Good morning.

Welcome to the standing committee's meeting for Wednesday, May thirteenth, twenty twenty six.

All council meetings will be live streamed on the city's website, and for guest speakers, please do not turn off your microphones.

Our first order of business is roll call.

Will the clerk please take the roll?

Mr.

Shryland.

Mr.

Coghill, Ms.

Gross, Mr.

Lavelle, Mr.

Mosley.

Here.

Mrs.

Salinetra.

Here.

Mrs.

Warwick.

Mr.

Wilson.

Mrs.

Strasberger, Chair.

Here.

Five members present.

Thank you.

Our next order of business is public comment.

I would like to remind all speakers that the rules of council state that comments are limited to matters of concern, official action, or deliberation, which are maybe before city council.

Profanity will not be permitted.

Please state your name and neighborhood for the record, and you will have three minutes to speak.

Our first registered speaker is Dr.

Ronald Lynn Miller.

Call attention to the three rivers Native American Council Center there.

And that is that superposition is not retained properly between atoseconds, which is one quintillion of a second, and um microseconds, which is one millionth of a second.

Um indigenous Americans in their religious cultures though have a version of um topological information, um braiding, which is necessary for uh that type of superposition to be um retained, and of individual self-control and self-correction, self-correction in the program of quantum computing uh has been inserted by Google uh Willow in particular.

Uh and thirdly, of um cool.

Um 273 degrees C is what is now operational the goal for 2C in our advanced systems across the United States, and including at Carnegie Mellon University.

Thank you.

Our next registered speaker is Chiefana Helmakina.

Chief, we see the off mute.

You can begin when you're ready.

Okay, we if you're speaking, we can hear you, yes.

Okay, greetings and good day by side of our streets at a house, you know, underground inside the Urban Confederacy of Aboriginal American people.

The issue of violence is not an external issue, it's an internal moral issue that has been centering for over 20 years now.

It started with a cultural misunderstanding.

You see, some cultural systems, customs, and traditions were meant to stay in place.

The violence that you see in our youth today is a direct result of outside influence by social service agents, institutions, and policy around child welfare.

How does this relate to crime and violence?

Well, I'm glad you added.

When social services disrupted and interrupted our cultural way of disciplining our children with this hands-off motiving children approach, we as parents lost the brains we once had of our children.

So once was a cliche taken directly from the Bible to spare the rod is to spoil the child.

There are things happening in our culture that historically wouldn't happen.

Respect in brown households was always rooted in the core values taught at home, easily transferred into real life and into society, and selling the fear of God in children worked and emotionally stable, well-rounded children.

I myself received what we call walking as a child.

And I stand before you grateful and proud that my mother gave me woman.

It made me who I am today.

A kind, compassionate, loving, gentle, respectful, supportive, and responsible adults, all attributes needed in today's society, and needs reflected in today's youth.

This is the case.

I'm a mother of six with six children aging ranging in age from thirty-two to six.

And I currently have two teenage children.

One 17-year-old male and one 14-year-old female.

And although anything my three remaining minor children has been unconventional to say the least, the recipe is still the same.

The balance between love and discipline.

And being consistent with both.

Thank you.

There being no further registered speakers, we will now take comments from those in the audience wishing to speak.

Good morning.

My name is Javorne F.

Brown.

I live at 750 Mercer Street, the high rise up at the top of Bethreek with 192 apartments.

I went to County Council last night.

Well, I hope that you had listened to 70.5 FM WESA Radio Station.

Because they were talking about what happened at County Council.

County Council, you had a group that um I I can't think of the name of it, but it's a group that is telling the president, Mr.

Cassina, Cassina, and I'm sorry about pronouncing his name wrong, that he must step down.

Now, as an activist, and I fight I'm fighting for children, youth, family, hospital workers, seniors in KD, wherever, and children, any poor person, because they that don't get a chance to speak to you.

I'm speaking to a lot of people, and I told Mr.

Cassina I will speak today.

They say that they want him to step down and I say no.

I say no.

I say yes for Mr.

Cassina, because of I've spoken to the other spoken county council, and he I saw him sit for a hundred people.

And then when he got finished, he says, is anyone in the audience that we have overlooked?

Do you understand?

When you just have 20 or 25, you should talk to each other on the phone.

You may get up and walk out and so on.

But he said all the way through, unlike the what the Witt Watson, the black council, my um county council.

See, I'm coming down to tell you and everybody else.

I've seen him also.

When I went down, the president of council told me to go to the county council.

I went to county council, and I I brought up a problem.

And he said, When I got finished, well, council or members, this Mrs.

Brown has come down with a concern.

So what should we do?

Should we write this letter to Port Authority, singingly, or write it all together?

I write it as the president for the whole group.

So then he said, Oh, wait a minute, the wit, that's your area.

And when he said, Will you write the letter?

He said no.

I mean, he screamed no.

I will not nobody come down and tell me what that community needs.

I know what they need.

They don't need a bus.

They need security.

Do you understand that's what we elected?

I told him.

And then um next week, but yes for Casina.

But what for um for uh to represent us?

I'm serious.

Yeah, yeah.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Good morning, council of selective listening, council of comfortable Silence, council of convenient blindness.

I'm gonna continue off from where I started yesterday.

My name is Junique Brown, and the message are children is hearing is that some mothers are worth saving, and some are just built to suffer, and that is heartbreaking to think, for a child to learn while watching their mother slowly break apart in front of them because what do children start believing about themselves when they constantly watch their black mothers beg for help and still get ignored?

