Welcome to Allegheny Forum!

The Allegheny Forum is a site dedicated to engaging the public in a conversation about local government in southwestern Pennsylvania. This site provides an opportunity to gather public opinion on topics related to local government services and the delivery and funding of those services. Users are invited and encouraged to share their opinions by voting in polls and surveys and by submitting responses to articles that are posted on the site.

Allegheny Forum is generously hosted by the Pittsburgh Foundation, with Local Government Academy serving as the moderator. The site was launched in 2010 as part of the Pittsburgh Foundation’s Deliberative Democracy project. Past contributors include:

Allegheny Conference on Community Development
Allegheny League of Municipalities
CONNECT (The Congress of Neighboring Communities)
CORO Center for Civic Leadership, Pittsburgh
Local Government Academy
The Pennsylvania Economy League of Southwestern PA
The Program for Deliberative Democracy
Sustainable Pittsburgh
University of Pittsburgh’s Institute of Politics

Most people in Allegheny County are unaware of the funding crisis facing their local community ambulance provider. But, according to a report released by Pittsburgh City Controller, Michael Lamb, there is a $2.7 million annual deficit facing community emergency medical services just within the city and the 35 bordering communities to the city (a region now known as CONNECT). This deficit takes into account subscription rates, financial assistance from local governments, and assistance from local hospitals. How did we get to this place? Some of the major issues include:

• Accelerating loss of volunteers
• Flat insurance reimbursements
• Higher cost of providing for a professional and highly trained staff
• Costs to vehicles and equipment maintenance and eventual replacement
• An increasing number of individuals on Medicare, whose insurance rates of reimbursements for EMS is low in relation to the actual cost of service

If these deficits continue, locally provided emergency medical care may become a thing of the past. What would our communities do if we called 911 and no one answered? Who should step up to fix this problem? Tell us what you think by posting your comments below.

The suspension of an Allegheny County dispatcher (see article) for sending response vehicles to the wrong address made headlines in local newspapers and led local news broadcasts last week. Those overseeing the Allegheny County 911 Center said it was human error and not related to a new $10 million computer-aided dispatch system implemented over the summer, which increases the amount of real-time information available to 911 operators (see article). Without creating a countywide office, such technology would not have been affordable for communities to buy and implement on their own. Is this an isolated incident because of a careless employee? Is it symptomatic of a larger problem? Tell us what you think by posting your comments below.

We rely on volunteers for our fire protection—and their numbers are falling: from 1985 to 2004, the number of volunteer firefighters fell by more than half from 152,000 to about 70,000. Some wonder if it’s realistic to rely on a volunteer force, as most towns in the County do. But an all-professional force would mean we’d have to pay for firefighting and the lowest estimate for the cost of converting to a professional firefighting force statewide is $6 billion.

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In our area, there are four different ways service is provided – by the municipality itself (like Pittsburgh), by a non-profit EMS authority (like Ross/West View EMSA), in combination with a fire department (like Monroeville VFC), or by a for-profit company (like NorthWest EMS – serving Stowe, Bellevue and McKees Rocks and others). Which method of service do you think would provide the safest care and fastest response? Tell us by voting in our poll and posting your comments below.

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