Morning Edition; Chad McCummon

It's morning edition on 89KRPS, I'm Fred Fletcher-Fierro. Much of the political news coverage these days is going towards the presidential election that will be held in November of next year, but there are state and local elections taking place throughout the four states and the country on Tuesday, November 5th. This includes three seats on the Pittsburgh City Commission, which will expire in January of 2020. The top two vote getters will be awarded for your terms, while the individual who receives the third most amount of votes will be appointed to a two-year term on the commission. I spoke with Chad McCubbin and our studios at Pittsburgh State University on the morning of Thursday, October 17th. He is one of the six candidates running to earn one of the three seats on the Pittsburgh City Commission. Thank you for some of your time this morning. Well, thanks for having me. We'll get to talking about some of the issues and your stances on them in a few minutes, but first, I wanted to allow you. To introduce yourself, tell us why you're running for Pittsburgh City Commission. And if elected, what are going to be some of your key priorities? Well, like you said, I'm Chad McCubbin and I'm running for Pittsburgh City Commissioner.

I moved here in 2006 to go to college and unlike most everyone else, I decided to stay. Now I'm married, I've got three kids, and I've seen some things I don't like, a lot of things I do like, and I'd like to fix the things I don't. And I guess push forward the things that I do. My biggest thing, I guess, would be more transparency from the commission as well as the city staff and everything. I think sometimes the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. And while I'm out talking to people, I hear a lot of guesses and misinformation and rumors that could just be squashed with just a little more outreach. An example of that is the police department. They've done a great job getting out there and giving more information of what's going on. And I'd like to see the city and commission follow that model. During the candidate meetup that was hosted by the Pittsburgh Area Young Professional

last week, there was a question relating to where you saw the city of Pittsburgh in the short amount of time of two and five years. You'd said that you've seen progress in the last few years, but that Pittsburgh needs to have a more sustainable path and move away from so much focus on the downtown area and have an increased focus on affordable housing in the city. If elected, how would you work to have more affordable housing in Pittsburgh and why is that important to you? Sure. I think everything from the downtown has been great. I'm worried that the rest of the city is starting to be left behind. As far as housing, we've got the new silverback addition that's going in. High end housing, we've got other high end housing west of the campus and elsewhere. We've got plenty of low income housing. Could possibly need a little more, but we're doing a good job there. I think we've lost focus on everyone else. Most people can afford a $300,000 house, but they can afford a house.

I think maybe focusing a little bit on a $60 to $100,000 range would bring in more people. A lot of people work here, not a lot of people live here, and a lot of the jobs here don't afford people a $300,000 house. I think focusing on the middle would be a good direction to move forward with. We'll talk about another issue that isn't going anywhere. It's the hot button issue. It seems a selection about whether the city of Pittsburgh should essentially go into the electricity business. It appears that those who are elected to this city commission could have a significant voice in the future about Pittsburgh residents receive their electricity, and I was wondering your thoughts on whether should Pittsburgh should play a role as electricity provider. There are a lot of questions I can ask, because this is a complicated question, so I'm just going to ask you what to think. Yeah, that's a topic that comes up almost any conversation I have with anybody at any time.

I think that's why this election is so important, and why a lot of people are more engaged at this time around. On the surface, I don't like the idea of the city taking over the energy. Now, we don't have all the information yet, and that sort of goes back to what I was saying earlier about a lot of rumors flying around, and this and that. I've heard things where the cities spent $1 million already looking at this, when that's not the case. Now they've spent $200,000, which I think is pretty significant for something that from what I understand, most people I've talked to don't want the city to go that way. And also, another thing is whether or not the commission will make that decision, or the voters will get to make the decision. Now, it's come maybe you to be both. Now, the commission would likely make the decision to move forward, and then the citizens would vote whether or not to pay for it. I believe that the citizens should get the right to choose whether or not we go into

it at all. Chad McCubbin is one of six candidates running for Pittsburgh City Commission. An election takes place Tuesday, November 5th. Thank you for assuming your time this morning. Thanks for having me. You can hear the extended version of that interview, as well as find out more information about Chad and the other five candidates running for Pittsburgh City Commission and our news blog, krpsnews.com.