Candidate Interview: Pittsburgh City Council District 8

The candidate's answers and video are unedited. Not recommended reading or watching if you are taking an MAOI (ace inhibitor), have a family history of heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, are pregnant or think you might be, breast-feeding, Hepatitis C, plague, ring worm, drive with Safe Auto, attached unborn twin, were seen on Jerry Springer, have a Snuggie, were seen with a Snuggie, purchased a Snuggie, received a Snuggie during a KISS 96.1 bar crawl, have dysentery, are lactose intolerant, intolerant of Hispanics, have bee allergies, arachnophobia, bed bug bites, megabytes, ticks, fleas, and lice. Discontinue use and call your doctor if you experience any of these symptoms; rash, boils, blisters, loosening of teeth or head, gas, constipation, stiff neck, stiff competition, erection lasting longer than four hours, extreme psychosis, paranoia, sweating, shaking, sneezing, alien exiting from the abdomen, alien in your backyard, alien in your home, nausea, dizziness, drive to Ohio on a whim, voted for Ed Truax, locusts, contract shingles, hire a contractor to shingle, shrinking of head, two left thumbs, green thumb, urge to dance to Abba (women) and sing to the Bee Gees (men), drink Ovaltine, excessive thirst, weird cravings, watch Julia Roberts’ movies, dry mouth, ringing in ears, watery eyes, watery pores, become poor, poor taste, crawling sensation on skin, or buy tickets to see Rockapella. This is not an exhaustive list.

BILL PEDUTO
http://www.billpeduto.com/


1. What program or service should be cut or scaled back in these tough times, with this bad economy and with our city facing a deficit starting next year? Would you forgo a pay raise?

We can’t address our structural budget deficit with cuts and taxes. We need a third way of rethinking what local government means in the 21st century. We need real regional governance, not what is being proposed. We need to move services like municipal pensions and municipal benefits to statewide programs. And we need to be given the right to collect taxes from regional non-profit institutions. As far as cutting my own salary, I did it (self imposed) from 2003 – 2006 as the city struggled with Act 47. I would support creating a new system of job categories for employees, as long as it was done with regional and similar sized cities as the criteria.


2. What music do you have on your Ipod/MP3 player?

The music in my Ipod is as varied as any you will find. Everything from Louis Jordan to the Clash – Bob Dylan to Parliament – Yaz to bootlegged Dead Shows. It covers 70 years of music and if there was one common thread throughout, it would have to be the very limited amount of pop music. It is like a mini WYEP studio. Now my vinyl collection… that’s a different story.


3. The Mayor and the County Executive favor merging the city with Allegheny County. Do you favor the concept of merging the city with the county?

I do not support the proposed merging of the city into the county and I am not alone. At a conference of Sustainable Pittsburgh, noted regional governance guru (my title for him) David Rusk said the proposal would not work for our county’s demographics. We have far too much government – we lead the country as the most fragmented local government system with 130 separate municipalities. Eliminating one (the city of Pittsburgh) and keeping 129 will do nothing to better consolidate our services or effectively create a vision. Its purpose is to consolidate power – nothing else. It would diminish minority representation, encourage sprawl and leave nearly $2 billion in legacy costs to those who could not escape the city before it was enacted.


4. Now that the Hill District has won the city’s first ever Community Benefits Agreement (CBA), do you believe there should be CBA’s with current and future projects?

Whenever there is the use of public funds for private development, the city should always pursue a “triple-bottom-line” policy, The argument is always made on why we need to use taxpayers dollars for economic development, but we should also be requiring that the development provide social equity (a way for everyone to have an opportunity from the public investment) and minimal environmental impact. I believe and support that these three goals – economic growth, social equity and minimal environmental impact can best be addressed in provisions of a Community Benefits Agreement with community organizations that will be the most impacted.


8. In light of the Housing Police being folded into the City Police Force, would you favor seeing that happen with the School Police, etc.?

Our budget problem is too large to be fixed with any one proposal of merging of services (except for a statewide pension fund of statewide single-payer municipal health care program). As you know, the Housing Authority police were paid with federal funds, the savings realized in the merger may be gone in just a couple of years. What still needs to be seen is the effect it has had on crime - it is something I am tracking. As far as the school police, I am not certain what the benefit would be. Certainly, we could not afford to have uniformed city police officers in all of our schools – we don’t even have enough for all of our neighborhoods. The School police provide a critical and needed service. If they were no longer there, I do not believe that we could provide the same without lessening police presence in other areas.





VIDEO OF THE REST OF OUR INTERVIEW:






**Thank you to Councilman Bill Peduto and his campaign staff for being so great.

Lady Elaine