What does that teach them about their worth?

I need this counsel to truly hear me today when I say black mothers are exhausted, and not just tired, not just I want to take a nap, but so tired, so exhausted, it's coming from every part of the city, every type of pain, the kind of tire that comes from carrying trauma, poverty, fear, racism, homelessness, and survival at all, and survival all at the same time while still trying to hold your children together so they don't fall apart too, and what hurts most is that we keep asking for help before we break, but this city waits until people are drowning to finally look in her direction.

The pain doesn't stop at housing, it doesn't stop at shelters, it follows us everywhere we go.

I even tried to go to a therapy group because I wanted to heal, I wanted somewhere finally safe to speak about what I went through, but instead, I was told my trauma was too deep, and it was too much pain for the room.

I was told they didn't want me talking about my racial discrimination because it might make the other girls uncomfortable, but I was the only black girl in the room, so uh the commission of human relations has a case on them too.

I see where what matters, like it we have to fight the systems seriously, just to be sane, heard, talk to, get help, anything, like I tried to go to counseling, and the therapist told me don't talk about it.

Like that's ridiculous.

It's like you're black, you didn't realize this was gonna happen to you.

Should it happen to us?

Should it keep happening to us?

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Good morning, the missing child series tailor, especially in sunshine.

Lord, thank you for the truth, which is on fire, and it truly sets me free.

Y'all ain't ready for it.

But here it is.

Thank you.

Two.

The judicial misconduct of a judge.

Name, I can't find it, Amanda.

No one, where is that?

Green.

No her.

I think that's her last name.

Judicial misconduct is abusing power.

This judge knows about my identity that's right.

This judge paid for the attempt of my murder.

She lied under oath.

It's no one lied under oath.

She allowed it.

She knows about the gang stalking program.

Who stole my inheritance?

Right here in Pittsburgh City Council.

She knows everybody in law.

There's a corrupt lawyer involved.

She knows about him as well.

She had the audacity to come yesterday to the Oakland Library facility.

Her and two other judges, Redsky and Greenhouse, or I think that's her name.

Greenhouser.

And um Amanda Greenhouse or Hawkins, whatever her name is.

Um to be a judge, you have to have humility.

Really?

Will you have humility?

When is your turn to sleep and it's snowing the right?

Will you have humility when you lose everything for not keeping your oath with the most high God?

You are not.

In Jesus' name, Lord, thank you for leading me to the truth and using me as a vessel.

Do your will not mind.

Amen.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Are there any further speakers?

Seeing none, we will move on to our standing committee's agenda.

First committee is the Finance and Law Committee, and we do have new papers.

Bill 448.

Resolution amending resolution number 712 of 2025, entitled Resolution Authorizing the Mayor and the Director of the Department of Finance to submit a Keystone Recreation Park and Conservation Fund grant application to the Pennsylvania Office of Commonwealth Libraries for the replacement of the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning and roofing systems at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh's Squirrel Hill Branch in an amount not to exceed 400,000 for this stated purpose to accept the grant and authorize necessary expenditures.

Is there a motion?

Motion to approve.

Second.

Discussion.

Seeing none, all in favor of Bill 448, please say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Affirmative recommendation.

Bill 449.

Resolution further amending resolution number 723 of 2022.

Effective December 27th, 2022, as amended and titled.

Resolution adopting and approving the 2023 Capital Budget, the 2023 Community Development Program, and the 2023 through 2028 capital improvement program by reducing park reconstruction by 143,966.12 cents, reducing facility improvements, recreation and senior centers by 82,175.66 cents, and increasing facility improvements, sports facilities by 226, 141.78 cents.

Second.

Second discussion.

Councilmember Warwick.

Yeah, could we just have someone uh let us know where the money is coming from and what it's going to?

Good morning, Council.

Dan Gilman, chief of staff of the mayor.

Uh this is for Banksville Park in Council District 2 working with the councilwoman.

This is to refinish the tennis courts and change them to pickleball courts and to refinish the basketball courts.

And it is coming from capital projects that are completed and closed that had money left in the count.

So no, no project is being cut, it's just cleaning out old accounts that were complete.

Okay.

Sounds good.

Careful.

Watch out those tennis players.

Okay.

That's all.

Any further discussion?

Seeing none, all in favor of Bill 449, please say aye.

Aye.

Affirmative recommendation.

Thank you.

Thank you, Council.

That moves us to invoices.

Is there a motion on invoices?

Motion approved.

Second.

Discussion.

Seeing none, all in favor of invoices, please say aye.

Aye.

Affirmative recommendation.

That moves us to P cards.

Is there a motion on P cards?

Motion to approve.

Second.

Discussion.

I do have one note.

Our budget director Walmsley noted that there is, as you'll see, an eleven thousand dollar give or take charge coming from the PLI department.

And this is the quarter one 2026 payment for code fees that PLI has required to pay the state and can only be paid by PCAR due to state rules.

Any further discussion?

We have to waive any sort of rule or we do need to weigh the rules.

Thank you.

Motion to weigh the rules.

Second.

Further discussion, seeing none, all in favor of waiving the rules to allow for an overage of $5,000.

Please say aye.

Aye.

Rules are waived.

Any further discussion on the P cards?

Seeing none, all in favor of P cards, please say aye.

Aye.

P cards are approved.

That moves us to public safety and wellness committee chaired by Councilman Coghill.

