By Rich Lord
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pennsylvania)
Copyright 2006 P.G. Publishing Co.
The City of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County each has an arson squad, a police academy and a firefighter school, and merging them would be tough, but perhaps productive, Acting City Controller Tony Pokora said yesterday.
For instance, city arson investigators go out on every fire within their borders, while the county’s squad only pokes around fires deemed suspicious by suburban volunteer firefighters.
“We can possibly iron out differences between them, and have a merger in the future,” he said.
The city and county could split firefighter training duties, he said, with the former providing the basic classes, and the latter offering advanced courses.
One glitch: The city doesn’t want its firefighters to leave the city for advanced training and refresher courses, since that would put them farther from any fires.
If the city’s Washington Boulevard police academy were expanded, it could train county, municipal and private law enforcement and security personnel, he said.
He suggested an expansion into the Pittsburgh Housing Authority’s police station, which the report said could soon be empty. The city could then earn $125,000 a year from charging tuition to outside cadets, he said.
Mr. Pokora’s recommendations are “absolutely something that the county would consider doing with the city,” said Kevin Evanto, spokesman for County Chief Executive Dan Onorato.
“The mayor is anxious to review the details of this with his staff and Dan Onorato and see what’s the best service for the citizens of the city and county,” said mayoral spokesman Dick Skrinjar.
Mr. Onorato and Mr. O’Connor returned Tuesday from a trip to Charlotte, N.C., where they studied city-county cooperation.
Mr. Pokora said cooperation wouldn’t save “huge dollars,” but could bring better service. “Once you become specialized, you become better,” he said.
He expressed skepticism about a full merger of the city and county, as some regional leaders advocate.