The group hired by the city to make recommendations on how to restructure the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority has released its final report.
IMG called their recommendations a "combination approach" that incorporates the best ideas from different restructuring options and meshes them together. Their ideas, collected and prepared over seven months, included developing a public charitable trust, coming under an operations and maintenance contract and various lease concessions.
IMG officials said in the report they wanted PWSA to be as free as possible from political influence. They're proposing the city transfer ownership, governance and rate-setting responsibilities to a newly created Public Infrastructure Trust, which would be governed by a board of trustees and managed by a board of directors, each composed of different people.
IMG's report, which is available online, has been submitted to the city's Blue Ribbon Panel, a six-member group of business, academic, legal and community leaders. Mayor Bill Peduto said they will vet the report and send it to Pittsburgh City Council and the PWSA board for review.
"We we want to make sure they have an opportunity to engage through the panel with the report of IMG," Peduto said. "Hopefully, all of that will be completed by the end of the year."
IMG said restructuring should be complete by the end of 2018.
