Councilman Carus introduces ordinance to require regular monthly reports and allow adding contentious items to agenda

Councilman Carus introduced a draft ordinance to amend Penn Hills' conduct-of-business rules, saying the measure is intended to improve transparency by standardizing meeting reports and allowing the council to add urgent or controversial items to the agenda during a meeting.

"Section one of the ordinance ... really does outline each individual section of the meeting with two important additions that we do not have today," Carus said, describing a requirement for monthly reports from the manager (overview of borough state), a financial report from the controller or financial director, and a public-safety report from the police chief or a designated officer. He also described a quarterly rotation of departmental updates for the library, planning, public works and parks, senior services and water pollution control to avoid overly long meetings while still bringing departmental information to the public.

Carus also read a provision to let council add an item "of obvious controversy or of wide public concern" to the agenda at the meeting when a large crowd is present so the council can address constituents' concerns promptly. He said he planned to circulate copies to fellow council members and the public and hoped to bring the ordinance to a vote in July or August.

Council members did not record substantive debate on the ordinance during the meeting; Carus invited colleagues to suggest edits and collaboration before formal introduction.