Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey and Allegheny County Controller Corey O’Connor sparred over affordable housing, public safety, city finances and who accepted money from Republican donors in a televised debate Thursday.
The two are locked in a tightly-contested Democratic primary race. The 30-minute debate hosted by WPXI did not include the Republican mayoral candidates, retired police officer Tony Moreno and small business owner Thomas West.
Gainey opened the debate by promoting his administration’s efforts to build more affordable housing and expand job growth. He highlighted that homicides have dropped from 71 in 2022 to 42 last year, following a national trend.
O’Connor countered that the public deserves more transparency around financial challenges the city is facing. He criticized Gainey for instability in the police bureau, which has seen five different top cops over three years.
The mayoral race comes at a time when the city faces financial challenges, with federal covid-19 relief money drying up, revenues declining and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court contemplating whether to allow Pittsburgh to continue collecting its facility usage fee, a tax on out-of-town professional athletes and performers.
“Our city finances are strong,” Gainey said, pointing to favorable bond ratings and a roughly $4 million surplus at the end of last year.
When asked if he would consider raising taxes or cutting city jobs, Gainey said, “I don’t think we’re going to come to that,” arguing his administration has managed its budget responsibly.
O’Connor disagreed.
“We are not being transparent about the financial cliff we’re about to walk over,” O’Connor said.
He argued Gainey’s budget is unrealistic. That echoes concerns raised by City Controller Rachael Heisler and some council members that the city is on pace to outspend its overtime budget by millions.
O’Connor said he would “stretch every dollar we have at our disposable” and shrink the size of a mayor’s office that has expanded under Gainey’s tenure to avoid a tax hike or reduction in city jobs.
He called for nonprofits to provide payments in lieu of taxes, something the city has long struggled to coax its hospitals and universities to agree to do.
Gainey, too, has urged nonprofits to pay their fair share, while ordering his law department to challenge the tax exempt status of properties owned by nonprofits.
The two differed also on how well they believe the city is ensuring safety.
O’Connor said people need to see steady leadership in the police force to feel safe. A stable leader, he said, would give officers direction and ensure they were deployed where they’re most needed.
“The number one role of the mayor is to keep people safe in the city,” he said, criticizing Gainey for striking a secretive deal with former Chief Larry Scirotto that allowed him to take a part-time job refereeing college basketball while leading the police bureau.
O’Connor said his pick for a new chief would need to be dedicated to Pittsburgh and to recruiting more officers to a force that has been losing members faster than it can replace them.
But Gainey said the city and its Downtown are safe. He pointed to the reduction in homicides and touted a new public safety center his administration opened in the Golden Triangle as part of an effort to bolster the police presence there.
“The Downtown is safe,” Gainey said. “It is back. It is flourishing.”
The mayor and his challenger agreed they both want to hire a police chief who will focus on a community-oriented approach. But Gainey dismissed concerns about the revolving door of leadership in the bureau.
“When I’m out in the community, they don’t ask me who the police chief is,” Gainey said.
While both candidates said they want to see more affordable housing, they again painted different pictures of how well the city is doing now and what approach they believe would work best.
Gainey said more than 1,600 new affordable housing units have been built since he took office.
Data his administration released Thursday shows that figure includes both new affordable housing units and units that have been preserved as affordable housing. Not all of them have actually been completed — some are still under construction or have closed on financing.
The mayor during Thursday’s debate advocated for the sweeping zoning code overhaul his administration has proposed, which would expand inclusionary zoning citywide. That means any housing development with 20 or more units would have to earmark 10% of its units as affordable housing for low-income residents.
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The city’s Planning Commission recommended the package, but it has not yet received approval from City Council, where competing measures have been introduced.
“Affordable housing should be in every neighborhood in this city,” Gainey said.
O’Connor said inclusionary zoning should be just one tool among many to encourage developers to build housing anyone can afford. He said he doesn’t think the measure — which some argue will deter developers — should be applied to all 90 unique neighborhoods.
“A blanket zoning ordinance, we know, doesn’t work,” he said.
O’Connor said he would look to “clean out our zoning code” to make it easier to build housing.
Both agreed they would like to cut red tape for accessory dwelling units, a measure included in Gainey’s broader zoning package.
But there was no agreement on who had taken money from donors linked to Republican President Donald Trump or other “MAGA” operatives.
The two have pointed fingers at each other throughout their campaigns, each arguing the other has taken money from Republican donors.
Gainey accused O’Connor of meeting with operatives tied to Trump and accepting money from Republican donors who would look to influence his policies. O’Connor rejected the accusations as “lies,” countering that Gainey, too, had taken money from people who have supported Republican candidates.
Both vowed they would stand up to Trump policies that could hurt Pittsburghers.
Gainey also fielded a question about reports that District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. was investigating city contracts and a video that has circulated in which the mayor calls Zappala a racist.
The mayor said the city had not received any subpoena regarding an investigation into contracts.
The district attorney’s office did, however, execute a search warrant on the city while probing improper use of a city credit card in the Department of Parks and Recreation last year.
“I disagree with some of the way he’s prosecuted Black and brown neighborhoods,” Gainey said in reference to his comments about Zappala being racist.
The final debate topic of the evening found a brief glimmer of common ground. O’Connor and Gainey both said they would like to work with county and state leaders to find more funding for public transportation at Pittsburgh Regional Transit braces for drastic service cuts.