The troubled Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority over the past week lost three board members whose terms expired in December amid a restructuring ordered by Mayor Bill Peduto designed to modernize and resolve systemic problems.
PWSA received resignation letters from board Chairman Alex Thomson, Secretary Caren Glotfelty and Andrea Geraghty. The seven-member board can function with a quorum of four remaining members, according to Pittsburgh Finance Director Paul Leger, who serves on the PWSA board.
All three noted in resignation letters that PWSA faces difficult challenges.
Glotfelty, executive director of the Allegheny County Parks Foundation, and Geraghty, an attorney with the Downtown firm of Meyer Unkovic and Scott, cited time constraints as their reasons for resigning. Thomson is an attorney with the Downtown firm of Houston Harbaugh.
They did not return calls seeking comment.
“At this point, I cannot be effective as a member of the board,” Geraghty said in her letter. “I am sure it is best for me to step aside and make room for someone with sufficient time and energy to devote to the very important tasks of PWSA.”
Peduto spokeswoman Katie O'Malley said the mayor is in the process of seeking board replacements and expects to name them later this week.
PWSA in recent years has been plagued by problems, including lead-tainted water, leaking water mains, erratic billing and turnover in top leadership.
Last week, the PWSA board extended interim Executive Director Bernard Lindstrom's contract through 2019 after extended negotiations. Lindstrom initially turned down the offer, which will pay him $225,000 per year.
John Welch of Homewood, a Democrat running against Peduto in the May primary election, blamed the mayor for PWSA's problems.
“(PWSA's) problems have been quietly creeping up for 16 years,” he told reporters Wednesday during a news conference in front of PWSA headquarters in the Strip District. “Our current mayor while on city council did nothing.”
Peduto spokesman Tim McNulty referred questions to Keyva Clark, the mayor's campaign manager. Clark could not immediately be reached for comment.
Earlier this month Peduto created an advisory panel to manage a wide-scale restructuring of PWSA. The panel will hold a public meeting March 31 in the City-County Building, Downtown.
Peduto on Wednesday named six elected and community leaders to help guide the panel. They include Thomson; Pittsburgh City Councilwoman Deb Gross, who serves on the PWSA board; Controller Michael Lamb; Sylvia Wilson, who chairs the Alcosan board of directors; David Miller, founder of the Congress of Neighboring Communities; and Alex Sciulli, who once headed the defunct Pittsburgh Water Department.
Bob Bauder is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 412-765-2312 or bbauder@tribweb.com.
