Armed with 159 separate contributions — including maxed out donations from Dan Gilman and Bill Peduto’s election committee — Erika Strassburger took a commanding lead in fundraising in Pittsburgh’s March 6 special election by raking just over $91,241 in January, according to city campaign finance reports.

The election for city council’s District 8, which includes a central chunk of the affluent East End, is to replace former city councilman Gilman after he resigned to become Mayor Peduto’s new chief of staff in early January.

The Pittsburgh Intergovernmental Authority held what the board hopes to be their final ever quarterly meeting Monday afternoon.

During the brief meeting, members voted to pass a resolution calling on the state General Assembly to dissolve the Authority now that Pittsburgh has requested to be pulled from Act 47 distress status.

The Public Safety Services Committee of Pittsburgh City Council held a meeting on Wednesday to discuss and vote on an ordinance that would authorize Mayor Bill Peduto to send Pittsburgh City Police officers to Cleveland, Ohio for the Republican National Convention later this month. 

 

Police Chief Cameron McLay said 20-25 officers and personnel would voluntarily be sent to Cleveland to assist with traffic duties, SWAT units, and crowd control needs. 

 

“Conceptually we recognize as a major city that we have a responsibility to be partners with our sister cities,” Chief McLay stated before the committee. “We felt very strongly on the need to examine our abilities to support [Cleveland] in any way that we could with available resources that we have.” 

Pittsburgh City Council voted out legislation from the Public Safety Committee Wednesday afternoon that would provide funding for a new city police training program geared towards innovation, community relations, and policy. 

 

Bill 2016-0532 would allow a $430,000 grant from the Heinz Endowment to go towards police-community training at The LUMA Institute, an institution that works with design center thinking on a national level in downtown Pittsburgh.