Water bills, trust fund draws and a growing deficit inspire finance reforms, while a zoning cleanup is held and a Market Square historic marker gets a petition

Top Agenda Items

• Proposed bills would offer council budget training and put quarterly finance sessions into law
• First phase of the permitting overhaul is held at the administration’s request
• Residents petition for a hearing to replace a missing workplace safety marker in Market Square

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Proposed bills would offer council budget training and put quarterly finance sessions into law 🔗 🔗 🔗 🔗 🔗

Pittsburgh City Council would like to put an end to receiving financial surprises.

 During the Oct. 13 general meeting, Council Member Erika Strassburger of Squirrel Hill North introduced four finance reform bills and Council Member Barb Warwick of Greenfield added a fifth.

The bills aim to address financial and budgetary issues that have come to light in the past year, some of which have been more expensive than others. 

This past November, then-Council Budget Director Pete McDevitt revealed during a budget presentation that the city had $13 million in unaccounted for water bills from 500 accounts spread across city departments. 

During an April 8 committee meeting discussion regarding reopening the operating budget, Acting Director of the Office of Management and Budget Rea Price drew council’s attention that the city pulled $10 million from two trust funds to pay for general expenses. 

One proposed change is to train council how to read a budget. The training would teach members about operating and capital budgets, five-year forecasts and financial reports. The current administration has said that previous administrations have used fuzzy five-year forecasts to produce a state-mandated balanced budget, a point of contention during last year’s budget meetings and this spring’s reopening.

Another bill would codify quarterly finance meetings between the administration and council. Those meetings began informally this year.

During one such meeting in September, Price said the projected year-end deficit had grown from $24.4 million to $30.2 million between the end of the first and second quarters. The city spent more money the first half of the year than it did in the first half of 2025 but saw its revenues decline year-over-year. While the city was expecting more money because of the NFL Draft, preliminary reports show a $1 million loss instead. 

Council sent all five bills to its finance committee for further review.

First phase of the permitting overhaul is held at the administration’s request 🔗

A bill that would take the first step to overhaul Pittsburgh’s permitting system was held by council at the mayoral administration’s request.

At the beginning of this year, Mayor Corey O’Connor signed an executive order to revise the city’s permitting process to make it more predictable and efficient. Doing so requires a comprehensive review of every aspect of the system. 

The review includes the city’s zoning codes. The first phase addresses updates to the code and map as proposed by the administration. The Planning Commission made a positive recommendation on those updates in July, and they received a public hearing on Oct. 13. 

The changes largely address typographical errors, simplify height requirements and update department names. It also removes redundancies and outdated sections such as the one-year Bed and Breakfast Problem Solving Task Force that was established in 1999.

According to the legislation, later phases will include a “comprehensive overhaul” of the code and adopting a system for regular maintenance of it. 

The bill was discussed during council’s Oct. 14 committee meeting which held it back rather than taking a preliminary vote. Council Member Erika Strassburger of Squirrel Hill North, who shared the request, did not say why the administration asked for the hold.

Residents petition for a hearing to replace a missing workplace safety marker in Market Square 🔗

Though the Downtown steel mills are long gone, some residents think that a remembrance of the people who died in them should not be.

Council received a request for a public hearing regarding the “Workplace Accidents and the Law” historical marker in Market Square during its Oct. 13 general meeting.

Twenty-six residents signed the petition for council to hold a public hearing to replace the marker, which has been marked as missing in The Historical Marker Database since September 2025.

Renovations to Market Square began in April of that year and concluded in April 2026.

In 2008, the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission dedicated the marker. It commemorated the work of Crystal Eastman during the Pittsburgh Survey, a sweeping social study of the city undertaken from 1907 to 1908. 

Eastman’s contribution, “Work Accidents and the Law” (published in 1910), documented, among other things, 526 workplace deaths and thousands of known injuries in one year. Her 460 pages of findings led to industrial accident prevention programs and workers’ compensation laws, according to the historic marker’s text. 

Council is required by city code to hold the hearing, though it is not yet scheduled. A hearing does not guarantee that the marker will be replaced.