O'Connor, Onorato back sharing some services

After studying city-county consolidation efforts in North Carolina for two days, Mayor Bob O'Connor and Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato said their governments could save money and increase efficiency by sharing building inspection and maintenance services.

"There are certain functions we can look at in the short term and others in the long run," Onorato said.

Onorato and O'Connor returned Tuesday from a two-day visit to Charlotte, N.C., to learn about that area's consolidation of county and city services. Both leaders support consolidating to streamline local government.

"When we get out and visit neighboring cities, it helps us understand what will work and what won't," said O'Connor. "You can learn a lot from what other people have done."

Onorato and O'Connor said they were optimistic about the consolidation changes they saw in Charlotte, but it is too early to say what other services in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County could be combined.

"They have 20 to 25 years of information," O'Connor said. "But it's also a completely different picture," he said, adding that consolidation is easier in Charlotte because the city and county there are mostly the same geographical area. "They don't have 156 municipalities."

Onorato said the visit helped show him which functions it would make sense to consolidate and which ones would be much more difficult to bring together.

"A lot of it is the exact same, and other aspects are different," he said.

Acting City Controller Anthony Pokora is expected to release an audit later this week that would recommend services the city and the county should merge.