The first of three public hearings on the 2026 operating and capital budgets was held on November 6, 2025. The council heard presentations from the Controller's Office, the District Attorney's Office, and Pittsburgh Regional Transit (PRT). No public commenters were present, as the three individuals who signed up did not attend.
That's good idea. Four o'clock, let's go. Well, if you sit down, we go. You don't have to wait. Let's get this. Good evening. Tonight we begin the first of our three public hearings on the 2026 operating and capital budgets. We'll hear from the controller's office, PRT, and the District Attorney's Office. When we get to the QA portion, I'd like the members to please only ask a few questions at a time to give everyone a chance. And we'll come back for additional questions if time permits. We'll begin this evening with individuals who signed up for the public comment. First is English Burton. English Burton is not here. Edward Wren. That's not here. Jacob Pohl. So much for signing up. First, we will bring up Controller O'Connor and his staff, and Mayor Lector Connor, congratulations. Thank you very much. You guys, counsel. It's good to see you again. Thank you guys very much. And I'm with uh my deputy Amy Wise. Um and I will go through our statement here. Um be pointing them out the my whole controller staff who came with me as well. Um I would like to talk to you about the mission of the controller's office and its obligation to the residents of Allegheny County. We are committed to promoting innovation, transparency, efficiency, and accountability in county government. We record all revenue and expenditures and provide oversight of the county's operations services spending and contracts. By promoting transparency and accountability and building confidence in our government, we work to protect taxpayer dollars and the services on which our residents rely. This year's budget request is $8.8 million for 89 full-time budgeted positions. Although the allocation is below our initial budget request, we believe that this is an appropriate for us to still be able to perform our statutory duties. Uh, thanks to the oversight that they provide. The accounting division, particularly the accounts payable section, began working with the Department of Human Services to implement a new service to providers to make foster care, family caregivers, and senior care companions debit card payments. This enables them to get paid a lot quicker and to use a new debit card service. The controller's office successfully paid all poll workers and constables who worked the March 2025 special election with debit cards. This has reduced the county's cost. It's reduced the amount of hours that our office works on mailing out printed pay uh paychecks, and we also demoed it in certain areas throughout the fall general election. Finally, the accounting division will support the treasurer's office in its selection and implementation of new banking services as they relate to the JD Edwards operations. I would like to recognize STARI, who was very supportive and helpful on the paying of debit cards to our poll workers. The auditing division, our office ensures that the county is achieving honest, efficient management, and full accountability in every aspect of government. This division performs financial audits, performance audits, all completed in accordance with government auditing standards. The auditing division is peer-reviewed, a distinction achieved by very few government auditing operations. In addition to providing recommendations to the county on how we operate more effectively, the auditing department works, work produces savings for Allegheny County as well. We perform our single audit in-house, which saves roughly 100,000. The auditing division also performs the health department's Title V Air Quality Fund audit in-house, which saves us $10,000. And this year, we did seven hotel audits completed in 2025, found more than $17,000 owed in VAC taxes to the county. Furthermore, the hotel audits are no longer being contracted out. We have now brought that internally thanks to our office as well as a partnership with the Treasurer's Office. We also did an audit on the 911 call center, and we just completed an audit on the Department of Human Services to ensure that it is following regulations as well as key internal policies and procedures regarding mental health and drug and alcohol programs. I would like to thank uh Lori from our audit division who has been with us for a quite some time.