New papers bill 439 resolution authorizing the mayor and the director of the Department of Public Safety to enter on behalf of the City of Pittsburgh into a professional services agreement or agreements with LATOS security detection and automation in for equipment maintenance services for the city's X-ray security systems at an overall cost not to exceed $69,000 over five years.

Motion to approve.

Second.

Discussion.

Seeing none, all in favor of Bill 439, please say aye.

Affirmative recommendation.

Bill uh that moves us to public works and infrastructure committee chair chaired by Councilwoman Salonetro.

New papers bill 445 resolution providing for a supplemental agreement or agreements with tool design LLC for costs associated with the phase two of the West Pittsburgh Reach Neighborhood Mobility Plan and providing for the payment of costs thereof not to exceed 204,274 dollars and increase of 100,000 from the previously executed agreement.

Motion to approve second discussion.

Seeing none, all in favor of bill four forty-five, please say aye.

Aye.

Affirmative recommendation.

Bill 446.

Resolution providing for an amended reimbursement agreement or agreements with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation for costs associated with the preliminary engineering, final design, and construction phases of the city steps project and providing for the payment of costs thereof not to exceed nine million eight hundred and seventy thousand dollars, a net increase of seven million two hundred twenty thousand dollars from the previously executed agreement, reimbursable at 80%, and the municipal share of commonwealth incurred costs at a cost to the city of Pittsburgh not to exceed forty-six thousand dollars, a net increase of twenty thousand dollars from the previously executed agreement.

Motion to approve second discussion.

Seeing none, all in favor of Bill 446, please say aye.

Aye, affirmative recommendation that moves us to land use and economic development committee chaired by Councilman Wilson.

New papers Bill 451 resolution authorizing the mayor and the director of the Department of City Planning to enter into an agreement or agreements with the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission for the purpose of receiving grant funds in the amount of $25,000 to conduct a city of Pittsburgh LGBTQ plus context statement.

Motion to approve discussion.

Second.

The discussion.

So we're here to speak to the bill.

Good morning.

Morning.

You just say your name.

Sharon Spooner, Department of City Planning.

Sure.

So this started with the aftermath of the proposed nomination of Donnie's place, where um with comments by commissioners and at council.

We pursued a grant with the state to do a context study.

So typically prior to having historic nomination submitted, for example of a building.

That would begin to identify stories, places in people that then would support a historic nomination.

So I think what was identified with Donnie's place is that you know the study never happened, and there was a nomination submitted.

So this is kind of going and starting at the beginning to see if there is context and um a story here to celebrate in Pittsburgh.

Great.

I like this.

Thanks.

I don't know any further questions.

Yeah, so just so we understand this is a context study specifically around Donnie's place or just about the community overall and industry overall overall.

Yeah, citywide.

Citywide.

Okay.

Um will this context study?

I mean, I you know, will the LGBTQIA plus commission be engaged and you know how are we going to ensure that there's like robust engagement around this?

Because I wouldn't want to do a study and then have folks feel like they were not included in the study.

Um there will be a robust community engagement portion of this project.

Um that is a great suggestion for the commission.

Um I think we would definitely look to engage them as well as different community groups citywide on this.

Um and interviews as well will be a big part of the research done as part of this context study.

Okay, so uh if you yeah, please reach out to Corey Buckner, he runs the committee and then and there's other, you know, in other groups as well.

I think maybe the committee is a good place to start, and then that will sort of figure out where who all needs to be engaged.

That's a good starting point though.

Thank you for that.

Yep.

Yeah, and this grant supports an RFP for a consultant, so having the commission or uh Mr.

Buckner on the selection could work.

Okay, thanks.

Further discussion.

Councilman, um, sorry, Councilman Gross Online.

Thank you.

Hi, everybody.

Um again, uh just following up on Councilwoman Warwick's comment.

I think councilman, you were talking about the LGBTQA commission.

Is that correct?

Correct.

Okay, yeah.

So I didn't know if you were talking about a difference.

You're saying I think committee, so I wanted to make sure that I asked if this project started as a recommendation from the commission.

Like what has been the conversation with the commission before today?

Oh, so far, um, I think it's very early in the process, so we haven't reached out um beyond what we heard at council and at um historic review commission about what uh the approach should be.

Um so I think that will be very much the next step is engagement.

I'm disappointed that there hasn't already been conversation.

We have these citizen commissions for a reason, right?

To inform policy and priorities and even methods.

Um I would feel better if you would let council know that you've talked to the commission before you write an RFP.

So you're asking us here today to kind of allow for the work to continue, but I don't feel good that the work has not already included our LGBTQIA Commission.

Councilmember, we have a letter of support from the commission when we submitted for the grant.

And still letter, so you have a letter of support.

Have you actually correctly have worked on what the scope would be in informing the RFP?

The RFP, not RFP, but the the grant application included a broad outlines in RFP, but we have not started the RFP yet.

We typically would wait until we have council approval.

Was the broad outline informed by your conversations with the commission?

We reached out to the commission for a letter of support with the broad outlines of the grant, but I can't answer if they reviewed the grant prior to submitting it.

I'll reach out to the commission myself, I think.

Thank you, so I can better understand kind of their thoughts.

And the stories are are rich and wonderful and definitely worth saving.

There's already been some oral historians who have captured some of it.

We know that the records from Donnie's were also, I think, going to be archived at the Western Pennsylvania Historical Association.

I would love to see parts of this work also somehow indexed or cataloged by city records as well.

Um so I would be interested in hearing more about that.

Um, of course, it's exciting, Mark.

I just want to make sure that it's inclusive from the beginning.

