Allegheny County Council overrides Fitzgerald’s veto, bans new fracking in parks

Allegheny County Council on Tuesday voted to override a veto on a bill that bans new fracking leases on county parkland.

The override marked the first time in Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald’s three terms that council overturned one of his vetoes.

The bill bans new industrial leases at the nine county-owned parks in Allegheny County. It’s now law and takes effect immediately.

Allegheny County Council voted 12-3 to override Fitzgerald’s veto, with 12 Democrats in favor, and two Republicans and one Democrat opposed. Fitzgerald is a Democrat. A two-thirds majority — 10 votes — is necessary to overturn a county executive’s veto.

Councilman Robert Palmosina, a proponent of the ban and Democrat from Pittsburgh’s Banksville neighborhood, acknowledged the message that it sent to Fitzgerald, and past criticism that council has been perceived as a weak legislative body.

“We are not a rubber stamp,” Palmosina said.

Council President Pat Catena, D-Carnegie, echoed this point and said that two-thirds of county council members are “just as elected as any other elected officials.”

The vote to override involved the same supporters as before, with the addition of Councilman Bob Macey. Macey initially opposed to the veto but switched his vote. He said fracking is here to stay, while also acknowledging some of the environmental harm the practice of drilling for natural gas can cause.

Macey said he had to listen to the voice of his constituents, who urged him to override the veto.

Fitzgerald was not present at Tuesday’s meeting.

About 40 people spoke inside council chambers at the Allegheny County Courthouse before the vote.

The meeting was fairly raucous with many instances of applause and jeers from fracking proponents and opponents. The vast majority of speakers were in favor of a park fracking ban. For every one speaker who opposed the ban, there were four speakers in favor.

Those opposed to the park fracking ban were mostly business interests and people working in the natural gas industry.

Those who spoke in favor of the ban included local residents, environmental activists and liberal political advocates.

Ken Gulick owns a farm in Frazer and he said he allows natural gas leases on his property. He said fracking has no impact on his land. He praised the revenue that fracking has brought into the township, which has boosted township revenue and averted Frazer from raising property tax rates.

Range Resource employees and others against the fracking ban commended the $7 million in revenue and infrastructure improvements this brought to Deer Lakes Park, which straddles Frazer and West Deer.

None of the other eight county parks have any current industrial leasing agreements.

Councilman At-large Sam DeMarco, R-North Fayette, voted against the veto override. He said before the vote that no company is trying to frack under the parks currently and called the bill “political theater.”

“Why the urgency when there is nothing proposed to frack at parks?” DeMarco said.

Councilwoman At-large Bethany Hallam, D-North Side, voted for the override. She said there are still many parts of the county where fracking is permitted, noting that county park land represents less than 1% of land in Allegheny County.

She pushed back against DeMarco’s sentiment and asked if there was no ur- gency, why did several employees at Range Resources and other fracking workers show up at the meeting?

Before the vote, supporters of the fracking ban in county parks also questioned why the natural gas industry and fracking allies were just coming forward for Tuesday’s special meeting, and not during all of the previous meetings and public hearings when the park fracking ban was discussed.

All the speakers at a previous public hearing in June for the park fracking ban bill were in favor of the ban.

Zachary Barber of the environmental group PennEnvironment spoke before the vote and urged council to override Fitzgerald’s veto. He claimed fracking near Deer Lakes Park has degraded the water quality there. He said this ban would protect the parks.

“This would represent a monumental movement for County Council,” Barber said.

It’s rare for county council to override an executive’s veto. In 2004, Fitzgerald was part of a group of council members that overrode three vetoes from former County Executive Dan Onorato.

Last week, Fitzgerald criticized the staying power of the bill and said its effort could be overturned by future councils.

Councilman Paul Klein, D-Shadyside, acknowledged Fitzgerald criticism, but noted that’s true for all bills council passes — that’s just the nature of legislating. He said the ban was the right thing to do, regardless.

“It’s possible this is a short-lived endeavor, as the future composition of the council might be different,” Klein said. “But that shouldn’t stop us from standing up for our values.”

Council also attempted to override a veto of another bill that would grant County Council approval over hiring of department directors and division directors, but that effort fell short. The vote to overturn that veto received 9 votes in favor and 6 votes in opposition. It needed at least 10 votes to override.