Fiduciary Duty

The following was sent on October 29, 2019 to members of the Oakland Planning and Development Corporation Board of Directors, and members of the Pittsburgh City Council, among others.

Executive Director Wanda Wilson
Oakland Planning and Development Corporation

The Oakland Planning Development Corporation leaders, as well as members of the Pittsburgh City Council, have a fiduciary duty to protect our community from institutions like the University of Pittsburgh.

The university's next Institutional Master Plan meeting is today. I am sure at today's meeting you will find residents like myself who have posed questions at prior IMP meetings, some of whose questions were also either ignored or inadequately answered by administrators on the university's IMP website.

I have mentioned to you on several occasions that the Oakland community vitally needs an in-depth Neighborhood Impact Study as to how the university's Institutional Master Plan will affect us. That study must be as comprehensive as the Brookings Institute study that had shamefully concluded that Oakland wasn't being developed enough, and that it should have an Innovation District.

Oakland Planning and Development Corporation leaders, as well as members of the Pittsburgh City Council, do not have an adequate understanding of all of the ramifications and impacts that the IMP will have on our community now and for generations to come. Yet none of you have taken any action on behalf of the community to obtain this critically important Neighborhood Impact Study.

Last month, Vice Chancellor Paul Supowitz indicated to me that the University of Pittsburgh has no interest in providing such a study for the community. He said that the university only needs the approval of their Institutional Master Plan by the Pittsburgh Planning Commission and the Pittsburgh City Council.

It seems obvious that Chancellor Patrick Gallagher and his administrators are confident that neither OPDC nor Pittsburgh City Council will take any action to provide the community with a Neighborhood Impact Study. They know that once the IMP process reaches the Pittsburgh Planning Commission and Pittsburgh City Council, the commission and council will posture by asking tough questions and make demands to university administrators in support of the community, but that approval of their IMP will already be a done deal.

However, I will hold onto the trust and hope that you will uphold your fiduciary duty to the community.

Carlino Giampolo

Ms. Wilson responded on November 3: OPDC is doing a great deal in terms of neighborhood advocacy related to the Pitt IMP.

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The following was sent on November 4, 2019 to members of the Oakland Planning and Development Corporation Board of Directors, and members of the Pittsburgh City Council, among others.

Executive Director Wanda Wilson
Oakland Planning and Development Corporation

It is good of you to respond and please continue doing so. However, our community deserves more than a one-sentence response.

Please respond to each of the following:

1) Does OPDC have in its possession a study as comprehensive as the in-depth Brookings Institute study as to all the ramifications and impacts that the university's Institutional Master Plan will have on our community now and for generations to come? If not, then why doesn't it have such a study?

2) If OPDC does not have such a study, does it give full support to conduct an independent Neighborhood Impact Study, as comprehensive as the in-depth Brookings Institute study, as to all of the ramifications and impacts that the Institutional Master Plan will have on our community now and for generations to come?

3) If OPDC neither has in its possession nor supports such an impact study, then give our community OPDC's full knowledge and understanding as to all of the ramifications and impacts that the Institutional Master Plan will have on our community now and for generations to come.

4) I received your email concerning robots in Oakland. The minutes of the August 28 meeting concerning robots on Oakland sidewalks does not show anyone from OPDC opposing such an action. Did you or anyone else on the OPDC Board of Directors oppose such an action by the university?

5) The Department of Mobility and Infrastructure stated that it wants to make sure there is sufficient community review concerning robots on Oakland sidewalks. Do you believe that this one short meeting constitutes sufficient review?

6) In the past, I have requested to you that I would like to be included on OPDC's email list in matters pertaining to Oakland, especially those involving the University of Pittsburgh. Although events are on the OPDC website, I received no notice from OPDC of the meeting concerning the placement of robots on Oakland sidewalks. Also, I did not receive notice of the university's recent important IMP meeting until the day before the meeting. Other than having information on the OPDC website, what is the OPDC policy for giving adequate notice to Oakland residents of important community meetings?

7) The OPDC Board of Directors have given no support to the SOUL program, an environmental program to be funded by the University of Pittsburgh to the equivalent of only $4 from a student's tuition fee. This program will help end Oakland's trash and litter problems. I will ask you once again: does OPDC now support the SOUL program, or does it have a program that goes beyond the SOUL program to help end these problems? If OPDC does not now support the SOUL program, then specifically what is the OPDC's program?

Carlino Giampolo

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Note: In an email on December 19, 2019, Wanda Wilson responded. Here is her partial response to issues mentioned above. Other responses by her are on Links 95, 97 and 98.

Thank you for your recent correspondence and your concern for the Oakland neighborhood. OPDC has been very actively engaged in providing opportunity for community input in the University of Pittsburgh IMP and providing feedback on items in the document that we believe will have an adverse effect on the neighborhood. Rather than completing an impact study, we provide this detailed feedback and have seen several revisions removing or reducing the scale of projects about which we were concerned. Our input and discussions will continue as needed to address concerns.

We have your email address in our system and your email is included in each e-blast we send out. Thus, you are on our email list to receive notices about community meetings. According to our records, your email has been subscribed since at least 2017 when we switched to “Mail Chimp,” our current email program. OPDC gives adequate notice to community about meetings and events – usually 2 – 3 weeks. Community members can also receive updates via Facebook and Twitter. You may want to check various folders within your email; maybe emails from OPDC go to a junk or promotions folder.

OPDC does not have a position on the SOUL program, but runs several programs to address neighborhood quality: Oakwatch, Adopt-a-Block, volunteer mobilization for cleaning, community gardens, advocacy with landlords, outreach to student groups to address neighborhood conditions, etc.

OPDC is not manipulated by University of Pittsburgh. We are an independent organization. University of Pittsburgh made an investment of a five-year working capital loan to support the Oakland Community Land Trust – OPDC’s initiative to support permanent homeownership in the neighborhood. The Oakland CLT will also maintain affordable homeownership in Oakland. The Oakland CLT will make a big difference in the quality of the Oakland neighborhoods. I would encourage your support of this important initiative. University of Pittsburgh’s investment is not tied to OPDC’s position on the IMP, which we have not yet determined, but will once the Planning Commission hearing is scheduled.