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Pittsburgh City Councilors Want Greater Authority Over Future Water System Reform

Deanna Garcia
/
90.5 WESA

Pittsburgh City Council is rewriting a proposal to reform the troubled Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority.

The original proposal was drafted by a commission assembled by Mayor Bill Peduto. It sought to de-politicize the PWSA by having its board members nominated by an independent panel, rather than politicians.

But on Wednesday, City Council proposed an amendment guaranteeing members one board seat. Councilor Corey O'Connor said that assures accountability and "also gives council a voice in the process."

City Councilor Deborah Gross, who currently represents council on the PWSA board, said the compromise approach will maintain accountability.

"We look to see that we get the best members of a board," Gross said, "but we still need to make sure there's public oversight."

Council also wants to scrap a rule allowing PWSA to take ownership of the system in 2025. Councilors have expressed concern the system could otherwise be sold to a private company.

"What we've heard consistently for the last year, from the public in every single venue, is that they support keeping this water system their own," Gross said.

Peduto's chief of staff, Dan Gilman, said the mayor agrees, but removing the sales option may not be legal. Council will next hold a series of public hearings on the issue. Gross predicted a final vote by year's end.

Nearly three decades after leaving home for college, Chris Potter now lives four miles from the house he grew up in -- a testament either to the charm of the South Hills or to a simple lack of ambition. In the intervening years, Potter held a variety of jobs, including asbestos abatement engineer and ice-cream truck driver. He has also worked for a number of local media outlets, only some of which then went out of business. After serving as the editor of Pittsburgh City Paper for a decade, he covered politics and government at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. He has won some awards during the course of his quarter-century journalistic career, but then even a blind squirrel sometimes digs up an acorn.