Allegheny County Council chose Michelle Naccarati-Chapkis as its president Tuesday, capping a dramatic month in local politics during which former President Pat Catena resigned the presidency under criticism over a controversial campaign mailer.
Catena had been president since 2020 and will remain in his council seat representing parts of western Allegheny County. The vote to elevate Naccarati-Chapkis was unanimous. Catena participated in the meeting by phone.
“In this position I commit to you … I will lead with openness and honesty and transparency,” Naccarati-Chapkis said after moving to the center seat of the 15-seat dais reserved for the president.
The issues she listed as council’s upcoming priorities were familiar ones: a potential property reassessment, keeping the county budget balanced and improving affordable housing options and infrastructure, among others.
She said the ongoing set of public hearings on a new property reassessment system will go forward as planned. She did not say if she personally supports a bill that would institute regular reassessments, because she needs to “learn more about that bill as it relates to a budgeting process.”
Naccarati-Chapkis, a 56-year-old Democrat and Plum resident, was first elected to her seat representing the eastern reaches of the county in 2021. She is in the 30th year of a career in environmental protection. (Council members are part-time government officials.)
From 1996 to 2009 she was director of land protection at the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, and she has been executive director of Women for a Healthy Environment since 2009.
She noted that she is the first woman to serve as president in County Council’s 26-year history.
“In January 2024, County Executive Sara Innamorato made history as the first woman to serve as our chief administrator,” Naccarati-Chapkis said. “… Today I stand here mindful that we are continuing that progress.
“In Allegheny County, women in leadership are no longer the exception.”
The county charter grants a handful of powers to the president of council, giving the official some added influence over the legislative process. The president has the authority to:
- Preside over council meetings and send new bills to a committee for consideration
- Appoint the chairperson of each legislative committee
- Schedule public hearings
- Enforce council’s rules.
These powers give the president some control over which bills get a vote from the full council and the speed at which legislation is considered. After Tuesday’s meeting, Naccarati-Chapkis said she would only change committee assignments to fill vacancies created by her ascent to the presidency. Until Tuesday she was chair of the Committee on Government Reform and a member of committees on the budget, health, human services, public safety and green initiatives.
Catena enjoyed the support of council’s most liberal members for years, particularly toward the start of his tenure, when a coalition formed to elevate him to the presidency as a foil to then-County Executive Rich Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald left office at the end of 2023, replaced by Sara Innamorato, and Catena remained in the presidency unchallenged.
That changed this spring as Catena sought the Democratic nomination for a state House seat in the western suburbs. His campaign sent a mailer to residents that attacked his opponent, Robinson attorney Brittany Bloam, for being too far to the left. The mailer called out in capitalized, underlined text that she was supported by an “extreme left group that advocates for transgender athletes in our sports.”
Backlash was swift for Catena, and soon a majority of council members said they would vote to remove him from the presidency, including some who backed him for president in the past and even informally backed him for the House primary before the mailer went out. Catena stepped down from the presidency before it came to a vote.
Naccarati-Chapkis did not mention the mailer incident or Catena’s resignation as she accepted the presidency, but she spoke out against a number of identity-based biases.
“We know that these biases and prejudices exist,” she said. “We must be leaders and stop them in their tracks.”
While a frequent vote for liberal causes on council, Naccarati-Chapkis is not one of the body’s most outspoken or politically zealous members, which suggests the direction and tenor of the body may not change much right away.
She told reporters she would take the upcoming summer recess to talk to other members “about their priorities … But all in all, I feel like we’re on a good path forward with the things that we’ve done to date and what our plans are for the future.”
Catena’s removal from council’s leadership may not, by itself, be a signal of coming changes to the body’s work, but it is an indication of how council has already changed. A growing progressive bloc, verging on a majority, is composed mostly of people elected in the last two cycles. Long-serving members who have left council in recent years have been replaced by younger, more left-leaning members.
Of the seven members who released a statement saying they would vote to oust Catena, just two were elected before 2023.
Charlie Wolfson is the local government reporter for Pittsburgh’s Public Source. He can be reached at charlie@publicsource.org.
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