Allegheny County Council adopts $3B budget after debate over amendments

Allegheny County Council adopted its 2023 budget on Dec. 6 in a seemingly typical process, but confusion over amendments led to some contentiousness.

The budget of just more than $3 billion passed unanimously at first with no discussion. The contention came about after council voted on another resolution and about three minutes had passed.

Councilman DeWitt Walton, D-Hill District, then said he had wished to offer amendments to the budget. Walton said he submitted several budget amendments “in a timely manner,” but they didn’t appear on the meeting agenda.

“If you are trying to snooker me and you may win the snooker battle but believe me there will be scorched earth,” Walton said during the meeting to Council President Pat Catena, D-Carnegie.

Walton later told the Tribune-Review that he submitted his proposed amendments to the budget bill on the Friday before last week’s meeting. He said the proposed amendments would undo three other amendments added into the budget by Councilwoman Bethany Hallam, D-North Side.

Hallam said it appeared that Walton forgot to address his amendments before the council voted on the budget bill. She said the budget had already been amended with four amendments that she supported and were added through the committee meeting process, as is typical.

She said her amendments included funding to address low salaries among public defenders and district attorney staff, as well as money for lead remediation, the county’s food policy council and the Community College of Allegheny County.

I’ve been seeing a lot of discussion about what did and didn’t happen at the county council budget vote last night so I wanted to clear some things up!
The livestream from the meeting was apparently down but it should be posted within a day or two.
Until then, here we go:

— Bethany Hallam (@bethanyhallam) December 7, 2022

However, Hallam’s amendments differed from Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald’s original proposal. Hallam, a well-known adversary of Fitzgerald, said she wanted to amend the budget to address some of the issues she didn’t believe were funded in Fitzgerald’s budget.

Walton said he worked with Fitzgerald’s administration to craft the amendments to undo Hallam’s amendments. He said that Hallam’s amendments would take too much money out of the county’s fund balance, aka the rainy day fund. Walton also said the original budget proposal provided funds to the issues Hallam said she was trying to address.

In response to Walton at last week’s meeting, Catena said, “I expected you to submit them, I am sorry.”

Walton appeared confused, and then Catena asked the county council staff about the policy for adding amendments.

County Council solicitor Fred Frank said when there is a discussion raised, the council member who wants to make an amendment must bring it up for discussion.

“When I offered discussion, there was no amendment made,” Catena said.

Walton accused Catena of trying to undermine him and his efforts to amend the bill back to its original form.

Councilman Sam DeMarco, R-North Fayette, and Councilwoman Suzanne Filiaggi, R-Franklin Park, said they wanted to change their original budget votes because they had believed that Walton’s amendments were already included.

The council ultimately opened up discussion on Walton’s amendments and held votes on them.

The first, which was related to funding for public defenders, passed. Another amendment failed, and Walton’s third amendment was withdrawn.

The episode presented another instance in which council, at least partially, was successful in pushing back against Fitzgerald’s agenda. Earlier this year, council overrode Fitzgerald’s veto for the first time during his tenure, in order to establish a fracking ban at county-owned parks.

In a statement, Fitzgerald said his office reviewed the changes to “determine next steps and to ensure that any amendments are in the best interest of county taxpayers.” Ultimately, Fitzgerald signed the budget.

“The vast majority of the operating budget proposed by the administration remains intact – with over 99.9% unchanged,” said Fitzgerald, who is preparing to enter his last year in the county’s top elected office.

Hallam later told the Tribune-Review that Walton was acting with “complete lack of respect for his colleagues” and she was disappointed that some of the council members supported Walton’s amendment even though they were not submitted and discussed through the normal council procedures.

She also accused Walton of taking money away from public defenders and district attorney staffers. She said she added her amendment to ensure enough money is there for them.

Walton said he disagreed with that assessment. The original budget had enough funds available to pay the collective bargaining agreement of the public defenders and district attorney staff.