Incumbent Troy, newcomer Carnevale square off in Brentwood mayoral race

Brentwood’s incumbent Mayor Dennis Troy will square off against councilman Pat Carnevale in November’s mayoral race.

Troy, a Republican, has served as Brentwood’s mayor for the last seven years. Carnevale, a Democrat, has been on council for nearly 12 years. The winner will serve a four-year term.

Here’s a look at the two and their responses to questions posed by the South Hills Record for the upcoming election.

Pat Carnevale

Age: 83

Education: St. Basil’s High School graduate with courses in speaking from Point Park and classes in labor work from Community College of Allegheny County

Occupation: Retired; previously worked as a welder for LTV Steel and was a grievance man on the floor for 10 years and a general griever for Local 1843 for 18 years

If elected, what are two short-term goals? The police department at this given time is awry. We’re getting ready to send the chief of police to school for communication and to learn how to handle the department. We’ve got to get that straightened away.

Number two is we have to get the department itself straightened away so that they have lines of progressions in jobs and they understand what is theirs and what they can do. There’s a lot of miscommunication at this given point in our police department, and we must come out with the best answers we have or the best answers somebody can give us to operate our police department.

Our EMS has to be straightened away. The people that are crossing guards got to be straightened away and handled differently. People stand there and cuss and swear at them and they can’t do anything about it.

If elected, what is one long-term goal? Before I finish my term, my goal is that our police department learns everything that there is to be learned on the computers and everything else, even with our crossing guards, that we have better attitudes with them and maybe even give them raises. They are underpaid.

And we have to straighten away our teenagers. We have trouble in this borough with teenagers, but also the younger children. The way they talk to our police department and the way they talk to our crossing guards when they work within the park. Those things must get straightened away. This can’t continue within our borough.

How do you plan to communicate with constituents and involve them in the decision-making process? I’ve always communicated with the citizens by letting the people have their voice. Everybody should have a voice and everybody should be able to sit down and work out an agreement like we did with the swimming pool. The people should have the right to talk. If we have to we will hold meetings, if not it will be brought up at council meetings. You can bring it up on the internet.

We have to listen, to a degree, to the public. One person cannot run everything and we’ve got to listen to the public. If you don’t listen to the public, there’s no sense in holding these offices.

Dennis Troy

Age: 53

Education: BA from Westminster College, 1990 with a major in finance and a minor in political science

Occupation: Founder and president of DTI Development, Inc. and DTI Advisory Group

If elected, what are two short-term goals? My two short term goals would include the redevelopment of our three Brownsville Road Business Districts and the redevelopment of the Marylea and Route 51 area. To further elaborate, my private companies have been involved in over $150 million in grants and incentives to aid in the economic development of some of the region’s largest projects. Indeed, we have leveraged this success and relationships for Brentwood, having secured $5 million in grants for initiatives like our beautiful park. With the park nearly completed, we can now seek funding assistance from the state and county with the redevelopment of our business districts. I will lead the effort to develop an aggressive strategy for the redevelopment of these areas. Secondly, we need to redevelop the McGinness Sisters property in a way that will maximize both tax revenues and services to our beloved Brentwood.

If elected, what is one long-term goal? Long-term goals include fostering and cultivating a supportive environment, identifying sustainable funding and enhancing government partnerships to ensure we continue quality Public Safety for our constituencies. I will work in support of our police, fire and EMS having the resources necessary to carry out core responsibilities of the borough. We have to leverage financial resources and relationships to ensure our continued provision of services in a manner that furthers our legacy of in-house and superior public safety. It should be noted that through my company, DTI Advisory Group, I’m lobbying for legislation that we wrote which would allow workers compensation reimbursement for first responders, both professional and volunteer police, fire and EMS, for treatment of Post Traumatic Stress Injury. Our brothers and sisters serving in these capacities currently aren’t permitted for such reimbursement. As mayor, (I bring) a successful economic development and government affairs professional to the position.

How do you plan to communicate with constituents and involve them in the decision-making process? I have a mayor Facebook account that I use to communicate matters of importance to our community. It’s also been a vehicle for people to reach out to me with questions, comments and/or concerns. Additionally, I am active in the community, including serving as a youth sports coach for 27 years and have found this to be an excellent opportunity to interact with our community, both adults and children. When appropriate, I will host town hall discussions on matters of great importance to Brentwood, which will be conducted – as I have done – for matters such as parking issues in the borough.