As the City of Pittsburgh continues to recover from record amounts of snow, many are already beginning to discuss a revamping of the City’s snow removal system for the future.

Earlier this week, Carnegie Mellon University President Jerry Cohon offered to City Council the support of CMU students, faculty and staff to help Pittsburgh create a new winter weather operations plan. While many other cities pay large amounts of money for new operations systems, CMU has offered to design and create a new system free of cost. This new system will become a model for other cities around the country to follow. In addition to this, Councilwoman Natalia Rudiak will be leading a task force that will review the City’s response to the recent storms. Councilman Bill Peduto will begin working with Councilwoman Rudiak, Public Works Committee Chair Councilman Bruce Kraus and CMU to create this new operations system.

In order for this system to be successful it must be a result- based operation plan, in which goals and timelines are set and allow for more accountability. It also must rely on computer software to determine the most effect route system, which you can read about here. Also, it should utilize GPS technology in snow plows so that residents may track the removal progress in real-time online. Read more about Howard County, Maryland’s GPS system here, and see the map here. We must create an outcome-based budgeting process to reward results and enforce accountability, and we need to calculate the size of the worker and equipment force necessary to clear snow within 48 hours.

Learn more about these efforts:
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
WTAE

“It was a historic day for Pittsburgh when City Council passed the reform package in May,” said Councilman Peduto. “The changes that Controller Lamb and I are implementing are an important step in ending pay-to-play politics in Pittsburgh.”

Controller Lamb and Councilman Peduto have been working for the past 7 months to create a user-friendly system that will make the City of Pittsburgh government more transparent and accessible to all.  The new tools for transparency will include lobbyist registration, the disclosure of lobbyists on all RFP responses, and a new searchable dataset of all campaign donations.

View the Searchable Database of all City Government Contracts

Frequently Asked Questions About Lobbyist Registration

View the Lobbyist Registration Form

Campaign Finance Reform Frequently Asked Questions

No Bid Contracts Reform Frequently Asked Questions

Read the Letter

Read the Letter Here

View the Alternative Budget

Many of the recommendations from Controller Lamb and Councilman Peduto were adopted by the Mayor as part of his new proposal. The notion of an Education Tax to balance the books in 2010 was taken out of the budget, but the Mayor still intends to pursue the idea and five members of City Council still support him.

Act 47 Response Letter

Peduto/Lamb Alternative

Today, Pittsburgh City Council will hold a preliminary vote on the legislation introduced by Council President Shields that would give the Carnegie Libraries of Pittsburgh $600,000 this year.  This funding is contingent on the CLP agreeing to keep all library branches open and also opening their books, and will be a temporary solution to continue to keep all library branches open in Pittsburgh.  The final vote will be held next Tuesday.  It is imperative that City Council take action before the library board meets to vote on the issue in December.

View Council President Sheilds’ Legislation

Please contact City Hall and voice your support for keeping Pittsburgh’s libraries open!

State Representative Chelsa Wagner and State Senator Jay Costa have promised to match these funds from Council to keep these libraries open in the short term.  Next, we must work to find a long term solution to ensure that all Pittsburgh libraries remain open.  CLP must also examine its budget to make sure that all money is being spent wisely.

Read a Letter from State Representative Chelsa Wagner

Read a Letter from State Senator Jay Costa

Read a Letter from State Senator Wayne Fontana

Under the proposed legislation, officials would need to go through a 6-step process, including obtaining the approval of both the city solicitor and the director of City Information Systems, in order to access a city employee’s email account. The employee would also have to be notified that their email had been accessed.

City employees currently receive a pop-up window notification when signing onto their computers which warns that information on that computer may be accessed by a third party.

Read the Proposed Legislation

Read more about this initiative:

Pittsburgh Officials to Propose Email Safeguards - Pittsburgh Tribune Review
Peduto Wants New City Email Rules - DUQ News

“Online auctioning is a more transparent and inclusive process than the current live auction system,” said Councilman Peduto.  ”The new system also provides the City with an opportunity to increase revenue streams during hard economic times.”

Below is a resolution issued by Councilman Bill Peduto, authorizing and directing the Mayor to issue a request for proposals from private asset redistribution and liquidation management services that can auction surplus City of Pittsburgh property to other government organizations and the general public.

WHEREAS, in 2008, the City of Pittsburgh sold 67 vehicles and 19 other items in auction for a total of $95,290; and

WHEREAS, the City of Tampa, FL, having comparable size to Pittsburgh, sold 536 items in 2008 for a total of over ten times the total starting bids of those items, using a private asset redistribution and liquidation service; and

WHEREAS, the city of Charleston, SC, using a private online asset redistribution service, sold 187 items in 2008 for a total nearly thirty percent higher than the total starting bids; and

WHEREAS, private asset redistribution services have been similarly successful for the cities of Philadelphia PA, Orlando FL, Savannah GA and Myrtle Beach SC; and

WHEREAS, the use of a private asset redistribution and liquidation service can increase the audience of potential bidders, ensure appropriate market values for auction items, and provide an existing marketing program for surplus government items; and

WHEREAS, the online process of many private liquidation services provides a faster, more efficient and more accessible means of auctioning surplus government property.

BE IT RESOLVED THAT THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PITTSBURGH HEREBY ENACTS AS FOLLOWS:

The Mayor of the City of Pittsburgh is hereby authorized and directed to request proposals for a private online asset redistribution and liquidation service for the City of Pittsburgh.

SPONSORED BY COUNCILMAN WILLIAM PEDUTO

Even PennDOT participates in this online auction system, as shown by this video clip.

Read more about Councilman Peduto’s proposal in this Pittsburgh Post Gazette article.

Pittsburgh does not compete with our suburbs - we compete with other regions.  We need to expect more from government than real estate development - we need real economic development.  When it comes to using our scarce incentives and grants, we need to expect more than just profits for land developers.  We need a new economic development plan in Pittsburgh that guarantees that publicly subsidized developments improve the public.   Pittsburgh needs to become a leader in Triple Bottom Line economics and sustainable growth.  By assuring these principles we will minimize negative outcomes to communities and the environment.  We will invest in projects that invest in people and the industries that will rebuild our region.  And, we will end the cycle of using tax dollars to simply develop land.

The business community of North Carolina’s Research Triangle understand that the model of economic growth and sustainability is vastly different than it was in the 1950s.  It is time for Pittsburgh to make this transition for all publicly subsidized projects and enable our new economy to prosper - for everyone.