Pittsburgh councilman pitches selling Municipal Courts Building to Allegheny County for $9M

A Pittsburgh councilman wants to sell the Municipal Courts Building to Allegheny County for $9 million to save the city the costs of upkeep and utilities at the Downtown facility.

Councilman Anthony Coghill, D-Beechview, introduced legislation Tuesday that would instruct the city to scrap its existing lease agreement with the county and instead sell the First Avenue courts building outright.

If the county doesn’t want to buy it, Coghill said, the city should simply sell it to any other entity willing to take it.

“We cannot afford to be paying for things that are not our responsibility,” Coghill said.

Pittsburgh in 1991 entered a deal with the county and other partners to use city taxpayer money to maintain the courts building, which sits next to the county jail. The agreement allowed the county to occupy the site rent-free through November 2046.

At that time, the mayor and City Council appointed up to 17 city magistrates to handle criminal matters and city ordinance violations. The mayor was part of the Allegheny County Jail Oversight Board.

Since then, the state reorganized the oversight board and removed the mayoral seat in 2009. The city-appointed magistrates were replaced with elected district judges.

The city, Coghill explained, no longer has any role in the courts housed within the building it owns and maintains.

“It’s something that is not our responsibility anymore,” he said. “This is a county responsibility at this point.”

Defendants are processed through the building’s several courtrooms for traffic, non-traffic and criminal cases in Pittsburgh. Preliminary hearings for homicide defendants throughout the county also take place in the building.

Pittsburgh police house computer operations, the Telephone Reporting Unit and a records office on the third floor of the building, said Emily Bourne, a public safety spokeswoman.

Coghill said he’d rather move those operations to another city-owned facility than continue to pay for all the costs associated with a building used primarily for county functions.

The city tried to sell the building to the state in 2008, Coghill said, but that contract was never executed.

Coghill wrote in his bill that he interpreted the contract as one the city could terminate at will.

Because the mayor no longer is part of the Allegheny County Jail Oversight Board or appoints magistrates, Coghill wrote, “It is no longer prudent or sensible for the city to retain ownership and maintenance of the [Municipal Courts Building] at the expense of the city’s taxpayers.”

Coghill said he had not discussed the proposal with county officials before introducing the bill. A county spokeswoman was not immediately able to comment on the proposal.

In the last decade, Coghill said, the city has spent $1 million on maintenance costs at the building, plus an undetermined amount on utilities.

The city is now facing decreasing revenues and tough financial years ahead. Coghill said the city shouldn’t be shouldering an unnecessary financial burden during such times.

“I’ve always got my eye on what we are wasting money on or unnecessarily spending money on,” he said.

County finances also look grim, with the county on track to face a $60 million deficit by the end of the year if revenues don’t improve.

City Council will likely discuss Coghill’s proposal next week. Council could take a preliminary vote as early as next week, with a final vote as soon as the following week.