Letter sent to Pittsburgh's Controller, and a few other people

September 4, 2026

Rachael Heisler
City Controller
City of Pittsburgh

Dear Controller Heisler:

Thank you for issuing *Parks Trust Fund Follow-Up: Challenges and Opportunities at Year Five*. Your report gives Pittsburgh a timely opportunity to strengthen the planning, oversight and public accountability surrounding the Parks Tax.

I support your call for a Parks Tax Commission. I also encourage you, Mayor Corey O’Connor and City Council to place that commission within a larger civic structure: a reconvened Athletic Reform Task Force.

The Athletic Reform Task Force should serve as Pittsburgh’s umbrella coordinating body for athletics, aquatics, recreation, public facilities, youth programming, coaching, workforce development, school partnerships and community investment. The Parks Tax Commission could operate within the Task Force as a standing commission with a focused financial and accountability mission.

The distinction is significant. The Parks Tax is one funding instrument within a much larger financial puzzle. Pittsburgh’s parks, pools, fields, courts and recreation centers are supported through city and county appropriations, school funding, state and federal grants, foundations, philanthropy, corporate sponsorships, program revenue, joint-use agreements and institutional partnerships. The city needs a structure capable of seeing and coordinating the entire system.

The Athletic Reform Task Force can function much like an Olympic committee. It can provide the larger table where different sports, institutions, facilities, coaches, program operators, public agencies and community partners coordinate their work. Specialized commissions and working groups can then carry out defined missions within that structure.

The Parks Tax Commission would be one of the most important of those missions. It could establish scoring criteria, develop long-term financial plans, examine the balance between capital and operating expenditures, submit unified budget recommendations, hold public meetings and publish regular reports and open data. The City Controller would bring essential financial oversight and accountability expertise to this work.

The full Athletic Reform Task Force would connect those financial decisions to public use. It could inventory facilities and programs, study participation, gather input from young people and families, assess staffing and coaching needs, develop school and neighborhood partnerships, and identify opportunities for immediate implementation.

A renovated pool produces greater public value when it is open, staffed and filled with lessons, practices, teams, fitness programs and community events. A repaired field produces greater value when young people have coaches, transportation, leagues and schedules that allow them to use it. Facilities are the hardware. Programming is the software that makes them come alive.

Your report identifies overestimated revenues, allocations that have exceeded collections, increasing operating expenditures and the absence of a clearly defined long-term plan. Those findings make the need for coordinated leadership even more urgent. Pittsburgh should begin with the public mission and then organize its money around that mission.

I recently completed *Coach Mark’s Public Policy Playbook for Pittsburgh’s Aquatics & Recreation, Yinzer Alpha Edition*. The book includes a detailed Meta Play calling for the Athletic Reform Task Force to be reconvened. It proposes a six-month public review, a broad inventory of facilities and programs, hundreds of community conversations, controller involvement and an action-oriented structure capable of advancing multiple missions.

I would be glad to provide you with a copy of the book for your review. A print copy can also be ordered through https://SwimISCA.com.

I welcome an opportunity to meet with you and discuss how the Parks Tax Commission could become a standing mission within the Athletic Reform Task Force. Your report supplies an important financial and accountability play. The Athletic Reform Task Force can provide the larger team, structure and public mission needed to carry it forward.

Thank you for putting this proposal into Pittsburgh’s civic conversation. I hope we can connect these ideas and begin the work.

Sincerely,

Mark Rauterkus, Publisher, Author and Coach
*Coach Mark’s Public Policy Playbook for Pittsburgh’s Aquatics & Recreation*
4Rs.org
SwimISCA.com
Mark@Rauterkus.com
412-298-3432 = cell