Cable Advisory Committee - Regular Meeting

A month and a half old Instagram page that will just so happen to need that exact amount of street every week, no matter how few people brave its eight-foot walls and surveillance drones that will harass neighborhood residents and demand they produce their papers just to get to their homes. The best advertisement the organizers could offer yesterday, and I quote, we don't want it to feel like Stalag 17. In this House of Freedom, this Temple of Liberty, the yellow-bellied, peace-elanimous pretense of an event to justify a crackdown is a sacrilege. This Council should say no to Stalag 17th Street. Before anything else, it should protect the right of every adult to walk down their streets. It should ban age discrimination for adults in accessing the public right-of-way. I will be here every week to make sure you each know about the full adult citizens in my community that are being denied their rights in their own city. If you do not fix this, do not ever tell me you didn't know.

There being no further registered speakers, we will now take comments from those in the audience wishing to speak.

Good morning. Carlino Giampolo, Panther Hollow. My comments are directed to Council Members Bob Trillin and Barbara Warwick, the political faces and voices for the vulgarity and graffiti-filled illegal skate park in Panther Hollow. They have justified the illegal skate park by saying our playground was not being used. However, before any construction began, these fundamental questions should have been asked first. What does a community want in their playground? What is the will of the community for their playground? Those questions were never asked. Last Wednesday, when I was speaking here about this issue, Charlie began laughing and talking to the council member next to him. These actions indicated this issue and its impact on our community don't matter. Charlin's actions and Warwick's continued support underscore one of the fundamental roots of this problem. Respecting the dignity of others requires first respecting one's own dignity. This truth can be more fully understood when taken to an extreme example. A sociopath doesn't respect his own dignity and therefore does not respect the dignity of another. For him, taking another person's life is no different than stepping on an ant. When I began these testimonies, a staff member for Charlin told me to back off because dozens of skateboarders came before this council in support of the skate park, whom Warwick then praised. However, that kind of mob mentality with the support of misguided politicians never justifies wrongdoing against our community. Five days ago, at around 8.30 a.m., I once again heard the distinct noise of skateboards crashing onto concrete while inside my home. I went to the skate park and told the skateboarders that their noise was penetrating my home. One of them replied to me expressing the same attitudes of Charlin and Warwick. He said to me, I don't care. When politicians do not respect their own dignity and therefore do not respect the dignity of others, support a mob mentality with all of their wrongdoings and just don't care. We suffer the horrific injustice of the illegal skate park with the resultant shame and moral humiliation to this council, the mayor, his administration, and the city of Pittsburgh. Shut down the illegal skate park in Panther Hollow. Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Okay.

My name is Yvonne F. Brown. I live at 715 Mercer Street, at the top of Bedford. I've been bringing this sign for years, but I want to explain it. If I can. We were having politicians in the building, Katie Rivers Towers. I didn't know it. And as I was walking down the hall, here comes the county council, DeWitt Watson. He's a big, large black man. And I said, hey, sir, you remember me? I said, I came to you because we needed the bus to go down to the bottom of the hill. I said, and you didn't do anything. So he stopped, and he's a loud man. I said, are you hollering at me? But he explained, no, I will call Pat Authority. So he goes out the side door. He lives across the street from me. Okay, so as I come down further, there's a white woman at the door. And she stopped me and explained that she's John DeFazio's wife. John DeFazio was the president of Colony Council. At that time, he was running again. And when she said that, I said, no. I said, because woman to woman, I said, he's this and he's very disrespectful. And she said, not my John. And I said, yeah. So she grabbed me and she ran and we took, I'm talking to John. She said one way, I said the other. We're all in a bunch. And I felt someone, I felt a presence. I looked up and that was DeWitt Watson. And when we all walked around, he screamed and he was hollering at me. I don't appreciate you telling the president of the council on me. Well, the two, we were all shaking and they were saying, no, no DeWitt, she's not talking about you. She's not talking about you. And I ended up saying it, do me like the politicians do me like this all the time. And I walked away. Okay, so here's the poem that I had wrote. This was an ode to John D., John DeFazio. Mindy said, you better come back. She hopes you'll keep your promise to come again. She said, you and your wife know how to groove, and I think Mindy's learning some new moves. Don't be afraid to old people sing that frightening theme. Boy, was the wit loud and mean. I, Yvonne, thought you and your wife was going to have a heart attack. The look of fright was a real setback. But the residents of Cape Leroy, Irvistar say, hey, John, we have your back. We won't let the wit attack. Because if necessary, we will tie them up in the back. And that's a fact. So please keep your promise, although you are a politician who, like the others, give out promises that they do not keep. They said that... Wait a minute. Oh. But look how Perduto did not consider my community. They said that every new police chief would go to every community. But Perduto and Gross made the decision they didn't come. I was almost finished, but you see what it was about.

Thank you. Next speaker, please.

Good morning, Special Agent Sunshine, Cerise Taylor, the missing child. Lord, thank you for that juicy ruby red grapefruit this morning. It was juicy, y'all. If y'all don't know about the red ones, please get one. Peel it and just eat it. They're very sweet this time of the year. What are you standing on? What y'all standing on? If you are not standing on God's promises, you are standing on sinking sand. Nobody else promises to supply you with all of your needs through their riches and glory in Christ. Why? They can't. Only he can. Proverbs 26 says, Proverbs chapter 20 verse 6 says, Many a man claims to have unfailing love, but a faithful man who can find the veil. Our problem today is those who take an oath with God for the positions like judges or the veils position, president of city council, but take bribe money to pervert the course of justice. Here's the message with that. Bribe money will never pay for a funeral when God takes you out, not if. When he takes you out for taking it. He sees all. He's all-knowing. So there's nothing you can do behind his back. or in his face that he don't know about. And that's one of them. And I'm bringing this warning because we have judges and lawyers and people in high profile positions in our government who are taking bribe money to pervert the courts of justice. And I promise you, it will be returned to sender. they will reap everything they have sown to prefer the course of justice. Proverbs 22 verses 22 through 23 says, do not exploit the poor because they are poor, because they, wait, do not exploit the poor because they are poor and do not crush the needy in court for the Lord will take up their case and will plunder those who plunder them. That's what's happening. That's why I can still stand here before you, healthy, saved, celibate, and determined to change this world and make it a better place, especially for these children out here. That's why I'm starting this project, a night of sunshine, a day of sunshine, a day of jazz, a night of jazz with sunshine. I need dancers. I need the little ones, them to come out. The little ones, eight, 10, 10 and younger. Please bring them to me on the north side on Sundays between the hours of 10 and one at the Over-Rising Building. Please bring them to me in Jesus' name. Give us aid against the enemy, O Lord, for the help of man is worthless. In Jesus' name, amen.

Next speaker, please.

Good morning, council. My name is Unique Brown. And I'm going to speak from the heart today as a black woman, a mother, and someone who grew up in these neighborhoods. And I know growing up, I always wondered why we didn't see the veterans pictures But when you drive through certain neighborhoods of Pittsburgh, you see beautiful banners lining the streets, faces of veterans, fathers, mothers, heroes. It's powerful. It's dignified. It tells you that people that People who live there matter. But when you come into our neighborhoods, Homewood, The Hill, Hazelwood, McKees, Rocks, Duquesne, those pools are empty. Not because we don't have veterans. Not because we don't have the right. Not because we don't have stories worth honoring. They're empty because we can't afford what other neighborhoods can. In some places, families pay $70 to no more than $200 for a banner that stays up for years. In our communities, families are being charged for the $500 for less than that because we only get six months. And I spoke to someone that had a banner up, and it says that banners will be subject to the dates could be subject to change. And she paid for a banner years ago, and her banner was broken down before the six months after she saved up that money to get her son up there. And that's not right. So I created Faces of Freedom Pittsburgh because our people deserve the same beauty, the same dignity, the same visibility, I'm sorry I messed up today, as every other neighborhood in the city. Our veterans deserve to shine just as bright. Our families deserve to see their loved ones honored, not priced out. So today I ask them for the same authorization that other banner programs already have, the ability to use city-owned polls so I can work with Tommy, get the permits, coordinate with Duquesne Lights, and run the program the right way. I'm asking you to approve a resolution that allows Faces of Freedom-Pittsburgh to operate a memorial banner program in the public right-of-way so our communities can finally have what the others already enjoy. Give us the chance to make our streets beautiful. Give us the chance to honor our veterans with the same respects. And my time is done, so please, I'm asking for that so I can start this program, because I found out that I gotta ask y'all for something.

Thank you. Next speaker, please. Are there any further speakers? Seeing none, we will move on to our Standing Committee's agenda. First committee is the Finance and Law Committee. New Papers, Bill 592.

