Good morning and welcome to the pre-agenda interview for Monday, March thirtieth, two thousand twenty-six for the director of the Department of Mobility and Infrastructure.

Would the clerk please read the title of the bill?

And for the record, we are currently joined by uh Councilwoman Kim Sellinetro.

Others may join us momentarily.

Um, director, as I believe you're aware, we have to provide an oath to you.

Um, and so after the oath, if you will simply say that you affirm what's been stated.

So do you Jeff Skelly can some solemnly affirm that the testimony you are about to give before this council shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

And do you further affirm that you will faithfully discharge the duties as the director of the Department of Building Infrastructure to which you have been nominated?

I affirm.

With that, I think we all know you, but we'll turn it over to you to say who you are.

Tell us a little bit about yourself and why you're willing to serve in this position.

Sure, I appreciate it.

Um you said uh Jeff Scalikan, I'm the acting director for Department of Mobility Infrastructure.

Um I'll go through a quick rundown of why I want this position and um who I am and what we've been doing.

Um, I had some things written down, but I'm honestly gonna go from my heart about why I'm here and what the cause is.

Um I've been with the department of mobility infrastructure is actually going to be nine years old this month.

Um we've when I first came here, I was the first person that was in the department.

Um I was asked from uh the old administration and assistant director Pat Hassett that, like, hey, let's form a department of transportation for the city of Pittsburgh.

I'm like, how cool is that?

Like who and how many people really get the opportunity to build an apartment for a city that they love for a city that you're a part of.

Um when I came here, um, like I said, it's been nine and a half years for me.

Uh we uh we were a group of one.

I was the first one.

Then a couple months later, about six months later, we had six of us.

Another six months, there was about 46 of us, and currently we stand at 127 um people in Domey.

Um I'm not done building the department.

I really want to add on to department of what we're doing.

We're doing a lot of great things.

Sorry.

Um, and we want to continue with that flow of how things are going.

Um we have a bridge division right now that we created.

We have about five people that are working on our bridges in-house, like to double that and triple that in the next three to five years.

Um I know positions are gonna be tough in the next couple years, but um, I think the little things that Domi can do that we do not do now, we can really help with simple things of like having two people that are gonna paint, like to have a couple painters are gonna paint handrails fences in the city of Pittsburgh.

It'll help lat the paint will help the the paint will help the fence and and the guy and the um hand railings um last longer and honestly it looks nice.

The little things in life that when you leave your house you see are very um, you know, makes it makes you feel good when you see something that's painted and looks nice instead of it's rusted and falling apart.

Um so my vision for the department is still growing.

We're still not done.

We have a great group of people.

I want to build on that and continue it.

Um yeah, just keep the flow really.

Thank you very much.

With that, I'll turn it over to Councilman Salonetro.

Jeff, thank you so much for your willingness to serve and be in this position and be so passionate about it.

Um I wanted to ask you a little bit about something we discussed in our office.

Uh we have biweekly meetings, um, and you do a great job at that.

Um and we talked a little bit about your ability to increase some of the grants that the city's been eligible for over the past several years.

So can you elaborate a little bit more on that?

Sure.

Um my background is I'm actually worked at Pendot before I came to the city of Pittsburgh and I worked with federal and state funding for the state.

Um since I've been here for like I said, the nine years, we only had a handful of projects that we were receiving federal and state funding.

We have about four to six.

Um I can happily say right now, as you guys are aware, you see me almost every week up here getting money, receiving money, and accepting money.

Um we have over 40 projects right now that are receiving federal and state funding.

Um we have great partners.

Um, since I've been here, be able to um have great relationships with people from Pendot and the federal government and the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission.

It's our MPO for the city to receive more money.

Um, like I said, we have over 40 projects, and I'd like to continue that and you know, help improve our infrastructure, help sure we you know, make sure we um you know we keep our bridges, you know, um up and running, make sure we have traffic coming, make sure we keep their signals moving.

You know, city, we need help, we need money.

And um, one thing that I've been really well, you know, working well with the team is to receive federal and state funding for those projects.

Thank you.