This Week’s Top Agenda Items
- Protected classes to be simplified in city code
- Pittsburgh forgot to pay its light bills
- Warwick tries to keep trash from piling up in Hazelwood
Protected classes to be simplified in city code 🔗
In the wake of increasing discrimination at the federal level, Pittsburgh’s Commission on Human Rights, the municipal civil rights enforcement agency, is seeking to enshrine protections for Pittsburgh residents in the city code.
Council Member Erika Strassburger of Squirrel Hill North, who introduced the legislation, said, “It’s just one more way of us saying, as a city, ‘We’ve got you. We are protecting you.”
The proposed amendments would simplify the city code regarding housing, employment and public accommodations. It would create a master list of protected classes and their definitions, including preferred language, education and life expectancy.
Throughout this year, Council has added multiple protections, including housing status, LGBTQIA identities and place of birth.
While the proposed amendments do not add any protected classes, it would add disparate impact. That would preserve the commission’s right to protect residents from policies that seem neutral but have a discriminatory impact on people, such as an apartment complex’s policy banning children which would affect families.
Shepherd said recent executive orders from the federal government call for federal agencies to dismiss disparate impact cases. As a result, municipalities across the country are disbanding agencies like the commission.
Council voted to move the legislation out of committee to be voted on during a legislative session.
| The Protected Classes are: | |
|---|---|
| Actual or perceived age (over 40) | Race |
| Color | Religion |
| Ancestry or national origin | Place of birth |
| Sex | Sexual orientation |
| Familial status | State of pregnancy, childbirth, related medical conditions, or partnership with pregnant persons |
| Status as a victim of domestic violence | Handicap or disability, including the use or training of service animals |
| Hair textures and use of protective hairstyles | Citizenship or immigration status |
| Preferred language | Status as a medical marijuana patient |
| Housing status |
Question 1
Pittsburgh forgot to pay its light bills 🔗
Council learned at the Oct. 22 committee meeting that it has been in the dark about the city’s electric bills.
An audit to save money on electricity found the city hasn’t been paying its electric bills.
The issue came up when the Department of Public Works (DPW) audited electric meters across the city to join a cost sharing consortium. The audit found the city hadn’t paid all of its Duquesne Light invoices for its electric meters.
Don Mudrick, DPW’s financial manager, said that the department was able to negotiate the debt with Duquesne Light down to $204,750. He also said the city has been without a utilities manager since the previous manager left in 2012. Approximately 300 invoices a month had been going to offices across departments, rather than only to Mudrick’s office.
Interns at DPW tracked down the 1,098 meters using Google Earth. Those meters are only part of the city’s electric usage and do not include power needs such as streetlights.
Payments will also switch to the city’s procurement card system, which would make the city eligible for a $11-15 million rebate, according to Mudrick.
Council agreed to pay the money needed to bring the delinquent accounts to zero.
Question 2
Warwick tries to keep trash from piling up in Hazelwood 🔗
Council Member Barb Warwick of Greenfield is trying to keep Hazelwood residents from living 100 yards from tons of garbage.
Warwick proposed legislation that would define solid waste transfer stations and standards associated with them in the city code. The code currently only has parameters around recycling centers. Solid waste transfer centers are holding facilities for raw garbage.
Under the legislation, waste transfer facilities would not be allowed within 500 feet from residential, commercial, school or park property lines or on floodplains. They would also have to be enclosed.
Warwick said the recycling facility in Hazelwood is 300 feet from residential dwellings and has a longstanding rat problem, among other health code violations.
In 2019, its then-owner received a state permit to convert the facility to solid waste transfer. The previous owner did not use the permit. The current owner, Republic Services, is requesting its transfer. The legislation would prevent Republic Services, or any future companies, from converting the facility.
Council agreed to send the bill to the planning commission for its approval.
