Pittsburgh City Council Budget Hearing: Parking & Equipment Leasing Authorities, Dec 5, 2025
Pittsburgh City Council Budget Hearing: Parking & Equipment Leasing Authorities, Dec 5, 2025
On December 5, 2025, the Pittsburgh City Committee on Intergovernmental and Educational Affairs held a budget hearing featuring the Pittsburgh Parking Authority (PPA) and the Equipment Leasing Authority (ELA). Director McDevitt provided financial overviews for both agencies. Council members engaged with agency leadership regarding parking revenue recovery, enforcement staffing, the controversial implementation of Sunday ticketing, and the critical state of the city's aging vehicle fleet, which requires significantly increased capital investment to avoid service failures.
Consent Calendar
- Routine approvals and unanimous actions were not explicitly detailed in the transcript, though the budget presentations and Q&A proceeded without obstruction.
Public Comments & Testimony
- No formal public testimony segments were recorded in this specific transcript; comments were incorporated directly into the council member questioning.
Discussion Items
Pittsburgh Parking Authority (PPA)
- Revenue and Recovery: Director Dave Onorado and CFO Jody Hart confirmed the PPA is recovering post-pandemic, though total revenues remain approximately $2 million below 2019 levels. Meter revenues have exceeded 2019 figures, while garage revenues are about $2 million short. The PPA anticipates contributing just over $28 million to the city in the next fiscal year.
- Staffing and Enforcement: Councilwoman Warwick inquired about hiring. The Authority reported significant staffing increases since the residency requirement was lifted and wage negotiations were finalized. The workforce now includes fully staffed officers and a new automated enforcement rollout for residential parking permits, meters (in 2026), and non-metered areas (signage, no-parking, handicap, hydrants).
- Sidewalk Parking: The PPA confirmed aggressive enforcement against vehicles with all four tires on the sidewalk, while allowing two wheels on the sidewalk if passage is still possible. They utilize 311 calls for investigation but noted same-day response is not guaranteed during business hours.
- Sunday Ticketing Controversy: A significant dispute arose regarding new PPA policy to enforce ticketing 24/7 in certain surface lots on Sundays. Councilman Charlotte expressed frustration, noting confusion for churchgoers and residents, especially since enforcement began without a clear change in street parking rules (which remain free). The Authority stated the policy was board-approved to match PED lot rules and generate revenue, but they have since corrected enforcement around specific church areas after community pushback. Councilwoman Gross expressed support for the technology but concerns regarding clarity and unintended revenue allocation.
- Technology and AI: Councilwoman Gross questioned the use of AI in new mobile LPR units. The Authority clarified the technology is strictly for mapping infrastructure (hydrants, signs) and enforcing signage violations, not for facial recognition or surveillance, and existing cameras blur faces.
Equipment Leasing Authority (ELA) and Fleet Crisis
- Fleet Condition: Chief Furman Morris highlighted the fleet is in a dire state. Approximately 64-68% of the fire fleet and 42-48% of EMS vehicles are past their useful life cycle. The EMS fleet (78 vehicles) is at 42% over life cycle, while the fire fleet (114 vehicles) is at 48%.
- Funding Needs: The ELA and fire department directors emphasized that the current capital budget of $10 million is insufficient. A sustainable fleet management plan requires approximately $20 million annually in pay-go funding to replace aging vehicles and reduce maintenance costs. Currently, the city is "on life support" regarding fleet replacement.
- Lead Times: Replacing specialized fire apparatus and ambulances is complicated by lead times of 3 to 4 years. This delay means that any vehicle ordered today will not be in service until 2029, exacerbating the current crisis where the over-life-cycle percentage is projected to rise to 80-90% without immediate intervention.
- Leasing Strategy: A lease agreement for five fire apparatuses (pumpers and trucks) is currently active to ensure immediate availability, though it was a costly workaround from six years ago. Councilwoman Strasberger questioned the cost-benefit of leasing vs. buying; the Authority clarified the current lease is essentially a car loan for specialized equipment to solve the immediate availability gap, not a long-term strategy for cost savings.
- Street Sweeper Leases: A new five-year lease for 10 new street sweepers was discussed to include maintenance packages, alleviating pressure on internal shops that lack parts and mechanics for aging specialized equipment.
- Fire Foam Tenders: Councilman Wilson raised concerns about foam tender trucks that are currently unsafe to operate due to weight distribution and environmental foam issues. The Chiefs noted safety hazards and the need for repairs and foam replacement (PFAS issues) before deployment.
Key Outcomes
- Staffing: PPA confirmed hiring has improved significantly since lifting the residency requirement, with new wage contracts effective January 1, 2026, raising starting wages to increase recruitment.
- Service Continuity: The ELA is proceeding with a $10 million capital plan to replace critical vehicles, prioritizing EMS and Public Works, but directors warn that without a $20 million annual commitment, service levels (fire response, waste collection) will degrade, potentially leading to service interruptions.
- Policy Corrections: The PPA agreed to work with Councilman Charlotte to adjust Sunday enforcement policies in specific South Side parking lots to align with church hours and ensure clear public communication, having already corrected enforcement in areas near churches.
