When Michael Lamb was first sworn in as Pittsburgh’s city controller in 2008, he touted big plans for improving the office that audits city government.
“I’m asking for one thing, and that’s excellence,” he said at the time. "Anything that brings us closer to excellence will be encouraged, and anything that takes us further away won't be tolerated."
Fifteen years later, Mr. Lamb has helped spearhead OpenBookPGH and Fiscal Focus PGH, two programs that brought more transparency to city budgets and campaign fundraising by making information easily accessible to the public. But as he runs for Allegheny County executive in the May 16 Democratic primary, Mr. Lamb also faces questions about what his critics call unmet expectations — not to mention a slew of failed flirtations with higher office.
Before Mr. Lamb took office, Pittsburgh had never met a legal requirement in the city charter that every city agency, department and trust fund be audited at least once every four years. Mr. Lamb, now 60, campaigned on changing that.
But he still hasn’t met that goal. City Council hasn’t been audited in almost a decade, even after lawmakers moved to give themselves, and later rescinded, a controversial pay raise last year.
With dozens of city departments and agencies, auditing all of them is a mandate Pittsburgh’s elected government watchdogs have long struggled to fulfill. It’s also one that Mr. Lamb made a goal in his early days in office.
"They're a department, and I don't think they've ever been audited," he said of City Council in 2008. "It's a very small department on a budgetary basis, but they have had their issues."
One of the people running for Mr. Lamb’s job now says meeting the city charter requirement is doable.
“It is an achievable task if you’re focused right, if you’re staffed right and if you set those goals,” said Mark DePasquale, a Department of Public Works staffer running in the Democratic primary for city controller. “If the office had more staff that were managed properly, [it] would get those audits done.”
The controller’s office currently has 53 employees, including Mr. Lamb himself, according to city payroll data. The office is budgeted for 60 employees in the 2023 operating budget.
Mr. Lamb didn’t respond to a request for comment and his campaign refused to comment.
A lifelong Pittsburgher, Mr. Lamb grew up in Beechview and currently lives in Mount Washington with his wife, Jill. He received his undergraduate degree from Penn State University before getting a law degree from Duquesne University and a master’s degree in public management from Carnegie Mellon University.
He’s also not the only Lamb in politics: His nephew Conor Lamb was a Western Pennsylvania congressman before he lost a race for U.S. Senate last year.
One of three Democrats widely seen as front-runners for the nomination to succeed County Executive Rich Fitzgerald, Mr. Lamb has used candidate forums and other appearances to pitch his plans for running the second-largest county in Pennsylvania. He says he wants to explore ways to consolidate some of the 130 municipalities in Allegheny County and to improve government services by creating a new Office of Municipal Partnership.
“I’ve always been someone who’s built bridges, not fences, and I think that’s going to be necessary as we move forward,” Mr. Lamb told Post-Gazette news partner KDKA-TV late last year. “I know we can deliver service better, and I know there is a role for the county to work with our municipal partners to do that.”
Combining some of the county’s many municipal governments isn’t a new idea for Mr. Lamb. In 2009, he helped form the Congress of Neighboring Communities, or CONNECT, with the University of Pittsburgh to help foster collaboration between 43 local governments.
The idea of municipal consolidation has often sparked pushback from residents. Mr. Lamb’s penchant for taking on controversial ideas and “being upfront with his opinions” might help push Mr. Lamb to the front of a crowded pack in the county executive race, said Joseph DiSarro, a political scientist at Washington & Jefferson College and a longtime observer of local politics. He could face an uphill battle against the better-funded County Treasurer John Weinstein, who has dominated the airwaves with TV advertising.
“He’ll be a formidable candidate,” Mr. DiSarro said of Mr. Lamb. “He has an understanding of the politics of the area… and an understanding of the needs and problems.”
In the late 1990s, Mr. Lamb helped lead the push to restructure county government from one led by three commissioners to one helmed by a single county executive. The change wasn’t popular among fellow Democrats at the time. He was also an ardent proponent of consolidating county row offices, a move that ultimately eliminated his own job as prothonotary.
In 2019, Mr. Lamb filed an ethics complaint against then-Pittsburgh Public Schools superintendent Anthony Hamlet that ultimately led to Mr. Hamlet repaying more than $7,000 to the school district.
Mr. Lamb is “directly involved in the political life of Western Pennsylvania” and can use that experience to his advantage in this year’s race, Mr. DiSarro said.
But some detractors take issue with his frequent — and so far failed — bids for higher office, saying he treats his job as a springboard for the next one.
“The [controller’s] office has turned into a weapon to run for higher office,” Mr. DePasquale said.
After helping eliminate his own elected job as prothonotary, Mr. Lamb ran for mayor in 2005. Bob O’Connor won that year, with Mr. Lamb finishing third behind then-City Councilman and future Mayor Bill Peduto. He publicly considered running in the 2010 Senate race before the late longtime Sen. Arlen Specter switched parties to become a Democrat.
In 2013, Mr. Lamb again ran for mayor. But his campaign fundraising was challenged by Mr. Peduto, who alleged that Mr. Lamb improperly transferred money from his controller campaign to his mayoral campaign. Mr. Lamb dropped out the month before the primary, and Mr. Peduto went on to win.
In 2019, just two weeks after winning re-election to a fourth term as city controller, Mr. Lamb launched a campaign for state auditor general. He lost the 2020 Democratic primary to Nina Ahmad, a former deputy mayor of Philadelphia.
Mr. Fitzgerald, who is term-limited as county executive, endorsed Mr. Lamb for auditor general in that race. Mr. Fitzgerald hasn’t yet endorsed a candidate for executive this year, but he has helped Mr. Lamb raise money.
Mr. DiSarro dismissed criticism of Mr. Lamb’s frequent campaigns.
“The notion that somehow this is a power grab or trying to move up the ladder… this is true of all politicians,” Mr. DiSarro said. “Everyone from Donald Trump to Joe Biden or Josh Shapiro, they all seek higher office.”
Mr. Lamb is proud of his long history in politics and government.
“I’ve been an elected official around this town a long time and done a lot of good things,” Mr. Lamb said in an interview on KDKA radio earlier this month. “When I knock on people’s door they know who I am, they know the work I’ve done and they want to see that continue.”
Hallie Lauer: hlauer@post-gazette.com
First Published: April 20, 2023, 9:30 a.m.
Updated: April 20, 2023, 10:22 a.m.
