The Democratic candidates for Pittsburgh mayor were more subdued during Tuesday night’s debate
compared to last week
, but still traded barbs over issues such as affordable housing, public safety and nonprofit payments once again during their second debate.
Incumbent Mayor Ed Gainey and challenger Allegheny County Controller Corey O’Connor made digs at one another’s campaigns and policies during the one-hour televised debate, while also hitting on both of their regular campaign talking points.
Throughout the campaign, Mr. Gainey has touted his administration’s investment in affordable housing, often citing 1,600 units that have been completed or in the pipeline. Last week, the administration unveiled a new tracker to show where those units are.
During the debate last week, Mr. O’Connor asked the mayor to take him on a walking tour to show him where these units are. Mr. Gainey agreed and proposed the men meet at 9 a.m. on Wednesday.
Just before Tuesday night’s debate, Mr. O’Connor posted on social media that he would not be attending. Less than 10 minutes into the debate, the men were already going back and forth over affordable housing.
“Last time, my opponent asked me to go on a tour to see [the affordable housing units],” Mr. Gainey said. “Now he won’t be there. Why? Because we have an affordable housing plan and he doesn’t.”
“I will not attend a campaign rally for the mayor,” Mr. O’Connor said. “Why would I go see one building?”
Since 2022, about 500 units of affordable housing have been completed or preserved and another 1,200 are in the pipeline, according to a data tracker created by the city. During Mr. Gainey’s tenure, about 200 brand new affordable units have been added to the city.
The 500 completed units are spread out across the city, with a cluster of them in the Garfield and Friendship neighborhoods.
On public safety, the men both agreed that the Bureau of Police is still severely understaffed and that recruitment and retention need to be a priority.
Mr. Gainey said he thought the bureau should be staffed at 850 officers. It’s currently sitting around 650 officers.
Mr. O’Connor, who agreed that the bureau needed “well above 800” officers, said that it really boiled down to one officer.
“The number one cop has still not been hired in this city,” he said. “You need a chief of police if you want to recruit and retain officers.”
The chief of police that was hired under Mr. Gainey left the bureau in October to pursue a full-time career as an NCAA basketball official. The interim chief Mr. Gainey chose, who was to be appointed full-time, also left the bureau, claiming the
position became a “political football.
”
Mr. Gainey noted that prior to his administration there hadn’t been a police class in two years. The police academy stopped holding classes during the COVID-19 pandemic. Classes have since restarted.
“We opened back up the academy. We’ve had four or five classes, and we will continue to recruit until we get the number to continue to make the city safe,” Mr. Gainey said.
The candidates also sparred over payments from the city’s largest nonprofit organizations. Mr. Gainey has been challenging the tax exempt status of specific parcels of land owned by what’s known at the Big 5 – UPMC, Highmark Health, the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University and Duquesne University.
“At the end of the day,” he said, “everybody knows that UPMC does not act like a charity… I will not sit back and allow our services that need to be taken care of, not taken care of.”
Mr. Gainey also touted a “written agreement” he said he received from Highmark Health that said they would be on board with a payment in lieu of taxes program, if the others also joined on. At the time, Highmark said that had been their stance for the past six years.
Mr. O’Connor said he would take the approach of asking the nonprofits to pay directly for things.
“What I would do is be specific,” Mr. O’Connor said. “Especially with our hospitals, get them to purchase new ambulances for our city. Imagine if they could come up with $10 to $15 million for just equipment each year. That would save the city of Pittsburgh $10 to $15 million that we can then invest.”
For many years Pittsburgh has been ranked one of America’s most livable cities, but a 2019 study showed that isn’t the case for Black women. In the study, it reported that the quality of life for Black women would improve just by them moving out of Pittsburgh.
Mr. Gainey said improving that, is about creating opportunities for Black women. He went on to list the Black women in his staff.
“If you give African American women the opportunity to come in that door and work, we can do incredible things,” he said. “We’re going to continue to build on that.”
Mr. O’Connor said the way to improve their quality of life was get “resources to our community and residents who are in need the most.”
He suggested working with the city’s procurement office to make sure that Black women businesses were getting contracts.
In addressing questions about infrastructure and the city’s vehicle fleet – both of which had been underinvested for years – Mr. Gainey turned the question onto Mr. O’Connor, who had been on council for a decade prior to serving as the county controller.
“[The fleet] hadn’t been funded for like 10 years,” Mr. Gainey said. “My opponent can explain that.”
Mr. Gainey went on to say that his administration had increased hiring in the Public Works department to help the city maintain core services like snow plowing and garbage removal.
“We were always investing in our public works and public safety when I was on council,” Mr. O’Connor said. He went on to criticize the mayor for his use of federal pandemic relief funds, saying that more of the money should have gone toward upgrading the fleet.
The men will face off in the Democratic primary on May 20.
