In Pittsburgh for a number of years the Office of the City Clerk has been responsible for keeping track of records related to city council matters and legislation. All other city departments have been responsible for their own records, without uniform standards or resources. According to city officials this has led to less than stellar record keeping. Two bills, 539 and 540, which received their final vote Tuesday, seek to change that.

During the Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority’s (ICA) 3rd Quarter board meeting held Wednesday afternoon, the Authority passed Pittsburgh’s proposed $539 million operating budget continent upon the city verifying within 120 days that it would receive the $10 million it’s owed from Rivers Casino.

Due to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s ruling last week that the local share assessment of casinos in the state gaming law is unconstitutional, Pittsburgh has been trying to ensure that the money stays in the city’s budget.

“We’ve received word already from the Gaming Revenue office and the Secretary of the Budget that they don’t think there is going to be any distribution of any gaming revenue now until the legislature readdresses the legislation that was declared unconstitutional by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court,” said Renny Clark, the ICA’s interim executive director.

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.”