Mayor, executive received thousands in gifts
Statements disclose tickets, other items
A day trip to Lancaster worth $2,143.28. Tickets to Steelers, Penguins and Pirates home games from multiple sources. For Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto and Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald, respectively, these represent some of the trips, gifts and hospitality they received in 2018.
That’s according to their statements of financial interest, ethics disclosures mandated by the state for all public officials. For the city and county’s row officers and council members, there is much less to disclose: some directorships, maybe a few property holdings and, for the part-time county council, their primary sources of income. But the two men at the top made voluminous filings, showing the trips they habitually take on event sponsors’ dimes as well as the dozens of boards they sit on.
For the county’s top official, it’s mostly event tickets — which he says are used for courting businesses — and gifts. Mr. Fitzgerald reported five holiday gift baskets worth either “over $100” or “under $250,” from Highmark Health, NRG Energy Center, the Steelers, the Penguins and ValStone Partners.
“They send Christmas baskets to clients, suppliers, et cetera. To me, they don’t get anything out of it,” Mr. Fitzgerald said.
“We put them in the lobby,” he continued.
He also reported receiving tickets to events in the city and beyond, including all three major sports teams, both the University of Pittsburgh and Penn State University, and the Cultural District Trust. In addition to tickets from the teams, Mr. Fitzgerald reported complimentary tickets from the Sports and Exhibition Authority, which owns the city’s stadiums and which he jointly controls with Mr. Peduto.
“I make very little [use of them]. I went to one-half of one Steelers game last year. We were hosting an airline,” Mr. Fitzgerald said. All use of those tickets is for hosting people, he said, usually trying to attract businesses.
“If I’m going to a game, I don’t get to really watch the game.”
Mr. Fitzgerald also reported
travel accommodations and courtesy admissions — to Pittsburgh events hosted by Riverlife Pittsburgh and the Heinz History Center, and for trips to London; Nashville, Tenn.; New York; Washington, D.C.; Philadelphia; and Harrisburg.
Mr. Fitzgerald said he doesn’t like traveling but goes when he feels he needs to, again often to attract development. The London trip, for example, involved joining the county airport authority “to lobby British Airways. That was one of the highest priorities the business community has.”
The D.C. trip was part of the annual Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce trip to lobby the region’s congressional delegation, which he and Mr. Peduto attend annually.
Mayor Peduto
The chamber trip is a much smaller piece of Mr. Peduto’s schedule. He listed over $26,000 in travel paid for last year, either by his campaign committee or by the conferences he attended. He said that’s only a fraction of the invites he receives.
“There’s numerous opportunities, several per month on the international level and several per week on the domestic, where people want to hear Pittsburgh’s story. ... I probably accept somewhere between10 and 15%.”
For those he does accept, Mr. Peduto said his attendance is often required to bring that conference to Pittsburgh. “There’s a reciprocity,” he said.
Three of the trips involved local sponsors: a New Jersey summit hosted by Carnegie Mellon University headquartered Metro Labs, the Chamber of Commerce trip and a visit to Lancaster with developer Michael Zamagias.
The Lancaster trip occurred while the city was considering selling two properties to Mr. Zamagias for restoration projects, Downtown and in the Strip District. They went to Lancaster to inspect a similar restoration project he was doing there, to “kick the tires.”
“That would be one of the very few times that I have accepted the services from a developer. Usually if I am doing something like that, it’s either coming out of my [campaign committee] or my own pocket. The difference with this is he owns the plane. So it was my driving half a day to get to Lancaster, then driving half a day to get back, or taking off and being there in 45 minutes by sitting next to him,” Mr. Peduto said.
The city did not end up selling the properties to Mr. Zamagias, he said.
The biggest categories on both men’s statements of financial interest, however, are board seats, directorships and offices. Both list over 20 such offices, although both prioritize certain boards, out of necessity.
“If I spent my time going to all the meetings of the nearly 30 boards ... I wouldn’t do anything except attend board meetings,” Mr. Peduto said.
Mr. Peduto said he focuses on organizations bringing together mayors, like the National League of Cities or the Global Covenant of Mayors, while Mr. Fitzgerald gives the most attention to those that are “a big part of our development strategy.”
Beyond the hospitality and board seats, neither executive reports significant other assets or income sources. Mr. Peduto has one real estate interest, a house in Point Breeze. Mr. Fitzgerald reported investment income, his wife’s income from a part-time position at UPMC Children’s Hospital, and Aquenef, his water treatment company.
Mr. Fitzgerald said he no longer does sales for Aquenef, and that it has no business with anyone the county does business with.
The others
Other city and county officials have much shorter financial disclosures. The county row officers and the city controller all report a number of board positions, except Sheriff William Mullen, as do most members of city and county councils.
County Councilman Bob Macey said the board seats are one of the places where he and his colleagues can have the most impact.
“The Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission I find very helpful to my community,” he said. Mr. Macey represents many Mon Valley communities and said he was able to fight for the MonFayette Expressway as a member of the commission.
County Treasurer John Weinstein and county Councilman Nick Futules each report a handful of rental properties as sources of income.
Most County Council members have at least one significant other source of income — County Council is a part-time job. Many of them are small-business owners, which allows them to set their own schedules so they can attend meetings.
For example, Councilwoman Anita Prizio reports majority ownership of Pittsburgh Crankshaft Service, an auto parts store, and Prizio Enterprises, a real estate holding company. With his brother, Councilman Nick Futules owns a conventional gas well — which has mostly “petered out” — an excavation business, and a banquet hall and catering business.