Resolution providing for the sale of certain property acquired by the City of Pittsburgh at tax sales. Items A through W. 6601 Lyric Street, Council District 9, 0 Deary Street. Council District 9, 6929 Bennett Street, Council District 9, 234 East Elizabeth Street, Council District 5, 2369 South 18th Street, Council District 3, 716 McLean Street, Council District 3, 616 Industry Street, Council District 3, 604 Belts Hoover Avenue, Council District 3, 606 Beltsuver Avenue, Council District 3. 608 Beltsuver Avenue, Council District 3. 612 Beltsuver Avenue, Council District 3. 138 Wabash Street, Council District 2. 821 Fairdale Street, Council District 2. 2128 Lowry Street, Council District 1. 0 Chautauqua Street, Council District 6. 2729 Perrysville Avenue, Council District 6. 3622 Granada Street, Council District 1. 0 Granada Street, Council District 1. 0 Granada Street, Council District 1. 3632 Granada Street, Council District 1. 514 West Prospect Avenue, Council District 2. 516 West Prospect Avenue, Council District 2. And 520 West Prospect Avenue, Council District 2.

Motion.

Motion approved. Second.

Discussion? Seeing none, all in favor of Bill 592, please say aye. Aye. Affirmative recommendation. Bill 593.

Resolution repealing an item in Resolution No. 226, effective April 10, 2024, in order to rescind the sale.

Motion to approve. Second.

Discussion? Seeing none, all in favor of Bill 593, please say aye. Aye. Affirmative recommendation. Bill 594.

Resolution repealing items and resolutions approved on various dates which authorize the sale of property in various wards of the City of Pittsburgh due to an incompletion of sale. items a through double a 223 wick street council district 6 20 221 wick street council district 6 750 cherokee street council district 6 723 north matilda street council district 9 52 20 kincaid street council district 9 5301 broad street council district 9 5410 Kincaid Street, Council District 9. 6406 Dean Street, Council District 9. 7135 Vassar Street, Council District 9. 1116 North Mertland Street, Council District 9. 7154 Apple Avenue, Council District 9. 7220 Idyllwild Street, Council District 9. 640 Arlington Avenue, Council District 3. 211 Estella Avenue. Council District 3, 19 Lafferty Avenue, Council District 3, 401 Sylvania Avenue, Council District 3, 417 Michigan Street, Council District 3, 0 Wilhelm Street, Council District 2, 2662 Glasgow Street, Council District 2, 826 Vista Street, Council District 1. 1202 Seidel Street, Council District 1. 1406 Dixon Street, Council District 1. 514 Ferrywood Street, Council District 2. 2108 Mazat Place, Council District 2. 215 Suncrest Street, Council District 3. 12 Zimmerman Street, Council District 4. And 2129 Belleville Street, Council District 4.

Motion to approve.

second discussion seeing none all in favor of bill 594 please say aye aye affirmative recommendation bill 595 resolution amending resolution 270 of 2026

authorizing the issuance of a warrant in favor of Robert Mihalski and their legal counsel Samuel J. Cordes and Associates for a single payment in 2026 in an amount not to exceed $108,296.64 in full and final settlement of litigation filed in the Common Pleas Court of Allegheny County and the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

This is one that the law department has asked us to hold for a week.

Motion to hold one week.

Second. Discussion? Seeing none, all in favor of a one-week hold for Bill 595, please say aye. Aye. Bill will be held. That takes us to invoices. Is there a motion on invoices?

Motion to approve. Second.

Discussion? Seeing none, all in favor of invoices, please say aye. Aye. Invoices are approved. Interdepartmental transfers. Is there a motion?

Motion to approve. Second.

Discussion? Seeing none, all in favor of transfers, please say aye.

Aye.

Aye. That moves us to P cards. Is there a motion on P cards?

Motion to approve. Second.

Discussion? Seeing none, all in favor of P cards, please say aye.

Aye.

Aye. P cards are approved. That takes us to Public Safety and Wellness Committee, chaired by Councilman Coghill.

New Papers Bill 584, resolution authorizing the Mayor, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, and the Director of the Department of Public Safety to enter into an agreement or agreements with the Allegheny County Department of Human Services For the purpose of receiving funds to deliver professional services and to purchase operational supplies and vehicles in an amount not to exceed $800,000 for the city's Office of Community and Health and Safety to provide expanded outreach services to individuals who experience homelessness and housing instability.

Motion to approve brief discussion.

Second. Brief discussion. Thank you.

Yeah, I'd like to call Laura. Is it Laura you want to speak to?

Yeah.

You can call me.

Yeah, come on up here, Laura, if you would, please. Sorry, I said that while you were talking. That's all right.

How are you?

I'm doing just fine.

How are you? Good. First, I want to thank you for the incredible work you did underneath the bridge.

All credit goes to my colleagues, Adam and Emily.

That's like really, really, I don't know who else would do such a job. So I find you to be very useful and your team, of course. So no, thank you for that. I don't really have any questions. I think Councilman Sharlin, I will defer to if...

Would it be okay if I, so my colleagues Nick and Ben are here, and I think that they're best experts to speak to this, so I'm happy to be up here. So that would be Benjamin Tallick and Hudson, and I'm Laura Dragowski.

You're Laura Dragowski, you are, aren't you? And gentlemen, if you will introduce yourself for the record, please.

Sure. My name is Ben Tallick. I'm the program manager for the ROOTS program.

And my name is Nicholas Hudson. I'm the program manager responsible for operations.

Okay. Well, welcome. Ben, thanks for all the work you did. And, you know, we'll get familiar with each other. But, yeah, we go back a long way in discussing this difficult problem. And I hope to speak to you both actually today or, you know, at some point soon over some other issues. But, okay, that's it for me. Thank you.

Thank you. Councilman Wilson, followed by Councilmember Sharland.

All right. Will someone be able to explain what the bill is?

Yeah. Do you want me to go for this? So we applied for this a few months ago with the county, with the Department of Human Services. I think some of you might actually understand some of the history here even better than I do of the need for expanding our current services into much greater hours. Right now, we work Monday through Friday, 8 to 4. This is expanding us until 11 p.m. during the weekdays, and we will be hiring a part-time shift at 1 to 9 on the weekends. Basically, everything Ruth is doing now, just expanding those hours on the mobile side, on the street side.

Great. I saw the announcement for this, so I just wanted to highlight this. I figured this is what it was. So, yeah, we waited for this for a while. at least in conversation, at least I think, you know, it was always, it's always the common story, you know, like if only PLI could get some sort of grant for this as well to go to work at nighttime.

So.

So, in detail, though, this means that we will have the same amount of workers that worked on the day, in the evenings, and on weekends?

To some extent. So, right now, we have, like, currently, we have 16 total staff on the Roots team that are working. police zone-based, this grant in total will be hiring 10 people. Six of those people will be full-time for Monday through Friday, the 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. shift. So there'll be a slightly less amount of people on the street, but still have the ability to canvass the entire city. The one important note about this, really specifically for you, is that this grant, I don't know if people read the RFP, but specifically does not cover site hours, so we won't be able to expand any drop-in sites with this.

So those hours are being maintained at the same hours that they are currently, okay. So for the grant, it's $800,000 a year, and how long is the grant?

Currently, it is one year with the opportunity to expand. I'm sorry, to renew. Sorry.

What is the... Who typically received those funds prior to this?

Sorry, did you have something to clarify before you answer that?

I was just going to clarify that it's actually technically not a grant, and that's for the purpose of being respectful to our partners with the county. We were awarded this through a competitive process. but sorry to interrupt that.

Okay, so it's not a grant, so it's just direct funding? It's a contract. We're on contract? Yes. Okay, we're on contract with the county, and the contract, you know, could be renewed on an annual basis. Okay, I understand. Okay. And was this, are they just moving around funds because they see this as a, It wasn't like someone was awarded the same work last year because maybe they did it. Maybe they were. I don't know. Do you know the context of this? Like other nonprofits? Because I know they had like three of them that they would fund, I think, approximately. Does that mean that those three wouldn't be funded at all? The city will be funded?

So for this specific funding, the RFP went out. There were multiple organizations that applied for it. Two different organizations were awarded a portion of the, I actually forget the total RFP award, so that the funding got split between the Roots Program and the Bridge Outreach Program, which will be covering the rest of Allegheny County since we can only cover those city limits.

All right. Okay. What do you think this means for the city?

That's a great question. I mean, I'm super excited first just to be able to expand all of this. I don't know that people understand quite how much the route staff works way beyond their regular hours, especially on moments of extreme weather, particularly with this really harsh winter we had. So we had people pulling long hours. We had people working on the weekends just to make sure people are safe. Some of these cleanup efforts, the Routes team has helped. I mean, I in particular prefer to do those after hours because you don't have to compete with rush hour traffic, which is just a minor thing. But I think what I hope is, which a lot of you have been involved in this too, is like really building up a relationship with Allegheny County. They've been such a great partner. I think they see the value in Routes. I think this really solidifies our partnership with the county and hopefully it opens us up for more partnerships in the future.

I think that's great. And I never, you know, I'm glad you explained it the way you did and expressed your thoughts about the job because I never felt like the positions that were, you know, that do this work are nine to five positions. So it's good to know that people will be, you know, continue to be paid throughout those hours. So thanks for all the great work that you do and looking forward to seeing what this, you know, how this can just help all communities. Thanks. Thank you.

Thank you. Councilperson Sharlin.

