The Pennsylvania Senate approved Pittsburgh City Councilman Corey O’Connor as the new Allegheny County Controller Friday afternoon.
Mr. O’Connor submitted a letter to Gov. Tom Wolf earlier this year asking to be nominated for the position. An official swearing-in date has not been set yet.
“[I’m] just eager to get started at this point,” Mr. O’Connor said Friday afternoon. “There’s a lot of work to be done across the county … coming in the midterm, it’s just time to go to work.”
The position was vacated by former controller Chelsa Wagner, who is now a Court of Common Pleas judge. Judge Wagner left the position in January.
The lifelong Pittsburgh resident said he is “honored by this and excited” to get to represent even more people across the county.
Some of his goals as the controller will be to analyze the county’s environmental impact since its last report in 2008 and to make sure the county’s budget is “transparent and open to the public.”
On City Council, Mr. O’Connor worked to balance the city’s budget and get the city out of the state Act 47 designation as a municipality under financial distress.
He also said Friday that he wants to focus on worker’s rights, including job training and working conditions, as well as streamlining the record-keeping process.
As county controller, Mr. O’Connor will also have a seat on the county Jail Oversight Board.
“We’re actually hiring somebody that has a criminal justice background and is working on rights for individuals,” Mr. O’Connor said.
This person will be coming to Pittsburgh from Washington, D.C. “in the next couple of weeks,” and will focus on the Allegheny County Jail, according to Mr. O'Connor.
“We have a lot of moving parts here that we’re putting together,” he said. “There’s already a lot of good workers at the controller’s office, so I think it’s going to be a good blend.
As a city councilman, Mr. O’Connor has worked on high-profile legislation such as gun control reform. After the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting in his district, Mr. O’Connor co-sponsored legislation to ban assault weapons in public places.
The bill was passed and signed by then-Mayor Bill Peduto, but is still being litigated at the state level.
After the Fern Hollow Bridge Collapse, Mr. O’Connor joined with Mayor Ed Gainey to create legislation forming a commission to advise officials on best practices to improve and maintain Pittsburgh's infrastructure.
More recently, he signed on as a co-sponsor to Councilman Bobby Wilson’s three bills to protect abortion access in the city after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
Mr. O’Connor has represented District 5, which includes Squirrel Hill, Hazelwood, Greenfield and Lincoln Place, since 2012. He will have to officially resign from this position, but a timeline for when a special election to fill his seat will be held is unclear.
Barb Warwick, a Greenfield resident, has already started campaigning for the soon-to-be-vacant seat
Hallie Lauer: hlauer@post-gazette.com
First Published: July 8, 2022, 9:11 p.m.