3 contested Pittsburgh City Council races on the ballot

Some Pittsburgh voters next Tuesday will cast ballots not only for mayor but also for candidates in contested City Council elections.

Councilwoman Theresa Kail-Smith, D-West End, is retiring after 15 years on council. Hers is the only district guaranteed to see a new representative this year, as Democrat Kim Salinetro and Republican Erin Koper are vying to replace her.

Elsewhere in the city, Democratic Councilmen Anthony Coghill, D-Beechview, and R. Daniel Lavelle, D-Hill District, are facing Republican challengers as they look to keep their seats.

Councilwoman Erika Strassburger, D-Squirrel Hill, is running for another term unopposed.

Other council members are not up for reelection this year.

District 2

Pittsburgh’s West End neighborhoods on Tuesday will choose who will replace longtime councilwoman Kail-Smith.

Salinetro, 59, of Banksville, has served as Kail-Smith’s chief of staff since 2010.

Koper, 44, of Elliott, last summer drew attention for lambasting Pittsburgh’s Democratic leaders at the Republican National Convention.

Salinetro and Koper won their respective party nominations with no primary challengers. Two other Democratic City Council hopefuls were removed from the ballot because of filing issues.

Salinetro is a lifelong resident of District 2. She’s fielded thousands of calls from constituents as Kail-Smith’s top staffer, which she said makes her uniquely in tune with residents’ needs.

Koper, a West Virginia native who has lived in the area for the last 16 years, is president of the Allegheny County Council of Republican Women and has worked for several Republican campaigns.

Both cited improving public safety and hiring more police officers as their top priorities.

“Right now, I’m very concerned about the number of police officers we have on staff,” Salinetro said. “I’m hoping to be able to help get those numbers up, to come up with some ideas of how we can support public safety.”

She said she fears the disparity between police salaries in Pittsburgh and more affluent suburbs prompts some officers to seek jobs elsewhere.

“Public safety absolutely has to come first,” Koper said. “We need to retain our police officers.”

She also wants to prioritize purchasing new ambulances. City officials have raised alarms that the city’s aging vehicle fleet is prone to breakdowns and expensive maintenance.

Both candidates also said they would look to reduce blight and attract more businesses to the district.

“We could use some more love over here,” said Koper, who wants to see more grocery stores and other amenities in the area. “We definitely need to uplift these neighborhoods.”

Salinetro said reducing blight won’t happen overnight, but she wants to partner with the city’s land bank to get vacant properties fixed up and on the tax rolls again.

“We have to get these homes that are abandoned into the taxpayers’ hands,” Salinetro said. “I’d love to see first-time homebuyers get a chance to come in and have a chance to get a home.”

Salinetro said she also wants to more efficiently remove abandoned cars taking up sought-after spots on city streets. She hopes to find ways to trim city spending without cutting jobs as Pittsburgh faces financial challenges.

If elected, Koper would be the first Republican on council since the 1930s. Just having a second party represented, she said, would bring fresh ideas and a different sense of accountability.

“I believe my perspective would be healthy. It would be refreshing,” Koper said, vowing to reach across the aisle to collaborate with the city’s Democratic majority.

The most recent campaign finance reports — which covered June through September — showed Salinetro had over $21,000 at the start of the reporting period and still had over $11,000 available in September.

Koper entered the same time period with nearly $14,000 and had about $4,600 available as of last month.

District 2 includes Banksville, Chartiers City, Crafton Heights, Duquesne Heights, Mount Washington, East Carnegie, Elliott, Fairywood, Oakwood, Ridgemont, South Shore, Sheraden, West End, Windgap and portions of Allentown, Beechview, Brookline, South Side Slopes, Brighton Heights, Chateau and Marshall-Shadeland.

District 4

In District 4, incumbent Councilman Anthony Coghill, D-Beechview, is facing a general election challenge from Republican Tracy Larger, an advertising consultant from Brookline.

Coghill, 59, who took his seat on City Council in 2018, chairs council’s public safety committee. He won the Democratic primary without a challenger.

Larger, 59, won the Republican nomination, also in an uncontested primary.

Coghill said he has remained focused on the campaign motto he launched during his first bid for council: Back to the basics.

“Back to the basics means everything from demolition to paving roads to garbage pickup — the basic services my district expects,” Cohgill said.

Coghill has been a vocal advocate for increased spending on the city’s aging vehicle fleet and for the construction now underway on a new public works facility that will serve the neighborhoods he represents. He also has pushed for better police staffing and fiscal responsibility in city hall.

He also serves on the Sports & Exhibition Authority and Equipment Leasing Authority boards.

Larger, who has lived in Brookline for 25 years, said she wants to improve public safety and bolster police recruiting. She suggested requiring new police officers sign contracts that prohibit them from leaving the city for other police departments for a period of time.

“We need to increase the police presence in the community,” Larger said.

She said she also wants to fight blight and cut red tape for businesses and contractors looking to work in the city. Pittsburgh, she said, needs to attract new businesses and developments to grow its tax base.

Brian Naughton is running as a candidate for the Common Sense Party.

The district includes Beechview, Bon Air, Brookline, Carrick, Overbrook and part of Mount Washington.

District 6

Republican Jacob Dumont, 33, of Marshall-Shadeland, is looking to unseat Council President R. Daniel Lavelle.

Lavelle was sworn in as a councilman in 2010 and was chosen to serve as council president last year.

Dumont operates Northside Action Media, an online platform covering news around the council district he hopes to represent.

Lavelle has authored legislation decriminalizing marijuana in the city. He helped spearhead creation of the Housing Opportunity Fund and the Stop the Violence program, which funds violence intervention grants and the city’s Office of Community Health and Safety.

Dumont, a lifelong Pittsburgher, said he would prioritize reopening a grocery store in the Hill District after the neighborhood’s lone grocer closed earlier this year. He also wants to address landslides and reduce blight.

District 6 includes Perry Hilltop, the Hill District, Marshall-Shadeland, Uptown, Downtown, the North Shore, Manchester and California-Kirkbride.