So great news about this. I do want to ask, though, are we going to be hiring more people or is this going to be personnel changes because of the expanded hours? Is that the game plan? Yeah.

So if I understand your question right, and please correct me if I don't, the positions are entirely new. So the 10 positions that are the mix of the part-time and the full-time are in addition to the current daytime staff.

Okay. So I'll be seeing additional faces in Zone 3? Cool. Yeah. Yeah.

and council person to add i think we have staff who would be very interested in working extended shifts uh the way that our staffing is presently and this is true for a lot of people in the city we don't have the ability to have straight time over time anything it's a comp time approach and we do have staff that ultimately hit the comp time uh ceiling at 144 hours at which point any time they're working after that is you know, uncompensated beyond their salary. So I think that is another measure that, you know, if in the future there were a mechanism to do that, we have a lot of people who have two jobs, I think would be very interested in paring that back to be able to be committed to doing this job fully for longer hours. But that's not something that's possible at the present time. And I think that very fortunately, there are a lot of really excellent professionals out there that we feel confident will be able to fill these roles.

Other than just extended hours, is anything functionally changing in the programming?

Not necessarily. I mentioned earlier there'll be just speaking Monday through Friday right now. We'll have that expansion into the 11 p.m. hours. Everything else primarily remains the same. There'll be a group of team. We'll have a phone number that people can call to be able to access this team quickly, primarily for like business owners and public safety officials. And the team will be able to dispatch. They'll be out and about in the community throughout those hours, but are really hyper mobile so people can respond to anything.

Well, I really appreciate it. And thanks for coming to the table. Yeah, thank you.

Thank you. Councilwoman Gross, followed by Councilmember Warwick.

Thank you for being here. This is really great news. I'm so grateful that we're expanding our outreach even more. But I really like listening to all the questions at the table, that they were a little in the weeds. So maybe we should just, because it's been a few months since we've kind of like reminded the public of this. what all the city is doing. And I think it's really important to remind everybody. So maybe give us the 30 second elevator pitch or whatever, like give the, you know, a summary of like, what is this program that we're talking about?

Yeah. Yeah. So one, before the elevator pitch, like OCHS, Office of Community Health and Safety as a whole, has a whole bunch of different programs and Roots really like intertwines with all of them. But the nitty gritty of, of the roots program. Uh, we were, we started in 2020 as part of Allegheny health network. Uh, we, uh, I think actually Laura and the administration had seen like homeless people in general were having lots and lots of emergency calls on them when they weren't necessarily doing anything criminal in nature where they just needed a welfare check. The roots team was designed to try to reduce the amount of engagements that. That people were having with public safety when they didn't actually need those engagements. So if somebody needs a welfare check, you can send an outreach worker. Chances are we already know that person. We can bring any type of medical care, whether it's psychiatry, behavioral health, substance use, if I didn't say medical care. We have the VA. We actually partner really heavily with animal welfare, being Humane Animal Rescue and Animal Friends. One of my employees right now is actually transporting an animal to get some care at Humane Animal Rescue as we speak. But the idea was making absolutely every service available to people as easily accessible as possible so people weren't walking throughout the entire county trying to find an available shelter space or find a doctor that would treat them.

I'm just going to summarize that as the city investing in care rather than policing for people who need care but don't actually need policing. So thank you. I just think it's really important. It's a really big shift that we have invested in, and it's now a pretty large part of government here. How many people we have in OCHS and then Brutes? Can you just remind us?

We have over 40.

Great. So 40 people in OCHS. And then the roots again, I always forget the, it's like reaching out.

Reaching out on the streets, yeah.

Yes, thank you. So that's more particularly for people who are outdoors. And so as a subset of OCHS, that's how many people?

All included in the number that Nick gave, but we have 16 of those people are on the ROOTS team.

Yeah. Okay. No, I think this is just, again, just a summary reminder. And then this is, I'm just reading the title of the bill. It talks about operational supplies and vehicles. So if that were, like, if it's a one-year thing that needs to be reapplied for, I can imagine, like, okay, we've, like, run out of the operational supplies. But the vehicles, are they still there? Are they leased? Or, like, do they go away after a year? Like, how does that work? Yeah.

So the vehicles, we will go through a process to purchase. And for context, I work with a number of our portfolio of state and federal grants. So typically, we will work with a specific funder per their rules of retaining the vehicle or the vehicle. disposition process. Given that the Office of Community Health and Safety has generally and successfully strived to purchase all of our fleet via non-city funds through a lot of state and federal grants, we would certainly make sure that we would go through the process for this funder as we do with other grants that approach sunsets to retain that equipment.

Oh, so we might have to give it back? And so you're going to have to figure out how to retain them? I don't think I'm following. This is like a fuzzy area that I'm not understanding, I think. Sorry.

Sorry if I'm not articulating it efficiently. So I want to be respectful to our partners at the county regarding their procurement process and any process that they might have. But I also think that I want to highlight that in the RFP, the option to renew is... indicated based on the performance of the proposer. And I think one of the reasons that we were able to successfully receive this award is because of the amazing work that the Roots team that we currently have does. It's really thanks to the staff who do this already every single day. And I think that it's also based on the fact that through Ben and the efforts of so many of our other staff, we've been able to build a really strong relationship with our partners at the county. I think that there would be a process that we would have to go through and investigate with the county at the end of the one year if this were not to continue. But I feel very optimistic based off of the amazing work that our staff have done that we're very well positioned in order to continue this into the future.

Okay, I'm going to stop with that for now. I mean, we also do direct contracts for services. So I can imagine, you know, if we were doing an almost million-dollar contract with someone and vehicles were purchased, we would think those were our vehicles. So, I mean, you know, I'm content that it's kind of a co-government thing that we're going to work out and figure out. the best way to provide the services, right? Between the county government and the city government, we're just trying to provide the services. So I'm not quibbling with that here. I'm just, I was just confused. And so in the $800,000, it doesn't really list, it is professional services as well. So this is also staffing it's covering part of the operational costs for the okay yep I got it now I just kind of had missed that part and I thought it was just about for hard costs it's also soft costs okay those are all my questions thank you Madam Chair thank you Councilmember Warbeck um yeah thank you this is great news I'm excited for you all um

So when folks, I mean, in my district, we don't have too many folks who are unhoused or whatever, but we do... oftentimes we'll get folks who are panhandling, who may or may not be on House, right? And we get calls occasionally, you know, about that. Sometimes in the Squirrel Hill Business District, there's a few folks in Hazelwood. So if someone calls 911, I mean, now that the hours will be expanded, if someone calls 911, does that get routed to you, like to your team? How does that work?

Specifically speaking for the Roots team, no. It is currently up to, so we are not connected to police radio, so it is currently up to officer discretion who's receiving the call to physically call one of the Roots team members. It's how we have operated since the beginning. One of the great things about, I mentioned like all these other programs in the office, we do have the co-response team. which their press release is in an hour, to announce the relaunching of the program. But they are connected to police radio. And so during the day, those calls can be routed directly to our team, to the office, I should say, during the night. That is going to be a work in progress.

Okay. So, oh, did you want to add something? Go ahead.

I wanted to say, I think you're honing in on something, though, that we're also pretty focused on. We don't want this to be a situation where people have to have kind of the insider baseball perspective to know who they need to call to get the right response in any given environment. So that's something that we're focused on understanding better. both from a communication perspective to our partners in public safety, who's on at any given shift at any given time, what are the resources that are available, but also we have had some great success from some of our colleagues with dispatch, and we'd like to get to a point where there's both a dispatchable opportunity for the right response, but also that our partners across public safety, council, government, know how to get ahold of us whenever needed. And so I think we're trying to figure out what that looks like logistically, since we have a lot of specialization across the department. I'm glad you mentioned it, and I hope we can update you on something clearer very soon.

Yeah, that would be great. And, I mean, I know for myself, you know, there's a few sort of, you know, small cast of characters. I know who they are, you know. So if I call 911, I know to be very specific, right, about what I'm calling about. But maybe that would be helpful, too, for the public just in the interim. Do you know what I mean? Like if you are calling about someone who isn't actually – harming anyone or doing anything, but you're just worried, right, about their well-being, to be very clear about that in your 911 call, and then that way it gets to the right folks. Yeah. Okay, that's it. Great news all around.

Thank you.

Were there questions? Councilman Mosley.

