Allegheny County Controller Chelsa Wagner, photographed in her office. Wagner is in her third term as county controller and will be sworn in as a Court of Common Pleas judge in January. (Photo by Ryan Loew/PublicSource)
First-person essay by Chelsa Wagner
It is difficult to believe that come January, as I leave the office of Allegheny County controller, it will mark a decade since I assumed the role of the county’s fiscal watchdog and taxpayer advocate.
As I first ran for the office and ever since, I have taken an expansive view of what a controller can and should be. While I am incredibly proud of what the office has accomplished within its traditional fiscal purview (significant technological advances, unprecedented public transparency of government spending and a general fund balance that has grown from just over $6 million to nearly $90 million), I am also pleased with the role I have been able to play as an advocate.
My office pioneered paid family leave for government employees, increased awareness of the necessity and feasibility of replacing dangerous lead water lines, convened patients and advocates to shine a bright light on the potential human toll of the UPMC-Highmark “divorce” and brought attention to unacceptable conditions in the county jail.
In this spirit, I am taking the opportunity to urge my fellow county officials and those who will come next: Think big and take action.
Allegheny County is the third-largest government in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the largest local government in Western Pennsylvania. But the impact it can and does have on the daily lives of our residents is not currently reflected in their perceptions.
A perfect example came with the recent receipt of emergency federal aid by our local governments. While the City of Pittsburgh’s allocation process for $335 million was met with deserved advocacy for greater public involvement and transparency, the fact that the county began allocating more than $380 million with minimal input from even elected council members seemed barely noted in the public or the press.
True, it is the Pittsburgh skyline that glitters on national television as a symbol of our region and, when we travel, we proudly say we are from “Pittsburgh” without regard to municipal lines. But only a quarter of the county’s population lives in Pittsburgh proper. Our fastest growing communities as well as those struggling the most with population decline, blight and intractable poverty are outside the city. These communities — and the overall prospects of our region for future growth — require a county government that actively leads and convenes a deeply fragmented collection of municipalities.
Be the leader our communities need
Our smaller boroughs and townships increasingly lack the resources to adequately provide basic services like policing. And, indeed, expecting a community of a few hundred residents to be able to do so in this day and age seems quaint. The Allegheny County Police force of more than 200 officers, many with specialized training, already augments the work of local departments and trains local police through its police academy, but this help comes with few strings attached. The county should be more active in ensuring that local police meet our citizens’ expectations of modern, accountable law enforcement, and could condition increased services from the county police on meeting these standards. It is also likely that more and more municipalities will come to the conclusion that they simply cannot provide policing on their own, as happened in Wilmerding, where the county took over primary responsibility. While cooperation and regionalization with other neighboring communities would be ideal in these circumstances, such agreements have proven elusive. The county should plan to reliably provide service in communities in which departments are understaffed or no longer feasible.
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