Not long ago Darwin Leuba was filing right-to-know requests demanding information from the Allegheny County Controller's office and other agencies.
Today? He’s announcing a run for the office itself, a campaign that will likely have a lot to say about a certain healthcare giant — and that will challenge the acting controller, former City Councilor Corey O’Connor, in his bid for a full term.
“In Allegheny County, the power is in the wrong hands,” Leuba said. As an activist and political campaigner, “I’ve been working on county issues where we know the problem and we know the solution, but there’s not political will to implement it … and our current leaders got to where they are by being deeply ingrained in these power structures.”
Leuba is young: He’ll turn 24 on the day nominating petitions are due. And while he currently serves as a township auditor in O’Hara, he acknowledges the position’s responsibilities are “pretty nominal.”
Still, he added, “I’ve done a lot of work to see how the county government’s operations are impacting O’Hara residents.“ And he’s already made a name for himself for working on the campaigns of progressive politicians like county councilors Anita Prizio and Bethany Hallam — and as an activist in his own right.
Leuba has used the state’s right-to-know law to question and criticize county policies at the Allegheny County Jail and elsewhere. When local officials offered lucrative enticements to lure an Amazon headquarters, for example, he puckishly tried to work around confidentiality claims by submitting a right-to-know request for each page of the incentive package. He succeeded in obtaining the cover page. It didn’t necessarily enhance public understanding of the plan, but did highlight efforts to keep it under wraps.
As a controller, he said, “I would like to more creatively use that power to hold folks accountable, increase transparency, and make sure that residents and interested groups have the information that they need.”
Leuba is especially focused on UPMC, the state’s largest employer and a lightning rod for criticism by union activists and public officials who say its tax-exempt status cripples local government.
“I understand the argument that UPMC is an economic driver, but its emphasis on profits has caused a lot of harm,” he said. “We have this amazing health care system, but the corporate side of it has poisoned so much of what's good in Allegheny County.”
Leuba isn’t waiting for the election to make that case. Last month he canvassed a half-dozen UPMC-held parking lots, looking for what he says are telltale signs they should be taxed. He estimated that the taxable portions of just a few of the lots would generate more than $760,000 for local governments each year. (UPMC disputes that analysis.)
“And this is one person in a couple of hours,” he said. “Imagine if we had a team that included a lawyer, a paralegal, and assistants.”
Leuba himself acknowledges that his resume is shorter on government experience than other candidates could claim. But he contends that his background leading political campaigns compares favorably to other controllers. Campaign teams can involve at least as many staffers as a city councilor has, not to mention armies of volunteers — and sometimes sizable sums of money.
“I'm young, but I have a lot more experience than I think most people do,” he said. “Compare me to anybody else who has run for this position in the past decade [and] I think I meet or exceed the qualifications.”
As for O’Connor, Leuba said, “I’m not really running against Corey as much as I'm running against the existing power structure that he has upheld.”
He argued that there had been little pressure applied to UPMC since former Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto dropped the city’s effort to sue UPMC for its tax exemptions
O’Connor had voted with a majority of council to approve an expansion of UPMC Mercy without community-benefits promises sought by activists, Leuba noted.
“I think that we're going to see Corey take a stronger stance against UPMC until the election is over,” he predicted. “But after the election, I assume he's going to revert to … basically let[ting] them do whatever they want.”
O’Connor has only been in office about half a year, having been named acting controller last summer after Chelsa Wagner became a county Common Pleas judge. He seemed somewhat nonplussed by criticism of his record, given his brief tenure in the office. He said he’d already initiated audits of the county’s use of tax subsidies and the region’s tourism office, as well as a study of staffing levels at the county jail.
“We’ve taken the office off of Grant Street and into your neighborhood” with community outreach and a focus on helping residents with utility assistance and tax reassessments.
On City Council, he said, “The most progressive stance [on UPMC] you could take was to go to court, which is what we did. I wasn’t the mayor, so I didn’t drop the suit.”
He said council had long been supportive of SEIU Healthcare’s drive to unionize UPMC, and said he advocated for residents’ concerns about gentrification and other disruptions feared from the Hazelwood Green development.
Leuba has a political network of his own, of course. And if elected, he’d be overseeing a county government that includes officials whose campaigns he actively worked on, like Hallam and Prizio.
Noting those connections is “totally fair” he said – and why it’s important to “have a transparent office.”
“When we look at controllers, we should examine who they support, what donations they take,” Leuba said. “The controllers’ job is to make sure there’s transparency.”
