Pittsburgh City Council must vote whether Wilkinsburg annexation will appear on borough's ballot

Pittsburgh City Council must vote within three months to decide whether the city’s possible annexation of Wilkinsburg will be on the neighboring borough’s ballot later this year, a judge ruled Wednesday.

The ruling came as supporters of the potential merger, in anticipation of the ruling, gathered outside the City-County Building in Downtown Pittsburgh urging council members to vote in favor of sending the question to the ballot.

Council members indicated they will hold nine public hearings on the issue — one in each city council district. Councilman Anthony Coghill spoke in favor of the move during Wednesday’s rally.

Opponents of the annexation also gathered Downtown, in some instances shouting down officials speaking in support of the move.

“The homeowners and the property owners and the business owners of Wilkinsburg will benefit from this,” Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald said. “They will see their millage go down and they will start to see private investment along the business corridor and in the neighborhoods.”

“You’re stealing from Wilkinsburg,” an opponent shouted in response.

A push to make the 2.25-square-mile borough part of Pittsburgh picked up steam over the summer when the Wilkinsburg Community Development Corporation began gathering signatures for an annexation petition, which it delivered to the court in early December.

Wednesday’s hearing in front of Judge Joseph James was mostly a formality, with James needing only to certify the roughly 1,200 signatures on the petition.

“What we have been doing isn’t working,” said Tracy Evans, executive director of the Wilkinsburg CDC. “It is clear that even with outside help, the borough does not have the capacity to reverse its decline. Annexation by the city of Pittsburgh is the key to letting Wilkinsburg prosper and grow.”

Longtime resident Renee Hayes-Johnson said she refers to the Wilkinsburg CDC as the “Wilkinsburg Community Destruction Corporation.”

“Because people enjoy their independence as a borough, we want to stay that way,” she said. “We have solved a lot of problems. We are no longer a distressed community. We’ve come out of that.”

The homeowner said the borough can solve its own problems without being absorbed by Pittsburgh.

Borough Councilwoman Denise Edwards gathered with opponents of the move. She called the push “phony,” and said the money going toward the campaign to make Wilkinsburg part of Pittsburgh could be better spent on community investment.

“We are perfectly capable of governing ourselves,” Edwards said.

Former Wilkinsburg Councilman Michael Rose said the annexation would help more residents become property owners and bring more businesses into the borough, something he and others said just isn’t happening now because of the high tax rate.

Opponents shouted Rose down with cries of “traitor,” and likewise called resident and business owner Derrick Tillman “a sellout.” Tillman spoke in favor of the annexation, though he noted he was initially against the idea.

“There is no better option,” Rose said. “And if there is, then I offer a challenge to the leadership to offer an alternative solution.”