- Future Planning: The ELA has established a prioritization rubric weighting risk and public safety impact to guide future vehicle purchases. Council members were directed to seek data on the long-term financial cost of the current deferred maintenance and specific municipal examples of dedicated fleet funding (e.g., Palm Beach County).
- No New Funding Approved: The budget hearing did not result in an immediate approval of the $20 million requested; the discussion highlighted the gap between current appropriations ($10 million) and the required sustainable level ($20 million), framing it as a critical fiscal decision for the upcoming year.
Meeting Transcript
Hello and welcome to the Pittsburgh City Council budget hearings. I am Councilman Kahari Mosley and I chair the Committee on Intergovernmental and Educational Affairs. For this hearing, we will hear from the Pittsburgh Parking Authority and the Equipment Leasing Authority. We are joined by those from the Pittsburgh Parking Authority at the table. And as we begin this hearing, I ask our budget director, Peter McDevitt, to give a brief overview of the department. Thank you, Councilman. The mission of the public parking authority of Pittsburgh is to provide and maintain affordable, safe, and clean public parking throughout the city of Pittsburgh to uniformly enforce parking ordinances and laws of the city of Pittsburgh and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the collections thereof to advance the economic progress of the region and to do so with the utmost commitment to customer service. The parking authority is responsible for 10 parking garages, one attended parking plaza, the Mond Wharf, uh 7,900 on-street metered parking spaces, 32 surface lots controlling uh 1600 spaces and 33 residential parking program districts. It also oversees the operations of the Pittsburgh Parking Court. And currently, Councilman Wilson is council's representative on the Pittsburgh Parking Authority board. And very quickly, uh we have a number of parking-related revenues in the operating budget. This is for the city as a whole. This isn't just um what we get from the parking authority, but for parking tax, we get just under uh $59.5 million dollars. For meter revenue, we get a little over $9 million, and for parking authority tickets, the city gets uh about eight million dollars. And of that, $26.75 million um parking tax uh is to be allocated towards the pension per section uh 272.01 of city code, and that's all I have for the parking authority. Thank you, Director McDevitt. Thank you, Director McDevitt. Council Carson Warwick is online. And also uh for the record, Councilwoman Barbara Warwick is joined us online. And now uh for the representatives from the Pittsburgh Parking Authority, please introduce yourself and begin your presentation. Thank you, Councilwoman. Um I'm Dave Onorado, executive director of the Pittsburgh Park Authority. Uh and with me is Jody Hart, CFO and Deputy Director of the Parking Authority. Uh as he stated uh uh our mission and went over to the overview. We're in agreement with that. We have uh uh second avenue parking plaza too, it's missing there. But we're uh uh agency uh we uh board passed our budget last uh this month, last week. Uh with that 26th budget, we're anticipating giving the city just under just over 28 million dollars next year through the co-op agreement we have with the city that includes what uh McDivan went through on the parking tax meter revenue and parking court money make up the big share of that. Um that's all we have for I don't have a formal presentation, but we're uh happy to answer any questions absolutely and uh just to note that we're I think one of the only agency that doesn't receive money from the city and we're the ones who fund the city. Thank you. I appreciate that context. Uh Councilwoman Warwick, I'm gonna uh offer you the floor if you have any questions or comments. Um yeah, sure. Apologies. I'm in the car on my way down. But um yeah, could you just give us an update sort of on staffing and um uh you know the ability just to for of the parking authority to do parking enforcement kind of in the you know, because I know that you're trying to staff up uh to to be able to do in addition to metered spots also, you know, because obviously we you know we hear a lot about parking issues in non-metered spots, but you know, between metered spots, the residential parking permit program and uh and then elsewhere, what you know how how how's capacity looking for the parking authority? Uh yes, we're we're uh better off this year coming up in 26 for our enforcement uh uh division. We're besides our officers, which were uh more uh fully staffed to capacity, we're also using automated enforcement to do the RPP districts, and we'll be rolling that off for meter enforcement and eventually uh in 2026. We're hoping to uh uh do automated enforcement for the non-meter areas such as signage, uh no parking and handicap and fire fire hydrants. Oh, okay. Well that's great. That's great to hear. So um, and would there be a possibility too for um and I know this is a little bit nuanced in Pittsburgh, but um for for folks who are parking on the sidewalk. So I know that we have small streets where it's so narrow, right? Like maybe I'm thinking up in like Southside Slopes or wherever it's kind of like there's no choice just given the size of the streets. But we also have places where it's just like egregious unnecessary parking on the sidewalk, sometimes on the curb, sometimes completely on the sidewalk, right? Like the whole car is on the sidewalk. Um is that something that uh you know, and it's it's just it's an issue it comes up a lot, and it it's sort of a lot more than our Bureau of Police can handle. Uh yes, we uh we don't actively enforce that aggressively throughout the city, but we do get the calls concerning that. We informed a complaint that we will enforce it and not only that one vehicle but the entire block because we can't target enforce.
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