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor of bill four seventy six, please say aye. Aye. Affirmative recommendation, bill four seventy seven.

Resolution granting unto Almeno LP, their successors and assigns the privilege and license to construct, maintain, and use at their own cost and expense four new balconies that will extend into the right of way at no cost to the city 15th Ward 5th District. Motion to approve.

Second. Discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor of bill four seventy seven, please say aye. Aye. Affirmative recommendation. Bill four eighty two.

Resolution providing for reimbursement agreement or agreements with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation for costs associated with the preliminary design phase of the Pogo expansion phase three project and providing for the payment of the cost thereof not to exceed $4,000,000, reimbursable at 80% with bike share Pittsburgh providing $800,000 at no cost to the city and the municipal share of Commonwealth Inc. For cost at a cost to the city not to exceed $0.

Motion to approve.

Second. Discussion?

Seeing none, all those in favor of bill four eighty two, please say aye. Aye. Affirmative recommendation. That moves us to human resources committee chaired by council person Charland.

New papers, bill four seventy. Resolution amending resolution one sixteen of 2024, offering them authorizing the mayor and the director of the commission on human relations on behalf of the city of Pittsburgh to enter into a professional agreement and or contract with MBM Law LLP to provide legal representation as a solicitor of the commission on human relations in providing for the payment of the cost thereof not to exceed $125,000 for a new not to exceed amount of $165,000.

Motion to approve.

Second. Discussion?

Seeing none, all those in favor of bill four seventy, please say aye. Aye. Affirmative recommendation. That moves us to land use and economic development committee chaired by councilman Wilson.

Bill four eighty one, resolution approving a conditional use application under the Pittsburgh code title nine zoning article five chapter nine eleven, section nine eleven o four a 64 to Passport Academy Charter School applicant for authorization to operate a school, elementary or secondary use at 1835 Forbes Avenue, block on Lot 11 J 56, zoned UPRB, Uptown Public Realm District B, 1st Ward District 6.

Motion to hold for Cablecast public hearing.

Second. Discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor of holding bill four eighty one for Cablecast public hearing, please say

aye. Aye.

Bill will be held. That moves us to recreation youth and senior services committee chaired by councilwoman

Warwick. New papers bill four eighty. Resolution authorizing the mayor, management and budget, and the director of the department of parks and recreation to enter into an agreement or agreements with the Richard King Mellon Foundation for the purpose of receiving grant funds in an amount not to exceed $630,000 for the city's United States Of America's two hundred and fiftieth anniversary celebration.

Motion to approve.

Second. Discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor of bill four eighty, please say

aye. Aye.

Affirmative recommendation. That moves us to intergovernmental and educational affairs committee chaired by councilman Mosley.

Deferred papers, bill three eighty five, resolution adopting plan revision to the city of Pittsburgh's official sewage facilities plan for 3634 Penn Avenue at no cost to the city.

Motion to approve.

Second.

Discussion. Gross. So I just wanna

oh, this is,

$3.85?

This is

Thank you. Yeah. So I wanna thank everyone for holding this a couple of times. So I don't know if the plan has the planning department has received it all of the completed, planning permit documentation that they needed, but I know that in the works. So I think we should just move it forward today. So I appreciate that. Thank you.

Is there further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor of bill three eighty five, please say aye. Aye. Affirmative recommendation, bill four twelve.

Resolution authorizing the Pittsburgh Land Bank to acquire all the city's right title and interest, if any, in into the publicly owned properties in the 12th Ward city of Pittsburgh designated in the d registry office of Allegheny County as Block 1 25 A, Lot 1121131141151161171181330 Lincoln Avenue, And 0 Mayflower Street, District 9 at no cost to the city.

Motion to hold four weeks.

Second.

Discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor of a four week hold for bill four twelve, please say aye.

Aye. Aye.

Bill will be held four weeks. New papers, bill four seventy three.

Resolution authorizing the issuance of a warrant payable in favor of Pennsylvania Municipal League for one year subscription in an amount not to exceed $52,962.24. Motion to approve.

Second. Discussion? I agree. Seeing none, all those in favor of bill four seventy three, please say aye. Aye. Affirmative recommendation, bill four seventy four.

Resolution providing for a reimbursement agreement or agreements with Pittsburgh Water for costs associated with the RAISE grant project where Pittsburgh Water would be responsible for paying 100% of the actual expenses involved in certain work to be described in the agreements and an amount not to exceed $50,000.

To Second.

Discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor of bill four seventy four, please say

aye. Aye.

Affirmative recommendation, bill four eighty three.

Resolution authorizing the mayor and director of the Department of Mobility and Infrastructure on behalf of the city of Pittsburgh to enter into a cooperation agreement with Bike Share Pittsburgh to provide in kind services and cash support. Totaling $800,000 is the local match for a City Of Pittsburgh congestion mitigation and air quality program grant for good pogo expansion phase three all at no cost to the city.

Motion shall approve.

Second. Second. Discussion? Council member Warwick.

Yeah. Do we have you speak to I just am curious about the if we know where expansion's gonna be. I don't even

go to Jersey or something.

Hi. Eric Setzler, chief engineer, department of mobility and infrastructure.

Yeah. So I, you know, I know that this is the the CMEC grant and then POGO's putting up the match. Do we know where the expansion is going to go yet, or is that still in the works?

There is a plan list of for the expansion. So there's a plan for 40 additional stations and over 400 new bikes. I don't have that full list of stations with me right here, but I do have it. And when I get back to my computer, I could pass it along.

Okay. That'd be great. Sure.

Yep. Okay. Thanks.

Further discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor of bill four eighty three, please say aye. Aye. Affirmative recommendation. Thank you very much. Thanks. That exhaust our standing committee's agenda for today. We do have meeting announcements. Wednesday, May 20 at 01:30PM, council will hold a cable cast post agenda relative to flash crowd disturbances chaired by councilman Mosley. Next week, due to Memorial Day holiday, council will hold its regular and standing committee meeting on Wednesday, May 27 at 10AM and 01:30PM respectively.

To register to speak at these meetings, please fill out the sign up form on the council meeting webpage by the deadlines. You may also call call the clerk's office at (412) 255-2138. Is there anything from members? As we all know, tomorrow is election day, thus the double council meeting day today, so I hope everyone gets out and votes. And with that, I'll take a motion to excuse the absent member, approve the minutes, and adjourn the meeting.

So moved. Second.

All in favor? Aye. Meeting's adjourned.