Um so I applaud you, but also um I'll be looking forward to hearing um that kind of acknowledgement and input from as councilwoman works at a variety of stakeholders.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Further discussion.

Seeing none, all those in favor of Bill 451, please say aye.

Aye.

Affirmative recommendation.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That moves us to innovation performance asset management and technology committee chaired by councilwoman.

Supplemental paper, supplemental new papers, Bill 472, resolution authorizing the mayor and the director of the Department of Innovation and Performance to enter into on behalf of the city of Pittsburgh a data sharing agreement or agreements and amendments thereto with Johns Hopkins University as part of the data science for social good program at no cost to the city over three years.

Motion to approve discussion.

Second.

Second with discussion, Councilwoman McGross.

Yes, thank you.

Can we have um our colleagues at IUP join us at the table?

We had a briefing yesterday.

Um, think I see you all there.

Um, as a reminder, we had um this was a new paper yesterday, Tuesday, it was related for today's agenda.

Um, and uh just wanted council members to have a chance to hear from our colleagues.

Um so you all uh can introduce yourselves and give us a brief overview.

Um Sylvia Harris, acting Director, department of innovation and performance.

Good morning, Chris Pelasco, Chief Data Officer, Department of Innovation and Performance.

Good morning, Neil Gerback, Assistant Director of PLI Systems Operations.

Good morning, Ben Force State Special Projects Manager, Mayor's Office.

So you're gonna give us a brief um do first and then I'll ask some questions.

Yeah.

Thanks.

Thanks for having us, uh Councilwoman.

Um yeah.

So we um were approached by some colleagues of ours who work through Carnegie Mellon University, but this summer they're doing a special program through Johns Hopkins University.

And so that program is being hosted through an organization that's pretty familiar to us because they offer us a lot of training and capacity support to do data projects.

That organization is called Johns Hopkins GovX, and they help us do kind of best practices associated with our data practices.

So this summer they're hosting our colleague from Carnegie Mellon to do some special projects.

The office is really interested in trying to help uh you know smooth the permit process, the application process, make sure that applicants have what they need.

And so we we looked at this opportunity as a um as sort of a you know a new new opportunity that we weren't, you know.

This is why we're we're doing we're asking to waive for late because it was like you know, pretty pretty quick notice to to join in in their um cohort.

And so we wanted to get the contracting uh, you know, signing and and you know the approval process uh moving and reach out to council as soon as we had heard about the opportunity.

Now the data that they're looking to work with us on is data that we publish on a regular basis via one stop PGH insights on the web already.

Um we would actually take steps that we don't even take for that because it's public data, to take the um names off of that data so that it would be you know usable in a university setting, so we would de-identify the data.

Um and so we were working on this agreement, you know, a template document to say this is the data that we would like to share to get some uh summer student fellowship support to help us uh you know work with the mayor's office to analyze data to improve the permitting process.

Thank you.

So my colleagues recall, of course, that we have been working with IMP on the resolution that we passed on protecting privacy.

Um, and so we know that the IMP is um going to be vigilant um in with this data, but I also uh want to acknowledge that so many of um my colleagues, including myself, have asked about PLI, especially in their business permitting, and um wanting it to not only be faster, but um I think more equal and equitable.

Um so I have had concerns over the years from um many of the small businesses that I represent in my district.

Um and so I one of my first questions was that are we going to have the opportunity this summer with this data to make sure that we aren't being unfair to some of the smaller businesses in my district?

I have a very large share, probably the largest across the city of women-downed businesses, and they very often um have told me about their difficulties with BLI and felt that maybe they were being treated unfairly.

Um, so I would love to see here again a gendered lens to make sure that we're not disadvantaging through our own processes and procedures, some businesses over others.

Um, and certainly many of us have mainstreams where we're trying to make sure that small businesses succeed, and it's difficult to open a business in the best of circumstances.

And so we definitely don't want to be the problem that prevents businesses from being opened or staying opened.

Um we should be doing, I think, some demographic and neighborhood comparisons.

Um I also called out my colleagues, we'lling call that when we were in Harrisburg.

I um my main ask in Harrisburg was for programs to support child care businesses because that is a policy initiative that we've been working on at the city um and in council for many years now.

Um we know that it's still a problem across incomes, across neighborhoods for all Pittsburgh families.

Um and so we may have the opportunity here.

So I don't know if anyone at the table wants to um respond with some thoughts since we spoke yesterday.

Sure, I can.

I think to your point uh council member that equity is at the heart of this process.

I mean, this is permitting is a city a process of city controls for the most part from start to finish.

And we should make it as easy as possible for people to do the right thing and some of the burdens of this process fall the hardest on people who don't have the means to navigate the system.

And that's that's what this is all about is taking the time with a group of people who are focused on this to understand the data in the city and to understand where these impacts fall.

I think some of the preliminary analysis we uh we've done shows that for comparable projects like a single family home, it takes a week longer for folks in low-income communities to even begin to submit permit.

So we have to understand that data and then begin to think about like how do we begin to address this in a way that is equitable because you know, we want people to be able to open businesses, we want more child care to be available in the city, and permitting is a huge portion of that.

Yeah, and just to add to that a little bit, um, as Ben stated, we're just starting to look at some demographic data at PLI.

That's admittedly something that we haven't done uh previously.

Um so hopefully that uh this partnership will allow us to really uh enhance and understand who's applying, not just like what type of business, but uh simple demographic information um as well.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

It's a little hard to see when I'm looking at you on a tiny screen.

