A coalition of mayors from several municipalities in Southwestern Pennsylvania are starting the Mayor’s Charitable Fund, a nonprofit which will pool resources to address issues within their communities.
North Braddock Mayor Cletus Lee has been in office for three years and founded the nonprofit after struggling to get funding from his council. The Mayor’s Charitable Fund is applying for grants and collecting donations to secure funding.
“I think it was imperative for me to create something to help out not only just my community, but other communities in the Allegheny County area,” he said.
Now, Lee is joined by interested mayors from Braddock, Braddock Hills, Rankin, Mount Oliver, Swissvale, Chalfont, East Pittsburgh, Clairton, Turtle Creek, Munhall, White Oak, Pitcairn, Homestead and McKees Rocks.
“I love it from the perspective of a whole ‘nother structural resource that we can tap into to help activate our little piece of the American dream.”
– McKees Rocks Mayor David Flick
It’s in the “incubator stages,” according to Lee, but has been growing quickly.
McKees Rocks Mayor David Flick said that issues don’t stop at municipal borders.
“If it rains in McKees Rocks your car gets wet in Kennedy Township,” he said. “Many of the things that my community faces is something your community faces, is something somebody else’s community faces.”
The Mayor’s Charitable Fund has already partnered with 412 Food Rescue and hopes to partner with the Greater Pittsburgh Food Bank to address food insecurity according to Lee.
“I was able to provide food assistance to those with food insecurities and needed it immediately,” Lee said. “It’s something that’s very dear to my heart, and it’s very gratifying.”
The Mayor’s Charitable Fund mission statement identifies several resources that funding aims to provide to the mayors’ communities: hygiene products, food, clothing and free community events.
“The specific assistance we provide may change in response to the needs of the communities we serve,” the statement reads.
It’s guided by issues that the mayors identify in their communities.
“Usually, mayors have little to no budget so if we want to do things we either have to go to council asking for funds or we write checks out of our pockets to do things.”
– Crafton Mayor Coletta Perry
Flick named a few that he would like to use funding for in McKees Rocks, including a camera system in parks where shootings have occurred and managing a large feral cat population.
Lee hopes to get more mayors from other communities to join, including Coraopolis, Bellevue and Crafton.
Mayor Michael Dixon of Coraopolis said he currently needs to learn more about the nonprofit before making that decision.
As for Bellevue Mayor Val Pennington, while he hasn’t officially joined, he wants to get involved. Mayors in smaller municipalities, he said, don’t often have the resources to make changes without their councils’ approval.
“We all have paid jobs, and we try to do this on the side, and I think a lot of people don’t realize that and think we’re career politicians,” he said. “We don’t have the same kind of funding that the City of Pittsburgh has or the mayor of Philadelphia has.”
Pennington said he would love to use funding to do a turkey drive in his community and plans to attend a fundraiser for the fledgling group on Nov. 9.
Crafton Mayor Coletta Perry said that younger mayors, in particular, face additional barriers to getting resources to their communities without council support.
“Usually, mayors have little to no budget so if we want to do things we either have to go to council asking for funds or we write checks out of our pockets to do things,” she said. “Many of them are younger and don’t have the resources to do that.”
She said that she has more resources available as a mayor later in her career so she does not anticipate needing the funding the way other mayors might, but she still wants to support the Mayor’s Charitable Fund.
“I’m absolutely very interested because I know these people, and I know what I’m seeing, particularly in some of the smaller communities and younger mayors, is that they want to do so much for their communities as mayors,” she said.
While it’s currently centered around communities in Southwestern Pennsylvania, Lee said that he has no range on how close mayors must be to join.
And for the mayors who have joined, Flick pointed to the power of their collaboration.
“If no one else outside the Borough of McKees Rocks is doing anything, then we’ll be shoveling snow all day long, you know, but never be out from under the snow,” he said. “I love it from the perspective of a whole ‘nother structural resource that we can tap into to help activate our little piece of the American dream.”
I’ve since spoken to Coletta Perry in the last month and I’ve made the decision to join this amazing effort.
I am the mayor of Leechburg. It’s a small community of 2500 residents. I would be interested in joining