Thank you for being here and thank you for the work that you do. My first question is, first my comment is, this is really exciting news and always good to see you, Ben. Thank you for all the work that you do with my office, particularly around the challenges that we have at the Homewood Avenue, Frankstown Avenue corridor, and I guess not a league, um my line of questioning today um you know one of the things that and you know thank you for going on that walk with uh my chief of staff um do you see um you know this added capacity that we have you know um given the primary issue around the the unhoused also assist us And not only is like supporting them, but identifying those structures, you know, in the community that become a hotbed for squatting. And like, have you given that much thought and how, you know, in particular? the folks from the rooster program uh you know can work with our offices as well as pli um you know to identify those structures in in neighborhoods that become hotbeds because we're seeing kind of an uptick in that um you know as we focus on the homewood avenue frankstown avenue corridor on the parallel streets as you go north toward lincoln-lemington there's more activity in those vacant buildings

Yeah, I think there's a few angles to this that I see with the current team and this expansion. So you mentioned PLI. Our PINS team, Persons in Need of Support, actually set up a monthly standing meeting with PLI that Roots attends, and I think we share information both ways about information we have on, like, squatter properties and increase in squatting in various locations. We saw quite a considerable increase in people taking residence in abandoned properties last summer and the summer prior. The other thing, particularly with the Homewood area that we've been talking a lot about, which I think this is where this partnership with the county is going to be very valuable, is just what Roots is seeing. We are physically boots on the ground and being able to advocate, this is what we're seeing in this area and this is what's needed. I think you probably know there was a shelter in Homewood. I just talked to my team about this a couple days ago. There was a shelter right in Homewood on Hamilton Avenue that closed a little over a year ago, I believe. That team has had very significant challenges getting people to access shelter outside of the Homewood area since that shelter closed because people who are homeless in the area are from the area and don't necessarily want to leave. We've been able to get people physically into shelter, but typically they leave after a couple days just to come back to the Homewood area. So we want to continue to be able to advocate, this is what we're seeing, this is how many squatters we're aware of, this is how many people we know are rough sleeping on the street, and hopefully be able to advocate for getting more shelter spaces in the area where they're going to be utilized again.

And if you could talk a little bit more about the partnership with the county, which I think is a really positive development. I think it's something that we all, I'm sure, have to put our civic education hats on when we talk to our constituents about. you know, cities of the second class and counties of the second class, and then, you know, the unicorn, which is Philadelphia city and county, and how all that works, how, you know, before the creation of Roots and OCHS, you know, the city of Pittsburgh didn't do anything that could even remotely be described as social services, you know, and even that, you know, is limited just because of state statutes in our state. designation as as a city of the second class so could you talk a little bit about this partnership with the county and then what we can do around this table to continue to support that because you know we do have a department of human services which many do not know that one department has a larger budget than the entire city and you know so that's really you know the partner that we have to lean on when we talk about these challenges that folks face in the neighborhoods around the city and they call our offices wanting us to do something but really you know that partner that we really need to bring to the table is the department of human services you could talk a little bit about that and um the progress that you've made and how we can support that continued progress because we know to address the challenges that we have in our city with the folks who are most vulnerable from that perspective uh you know we we need to have an active partnership with the Department of Human Services yeah I I completely agree I uh and please if you have something to offer please jump in but uh one of the things

I've been working in partnership with the county at many previous places of employment I've had. I think my work with council is still fairly new, so I think I'm still trying to figure out exactly how to utilize you to all of your great powers. But I know we've seen some changes within the homeless system, particularly from Councilperson Charland and having his post agendas with Aaron Dalton, the former director of DHS. and some of their other crew that was joining that. Did I misspeak? It has been a minute. They have a new director now. But I mentioned before, I think one of the biggest... Uses for all of this is going to be the advocacy piece and bringing awareness to what we're seeing. We've been very successful with that and the increase of shelter capacity at Second Avenue Commons. Both our team lead for downtown, Tim, Laura, and myself stayed out quite late after the winter shelter closure and immediately called the current director, acting director, Jutka, to talk about the need for increased capacity after that conversation, he did increase capacity almost triple what they had initially envisioned for that space. I do think that was directly because of our advocacy in that. The Roots team is actually also having heavy involvement. If people weren't aware, leadership for Second Avenue Commons is transitioning from Pittsburgh Mercy over to the county. The Roots team is training all the new employees. They've been involved in the hiring process. And I think that just really highlights the trust that our team has built with the county. And I hope to continue that and be able to involve you guys in that. going forward.

Yeah, thank you. And my last question is just if you could talk a little bit about the kind of, you know, one, the intersection of issues, you know, because, you know, a lot of times, you know, we just look at the unhoused and housing instability, but, you know, we have found in our ongoing work over the last year around the the Homewood Frankstown Working Group that we convene, you know, is that, and I think you alluded to it in some of your comments earlier, is, you know, we're seeing drug addiction, you know, mental health, and obviously, you know, some of the criminal activity, you know, that's also, you know, associated with it. So if you could kind of talk about kind of the issues that kind of stack on, because we're not really just addressing homelessness in the unhoused, you know, I mean, we're addressing like a myriad, you know, of challenges and then some of the best practices, because sometimes we get calls, you know, from constituents or even in some cases, community leaders like, well, you should just, you know, you just pull up a van and, you know, just sweep the block and just throw everybody, you know, in a van and, you know, and take them somewhere. You know, can you talk about kind of, you know, What are the best practices to really have long-term solutions? Because we can pull up a bus and throw a whole bunch of unfortunate people onto a bus and take them to some undisclosed location. It's been tried before, not by us. And yeah, people come out on the block and no one's out there. But if you could talk about why... You take the approaches that you take and, you know, why it's so hard to do things that actually are meaningful and significant and actually give folks on a path to turn their lives around and improving their lives. I think that would be helpful because, you know, I know my office gets a lot of feedback on, well, why don't you just run out there? you know, probably take an approach that we might have seen in the 1970s or 80s, but not one that, you know, science and studies have shown is the most, not only the holistic and humanistic, but also the most effective way to, you know, to deal with these kind of problems.

Yeah, I'll try not to ramble too much on this one. I have a lot of thoughts. To start, a little bit about my background. I had no intention on ever really getting into this field long term. I actually started as a volunteer back in 2010 before I was hired in 2013. One of the things that kept me in here was to actually see the amount of suffering that people have while existing on the street. That's only made so much worse by the community, the general housed community that doesn't understand what people are going through. I had seen early on in my career people showing up to her office with feet that were covered in blood because they had been handed a form by somebody that's like, here's all the available shelters, go to them and you'll get a bed. And so somebody would physically walk to McKeesport because they didn't have money to get on a bus and then walk from McKeesport after they were told they didn't have a shelter down to the north side to try their shelter over to East Liberty to try another shelter. This had been happening so much and I You can't just hand somebody a piece of paper and expect that all of these services are just going to do whatever they can to pick people up and help them through the system. People can't reliably just walk into a shelter and get a bed, which I'm not blaming the shelter system at all. I just think we need a better capacity. If somebody's standing downtown and you ask a random person and say, oh, I know of this great shelter in McKeesport, they helped me out, and they walk all the way to McKeesport and find out they don't have a bed, they're kind of out of luck. It's the same thing with some of the hospital systems is we have people willing to get treatment, walk in, but they're told there's gonna be a several month wait. Somebody wants substance use treatment, there's not a guarantee that they're gonna have a bed in a substance use treatment, any of the facilities today, and sometimes it's a several weeks wait. What we've done is bring a group of people together. We do not put an emphasis on educational background for the people that we hire. We have found that people who have had some relation to this work and are able to relate to people on the street are the ones who have been most successful. The ones who can actually spend the time, build relationships with people, gain the trust of people, and then be able to physically walk through the door of a shelter or a hospital or a drug treatment facility and advocate for people's needs. We have formed lots and lots of partnerships throughout the entire continuum. People, I think what you're getting at too is people typically who are experiencing homelessness have touched nearly every system, like ones that I've mentioned, mental health, substance use, the justice system. And so all of these outreach workers end up becoming like the basically jack of all trades and hopefully a master of more than none. And we've now formed relationships with Allegheny Health Network, partly thanks to us actually being employed by them for almost three years before we moved over to the city. So we still, twice a week, have one of their physicians who actually runs their center for addiction medicine. He comes out on the street and is able to directly help people who are interested in substance use treatment. We work very closely with one of their psychiatrists who's also able to come outside and connect with people that way. I mentioned animal care earlier and bringing those people. We have veterinarians that physically come on the street with us. So actually being able to form these relationships and introduce people, do the like what we just call the warm handoff and be like, this is a person I can trust. You can trust them, too. I'll be here through your appointment. I'll be here through your intake. I'll help you with whatever you need to help with. And we're not going to leave until you actually get access to what you're looking for. That's what I think is most important about this program. Thank you.

Briefly, if I can add, I think what we see from all of our colleagues is that people do make progress in the direction that they want to, right? Things get better for people. They get healthier. They get safer. But that the public generally sees, you know, some people on a recurring basis, but more often than not, just a constant flow of people who are visible. And I think Councilperson Wilson in particular and probably Councilperson Sharland are – hearing about this from their constituency which we understand um and so i think that the challenge is that our teams can be incredibly you know successful by whatever designation that is but that there's an ongoing number of people who have these unmet needs and and there's a bit of like a curse of competence the better our team does the more people are going to I think, continue to work with them, which is good. So there's just a few things that I think have been really profoundly important that have been difficult. One in particular, again, Councilperson Wilson is very well aware of this delicate balance, is we need a place to meet people. And yet it is really difficult for the communities that surround those places. And I wish we had a very simple answer. NIMBY is real. The benefit that the services have also has some drawbacks as you try to develop a business district and make sure that your community members have what they need across the board because health and safety just applies to everyone. So I think that finding a place for people to go, and Ben oversaw the downtown site, has a profound benefit. And when we look at some of the challenges that are occurring on Frankstown, some of those individuals need a place to be that would be inside, that would be dignified, where they could get meals, where they could get something warm or cool, depending on what they need. So having a physical location can sometimes alleviate or ameliorate some of those challenges. But of course, the flip side of that is that the community raises concerns about drawing a population of people in. And I think that's going to have to be like an ongoing conversation we figure out how to address. But it does mean that when police find someone who needs that help, they can bring them to us. when EMS does, when FIRE does, when partners do. So that does create some mechanism for us to do that. I think the second thing is we're here to try to help in any way we can to create that balance with you two, because I think that this is an incredibly compassionate group of people who want to see all of their residents healthy and safe. And that means not compromising for anyone, which is a very difficult problem to tackle. So we appreciate, you know, Chief Staff Turner and your staff's team on the time on this. And, you know, we want to be more responsive. And I think adding to these teams will help us to do so. Yeah. So thank you.

