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Ordinance of the County of Allegheny, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, amending Ordinance No. 54-05, which established the parameters under which the County administration may enter into discussions regarding the cooperation of the City of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County in the performance and exercise of certain governmental functions, to clarify County policy on the pursuit of intergovernmental cooperation with the City of Pittsburgh.
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WHEREAS, the General Local Government Code, 53 P.S. § 2301 et. seq. (hereinafter the “Code”), provides that two or more municipalities may jointly cooperate in the exercise of or performance of their respective governmental functions, powers, or responsibilities, when both bodies pass an ordinance to that effect; and
WHEREAS, the Code defines "intergovernmental cooperation" as cooperation or agreement in the exercise of any function, power or responsibility or the transfer of any function, power or responsibility with or to one or more other local governments, 53 P.S. §2304; and
WHEREAS, Ordinance No. 54-04 of the County of Allegheny, approved by the Council on December 20, 2005, authorized the Administration to discuss cooperation agreements between the City and County and vested final approval of such agreements with Council, but did not further clarify County policy regarding intergovernmental cooperation with the City of Pittsburgh; and
WHEREAS, recent events have called the discretionary and spending habits of certain elected officials within the City into question, and in the process have raised doubts as to the desirability of increasing the County's dependence upon the City for the performance of vital functions;
The Council of the County of Allegheny hereby enacts as follows:
SECTION 1.
Section 2 of Ordinance Number 54-05 is hereby amended as follows:
Effective January 1, 2006, the Administration of the County is hereby authorized to enter into discussions regarding intergovernmental cooperation with the City of Pittsburgh in the performance of governmental functions, provided that all City Council discretionary budgets are publicly disclosed and audited by the City Controller such that all expenditures under such budgets are fully accounted for prior to the finalization of any intergovernmental cooperation agreement. To the extent practicable, the Chief Executive shall provide periodic updates on the status of pending discussions to Council. All communications received from the Chief Executive regarding open discussions shall be deemed confidential communications, and shall not be released as public records before finalization of the agreements to which they pertain.
SECTION 2.
Pursuant to the General Local Government Code, 53 P.S. § 2301 et seq., when specific cooperating agreements, as defined in Section 1 of this Ordinance, have been negotiated and are ready to be entered into, an ordinance authorizing the County to enter into the specific agreement shall be required through the legislative action of County Council, pursuant to § 2305 and § 2307 of the Act. It shall be the policy of County Council not to authorize any agreement prior to the budgetary disclosure and audit described in Section 2 of this Ordinance.
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.