Officials meet to discuss consolidation

For almost a century, the city of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County governments have… For almost a century, the city of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County governments have considered merging, but a new committee led by Pitt Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg has brought the discussion to an end.

The possibility of a city-county merge was first considered in 1929 and, in fact, approved by a vast majority but was stopped by a technicality listed as a “printer’s error” in a Citizen’s Advisory Committee report.

Then, in 2006, Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato and Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl designed a committee to analyze and study the idea of a consolidation anew. They chose Nordenberg as chair of the committee.

The goal of this merger would be to make government more effective and efficient, thus improving the Pittsburgh region and healing some of its troubling economic woes.

As chair of the Citizens Advisory Committee on the Efficiency and Effectiveness of City-County Government, Nordenberg has played a significant role in communicating to local officials that city-county consolidation is now a necessity.

On April 3, the committee released a detailed report that discussed reasons to consolidate and listed other cities that consolidated to fix problems similar to those Pittsburgh faces.

This past Wednesday, the House Urban Affairs Committee, which was designed to look into the implications and feasibility of merging the two governments, held a public hearing on the proposed Allegheny County Consolidation at Point Park University’s Lawrence Hall.

Thomas Petrone, chairman of the House Urban Affairs Committee, said the goal of the merger would be “to help reduce the duplication of services, which would help reduce costs for members of both the city and the county.”

Onorato and Ravenstahl addressed the committee by reading statements expressing their strong support of the proposed merger, after which they answered questions from members of the House Urban Affairs Committee.

Onorato emphasized that the duplication of services makes for less efficient county and city governments. He said that the city and county each have a separate public works department and a parks and recreation department.

“There’s no reason to have both of these departments,” said Onorato.

He noted how several other cities have merged with a surrounding county in recent years, but he said the city in a situation most similar to Pittsburgh was Louisville, Ky., which merged with Jefferson County in 2000.

A merger is necessary to accommodate the current demographics in the region, which have changed as people have continuously moved from the city of Pittsburgh to other municipalities in Allegheny County, said Onorato.

“Today, 75 percent of Allegheny County lives outside of Pittsburgh,” said Onorato. Yet our government hasn’t adjusted to the population swings that have occurred in the last 50 years.”

Ravenstahl said his first inclination was to oppose the idea of a merger but that he later changed his mind.

“What we’ve been doing for decades has not been working,” said Ravenstahl.

“We cannot simply get through today. We must work for tomorrow with structured consolidation.”

Onorato said that by studying Louisville’s merger he has learned that in this merger there will be hurdles and growing pains.

“But even with these growing pains, no one in these counties ever says we should go back to the way it used to be,” said Onorato.

“It’s just a more efficient form of government. That’s how were going to sell this.”

Onorato said he is working to pass a law to allow for this consolidation. If it is passed, it must be approved by both Pittsburgh City Council and Allegheny County Council. Then the voters will ultimately decide, he said.

Onorato’s goal is to make the consolidation a referendum for voters to decide on in the November 2009 election.

Members of the House Urban Affairs Committee expressed doubt about the feasibility of achieving the consolidation so rapidly.

John Maher, R-Upper St. Clair, said he was not convinced that a year from now government officials would be able to persuade the 129 municipalities in Allegheny County outside of Pittsburgh to go along with the plan.

Maher and other committee members expressed concern that these municipalities might be forced to take on the city of Pittsburgh’s financial debt under the plan.

“I think we’ve got a lot of work ahead before the referendum,” said Maher.

Maher also said that in Louisville the process of consolidating took 20 years after a consolidation compact was created in 1996.