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An Ordinance of the County of Allegheny, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, to amend the Code of the County of Allegheny, Division 1, by the addition of a new §5-203.08, requiring that all County authorities delineated within the Administrative Code make information pertaining to their budgets available to the public on their respective websites.
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WHEREAS, the County and Commonwealth have repeatedly expressed a desire for complete transparency in the finances of the various County authorities created under the provisions of state and local law; and
WHEREAS, these County authorities all have appointed governing bodies which do not have any direct accountability to the voters of the County or Commonwealth; and
WHEREAS, although the state laws under which the County authorities are created, such as the Municipality Authorities Act, frequently provide that an authority must file an annual report of its fiscal affairs, these statutory requirements do not specify that the reports produced must be posted on the internet, which is the most readily available forum to many of the County's residents; and
WHEREAS, requiring such public posting is in the best interest of both the County and its authorities, in that it fosters both transparency and accountability on the part of the authorities;
The Council of the County of Allegheny hereby enacts as follows:
SECTION 1.
Article 203 of Division 1 of the Code of Allegheny County is hereby amended to include a new §5-203.08 as follows:
§5-203.08. Budgetary Information Dissemination Requirement.
A. Any authority created singularly or jointly by Allegheny County enumerated in §5-203.01 above shall maintain at its offices and post on its internet site a summary of budgetary information pertaining to that authority. Such summary shall be made available to the public at no charge, and shall include, but not be limited to, the following information:
1. A brief description of the service programs provided to the public by the authority in the current fiscal year;
2. A description of goals for all existing service programs for the next fiscal year;
3. A complete listing of the authority's operating budget line items and the amount of each line item for the current and previous three (3) fiscal years;
4. A complete listing of the authority's capital budget line items and the amount of each line item for the current and previous three (3) fiscal years; and
5. A complete listing of the Authority's personnel costs, specifically delineating total amounts paid for salary, health care, retirement, and other benefit costs for the current and previous three (3) fiscal years; and
6. Copies of all financial statements prepared by the authority pursuant to the terms of applicable federal, state or local law for the previous three (3) fiscal years.
B. An authority may substitute a copy of its annual report for some or all of the summaries required under the terms of this section. In the event that an authority's annual report does not include one or more of the summaries required under the terms of this section, the authority shall create a separate document for that summary.
C. In the event that an authority listed in §5-203.01 of this Administrative Code does not maintain its own website, the information required under the terms of this Section shall be posted at no cost to the authority on the Allegheny County website by the County Division of Computer Services.
SECTION 2. 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 Resolution which shall be in full force and effect.