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An Ordinance of the County of Allegheny, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, setting forth funding guidelines for the Allegheny Regional Asset District.
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WHEREAS, Allegheny County Council, through Ordinance No. 32066, created the Allegheny Regional Asset District; and
WHEREAS, Ordinance No. 32066 was enacted in 1994 under the authority contained within the Allegheny Regional Asset District Act, 16 P.S. 6101-B et. seq.; and
WHEREAS, the Allegheny Regional Asset District Act, 16 P.S. §6101-B, provides that the District, if established, would assume the responsibilities of Allegheny County and the City of Pittsburgh in funding regional assets that are vital to the “…health, welfare, education and quality of life of the citizens of the region.”; and
WHEREAS, the Allegheny Regional Asset District Act, 16 P.S. §6130-B, restricts the funding decisions to be made by the District in only four ways: first by mandating that no health care facilities or institutions which predominantly provide education may be funded, second by establishing that no parks under 200 acres (other than linear parks and parks laying within more than one municipality) are to be funded, third by requiring that any funded entity serve a significant number of individuals not residing in the municipality in which the asset is located, and fourth by mandating that no library that is not part of a system serving multiple municipalities may be funded; and
WHEREAS, volunteer fire and emergency medical service providers are charged with responsibility for the health and welfare of the citizens of the region, these entities routinely serve individuals not residing in the municipalities in which the department or provider is located, and do not fall within any of the other restrictions on District funding; and
WHEREAS, the Allegheny Regional Asset District has created its own internal guidelines for granting discretionary funding, under which it refuses to accept or review applications for funding from any providers of public safety functions; and
WHEREAS, the internal discretionary funding guidelines of the District have resulted in a narrow class of assets being funded over the course of the existence of the District, with no entity providing for public safety ever having been funded by the District; and
WHEREAS, the discretionary funding decisions made by the District appear to have strayed from the broad mandate granted by the Regional Asset District Act and Ordinance No. 32066 in that funds appear to be granted to only a narrow class of applicants;
The Council of the County of Allegheny hereby enacts as follows:
SECTION 1.
The Allegheny Regional Asset District shall, beginning with funding decisions for the 2007 year, adopt internal funding guidelines consistent with the following requirements:
The District shall not refuse to receive or evaluate funding applications from any applicant or classification of applicants otherwise meeting the basic funding requirements contained within the Allegheny Regional Asset District Act, 16 P.S. §6130-B;
All applications received under the provisions of Section 1.A. of this Ordinance shall be evaluated on an equal footing, regardless of the type of service provided by an applicant to the residents of the region, and the District shall establish no internal rules that discriminate in any fashion among applicants or classes of applicants who otherwise meet the basic funding requirements set forth in the Allegheny Regional Asset District Act, 16 P.S. §6130-B;
The District shall make no more than 75% of its discretionary funding budget available to applicants who have received funding in any amount from the District in the previous 5 years;
Consistent with the requirements of the Allegheny Regional Asset District Act, the District shall make no less than three percent (3%) of its entire funding budget available to entities providing for the health and/or welfare of residents of the region. Such entities shall include, but not be limited to, volunteer fire departments and emergency medical services providers otherwise meeting the basic funding requirements of the Allegheny Regional Asset District Act, 16 P.S. §6130-B.
SECTION 2.
Beginning with the opening of the application period for 2007 discretionary funding and continuing through the rendering of a final decision for each application received and evaluated, the District shall issue a written report to Council no later than the last day of each month fully describing the total amount of the District's discretionary funding budget for that year, the number of applications received, a description of each applicant, the status of each application, and the amount of funding granted to each applicant. This report shall be submitted to Council in each month in which applications are received or reviewed for any funding year thereafter.
The District shall include, as part of the first monthly report provided under Section 2.A. of this Ordinance, a complete copy of the internal discretionary funding guidelines then in effect. Any change(s) subsequently made to these guidelines must be reported to Council within 10 days of the effective date of such change(s).
SECTION 3. If any provision of this Ordinance shall be determined to be unlawful, invalid, void or unenforceable, then that provision shall be considered severable from the remaining provisions of this Ordinance which shall be in full force and effect.
SECTION 4. Any Resolution or Ordinance or part thereof conflicting with the provisions of this Ordinance is hereby repealed so far as the same affects this Ordinance.