So um I'll leave it there, madam to in case other members have questions.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Other comments, questions?

I have a question.

Um maybe there's a universal uh definition for de-identify, but I see that it's gonna be de-identified.

Can you just define that for the purposes of this legislation?

Yeah, sure, and thank you.

Um so we're going to strip the names out of the uh records, the rows of the records to make it so that you couldn't tell who had submitted it.

We will still have an uh a unique identifier for the row.

So that'll be like plenty for our colleagues over at um Johns Hopkins to be able to identify it to get a permit all the way through.

But that that information is sufficient to do that work and it minimizes the amount of um identifying information that's being made available.

So removing the name, is there any way that this could be traced back to an individual?

Or and I guess is are there measures that are being taken to uh require that those handling and manipulating the data um, you know, must keep it confidential, et cetera, et cetera.

What are the measures that are being taken?

Yeah, so those measures begin with the contract, which is you know what what brings us here today, right?

And then you know, you you as a person who produces data can take measures to be proactive by by restricting what they have access to, right?

We call that data minimization.

In this case, that's where we're redacting the names from the from the data, right?

So we're we're doing that.

I would also like leave it to PLI to share which pieces of data are already public, like there are there are many things that are already actually public record that are being shared.

Um we're just taking these additional steps, both because they were requested in the contract by um Johns Hopkins, but because you know they're they want to be able to work with this data with us, and so it's a you know it's it's a good thing to do.

So thank you.

Uh just that all of our data is open to the public, as Chris mentioned, but when Chris talks about uh unique identifier, I believe he's not talking about the permit number, which is a unique identifier that we're currently using.

It would be masks, so it'd be untraceable to our open records currently.

Great, thank you.

That's helpful.

Okay.

Oh, my councilwoman also that we have a post-agenda um to be scheduled on these issues of data privacy and surveillance that I questioned for a few weeks ago.

Um, and so, see if any council members have any further questions, either about what IoT does or other best practices, um that's those are the topics that we're going to be addressing in the post-agenda coming up.

Thank you.

Looking forward to that.

Councilmember Warwick.

Um, is there a way in this study that we're ensuring I mean that the grant is used to study.

You know, as you mentioned, I think, well, you know, once we talked about you were saying there was like a daycare or something that almost wasn't able to open because they're permitting, I don't know if you want to.

You know, I think we've heard stories of folks who are getting into the process and investing money in businesses and possibly aren't able to open by the end of it because they don't understand how to go through it or they're making decisions in the moment.

We have to be able as a city to get provide people the information they need to do the right thing to get into the process.

And I mean that this is happening like across neighborhoods, right?

Like that as we've gone, as you know, I've dived into permitting for the mayor's office.

This is what has come up on multiple occasions.

Is people want to do the right thing, there, they some sometimes don't know the information they need to know.

And we have to be able to understand like which of these projects are having the most difficulty, which of these are the most complicated, and how do we as a city do the best we can to give them the information up front before they start investing?

And child care is one of the the businesses that are types of businesses that are very complicated to open, require lots of different types of permits, um, and is is um like you know a huge driver of why people want to choose to live in the city and invest here.

Um, so as we do, I mean, it will there be some kind of safeguard around the data that we're working with to ensure that as far as projects go, that's what we're focusing on and not like issues with sort of you know large scale apartment buildings that are like 400.

I mean, not to say that that's not important, right?

But if this is this doesn't feel like that's the intention of this, no, I don't think so.

I mean, really, again, like the majority of the projects that are like coming into the system are from like individuals or small businesses, and like those are the people, you know, who maybe are dealing with permitting for the first time, and like really that is who this is for.

Like if those folks are able to at like access a system easier to do the right thing to make sure that their homes and businesses are you know safe and up to code, then like anything we do for those folks will like help help larger businesses, but you know, they have they have lawyers, they have other means to get through the system.

Right, right.

And then um another thing, so um that I'm curious about because again, totally anecdotal, but um, you know, in working with PLI on on various issues for small businesses, from time to time it will come up with a well, they'll be like, oh, they're working with that contractor, and that contractor is like sort of notorious.

I mean, much of the time, right?

It's your contractor is supposed to be able to know how to do this stuff, right?

And then the contractor is not doing what they're supposed to do on the PLI end.

And so I wonder if while maintaining the data privacy of the applicant, if there would be a way to also look at that to see if there's you see what I'm saying?

Like if there are contractors who are like chronically getting hired by a small business and then they're just like dropping the ball and causing all this time delay.

This is something I've thought about as well, and I think it's like a secondary step to understanding like which projects, which types of projects encounter the most difficulty, and then like moving backwards to begin to think about like all right, how do we put in place, you know, safeguards?

I don't think it'll be part of this program.

This is more about like understanding like the vast thousands of different categories of projects and how they flow through the system.

Okay, and then stepping back to say, all right, what other steps that can we take as a city to make sure that this is equitable and that people are getting the right advice to do the right things.

And there may be opportunities since we do data analytics and we are practicing it with with our colleagues here already, that if that's not something that's appropriate to be able to answer once we've de identified the data that we share, like that we could follow up with it internally, you know, where we warehouse the data and we keep the data secure and it still contains the identifiers, and we could follow up with you know particular challenges from there because it it it does become an interesting question, yeah.

So I mean, I wonder too, just with the overall process.

