Pittsburgh Foundation sees new direction away from city-county consolidation
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The gnarled, centuries-old issue of Allegheny County's divided governance is about to get a fresh look from 300 people who don't even know it yet.
A sample of 300 residents, chosen to reflect the county's demographic and partisan makeup, will be a centerpiece of an effort spearheaded by The Pittsburgh Foundation to get governmental cooperation moving, officials said Friday. The effort is not meant to replace a stalled, 27-month-old push to merge the county with the city of Pittsburgh but is in part a recognition that other avenues may be more productive.
"We think that the status quo needs to change," said Grant Oliphant, president and CEO of The Pittsburgh Foundation. There's a "financial tsunami" coming, and neither top-down efforts to avert it, nor solutions framed as "binary questions of, 'are you for it, or are you against it' " are going to blunt its impact, he said.
Instead, the residents will be recruited, educated on the structure of policing in the county, brought together for a Sept. 25 brainstorming session, paid $50 -- and then, maybe, heeded by local leaders. Their thoughts, along with the findings of a phone poll and input to a Web site, will be the three legs of an effort called Allegheny Forum. Findings will be presented to local leaders around year's end.
The problems facing the county's municipalities are complex, including pension shortfalls, state and federal revenue cuts and aging infrastructure. "There are multiple solutions that we could imagine," Mr. Oliphant said, and likely some that nobody in power has yet imagined.
Foundations have pledged a total of $295,000 to a five-month, three-pronged effort. The 300 residents will be asked to focus on cooperation among police agencies. The phone poll on attitudes toward municipal services has already been taken, but not yet analyzed. The Web site www.alleghenyforum.org should launch by month's end and will include information and discussion forums on policing, water systems, parks and recreation, fire and medic service, and street maintenance.
First Published July 17, 2010 12:55 am
