Gainey administration scraps Peduto's prized OnePGH initiative

Mayor Ed Gainey’s administration will no longer back the nonprofit OnePGH Fund, officials announced Wednesday.

Afteryears of delay, the initiative waslaunched by former mayor Bill Peduto in April 2021 as a way to secure funding for affordable housing, education and other social programs from some local tax-exempt nonprofits.

“The ONE PGH Fund was created to encourage cross-sector collaboration to achieve improved community health, well-being, and civil resilience, and was a bold commitment to address some of our city’s most complex challenges,” officials said in astatement.

Two administration officials resigned from the board of directors.

“It has become clear that our priorities were headed in a different direction,” said Deputy Chief of Staff Felicity Williams. “And I am resigning my seat on the ONE PGH Fund board of directors.”

Senior Grants Officer Melanie Ondeck also stepped down from her role as Secretary and Board Administrator on the OnePGH Fund board.

In an email, Vincent Quatrini, Jr, a founding partner at QuatriniRafferty and a member of the OnePGH board, said he was “very surprised” by the decision. “ONEPGH continues as a valuable tool for addressing the challenges facing our city as outlined in our mission statement," Quatrini said.

Gainey administration officials say they remain “committed to ensuring the success of the contracts and programs already approved by ONE PGH,” including $9,000 to Allegheny Goatscape, which will provide vegetation management in the Hazelwood Greenway and $60,000 to Landforce, which will provide trail maintenance and landscaping services in the area.

Peduto’s initial announcement included millions of dollars in voluntary contributions from “the big four” nonprofits: UPMC, Highmark, the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University.

Weeks later, Peduto lost the mayoral primary election to Gainey.

The donations were to be spaced out over the course of five years, and most of the money would be disbursed by OnePGH. Some criticized the arrangement, noting that the setup may make transparency difficult.

At the time of the announcement, Erin Kramer, the then-executive director of advocacy group OnePA,told WESA she worried that the donations reported under OnePGH would be relabeled donations that large nonprofits would have made anyway and that the program would serve “as cover for the mayor and these megacharities that don’t really want to be accountable.”

OnePA supported Gainey in the mayor’s race.

In May, the future of OnePGH looked uncertain. Deputy Mayor Jake Pawlaktold PublicSource that the administration did not intend to use OnePGH as a funnel for funding from organizations like UPMC and other large nonprofits.

Members of Gainey’s administration appeared to prefer the money go directly to the city’s budget. Gainey hasbeen in negotiations with organizations like UPMC and Highmark Health, but results of those meetings have not been shared.

The mayor’s office has not released additional details about how they plan to secure funds from UPMC, Highmark Health, and other large nonprofits.