I mean, even taking individual contractors out, like if a part of if one of the sticking points in the process is that, because I've heard this many times where a constituent will call and be like I haven't you know what I mean like I'm waiting and it's behind and PLI and they've had it forever and then I contact PLI and they're like yeah we just got it back from the con so the contractor is telling their is blaming us right and if there's a way to well if that's pervasive if we can see that in the process and then if that is something that we can address proactively.

I mean that I mean that is kind of one of the things we're looking at now with the types of data that the city provides days days with the city how much how long a permit is with our reviewing departments versus days with applicants to begin to say we can control the days with the city.

We need to speed those up and then figure out ways to better alert the folks who are applying that hey this is with you now.

Right.

You know you need to make the corrections that we're asking you to make so we can you know get this through the system.

Yeah.

And with our open data we do display our workflow and what stage uh within one stop PGH insights what stage each permit is at I think we could do a little bit of a jet better job of making it clear if it's internal with the city or if it's like on the applicant or the license holder um but one uh separate initiative that we're working on as part of the mayor's executive order for permitting reform is what we're calling a pizza tracker internally at least which is uh going to be accessible to anyone that logs into once dot pgh and it basically shows all the steps needed on the permit and where you are generally so hopefully uh through our open data and through once not PGH we can make things a little bit more clear about you're not just on this step you're on this step and here's the entire environment that you have to get through.

And then also starting to understand how long it takes any given type of permit to get through the process so we can begin to tell people up front this should take about four weeks you know for the average project of this type.

And I mean Neil's been Neil and Chris have been great to work with on this to like both prep data and then begin to work on how to implement these things.

And I think finally one thing that Chris's team is currently working on from an analysis standpoint is identifying when permits are going off the rails and maybe potentially have the ability to reach out when that is happening.

Yeah.

Yeah I mean that that begins with knowing you know how permits go through the process and the frequency with which they go to the different touch points and stages of review and that's kind of the current analysis and and our objective is to try to figure out how to know in an anticipatory fashion when those problems would would emerge so that we can help create that communication structure on it.

There's there's you know there's a wealth of information in the system.

We have tons and tons of observations you know what what can we do to help make it possible from a data framework to to know when when these things are going to happen and and you know help the these applicants particularly these applicants who don't have a ton of experience you know to be able to get get data out of you know or be able to get their permits through the system.

Sounds good I love a pizza tracker I use it a free permit if your permit takes too long your next permit is free.

Thank you.

Council President Charlotte.

Yes uh thank you for being here so this is a contract for three years uh I'm curious at what point kind of in in the pizza tracker of of three years where uh what what deliverables will will can we expect in those three years.

You know, is it for the whole three years on year three we will have a brand new system or what I'm imagining is at certain points there's going to be certain things that are going to come to us um that are things that we've learned throughout there.

How can we expect to to see a a calendar of updates?

Yeah let me um I might need to manage a little bit of expectations here.

So um Hopkins isn't going you know, Hopkins uh team members that are going to help us the summer are not going to um you know help deliver an entire system you know through this work, right?

This is they're gonna help provide data analysis that will extend the capacity of our existing team's data analysis in directions that we kind of mutually determine based on the data that we can make available with you know, accepting some of the limitations that we are we're gonna impose on the data um through the summer.

And so, you know, we're we're permitting them to use the data for follow-on, you know, uh work after that for up to three years.

Our primary engagement will that with them will probably be over sometime in August.

But it's stuff that we don't like would we like to have more resources to look at this?

And the answer is like please, you know.

Yeah, yeah.

So it's a it's a little bit more limited.

Um, but I think that um, you know, we would expect an analysis and presentation um as we kind of settle on a scope, right?

And it would be nice to be able to make that available more broadly afterward, and I think that um kind of given the the the players involved, I think that they would they would trumpet it too.

So that's those are some things that we will will alert them to as we kind of settle in on this.

So and I think we can give a little bit more specifics around uh this is really going to focus on the intake process, um, mapping out like how permits currently flow through the system and then like understanding some of the like demographics and some of the challenges the city faces, which groups are having the most difficulty.

I think that is like a way to narrow the scope for this over the summer and also you know, getting permits in the system is the first battle.

Everything then flows down from there.

So that's why we're focused on that.

I uh I I kind of think of like uh I guess we're we're using kind of silly analogies that everybody understands, but um like when you buy something on Amazon and it says like this item is often returned, I'm thinking of like a flag for uh you're you're applying for a roof permit, and like th this permit will often be returned, or something like that where we get it.

That's it's very much what we're working on right now.

Okay.

Which which specific types of permits cause the most issues.

Yeah.

And how can we give people the information up front to let them know what they're what they're about to, you know, get done.

And one of the things like I I think I come across a lot, um the way that I think of it is that we hear kind of these crazy anecdotes of like this person applied for this permit, and that you know, I don't know.

Well however it works out that the like this is the wildest story that ever happened, and that might happen, but that happens very infrequently.

The more common story is like, you know, the the thousands of basic permits that are applied for that end up having like you know, a small problem with them, as opposed to like the one story of this person that tried to put a, you know, a fence on and how crazy that was.

Like so the the anecdotes aren't as valuable as the data.

Um the anecdotes sometimes can make for really good stories and reporters love to write about them, but you know, i it's kind of like when I see the enforcement issues on PLI.

We love to send the attorney when it's the crazy the crazy case, the the guy that owns property and you know, uh out of the country, but the just general overgrown grass issue that we see, we don't um we don't send the attorney for that, and we don't actually do a good job following up that we don't actually enforce that very well.

Um and that's way more common than the case of like you know, my St.

