Title
Ordinance, entitled "Directing the Allegheny County Board of Elections to place before the qualified voters of the City of Pittsburgh at the 2025 May Primary Election a referendum question, "Shall the Pittsburgh Home Rule Charter be amended and supplemented by adding a new Article 11: RIGHT TO PUBLIC OWNERSHIP OF POTABLE WATER SYSTEMS, WASTEWATER SYSTEM, AND STORM SEWER SYSTEMS, which restricts the lease and/or sale of the City's water and sewer system to private entities?"
(Public Hearing held 2/3/25)
Body
WHEREAS, in 1968, the electors of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania approved various amendments to the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania ("Pennsylvania Constitution of 1968", "state Constitution"), among which were amendments which granted to municipalities for the first time the right and power to frame and adopt home rule charters and enjoined municipalities; and,
WHEREAS, in 1971, the Pennsylvania constitution was further amended to include Section 27 which states that "The people have a right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment. Pennsylvania's public natural resources are the common property of all the people, including generations yet to come. As trustee of these resources, the Commonwealth shall conserve and maintain them for the benefit of all the people."; and,
WHEREAS, in 1972, pursuant to Article IX, Section 2 of the Pennsylvania Constitution of 1968, the General Assembly enacted the Home Rule Charter and Optional Plans Law, which established the process by which municipalities could frame and adopt a home rule charter; and,
WHEREAS, in 1974, the qualified voters of the City of Pittsburgh approved the adoption of the Pittsburgh Home Rule Charter (the "Charter") and thus the City became a home-rule municipality; and,
WHEREAS, the Home Rule Charter and Optional Plans Law, 53 Pa.C.S.A. ? 2961, et seq., is a broad grant of municipal auth...
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