11 Investigates: Fact checking claims Mayor Ed Gainey made during his 2025 budget address

PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey made a lot of claims in his budget address Tuesday morning.

11 Investigates went over his entire speech and discovered that some of the claims were accurate but others were not.

>>> Mayor Gainey’s 2025 budget reduces number of police officers, adds civilian jobs within bureau

“When I took office we still purchased 100% of our energy from polluting sources. Last year for the first time we changed that,” Gainey said.

That is not true. While Gainey did purchase energy from a wind farm, the previous administration had already met the goal of purchasing 100% renewable energy.

In fact, according to a news release from the Pa Environment Digest and multiple former city employees, the city under Mayor Bill Peduto met its goal of 100% renewable electricity in 2020, 10 years earlier than initially predicted.

Peduto even received the Mayor’s Climate Protection award for his efforts.

“In 2022, I reopened the police academy after several years without recruits,” Gainey said.

That is also not true.

Gainey did not launch a police academy class until 2023, even though Peduto allocated money for two classes in 2022.

Peduto’s last class graduated in 2021.

“Drivers told us they had lost the ability to regulate salt. This meant that we weren’t saving anything, just a slower response time for our residents,” Gainey said.

That is true.

The Peduto administration installed digital salt control devices on trucks, but 11 Investigates discovered that caused more problems with salt distribution.

Drivers had to redo streets and intersections because the devices didn’t operate properly.

The Gainey administration has fixed that. They’ve given drivers the ability to regulate salt.

“When I took office the land bank hadn’t moved a single property,” Gainey said.

That is mostly true.

Created in 2014, the land bank never really got off the ground until Gainey took office.

Under Gainey, 150 properties have either been sold or are in the process of being sold.

“The bureau has been able to deploy a greater number of basic life support units at one time, than any other time in history,” Gainey said.

While that is accurate, it doesn’t quite tell the whole story.

The city launched an Emergency Medical Technician training program, so they’ve hired more EMTS, who provide basic life support.

But they’re still down 29 paramedics who provide advanced life support. And severe manpower shortages have led to units repeatedly being placed out of service.

“We were just barely keeping up with basic services like garbage collections, EMS (Emergency Medical Service) services and community safety,” Gainey said.

Gainey claimed he inherited a city on the brink of disaster, but there’s no evidence to back that up.

Under the previous administration, all of those things Gainey mentioned had been accomplished on a daily basis.

In fact, the city under Peduto had more than 1,000 police officers at one point.

It’s down to 750 now.

And EMS didn’t take units out of service.

“We also heard the concerns of our residents this past summer, and propose the addition of a new plumbing foreman,” Gainey said.

This past summer, the Gainey administration came under fire for failing to turn on water fountains at city parks.

Whether that one new plumbing foreman makes a difference in getting those fountains turned on next spring, we will have to wait and see.

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