Thank you. Thank you for joining us today. And thank you for your work. I'm looking forward to continue to work with you. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Any further discussion? I want to thank you, the next person to thank you for all of your work and congratulate you on this award. I know you'll put it to very, very good use. Or this contract, apologies. Trying to use the right language. There being no further discussion, all in favor of Bill 584, please say aye. Aye. Affirmative recommendation. Thank you. 587. Councilwoman Gross, would you prefer to read the next two bills together? Yes, please. Thank you.

Bill 587, ordinance amending ordinance number 11 of 2026, effective May 14th, 2026, entitled, Ordinance Amending and Supplementing the Pittsburgh Code, Title IV, Public Places and Property, by adding Article 9, Use of City-Owned or Operated Spaces, Chapter 495, Prohibiting Immigration Enforcement in City-Owned or Operated Spaces, to update the article number to 19 from 9. And Bill 588, ordinance amending ordinance number 12 of 2026, effective May 14th, 2026, entitled Ordinance Amending and Supplementing the Pittsburgh Code Title IV, Public Places and Property, by adding Article 9, Use of City-Owned or Operated Spaces, Chapter 495, Protecting Community Spaces, to update the article number to 19 from 9.

Motion to approve brief discussion. Second. I will defer to the sponsor.

Yes, thank you all. This is like one of the most classic Scrivener's errors you can imagine. So as the clerk read, it was saying to get to 19 from 9, and those are in Roman numerals. So in some place in all of the emails of the drafts back and forth, and again, thank you to the law department for helping us. It was the typo is instead of being X, one x which is 19 in roman numerals it was just one x so an x was dropped so we're just changing the chapter numbers um from 9 to 19 from 9. so that's that's it that's the role of the changes you have further discussion seeing none all in favor of bill 580 spills 587 and 588 please say aye aye aye

Affirmative recommendation. That moves us to Public Works and Infrastructure Committee, chaired by Councilwoman Sal Anetro.

New Papers, Bill 591. Resolution providing for a reimbursement agreement or agreements with Verizon Pennsylvania LLC for costs associated with the City Steps project. where Verizon Pennsylvania LLC would be responsible for paying 100% of the actual expenses involved in certain work to be described in the agreement at an amount not to exceed $6,500. Motion to approve? Second.

Discussion? Councilwoman Gross.

I would like just a description of what this is because anything that has city steps in it catches my attention.

Good morning, everybody. Jeff Scalic and director for Domi. This is our federal funded city set projects that we've been here a couple times to talk about. These are the steps with the five locations for they are 56th Street, Potomac Avenue, Claire Haven Street, Dixon Street and Ottawa Street. This particular bill is for there's several Verizon facilities on Potomac Avenue. And this is to relocate those facilities while we are in construction for the steps.

Like poles and wires?

Yes.

Oh, right.

So we have to have an agreement with the utilities. And there's another one coming up with Councilman Mosley's district for Penn Water for the same thing. Oh, I see. So we have to go separate contracts for every project.

And it's only temporary removal?

No, this will be permanent removal because we're going to, when we do the steps, we're going to put it outside. So the poles will be a little bit outside of the steps.

But like in the same general, it's not like suddenly somebody else's steps are going to have a pole that didn't used to have a pole.

No, people will still have their Verizon.

Yes. That's also important, right? To weigh the two things for sure.

And then they pay for the whole 6,500 themselves. So we do the work and they just reimburse us.

Okay. Got it. Thank you. I appreciate it.

Thank you. Thanks for the explanation. Further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor of Bill 591, please say aye.

Aye.

Affirmative recommendation. Thank you. Land Use and Economic Development Committee. Councilman Wilson.

Supplemental New Papers, Bill 609, Ordinance Amending the Pittsburgh Code, Title IX, Zoning Code, Article 1, Introduction and Establishment, Section 902.03, Zoning Map, to Rezone Parcels 1.0, P28, 29, 36, 40, 40-1, 40-102, 40-103, 40-104, 54, 42, 43, 44, and 4B13. from the GPRA Grandview Public Realm Subdistrict A to RMU residential mixed use and to amend the height map for those parcels in the Mount Washington neighborhood.

Motion to send the Planning Commission for a report and recommendation.

second discussion seeing none all in favor of bill 609 please say aye aye affirmative bill will be sent to planning commission for report and recommendation deferred papers bill 481.

Resolution approving a conditional use application under the Pittsburgh Code, Title IX, Zoning Article 5, Chapter 911, Section 911-04A64 to Passport Academy Charter School applicant for authorization to operate a school, elementary or secondary, use at 1835 Forbes Avenue, block and lot 11J56, zoned UPRB, Uptown Public Realm, District B, First Ward, Council District Number 6.

Motion to approve. Second.

Discussion? Seeing none, all in favor of Bill 481, please say aye.

Aye.

Affirmative recommendation.

Bill 8. Ordinance amending and supplementing the Pittsburgh Code, Title VII, Business Licensing, Article VII, Service Businesses, adding a new Chapter 768, Short-Term Rental Housing.

Motion to hold six weeks.

Second.

Discussion? Seeing none, all in favor of a six-week hold for Bill 8, please say aye.

Aye.

Bill will be held.

Bill 564. Ordinance amending and supplementing the Pittsburgh City Code Title IV, Public Places and Property, Article 7, City Realty by amending Chapter 454 to update Pittsburgh's Adopt-A-Lot Program.

Motion to approve.

Second.

Discussion? Councilman Gross. Yes. Can we have our planning friends up here? We had a meeting yesterday about this and the bills that we haven't read yet. So with the chair's indulgence, we can just discuss all of the bills that are coming up in Councilman Norwick's committee as well. Thank you.

Would you introduce yourselves for the record with your names and titles?

Sure. Andrew Dash, Deputy Director, City Planning.

Mackenzie Pleskovich, Senior Planner, City Planning. Isabella Grose, Principal Environmental Planner, City Planning.

Thank you all. And again, I appreciate all of the work. As Councilman Clark, I wasn't here last week, and I expressed my enthusiasm for this kind of what I see as a really kind of next step as we continue over the course of the last 10 years, at least, to like expand Our city resources time and investment in both the space, but also personnel and resources to help people grow food from everywhere from allotment gardens, which are the ones where you're leasing a little plot and taking the food home when you grow it. to over the last five years we've had an increase in my district that I know of, of collective gardens where neighbors are using sometimes city property, sometimes not, having volunteer nights, growing food and donating the food to our hungry households. We've had one in Lawrenceville for a very long time on not city property, the Lawrenceville Organic Garden where all of the food is donated to Lawrenceville hungry households and we also have one in Polish Hills since the pandemic that we've been supporting in my office that donates all of the food to I think it's Jubilee Kitchen I'm not telling you something blanked out on that well I'm sorry I'm saying that right but And these are a different model because you could just go at the collective garden and just volunteer there for an hour of your life. And maybe you never show up again, but there are garden leads and stewards who, you know, we've got like, serious growing plans, like entire farm production. I've got some people who were previously professional farmers who are the gardeners on public property now and who are planning out productivity and working with city staff to get technical assistance and supplies. And so That's just, that's a little bit of the background. I know Councilman Coghall has other things he wants to talk about, but why don't you refresh us, since we talked about it last week, kind of give us the kind of overview again.

Sure. So this package of bills is really to provide reform to the stewardship programs that the One of those being the Adopt-A-Lot program, which now has been in existence for 10 years, which is a temporary reuse of vacant properties. Initially, for gardening purposes, we are expanding uses. That's the main difference in this update. Then formalizing the Greenways program. The Greenways program has been in existence since 1980, but at the same time has been where we have gone to city council to designate a Greenway with a singular steward that has been a community steward. We are using this to allow us to get into more detailed agreements with either community organizations with citywide nonprofits or others to be able to expand the opportunities for stewardship, make it easier for people to steward or volunteer in these spaces. Then we are also creating a city farms garden program, which is using underutilized spaces within the city's parks and greenways for urban agriculture, food forestry, or other similar types of uses that are able to have longer-term leases than things like our adopt-a-lot process and program do. Then we are getting a small grant to work, which we got from the Open Space Institute, to do some targeted acquisition, because although People see these hillsides across the city and they think the city is the owner of all of those properties. In reality, there is very mixed ownership, a lot of long-term tax delinquent or abandoned properties that are not under the city's ownership in those spaces. And so using that small grant, it is our intent to try to go through and understand where there might be places for targeted acquisition through things like the treasurer sale or the sheriff's sale process, depending on the parcel. And the last piece of legislation is really in coordination with that garden program, which is changing some language in the city code to allow for removal of things from city parks and greenways. This works for two purposes, one for the garden program, so if people are growing food, They're actually able to take the food off site and donate it, sell it, whatever it is that they're looking to do. But this also, you know, was done in coordination with City Forestry who have, you know, have looked for something similar relative to a lot of their work on tree maintenance and, you know, in the city's parks and greenways and the ability for folks to take that away for other purposes.

