Title
Communication from Mayor Tom Murphy submitting a veto of Council Bill No. 468.
Body
August 19, 2001
President and Members of Council
5th Floor, City-County Building
414 Grant Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15219
Dear President and Members of Council:
By way of this communication, I am hereby vetoing Bill No. 468 as amended by Council authorizing the Mayor and City Solicitor to enter into an Intergovernmental Cooperation Agreement with the Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority (ICA) for Cities of the Second Class.
Immediately following Council passage of Bill No. 468 as amended, I initiated discussions with members of the ICA, including both the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Board, as well as Governor Edward G. Rendell's administration to discuss the amendments added to the cooperation agreement by City Council. After careful review of this legislation, both the Governor and the ICA Board have requested that I veto this bill.
All of us, the Governor, Council, the ICA Board members, many local legislators and I, strongly believe in the need for diversity on the ICA Board. This can only be accomplished, however, through action of the Pennsylvania General Assembly. The City cannot compel the ICA Board, and the ICA Board cannot compel the State Legislature, to accomplish full representation for the City on the ICA Board. The ICA Board is on record supporting the call for diversity and for action by the General Assembly on a measure to establish the diversity on the board we seek. However, it is the conclusion of the Governor and the ICA Board that this Intergovernmental Cooperation Agreement should be a formal working document to govern the relationship between the City and the ICA and should not include matters over which neither the ICA nor the City have direct control.
Additionally, while the idea of a "conference committee" structure has merit, it was not included in Act 11 of 2004 that created the ICA. The Intergover...
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