Mayor O'Connor seeks to reopen city budget with $28 million in new spending as council advances land bank sales and retaining wall fix

This Week’s Top Agenda Items

• Mayor O'Connor wants to add $28 million in 2026 spending
• Land bank moves to sell more vacant properties to developers for affordable housing
• Council approves $134,831 to replace collapsed retaining wall                                                       

Mayor O'Connor wants to add $28 million in 2026 spending 🔗 🔗 🔗 🔗

Three months into his term as mayor, Corey O’Connor wants to rewrite the city’s 2026 budget.

Council Member Erika Strassburger of Squirrel Hill North said the last time the city reopened the budget mid-year was in 2020 to adjust for the pandemic.

 Council addressed 75 requests from O’Connor during a special meeting April 8 that would add $28 million in city spending.

According to Rea Price, director of the Office of Management and Budget, one point of concern is restoring an “absolutely insolvent” healthcare trust fund.

The fund is typically used to pay monthly healthcare claims and is then reimbursed from each department’s operating budgets. Price said that $11 million in recent payments have had to come from elsewhere.

She said a $5 million drawdown last year and unspecified numerical errors contributed to the insolvency. The administration’s current request is a $3.5 million increase this year and another $3.5 million in 2027. In her previous experience, she said, the trust typically carries an $8 million balance as a cushion.

Another fund was created in 2010 as part of the state’s financial oversight of the city, Price said. The city made steady contributions to it until a few years ago with the fund’s board, rather than council, making spending decisions. That fund, Other Post Employment Benefits (OPEB) trust fund, also experienced a $5 million draw to pay for general city expenses last year.

Council Member Erika Strassburger of Squirrel Hill North said she would like to institute procedures in the budget process, such as intentionally asking about each trust fund, to try to prevent actions like this. 

During the meeting, Council Member Barb Warwick of Greenfield also proposed her own amendments to try to stop the administration’s cutting $4 million that was going to buy new emergency medical services vehicles. She said the city expects to spend $11 million repairing its aging fleet which would be reduced by buying new vehicles. 

Council voted down Warwick’s proposals.

Council will hold a public hearing on the budget changes Tuesday ahead of its final vote on Wednesday.

Land bank moves to sell more vacant properties to developers for affordable housing

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Instead of continuing trying to sell properties one lot at a time, the Pittsburgh Land Bank might start selling property in bundles.

 Land Bank Director Sally Stadelman spoke at council’s April 8 committee meeting about a second pilot for its residential rehab program.

Up until now the land bank has been selling properties directly to owner-occupants. Now it is looking to market the properties to developers and contractors. Stadelman said the intention is to return the properties back to the market around the same price as subsidized affordable homes, usually between $160,000-220,000. “We’re trying to at least prioritize applicants that are willing to commit to selling to owner-occupants once the property is rehabbed,” Stadelman said.

Stadelman requested council’s approval to acquire two bundles of publicly owned property. The first bundle, in Lincoln-Lemington-Belmar, came to the land bank’s attention during a community walkthrough of properties owned by the city’s three taxing bodies. Of approximately a dozen properties in the community, only five were salvageable with stabilization.

“The condition of these structures is tough,” she said. “A couple of the structures, we’ll probably replace all of the floor joists on the first floor, for example, and they need new roofs.”

The bundle did not list a designated buyer.

The second transfer, 14 lots and one structure in Homewood, is intended for purchase by WNT Daniels Development Group, which has been rehabilitating and building affordable housing in Homewood, Wilkinsburg and has plans in Larimer.

Stadelman said the land bank recently received a $1 million state grant to stabilize 22 houses before they are sold.

 “I’m really hoping that we see some success, and then we can implement this model in other neighborhoods as well,” she said.

Council agreed to move forward with both requests.

Council approves $134,831 to replace collapsed retaining wall 🔗

After years of advocacy, residents of lower Dunmore Street in Lincoln-Lemington will once again have a safe retaining wall.

Council voted to proceed with transferring $134,831 to remove and replace a collapsed retaining wall there. 

According to a May 2025 investigation by WPXI, affected neighbors have spent years asking the city to fix the 3-foot-high wall. The mayor’s office said the wall is on private property and not the city’s responsibility. WPXI found conflicting property records.

The city also said the lower half of the street—which part of the wall fell into—is a private road. Pittsburgh has more than 700 such undedicated streets.

Council Member Khari Mosley of Point Breeze North, who represents Lincoln-Lemington, told WPXI “These kinds of situations take determination, collaboration and imagination.” 

The money for the new wall will come from the East End Community and Economic Development Fund. The fund is part of the Urban Redevelopment Authority’s Neighborhood Initiatives Fund Program, designed to advance projects in the city’s neighborhood business districts.