I turned my mic off, sorry. So thank you for bringing up the agroforesteries I mentioned last week. So again, we've had like these, you know, five years ago, the city just had these like allotment gardens. We had four of them. And those were the only things that the city really put any energy or effort into, you know, fencing or wood chips or something like that. So that was four. And they're on city property and they were kind of like DPW controlled. The ones in my districts have, I have two out of the four. have hundreds of people on the wait list. We just cleaned up the wait list for one of them by working through and contacting people on the wait list, and some of them, literally, this is a quote, no thanks, you can take my name off, my kids grew up and left home. That's how long they were on the wait list. You can take my name off now, right? It's been, like, ten years that I've been waiting for a plot in this allotment garden. And I'm curious why the camera, like, doesn't even... I'm, like, not even on camera at all. Just FYI. City Channel. It used to be the back of the heads, but, okay, maybe the cameras aren't working in the front.

So...

We have expanded those programs I think by, not those specific sites, thank you, not those specific four sites, although I do think there is, this would not be in this program, but I think there is still a need for the kind of city managed sites where you're only responsible for your least plot. um and then we've also seen citizen-led expansions of these other ones that i was talking about the collective gardens since the pandemic um i want to say there's been a real increase of interest in agroforestry and food forests which aren't exactly the same thing and i have to rely on my staffers to give me the exact difference But we have added some, in my district alone, at multiple sites, on mostly city property, over 200 native western Pennsylvania edible foods, mostly nuts and berries. So trees and shrubs. People are now moving on to... ground cover and flowers. We just, I think, late last year planted sunchokes, which is a native western Pennsylvania sunflower. It's a small flower, gets six feet tall, but you eat the tubers and at the grocery store they're called Jerusalem artichokes. But it's a native flower in our region. Elderberry, which people buy expensive cough syrup at the grocery store, is native to our area. The black elderberry is what you make the syrup out of. And it just, I can tell you, I've got one in my yard, it just spreads. You have to like hack it back. It's very easy to grow. Persimmons, pawpaws are enthusiastic. residents are very enthusiastic about them. I think we've probably planted just alone, again, in the gardens in Greenways near me, 50 pawpaws. And certainly there were some planted early on. I always want to give a shout out to Duncan Parklet, which council members always hear me say is one of the favorite sites in my district. It's entirely citizen-led and envisioned to be transforming what we used to call tot lots, like the little kid playgrounds that are tucked into a corner of a residential area. into, you know, a different, a more naturalized space for kids in that it has a food forest and there's not just natives like pawpaws, but also other kinds of orchard fruits like pears. So berries, blueberries, high bush, low bush blueberries. I think there's something called nanny berries that we've planted. There's a verburnums. There's a variety of berries. This is like bioremediation. In our forests, instead of having invasive vines and knotweeds that are unhealthy for our region and kill our trees and ruin our hillsides, sometimes causing landslides, we can remediate, but also have part of that remediation be edible landscapes as well. So anyway, it's a very exciting program. I know that the enthusiasm is spreading, so I'm going to turn it over to Councilman Coghill, because I really wanted to tell the story about his sites. And I will tell you the back story. When I was first telling stories like this about seven or eight years ago, when was the last time you were first elected? And you said over on this, nine years ago when you said over on this side of the table, you were not enthusiastic about these things. In fact, you were off-microphone mocking me and teasing me about these projects. So with that background, I'll hand it over to Councilman Coghill.

Councilman Coghill.

Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you, Councilwoman Gross. And thank you for meeting with us yesterday. You know, we originally, my office, through the help of, I'm sorry about that, through the help of Councilwoman Gross's office, started looking at, you know, placing these lots that were attached in parks or close to, next to greenways and making them part of the greenways. Number one, getting them off our list, long list of so-called abandoned lots that really aren't useful. But so... Yeah, I will credit Councilwoman Gross for getting me involved in the gardening community and the growing community and introducing me to the enthusiasm and really the excitement around And when I see these neighborhood groups, she spoke of Duncan Park, which is amazing. I went through the tour over there. So that kind of inspired me. And we talked about planting an orchard, which I believe you all were at. And we are now... probably going to wrap up phase three of that, which will have 70 plus trees of all native types and designs. Councilwoman Gross could probably rattle them off. But I know we have pawpaws and berries, lots of berries and stuff like that. So I was not a gardener. I never claimed to have a green thumb. But what I did see was, again, the community, how they were interested in it and took to it. So I love the idea. I feel like you explained it well to us yesterday. I was just unclear about some certain things. But just to reiterate some things that were said. providing spaces for would-be gardeners and, you know, people who want to adopt a space, we will be providing free leases, which is important, free leases. However, we will be requiring them to purchase insurance in order to be on that property, which is a set amount. Was there a set dollar amount for the insurance, or does it matter either?

Well, I mean, they can purchase insurance on their own. There's also a program, you know, now the Adopt-A-Lot program has been in existence for 10 years. Grow Pittsburgh, we've worked with them. They've set up, you know, so people can purchase insurance through Grow Pittsburgh, you know, for these programs as well.

Yeah. So they could jump on Grow Pittsburgh as a rider, basically, and probably get the insurance cheaper for such a lot. And we spoke yesterday. I think it was $150. 185. 185. Thank you, Mackenzie, for insurance per year. That's with Grove-Pittsburgh. Okay, so, and we do have some communities, and I want to be clear about this, too, and we talked about this yesterday. For instance, I know Councilman McGross has... some groups that are already established, already in those spaces. And when we open these up, they will have first choice whether to keep that space. Some of them, I think, already have their own insurance. They could potentially transfer their insurance to Grow Pittsburgh if it's cheaper for them now that we have this program in place. And just to make sure that people who are already fostering areas

know that they're not going to be outbid or they're not going to be in some lottery they will be able to continue to work on those spaces that's correct and and you know this this will not invalidate existing agreements so there are like i mean for example you know councilman grosses you know had questions around uh the duncan duncan playground and the tot lot there There's an existing agreement. We've talked to the organization around those agreements. Those would be able to stay in place. At the same time, the garden program is an option for them if it was more advantageous to them in the future. And I think at the same time, it would also allow for many other projects like that to be able to take place. That project, for example, took them... three years to get their first agreement. By putting these things in legislation, it would allow for that process to happen much more quickly. You know, in that way, I mean, with our, I mean, we can kind of speak to adopt a lot of agreements, but I mean, those are things that take place in weeks, you know, as opposed to months or years.

No, I love promoting it. You know, I think it's all moving in the right direction, only because, like I've told you, I've seen the enthusiasm from the community behind, you know, a lot of people. They really want to be involved. They still have people stopping me. We were out at the proposal where I have the farm proposal, and people are still stopping me. When am I going to be working in the orchard, or when am I going to be working in the farm? So I have volunteers for a farm that I don't have. I have a handful of them and still get asked about it since I promoted it a couple of years ago. And it's still maybe in the works. We'll see what time it should bring. The other thing was you mentioned vendors will now be permitted to grow their own food and then take it out of that lot and sell it, whereas now we don't have that in place, correct?

Correct.

The one piece of legislation will allow that on city on property, in city parks and greenways where that presently is allowed.

So if you have one of our free leases and you're a vendor, you can grow your own food, pick it, take it, harvest it, and now go sell it anywhere you want, basically.

That's correct.

Yeah. And currently, it's not that way.

That is correct.

Right. So I think that's great. And I just wanted to be clear. And again, I had all these questions answered yesterday just for the public. For instance, my orchard, or I should say our orchard, Councilman Gross was very instrumental, of course, in promoting the whole thing. You know, it's starting to bear fruit now. I mean, trees are 20, 30 feet high. And I'm thinking the whole idea behind our idea was really to open it to the public. Come in and pick some fruit or berries and don't overindulge and be respectful to everybody else. It's a public space. But I just wanted to be clear that we're not going to allow vendors to go into, say, an orchard that I have or anybody else has and raid the fruit and then go sell it somewhere. That's... against the rules and illegal, right?

