County controller candidates O’Connor, Leuba face off at forum

The two declared candidates for Allegheny County controller, both Democrats, discussed their policy positions during a forum Tuesday afternoon.

Facilitated by 1Hood Media, Darwin Leuba and Corey O’Connor sat down to answer questions ranging from the Allegheny County Jail to accessible transit to environmental action, at 1Hood’s headquarters on Melwood Avenue in Oakland. The primary election is on May 16.

The county controller oversees the use of county money, ensuring it is spent and moved appropriately. Audits and inspections fall under the controller’s duties, along with payroll and responding to constituents, taxpayers and vendors.

Leuba, the O’Hara auditor and a recent Yale University graduate, told attendees that he was running for controller because he’s “scrappy” and understands the urgency of issues facing the county.

“If we really want to take on UPMC, if we really want to reduce inequities, that sort of thing has to start today, and there has to be a sense of urgency, but I don’t see that sense of urgency in the controller’s office today,” Leuba said. “The UPMC audit could be expanded countywide today if we really wanted to. We could enforce the old contracts today and improve health care, nutrition, and we absolutely need to ….”

O’Connor has served as controller since being sworn in last July to fill the vacancy left by Chelsa Wagner when she was elected a county judge. O’Connor previously represented the 5th District on Pittsburgh City Council for 10 years, and he is the son of the late Mayor Bob O’Connor, who died in 2006.

O’Connor touted wins such as paid sick leave in the city and county, taking UPMC to court, and the passing of gun safety legislation in the city and state.

In his seven months as controller, O’Connor said he’s “taken the office off of Grant Street [and] into your neighborhood; the county controller needs to be out in the streets learning what the issues are ….”

“You want somebody that’s going to understand what’s going on in our city and in our region, and get money to the proper organizations who are going to help people, and audit the ones that are not doing their job, that’s why I should be the controller for another four years,” O’Connor said.

Lueba told attendees that there are pay disparities in the controller’s office, saying that Black employees make an average of 76% of their white peers. He added that salaries for white employees have on average jumped more than 7.5% in the past year, while the salaries for Black employees have decreased by 1.8%.

“When the disparities in the controller’s office have gotten worse, and when the person in charge takes money from corporate PACs and UPMC leadership and hybrid PAC and utility companies, we can’t trust those audits to center our needs,” Leuba said.

Leuba spoke of his work in the private sector handling budgets of tens of millions of dollars and managing political campaigns. His computer science degree enabled him to quickly audit UPMC parking lots, saying that an “ability to navigate databases and large data sets quickly and efficiently are critical to audits that get to the core problem without wasting our time.”

He also spoke of his Taiwanese heritage, asserting that an office that is representative of the people is the only way to ensure money is being spent equitably.

“I think when you’ve had white leadership in an office for so long, that’s caused a lot of these issues where a lot of the auditing has maybe centered on issues that only impact white folks that don’t consider Asian folks or Black folks,” Leuba said.

Acknowledging that his office needs to do better in terms of equity, O’Connor explained the minimum wage in the controller’s office has been raised to $18 per hour and his team has been recruiting more diverse talent.

O’Connor also highlighted the two surprise inspections he’s conducted of the Allegheny County Jail. He said the two audits done of the jail were “the most audits done in the last seven years.”

The controller sits the Jail Oversight Board, something attendees questioned the candidates further on.

While on the board, O’Connor said, he has worked for better food and higher standards for requests for proposals, along with the hiring of a liaison, which will be the “eyes and ears” for the board within the jail.

He has also demanded information presented in meetings be made public in an act of transparency, something else his office boasts, as all contracts and reports are available on the controller’s website.

Leuba countered that it isn’t enough to make contracts public, saying, “Corey’s office has the statutory authority to enforce contracts today if you wanted to.” He argued that a lack of nutrition and the employment of unqualified doctors could be solved by enforcing contracts already on the books.

“We say we’re gonna wait until things happen — when the audit is done, when the report is done — when a lot of the information we already have readily available, and what we need is action on it in order to improve the quality of life in order to reduce the human rights violations in the jail,” Leuba said.

Referencing the recent Ohio train derailment, which saw hazardous materials enter the environment, host Ross Tedder asked candidates how they saw the controller’s role in addressing environmental and environmental health issues.

O’Connor said he plans to conduct an audit of the Clean Air Fund. He is also working on auditing the economic development department to ensure sustainable standards are created, something he did on City Council.

“When I was on the ALCOSAN board, we had zero green infrastructure dollars,” O’Connor said. “When I left we were over $100 million in green sustainable infrastructure that not only beautifies our communities, but by having green infrastructure, it creates a new wave of jobs that can help a lot of people rebuild their own lives by having those green sustainable jobs.”

Leuba said actions he would potentially undertake, such as auditing the air quality program to make sure polluters are held accountable and auditing the drilling leases at Deer Lakes Park to investigate if they’re overproducing or not meeting standards.

“It’s within the controller’s purview to audit that lease,” he said. “That’s something that needs to happen as quickly as possible because the whole idea of fracking in Deer Lakes was that it wasn’t going to impact the park, but it has, I think, those broken promises we see time and time again with fossil fuels.”

The full forum can be found on Facebook and YouTube as part of 1Hood Power Hour, a public affairs podcast by 1Hood Media’s advocacy arm, 1Hood Power. Tuesday’s event is one in a series of spring candidate forums.