Who will control PWSA? Public hearing is slated to address that vexing question

Expansion of board among items mulled

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Plans to rework governance at the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority are up for discussion in the coming week.

City council is inviting input at a public hearing at 6 p.m. Wednesday on the fifth floor of the CityCounty Building, 414 Grant St., Downtown.

The agenda features pending city legislation that would expand the PWSA board from seven directors to nine, including one seat held by a city council member. A new nominators board — an idea supported by Mayor Bill Peduto — would pick nominees for the board, which would maintain operational oversight of PWSA.

Council and the mayor would need to affirm those nominations, according to the plan.

Longstanding practice has the mayor alone pick PWSA board nominees, who are then confirmed or rejected by council. An advisory panel last year recommended the city avoid undue political influence at PWSA, in part by reworking the board and preventing the mayor — and council — from choosing future board appointees.

On a related front, council wants to eliminate an option that could let PWSA buy the water infrastructure from the city government as early as 2025. PWSA operates the drinking-water and sewage-conveyance systems under a long-term city lease.

Dropping the purchase option would help ensure PWSA isn’t privatized,council members have said. The future of the purchase option alsoappears on the hearing agenda.