Henry's church, which is the most complicated PLI case, you know, to be told.

We really need you know the focus on the the big data on the big problems, the the more likely scenarios there.

So I'm I'm thankful that you guys are doing this and I'm uh really interested to see what the final results are.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any further discussion?

Right.

Seeing none, all those in favor of Bill 472, please say aye.

Affirmative recommendation.

Thank you all.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

New papers.

By extending the term for three years and increasing the approved amount by two hundred eighty-six thousand seven hundred thirty nine dollars and fifty eight cents for a new total cost not to exceed seven hundred eighty five thousand eight hundred sixty four dollars and fifty eight cents over nine years.

Second.

Discussion?

Discussion.

Councilmember Charlin.

Yes.

I someone here to talk about this.

Do you guys like to introduce yourselves?

Sure.

My name is Rhea Price.

I am the current acting director of the Office of Management and Budget.

Elizabeth Sir Cone, Assistant Director of Operating and Special Revenue.

David Hutchinson, Assistant Director for Capital and Asset Management.

So I'm going to start real simple.

What does this software do?

It's our budgeting system, essentially.

So it's where uh it looks like you have a question.

Good, good.

Okay.

Yeah, um, so we have our ERP system, which is our financial system, and um, aside from that, we have our budgeting system, and this is where uh all of our uh budgeting system is held.

So both our operating budget and our capital budgets are in this software.

If you heard of the term Quastica, uh, that's what it refers to.

Uh so this is the question, okay.

Yes, yeah, I you not bought uh classica.

Yeah, okay.

Yeah, so I this is just one of the things I I think it's really helpful for us to because we don't deal with these software on a daily basis.

It's helpful for us to understand which ones we're actually using.

Um, this is this is an important one.

This is critical.

Okay.

Uh will with the ERP, is this something that could be assumed into the new ERP?

We will be looking at that, yes.

Okay, so but um but we will have a new ERP system for like several more years.

So we definitely need something in the meantime.

Okay.

Um that's really all that I've got.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Further discussion.

Seeing none, all in favor of Bill 440, please say aye.

All right.

Affirmative recommendation.

Bill 441.

Resolution amending resolution 682 of 2022, which authorized the mayor and the director of the Office of Management and Budget to enter into an agreement or agreements with Healthy Outcomes Inc., now policy confluent confluence inc, doing business as balancing act for a suite of online tools to educate and engage citizens on budget priorities by extending the term for one year for an additional thirteen thousand dollars for a new total not to exceed of fifty two thousand dollars over four years.

Second.

Second discussion.

Um, the purpose of this is I'll let Dave uh handle that.

Yeah, this is a suite of uh public-facing tools that we've used since kind of the late Peduto administration to help the public better understand the budgets.

Um is there's actually four tools that we use.

One's a tax receipt tool that allows residents to put in their annual income estimated value of their property and get back almost an itemized list for each department, each project type of kind of where their specific dollars are going within the two city budgets.

Additionally, we do budget simulations, we do an operating budget simulation and a capital budget simulation.

Those are both um to the dollar representations of the actual budgets, but they're in a much more friendly environment for residents to be able to move funds around to add revenue sources to subtract taxes if they wanted to and to add new projects as well.

With those, they can find out more detail about the individual uh capital projects and departments themselves, and also provide some feedback in the notes section if they want to.

Um there's one of those for capital, one of those for operating.

And then the fourth tool that we use is called prioritize, and it's something that we use for um more specific audiences.

We used it at the Readiness Institute last year.

Um that's kind of a smaller sandbox of a million dollars with a bunch of options that obviously exceed a million dollars for the participants in the meeting to choose from.

So they're kind of faced with the same difficult decisions that we face with trying to choose how to spend the limited dollars that we have.

Um, and in all four tools, we try to make sure that they're seeing the actual representations of the budgets as best they can.

So even in the fourth one, the prior test tool, we're trying to use estimates for how much projects actually cost.

So they're truly deciding if I want to reopen a pool for a summer or do I want to do some traffic comment?

Thank you.

I thought that was the case.

I wanted to make sure they're very cool tools.

I've explored all of them.

You know, members of the public have if they're interested in this work.

That being said, um, how confident are we that we're getting the most out of this?

That people that we have enough people who are interested in using it that we're it's worth.

I know it's not a whole lot of money per year, but in our tight financial times that, you know, the 52,000 over four years that we're getting the bang for the buck that we that we want versus another way of demonstrating the same information.

The second part of the question is, and I don't know if this is still the case.

Um you'll remember when we worked with um some really talented Carnegie Mellon students who put together sort of a um, you know, some recommendations for a budget, um, budget tweaks to make it more um malleable over time, um, accessible to the public, et cetera, et cetera.

And at the time, the controller's office had not an identical tool, but their own tool to be able to um, you know, um explore and manipulate the budget in their own way.

Um also want to make sure we're not being duplicative, um, in the in especially since it costs money.

Yeah, those are fair questions.

The first one's uh is a big value judgment.

I could say the efficacy of the tool varies with um how much of a push it gets in terms of promotion.

Yeah.

So currently the three public-facing tools all sit on our engaged PGH page.

Um we've obviously had communications and meetings planning uh this upcoming series of public meetings for the budget, which are happening in late May and early June, uh, with community fairs, and they're pretty excited about the digital tools and trying to figure out the best places to implement those as well.

Um I've not been on the controllers tool in a while.

I don't know if it's a fiscal watchdog tool or which one it is.