Right. So, yeah, so, you know, the idea is that, you know, that people would be able to, you know, again, if people were going through the garden program and had a valid lease and they were growing food, they would be able to take that off-site and donate it. They would be able to take that off-site and go to a city farmer's market and sell it, you know, or other means, which, again, you know, presently is actually prohibited by ordinance. It's not even that it's not allowed. It is specifically prohibited presently. And so the changes here would be striking that.

okay well i invite you out to a ribbon cutting of the uh finishing of the belasco orchard that councilwoman gross and i worked so hard on and it's you just can keep continues it's growing and growing that's what i love about orchards they work 24 7 and uh you need a little water and you know some some little tlc but uh you know And they look beautiful, and people love them. They really do. Okay, well, thanks for your work. I'm in support after our meeting yesterday, and you've explained everything, so it all makes sense. Appreciate it. Thanks.

Thank you. Councilman Wilson.

Thanks for your work on this. I thought last week would be the only time we heard the word tuber.

Who?

Which word? Tuber. But we've made it back to the table a second time. I am excited. I want to see these tubers again. So I'm serious.

You mean the artichoke too? Sunflower. Is that what you're talking about?

I'm game.

All right.

Thanks for all your work on this. Huh?

You're going to eat one?

I want to. Okay, we're going to serve you some tea. Thanks for all your work on this. Thank you.

Further discussion?

I still have more to say that I won't take up in this meeting. And I think there's some other voices that would want to talk more. So if I want a motion for a post-agenda on these topics... unlike the expansion of gardens and greenways. Should I do it now, or should I wait until later?

Unless you want to hold these bills for a post-agenda, I'd recommend at the end of the meeting.

Okay, let's do that.

Thank you. Thank you.

Okay.

Further discussions? Seeing none, all in favor of Bill 564, please say aye. Aye. So I'm at a recommendation. If you all want to stay here at the table just in case there are questions as we move into the other pertinent bills, you're welcome to do so. That moves us to Recreation, Youth, and Senior Services Committee, chaired by Councilmember Warwick.

Bill 562, resolution authorizing the Mayor, the Director of Office of Management and Budget, and the Director of the Department of City Planning to enter into an agreement or agreements with Open Space Institute for the purpose of receiving grant funds in the amount not to exceed $25,000 to acquire privately owned tax delinquent land to improve connectivity of our greenways.

Bill. Oh, sorry. Did you want to read? Oh, sorry. Apologies. Go ahead.

It's up to you, council member.

Okay. We can read them all. Read them all together?

Thank you. So, Bill, 562, 565, 566. 567 is part of it, yes.

Sorry, I was trying to remember. Bill 565, Ordinance Amending and Supplementing the Pittsburgh City Code, Title IV, Public Places and Property, Article VII, City Realty by adding a new chapter, 456, City Farm Garden Program to authorize the Department of Parks and Recreation to establish a garden program which permits urban agricultural activities permanently city-owned property all under certain terms and conditions. bill 566 ordinance amending a supplementing the pittsburgh city code title for public places and property article 7 city realty by adding new chapter 455 greenways to authorize the department of city planning and its appointed designees to establish a greenway program which permits stewardship and urban agriculture activities in the greenways all under certain terms and conditions and bill 567 ordinance amending is supplementing the pittsburgh city code title 4 public places and property article 11 parks and playgrounds by amending chapter 473.01.a.3 and 473.01.b.1 to update pittsburgh's park property use regulations motion to approve second discussion

I recognize that I was not here last week and you might have already had discussion. I wanted to offer any opportunity to say anything further about any of these bills. As I understand, they kind of hang together.

No, we spoke earlier for the Adopt-A-Lot bill on these bills as well.

Great. Excellent. Okay. Just wanted to make that option. I really appreciate the work that you've done. I appreciate the briefing that you've offered all council members. I found I learned a lot, and it really is interesting to see how it's not just a piecemeal approach. You really do put thought into ensuring that this is a whole package of legislation. So thank you, and I think it's going to improve the accessibility of the public to – Our green spaces, our various spaces outdoors, whatever, even kind of postage stamp style green spaces that exist in the urban setting, this makes it easier to access and easier to do good work and creative work in those areas. So thank you for your work. And with that, all in favor of bills 562, 565, 566, and 567, please say aye. Aye. Aye. affirmative recommendation. Thank you. That moves us to Innovation, Performance, Asset Management, and Technology Committee, chaired by Councilwoman Gross.

New papers. Bill 585, resolution amending resolution 846 of 2023, authorizing the mayor and the director of the Department of Innovation and Performance on behalf of the city of Pittsburgh to enter into an agreement or agreements or amendments thereto with the Wilson Group for the lease of multifunction devices and managed print services to include MFDs, all related hardware integrated and standalone, support, maintenance and supplies, software, related services and solutions, by increasing the approved amount by $270,000 for an amended total cost not to exceed $1,870,000. Motion to approve.

Discussion? Could we have someone at the table for this, please? Thank you. Please just introduce yourselves.

Hi, I'm Zoe Burns, Senior Manager of the Service Desk.

Hi, I'm Gwen Moore, Assistant Director of Business Technology at I&P.

Thank you. So this is authorizing INP to enter into an agreement with the Wilson Group for our essential air printers and other devices.

Yes, we already have an agreement. So this is just a revised to add our plotter. So the GIS team that makes the giant maps, they use a large format printer to print those, and we'd like to add that to our lease.

Anything further? Okay. I would like to say that we have, since entering into the contract with the Wilson Group, INP has always been fantastic, but the Wilson Group took us, it took six months for us to get a new printer when ours stopped working. We were utilizing printing from other offices, the clerk's office, and that's unacceptable. So if you could pass it along to the Wilson Group that they need to up their game when it comes to customer service. I will be voting for this today, but next time, if this continues, I will not vote for an authorization.

Yeah, understood. Absolutely.

Thank you. But I have to say, IMP has always been in our corner and been fantastic. It was really just working with the Wilson Group. Thank you. Thank you. Yes, Councilman Wilson, or Councilman Cockhill.

Yeah, thank you, Madam Chair. No, I just wanted to reiterate, my office had the exact same problem. I mean, it was like I couldn't get anything printed, and I live by the printing. So I think it was the same exact problem that you had. I'm glad to hear others were having the same problem. I started to feel like we were singled out. But yeah, so I just wanted to back up her remarks on the... Wilson Group, was it? Yeah. Yeah, we need better service. Yeah, we'll pass that. Quicker, yeah.

We're addressing those issues now.

Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. No affiliation. Any further discussion? Okay. Thank you. All in favor of Bill 585, please say aye. Aye.

Thank you all.

Thank you. Bill 586.

resolution amending resolution 248 of 2020 authorizing the mayor and the director of the department of mobility and infrastructure or the director of the department of innovation and performance to enter into an agreement or agreements or amendments thereto with site Cyclomedia Technology Inc. for the city to continue to access the captured 360 geocycleramas for approximately 1,553 total miles of city-owned roads along with LIDAR data. by increasing the approved amount by $46,590 for an amended total cost not to exceed $814,936.75 over nine years.

Motion to approve brief discussion. Second. Discussion. Thank you. So this one is, is this a new thing for us? No. Doing LIDAR of our city streets? No. As the city?

No, it's not. As a matter of fact, we did the first. Maybe you could get a little closer to the mic.

Oh, sorry. We did the first. Just bring it closer to you. Okay, sorry. Just like hold it.

We contracted with Cyclone Media to do the first engagement about seven years ago. And they originally, they just did everything at no cost. When we recognize the value, of course, Domi uses it for the street imagery, for intersection design, creating measures and assisting with the different services that Domi provides. They recognize the value. We've captured all of the data now, and now they still need access to that data for their planning as they move forward.

So we don't have it in-house? It's our data, but we have to keep paying for it? We're paying for access. Yeah. We're paying for access. Well, that's the same thing. Yes. So this is, yeah, I have, I think we all should have a heightened awareness about, and we've talked about this, we have the other work that we're working on on privacy and surveillance issues with city data. This isn't about any individual person's data. location or data. I just want people to be clear.

Correct.

But I feel like now I'm looking at things with different eyes. So, you know, how much when we invest these kinds of significant funds and yet we have to keep paying in order to continue access to either a platform or the data on a platform, et cetera, et cetera. I think it's right for us to kind of maybe pause and question, is this the way, are there any other options? Is this how every other city is doing it? So could you give us a little framing, again, about what LIDAR of streets means? And then... What is the kind of cost-benefit ratio that I'm sure you guys, you know, thought through?

Actually, I'm not the expert on this particular item. Shireen Al-Badisami is the expert as well as Domi. So if you have additional questions with respect to those details, I think it's better to have them.

We do have Director Skalkin still in the room, and I see him moving forward. Jeff, would you like to join us? Thank you. I mean, we don't need to – I'm not wanting to belabor this, but I do think that – We had some public comment yesterday, and LIDAR, I think, is being increasingly used. And if I'm not mistaken, because I am concerned in the other kind of research and learning that we're doing, I'm not claiming to be an expert in the learning that I think we and our residents need to do on privacy and surveillance technology. Liner is not, in some sectors, unrelated to the autonomy stuff, meaning like sidewalk robots and things that I think residents do have opinions on. So can you just kind of give us a perspective of like, what are we spending money on How are we using it? And why are we doing this?

