As Alcosan hikes rates in preparation for a multibillion-dollar revamp, the sewer authority is paying a retired judge to help it reach out to its municipal customers.
Robert C. Gallo has, since mid-2016, received $50,000 for his services to Alcosan, according to the authority, and in May his $2,500-a-month contract was renewed for another year. “Judge Gallo gives us a different weapon in our arsenal,” Alcosan executive director Arletta Scott Williams told the authority’s board then.
Last week Alcosan complied with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s request for documents associated with his service, and the records and related interviews suggest that Mr. Gallo is a low-key player on the authority’s goodwill team.
For instance, the judge’s most recent foray documented in the records was a June 5 visit to a Ben Avon Borough Council meeting, at which he accompanied two other Alcosan representatives for a 10-minute presentation on the authority’s outreach to schools, environmental grants and “pups program” to get dog owners to scoop poop.
“The judge introduced himself, didn’t say a whole lot but wanted us to know that he was with [Alcosan staff] in a consulting capacity,” said Ben Avon councilman Earl Bohn. He said that most of the presentation was handled by an Alcosan employee who “seemed perfectly capable of doing what she’s doing without a sidekick.”
For its $2,500 a month, the authority typically gets about 17 hours of Mr. Gallo’s time, based on those of his invoices that listed the tasks performed.
Last week Ms. Williams said that Mr. Gallo “has been able to get us into places and help us articulate our message to people who didn’t want to hear from us because they had this Big Brother concept of Alcosan. ... So he has been able to help us bridge that gap and get to people with our message that we weren’t necessarily getting to. ... He just knows everybody.”
A need to reach out
Alcosan bills most of the 83 municipalities it serves for the wastewater it gets from their pipes, and they in turn bill their residents and businesses. Alcosan’s rates have risen by 128 percent since 2008, with more increases to come.
That’s in part because the federal government has ordered Alcosan to drastically reduce sewage overflows into the rivers. The authority’s plan involves expanding its plant in Marshall-Shadeland, digging huge water storage tunnels along the rivers, funding “green” landscape improvements and taking over sewer trunk lines from numerous municipalities.
That has spurred Alcosan to reach out to municipalities, which in turn prompted the authority to retain Mr. Gallo in mid-2016, said Ms. Williams.
At the time, Mr. Gallo, now 80, was six months into his retirement following 26 years on the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas. That followed 15 years as a practicing attorney, including, for a time, as Alcosan’s solicitor and stints as a Sharpsburg councilman.
Ms. Williams said she selected Mr. Gallo for the role based on his resume and his work with the Allegheny League of Municipalities, a nonprofit group that helps to coordinate the work of local officials. The judge moderated ALOM panel discussions on the sewer overflow issue and the federally mandated effort to reduce the flow.
“He was essentially telling the municipal officials, this is real,” said Ms. Williams. “It’s coming. They’re not pulling your leg.”
The $2,500-per-month rate, she said, “was my best guess” based on “what’s a typical retainer ... how much do I think we’re going to use him, where are we going to use him.”
Announced by an ally
The announcement of Mr. Gallo’s retention came in a September 2016 letter to municipal managers from John Weinstein, who was then Alcosan’s board chairman, remains a member of that panel, and serves as Allegheny County’s treasurer. “Because of his extensive experience in the law and with Alcosan in particular, the authority is fortunate to have him on board,” wrote Mr. Weinstein.
The Post-Gazette reported in 2002 that Mr. Gallo, then a judge, employed a member of Mr. Weinstein’s extended family. Mel Weinstein, who is John’s father and the treasurer of Kennedy, “knows [Mr. Gallo] very well,” according to Kennedy’s manager, Jerry Orsini. Last year, John Weinstein and Mr. Gallo reportedly served as two of the six honorary co-chairs for the unsuccessful superior court campaign of William Caye.
John Weinstein declined to be interviewed for this story while Mr. Gallo and Mel Weinstein could not be reached for comment, despite repeated attempts.
Since 2016, Alcosan has regularly renewed the retired judge’s contract, and a spokesman put the payout to date at $50,000.
“At this point, we’re pretty close to what I believe is phasing out the judge, probably over the next year,” because Alcosan employees will be able to handle the outreach, said Ms. Williams.
A quiet presence
From July 2017 through April — the 10 months for which Mr. Gallo’s bills were itemized — he attended 40 meetings (22 of which were internal Alcosan meetings), plus seven dinners or lunches and one golf outing, for the authority.
Accounts of the meetings with municipalities suggest that Mr. Gallo typically plays a modest role, leaving most of the talking to Alcosan municipal relations manager Kimberly Slater-Wood. The two are sometimes accompanied by Ashley Henry Shook, a government affairs consultant who previously worked as deputy chief of staff to Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato.
At an August lunch meeting in Kennedy, according to Mr. Orsini, “Judge Gallo really didn’t say very much.”
In Oakdale in November, the judge “did speak to us, but I would say he was being a liaison, for lack of a better word,” while an Alcosan employee did “most of the talking,” said Kelly Rohbeck, that borough’s manager.
Later in November, in Shaler, Mr. Gallo “was able to help Alcosan staff with some legal issues” that came up in regard to the transfer of trunk lines, said Tim Rogers, the municipal manager there.
In June in Ben Avon, Ms. Slater-Wood “did most of the talking. The judge introduced everybody,” said Jennifer Bett, the council president there.
“Judge Gallo came and just pretty much introduced himself,” added Ben Avon council member Henry Casale. “There was nothing substantive discussed. ... It was a meet and greet, everything was very pleasant, and I think they do a great job.”
Rich Lord: rlord@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1542.
First Published: July 5, 2018, 12:30 p.m.
