Allegheny County Council reelects Pat Catena president

Allegheny County Council on Tuesday reelected Pat Catena as its president.

Catena, D-Carnegie, secured an overwhelming, and bipartisan, victory. The vote was 13-2, with 12 Democrats supporting him along with Republican Councilwoman Suzanne Filiaggi, of Franklin Park.

Democratic Councilman DeWitt Walton of Pittsburgh’s Hill District nominated himself and also received a vote from Councilman at-large Sam DeMarco, R-North Fayette.

Catena will serve his third consecutive two-year term as council president.

He acknowledged council’s sometimes combative relationship with former Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald, who had vetoed a string of bills. In some cases, council successfully overrode those vetoes, including a ban on fracking in county parks and an effort to increase the minimum wage, which a judge later ruled to be invalid.

Catena said he is optimistic about council’s relationship with Fitzgerald’s successor, Sara Innamorato, a progressive Democrat from Lawrenceville.

“I think it’s probably clear to even casual observers that the relationship between council and the last chief executive had become fairly strained,” he said. “But we have the opportunity to rebuild a strong working relationship between the legislative and administrative branches.”

Fitzgerald has said the disagreements between him and council were often blown out of proportion.

Tuesday’s vote was less contentious than previous years.

Catena was first elected council president in 2020 in a testy 10-5 vote that saw a power shift away from Fitzgerald, as progressives like Bethany Hallam, D-Marshall-Shadeland, joined Republicans in supporting Catena.

A longtime former council president was defeated that year, and council under Catena started to challenge Fitzgerald’s agenda more often.

In 2022, Catena secured just nine votes, but no longer needed Republican support to hold the seat. He defeated councilman Bob Macey, D-West Mifflin, for the position. Macey, a Fitzgerald ally, won votes from the two Republican members as well as other Democratic allies of Fitzgerald.

Catena said he was grateful for council’s support and believes this new term will mean some new backing for stalled initiatives on council.

Tuesday’s council meeting also saw the swearing-in of two new members: Dan Gryzbek, D-Bethel Park, and David Bonaroti, D-Lawrenceville.

Gryzbek, an engineer, takes over for Tom Duerr in District 5, which covers Bethel Park, Dormont, Mt. Lebanon, and Upper St. Clair.

Bonaroti, a software developer, replaces Olivia Bennett in District 13, which covers parts of Lawrenceville and the South Side, the Strip District, Downtown, many North Side communities, as well as Bellevue borough.