Title
Ordinance amending and supplementing the City Code at Title Two: Fiscal, Article V: Special Funds, Chapter 237: Stop the Violence Fund, to clarify uses and restrictions of the fund.
Body
The City of Pittsburgh hereby enacts as follows:
Section 1. The City Code is hereby amended and supplemented at Title Two: Fiscal, Article V: Special Funds, Chapter 237: Stop the Violence Fund, as follows:
CHAPTER 237: - "STOP THE VIOLENCE FUND"
§ 237.01 - DEFINITIONS.
(a) SOCIAL SERVICE PROGRAM. As defined by this subsection, an agency which provides intervention, mediation, violence prevention or necessary supportive services which aid in reducing criminal activity by at-risk populations in the City, and when appropriate, surrounding communities;
(b) City Council finds that financially supporting programs and social service programs that prevent violence and criminal activity in the City of Pittsburgh is an express public purpose, one which more than justifies the use of the City's public moneys.
§ 237.02 - ESTABLISHMENT OF THE "STOP THE VIOLENCE FUND."
(a) The Stop the Violence Fund ("Fund") shall be created by the Office of Management and Budget as a separate fund for the purpose of supporting services and programs that prevent violence and criminal activities. The City may appropriate revenue and the Fund may receive monies from other sources as deemed appropriate by the Office of Equity or other Department as designated by the Mayor, consistent with the purposes set forth in this Chapter.
(b) It is the intent of the City Council that a fully capitalized Fund have allocated to it an amount matching a certain percentage of the total annual City budget allocation of the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police, as set forth in the following schedule:
(1) Budget Year 2021: Five Percent (5%);
(2) Budget Year 2022: Six Percent (6%);
(3) Budget Year 2023: Seven Percent (7%);
(4) Budget Year 2024: Eight Percent (8%);
(5) Budget Year 2025: Nine Percent (9%);
(6) Budget Year 2026 (and thereafter): Ten Percent (10%)
(c) For purposes of this section, the total annual City budget allocation of the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police shall not include local, state, or federal grants awarded and allocated to the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police.
[(d) It is the intention of the City Council that the Fund be used exclusively for the purposes set forth in this Chapter. Therefore, any assets remaining in the Fund at the end of any fiscal year shall be carried into the next fiscal year, including all interest and income earned, as well as any repayments or forfeitures of expenditures and/or grants.]
[(e)](d) The Stop The Violence Steering Committee shall advise in the selection and distribution of funding to community health and safety programs.
[(f)](e) The dedication of any revenue must be consistent with applicable law and fiscal planning including the City's annual five-year plan. Unless Council approves a dedicated source of annual funding, the actual amount of funds appropriated pursuant to this Chapter shall be contingent upon annual appropriation of Council.
[§ 237.03 - EFFECTIVE DATE.
This Chapter shall become effective upon enactment.]
§ 237.03 - USES AND RESTRICTIONS OF THE STOP THE VIOLENCE FUND
(a) The City Controller is authorized and directed to create a special trust fund to be entitled the “STOP THE VIOLENCE TRUST FUND” for the purpose of accepting and depositing funds from internal and external sources and the expenditure of those funds for related expenses including, but not limited to, salaries, supplies, materials, professional services, equipment and other services in connection with the City of Pittsburgh’s Office of Community Health and Safety and the Office of Community Services and Violence Prevention.
(b) The Office of Management and Budget, or other such departments as designated by the Mayor and the Department of Public Safety, are hereby authorized to provide for the payment of expenses for the purposes outlined herein.
(c) It is the intention of the City Council that the Fund be used exclusively for the purposes set forth in this Chapter. Therefore, any assets remaining in the Fund at the end of any fiscal year shall be carried into the next fiscal year, including all interest and income earned, as well as any repayments or forfeitures of expenditures and/or grants.
(d) A minimum of eighty percent (80%) of the annual budgeted expenditures from the fund shall be allocated to outside community based, non-governmental organizations.
(e) The City of Pittsburgh Stop the Violence Trust Fund shall require an annual authorization of proposed expenditures. The annual authorizing resolution may authorize the issuance of requests for proposals, estimates, bids, cost projections, and other allowable contracting procedures pursuant to Chapter 161 of the City Code for each project.