Sure. Again, Jeff Skelligan, director for Domi. So when I first started with the city of Pittsburgh nine years ago, all of our projects were farmed out through a consultant and an engineering firm. We approached IMP, I think eight, nine years ago, about a software system so we could do more things in-house. So it's a better... better technology frame for us to actually look at the roads, see how, so it measures the roads, it tells you the condition of the roads, and it keeps a database of that. City of Pittsburgh never had anything like that until we approached, like I said, IMP a couple years ago. It's been seven years now. Wow, I didn't realize it was that long. So we came up with this system. IMP's been taking the lead on it, and it's been great. We've been able to do a lot of things in-house now that we have this system.

I think that's That alone, maybe, I don't know about our listeners, but for me, that it kind of explains it all, right? Because we, in so much of the work that you see a city, the city doing, whether it's from a retaining wall to road waving to design work, it's actually subcontractors doing it. And so every time we can bring something in and be doing it with our city employees, I'm always enthusiastic and I know there's cost savings. So while we're spending money on continuing to have access to this information, basically we're putting the information under contract. But that allows our city employees to actually do road design.

In-house. In-house. And we can track the things that we're doing, too, in-house.

So just one, and again, we don't need to go on and on. I think that kind of explains it for me. But is this down to the level of, like, potholes?

No, it's more of like, so it's the length of the road, how wide it is. It's stuff like that. It doesn't really do that curb to curb. There you go.

Is it 3D? Because some LIDAR does do underground, if I'm not mistaken.

It's not 3D. It's more just a program for length and width of the roads, condition roads.

Got it, got it. But so not really infrastructure.

No, you're not going to see your walls or anything like that in there.

Except for the cartway.

You're just doing cartway. Yes.

Would it be possible to include sidewalk and not just inside the cartway?

City-owned sidewalks.

Yes. But I mean, it's lighter. I mean, how is the data?

Maybe I'm not understanding how this is working. We contracted for certain city assets. I'm not sure that we contracted for sidewalks.

Yes, sidewalks was not part of it. It was just the conditions of the roads. So what it is is a vehicle goes on the road and takes a condition of the roads.

Good. Okay. yeah i got that but it just kind of raises other questions but again i'm supportive i think that's it's um interesting i do know that again i'm not an expert i don't know enough but i know that some citizens are questioning um and rightfully so i'll say i'm not questioning what the residents are are saying right but that we should be cognizant of you know what data we are buying It's not just what data we're generating and selling, but what data we're also buying. So I'm satisfied that this is a worthwhile investment, especially if we're able to do things in-house that we used to have to pay consultants for. So I appreciate it. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Councilman Wilson.

So just to confirm, this is the, I think you said this a lot, like that was the one line I was looking for where we're actually recording what's underneath the surface.

No, it's not utilities or anything like that. It's just the condition of the road and how big a road is, how wide, how long. So we could do things in-house. We know how wide a road is from curb to curb. So if you want to do bump-outs like we do in your area, we're able to do the measurements in-house. Years ago, like I said, we just had consultants that have this technology. The city of Pittsburgh didn't have anything. We're actually a city that has it now where we're doing things in-house. It's a great program to have. I mean, we were really fortunate. So is this a vehicle that goes out? It was a vehicle that took the measurements, and I believe that's what we paid for the databases to keep that.

A while ago. Yes. This is, like, how long ago was this? Is that 70? 2020.

Started in 2020.

Yeah, I thought it measured, like, the condition of the road and, like, the subsurface.

It did the condition of the road for, like, for paving, but it's not going to tell you underneath. So, like, for utilities, we don't know what utilities.

Not utilities, but a lot of our roads are paved over, like, cobblestone. Correct. So we do know that. Okay.

Yeah. So I thought you meant, like, you know, what water lines and gas lines we do.

The oil. We're looking for the oil.

Gold.

We have bubble stone. Correct. It doesn't tell us that.

Yeah, this is that service. Okay. All right. So we continue to pay to access the data.

Yep.

$46,000. All right. Thanks.

Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor of Bill 586, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Affirmative recommendation. Thank you very much. That moves us to Intergovernmental and Educational Affairs Committee, chaired by Councilman Mosley.

Deferred Papers, Bill 412. Resolution authorizing the Pittsburgh Land Bank to acquire all the city's right, title, and interest, if any, in and to the publicly owned properties in the 12th Ward of the City of Pittsburgh, designated in the Deed Registry Office of Allegheny County as Block 125A. Lot 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118, and 133, 0 Lincoln Avenue and 0 Mayflower Street, Council District 9, at no cost to the city.

Motion to withdraw. Second. Discussion?

Discussion? Does the motion to withdraw require a line item vote? Okay. All in favor of the motion to withdraw Bill 412, please say aye.

Aye.

Motion carries. New Papers, Bill 589.

Resolution providing for a reimbursement agreement or agreements with Pennsylvania American Water Company for costs associated with the City Steps project where Pennsylvania American Water Company would be responsible for paying 100% of the actual expenses involved in certain work to be described in the agreements at an amount not to exceed $5,350. Motion to approve.

Second. Second.

Discussion? Seeing none, all in favor of Bill 589, please say aye. Aye. Affirmative recommendation, Bill 590.

Resolution providing for a reimbursement agreement or agreements with Pennsylvania American Water Company for costs associated with the City Steps Project where Pennsylvania American Water Company would be responsible for paying 100% of the actual expenses involved and certain work to be described in the agreements at an amount not to exceed $3,500.

Motion to approve.

Second.

Discussion? Seeing none, all in favor of Bill 590, please say aye. Aye. Affirmative recommendation. That exhausts our standing committee agenda.

Chair, I do have one.

Councilman Wilson.

Yeah, if we go back to the P cards, I think we should weigh the rules. There's a line item. There's an item that's over $5,000. So motion to reconsider. Is that?

Motion to reconsider P cards. Is there a second?

Second.

Discussion? Councilman Wilson?

Yeah, I'd like to make a motion to weigh the rules on the P cards.

Is there a second on a motion to weigh the rules for an overage over $5,000 for P-cards in our public works?

Second.

Second. Discussion? This is a, I believe it's a quarterly or sometimes... Annually, annual purchase that the state requires for stickers for our trash trucks that can only be paid for by credit cards. So it comes annually. Apologies for not catching it. Thank you for catching it, Councilman. Any further discussion? Seeing none, all in favor of waiving rules of council to allow for cost exceeding $5,000 repeat cards? Please say aye. Aye. Rules are waived. Thank you. Council Member Gross and then Council Member Sharland.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'd like to motion for a post-agenda on gardens and greenways.

Second.

Discussion? All in favor, please say aye. Aye. We will get that scheduled. Council Member Sharland.

Yes. So many of you saw yesterday the comptroller released a report on code enforcement. As you may recall, two years ago, this was the first piece of legislation that I introduced asking her to do this audit. It was very extensive. It took a long time for them to do. But it was released yesterday, so I would like to call a post-agenda with the comptroller to discuss that audit.

Discussion? Seeing none, all in favor, please say aye. Aye. We will get that scheduled.

Thank you.

Now we will hear from Sean Carter, a legislative projects manager.

Good afternoon, members.

From the Council of the City of Pittsburgh, regarding Council Bill 20260544, Mechanical Amusement Device Tax. Please be advised that pursuant to the Act of December 31st, 1965, the Council of the City of Pittsburgh has introduced and intends to levy a new tax in the city called the Pittsburgh Mechanical Amusement Device Tax. The amusement devices and apparatus to be subject to this tax are herein described. Class 1. Class 1 devices include poker machines, video slot machines, video sweepstakes machines, and any other type of purely amusement device permitted by law. The tax for Class 1 devices shall be $1,000 per device per year. Class 2. Class 2 devices include machines which offer prizes for amusement such as stuffed animals, toys, candy, or other items. The tax for Class 2 devices shall be $100 per device per year. Class 3. Class 3 devices include machines and apparatus used for entertainment and public participation for sport which includes but is not limited to darts, jukeboxes, pool tables, pinball machines, shuffleboard machines, and children's video games. The tax for Class III devices shall be $10 per device per year. The tax shall be imposed on any person, business, or establishment that houses and offers for play an amusement device for each such device and is a condition of a license or permit being issued. The Council of the City of Pittsburgh has determined that new sources of general revenue are required to maintain city services for infrastructure and to bring the city's budget into long-term balance. Initial estimates by the council project $2 million to $3 million per year in new revenue will be derived from this tax. Thank you, members.

Thank you. Further announcements. This Friday, June 19th, Council and Clerk's Office will be closed in observance of the Juneteenth holiday. Also next week, Council will hold their regular meeting on Tuesday, June 23rd, and Standing Committee's meeting on Wednesday, June 24th, both at 10 a.m. Speaker registration will close at 9 a.m. Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. To register to speak at any of these meetings, please complete the sign-up form on the council meeting webpage or contact the clerk's office at 412-255-2138 by the applicable registration deadlines. Anything else from members? Seeing none, I'll take a motion to approve the minutes and adjourn the meeting.

So moved. Second.

All in favor? Aye. Meeting is adjourned.

Thank you.