I've been in that part of the website in a minute, but I'll check it out.

In the past have we used these for the capital, and then I think we started some operating budget forums.

Like have we used these and and sort of had a laptop and said, hey, like come and explore this yourself and really promoted it at those.

I know we've had um up and down attendance at those types of events, and I know that it's all of all of us working to try to promote them and try to get more people interested in um some of these questions, but um that's something that is utilized in those forums and maybe outside of those forums as well.

We've promoted them especially at the end of meetings to show additional ways that people could engage.

We brought them up on the screen, show how you can kind of move the faders around.

Yeah, um, show how you can submit feedback and things like that.

I mean, as we speak, I'm crafting an email to someone who just said, can we set up a meeting to you know, a forum, uh a town hall to discuss what the how how we spend money?

And I said, Hey, there's these forums coming up, and also these tools.

So I do find it helpful.

It's not maybe an everyday ask, but I do find it helpful.

I was just trying to get a sense from you all how you use it and how it's been helpful to you.

Um I just want to add that uh we are in the very initial stages of talking to I and P and seeing if we have the capabilities of replicating those tools in-house, so that we don't have uh have to uh spend that money every year.

So and that's why we we're only asking for uh a one year extension, one year extension.

Okay, okay, thank you.

That's helpful.

Councilmember Warwick.

Um I remember I don't know if it was one two years ago or so.

There was one of these budget forums, right?

And uh it was really well attended, and um they did an exercise at the forum where everybody got on their phone and was able to do this, like choose, and it was it was great because it showed, right?

Like you got the results then of all the people that were in the room.

Is that the same tool?

Yes, yeah, we've gotten live results before at the end of meetings, the way you're describing.

Yeah.

Okay.

I mean, I don't know.

I feel like promotion-wise, I will say uh this administration has, I mean, their their comms team is very good.

So this if there's a way to loop them in on, you know, I don't know.

Video with the mayor.

There's uh there's just been some really good comms like around different things.

So this this could be something for that, yeah.

Yeah, further discussion.

Okay.

Seeing none, all those in favor of bill four forty-one, please say aye.

Aye.

Affirmative recommendation.

Bill 442.

Resolution authorizing the issuance of a warrant payable in favor of unisolutions, Inc.

for a one-year subscription in an amount not to exceed 19,980.

Motion to agree, second.

Discussion.

Seeing none, all in favor of Bill 442, please say aye.

Aye.

Affirmative recommendation.

Thank you all very much.

That moves us to intergovernmental and educational affairs committee chaired by Councilman Mosley.

Deferred papers, Bill 224.

Resolution authorizing the mayor, the director of public works, and the director of finance to enter into an easement agreement or agreements with the Allegheny County Sanitary Authority for the installation of certain monitoring boreholes on city-owned parcel IDs 121 H 20 82H 102 and 48H 200 at no cost to the city.

Motion to hold for six weeks.

Discussion.

Seeing none, all in favor of bill two twenty-four, please say aye.

I'm sorry.

All in favor, my apologies.

The motion was a six-week hold.

All in favor of a six-week hold, please say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Bill will be held for six weeks.

Resolution adopting plan revision to the city of Pittsburgh's official sewage facilities plan for 3634 Penn Avenue at no cost to the city.

Motion will hold for one.

Which one sorry?

Which one would we write?

385.

385.

I'm sorry, I was I thought we were on 412.

Is that the penny one, Councilman?

Yes.

Actually, I would appreciate a one-way cold.

I've still not gotten the developer to um talk to the planning department, which they didn't need to do.

I've got another call coming up.

I'm gonna have to jump on to try to taste them down.

So thank you for the update, Councilwoman.

Yeah, but definitely see the councilwoman uh one week hold on 385.

Second.

Discussion?

All in favor of a one week hold for Bill 385, please say aye.

Affirmative uh bill be held.

Bill 412.

Resolution authorizing the Pittsburgh Land Bank to acquire all the city's right, title, and interest, if any, in and to the publicly owned properties in the 12th ward of the city of Pittsburgh, designated in the deed registry office of Allegheny County as block 125A, lots 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118, 133, 0 Lincoln Avenue, and Zero Mayflower Street, Council District 9, at no cost to the city.

Motion to hold for one week.

Second discussion.

All in favor of a one-way cold for Bill 412, please say aye.

Resolution adopting plan revision to the city of Pittsburgh's official sewage facilities plan for 7606 to 7610 Tyoga Street, Pittsburgh 15209 208 at no cost to the city.

Motion to approve.

Second.

Discussion.

Seeing none, all in favor of Bill 443, please say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Affirmative recommendation.

Bill 444.

Resolution adopting plan revision to the City of Pittsburgh's official sewage facilities plan for 2695 Winchester Drive, Pittsburgh 15220 at no cost to the city.

Motion to approve.

Second.

Discussion.

Seeing none, all in favor of Bill 444, please say aye.

If it's a recommendation.

That exhaust our standing committee's agenda.

We do have meeting announcements next week due to primary elections, council will hold its regular meeting and standing committee meeting on Monday, May 18th at 10 a.m.

and 130 p.m.

respectively.

To register to speak at these meetings, please fill out the sign up form on the council meeting webpage by the deadlines, and you may also call the clerk's office at 412-255-2138.

Is there anything for members?

Seeing none I'll take a motion to approve the minutes and adjourn the meeting.

All in favor.

El interés de la calidad de los programas de los subside de la especialidad de los objetos de los lugares de los de los cabos de los programas de los interés,