Pittsburgh City Council President Theresa Kail-Smith on Wednesday said council would reject Mayor Ed Gainey’s proposal to move the city’s cable bureau and print shop under control of the Mayor’s Office.

When he released his preliminary 2023 budget, Gainey said he would like to see changes to where some city functions are housed within local government. His budget proposed to move the city’s cable bureau, print shop and various communications staff into the Mayor’s Office. The move, he said, would create one comprehensive city-wide communications team housed within his office.

Kail-Smith, however, said during a budget hearing Wednesday that council would not support the move.

“Council created the cable bureau for us, and so a lot of our members are having a lot of concern with that,” she said. “It’s probably not something we’re willing to do.”

Kail-Smith said she appreciated Gainey’s desire to have a strong communications office, particularly in an era when social media has revolutionized quick communication. However, she said she’s not willing to relinquish council’s control over their own communications.”

“We definitely want the mayor to have his office that he wants, but we need to make sure we have what we need as well, because they don’t communicate for us,” Kail-Smith said. “We are separate.”

Those services are currently housed within the Department of Innovation & Performance. They serve both the Mayor’s Office and City Council, as well as other city departments.

Kail-Smith said it should stay that way.

“Those are tools we use for communication,” she said. “As much as we want to work with the administration, we don’t want somebody else controlling our communications as well.”

Director of Innovation and Performance Heidi Norman attended the budget hearing, but did not offer an opinion on the proposed change.

Gainey also has proposed moving the city’s nonemergency 311 line into the Office of Neighborhood Services within the Mayor’s Office.

He said that idea came in response to concerns from residents that their concerns were not always heard when they called the 311 line.

Norman said she believed it would be “a benefit for our residents” to move the 311 line into the Mayor’s Office.

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