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Pittsburgh Land Bank delegates signing authority to staff to speed property conveyances
Summary
The Pittsburgh Land Bank voted to allow acting executive director or designated staff to sign real-estate conveyance documents under the Pennsylvania Land Bank Act, a change board members said will reduce delays caused by required wet signatures and limited staff time.
On April 11, 2025, the Pittsburgh Land Bank voted to delegate to the acting executive director and designated staff the authority to execute agreements, instruments of conveyance and other documents needed to convey land, citing time saved in completing sales.
The board approved a motion pointing to “section 2110(g)(2) of the Pennsylvania Land Bank Act” and “section 202(a)(i) of the Land Bank’s policies and procedures” to authorize the delegation. Sally Stadelman, acting executive director, told the board that many documents still require a wet signature and that having staff sign will reduce the time staff spends delivering paperwork to the City-County Building and waiting for the chair’s availability.
"Currently, per the State Land Bank Act, we have had our chairperson signing all of our real estate documents," Stadelman said. "As our volume is increasing, it just takes staff a lot of time to walk those documents over to the City County Building... we're hoping to allow staff to sign those documents into execution, so we can keep these sales moving along."
Councilman Bobby Wilson, chair of the land bank board, said he remains available to sign documents personally but supported the change because of staff capacity constraints. "I'm always available to sign and review and do the documents," Wilson said. "I just know how much staff time and time is of the essence of moving vacant and abandoned property..."
Board members voiced no objection and the motion passed by voice vote. The board did not record a roll-call tally in the meeting transcript.
The delegation is intended to expedite conveyances already authorized by the board; Stadelman and other staff said the change is procedural and meant to reduce transactional delay rather than change disposition policy.
The board did not identify any limits in the meeting on which specific staff positions may sign, beyond the acting executive director or other staff “as may be deemed appropriate,” language included in the motion.
The action follows the land bank’s recent increase in transaction volume; staff reported multiple properties moving through closing and additional inventory added in recent weeks.
