# Interview transcript — Erika Strassburger **Source:** Erika Strassburger, Pittsburgh Water board Vice Chair; Pittsburgh City Councilmember **Interviewer:** Brian Nuckols (Public Source) **Date:** November 4, 2025 (with a follow-up email exchange, November 13, 2025) **Recording:** `Erika.m4a` — https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JfuekZu6BGbWEIg0YvHTqSUM0bYeUW7A/view On the record. Lightly cleaned from the recording; wording verbatim. One aside that Strassburger explicitly asked not to state on the record without verifying (a customer-assistance eligibility percentage) is redacted below and marked. --- **Brian Nuckols:** Can you talk about your path to the Water Board and what drew you to this issue? **Erika Strassburger:** Prior to joining local government, I worked as an environmental advocate for nine years. I was the Clean Water advocate for PennEnvironment for about five years. Starting in 2009, in Pittsburgh, that meant fracking, and that underscored my drive to work in the field of environmental justice. When I was Chief of Staff for the first four years of my time at the City of Pittsburgh, that is when the comparisons between Pittsburgh and Flint were being made as the lead crisis came into the picture. As chief of staff to a council member, a good quarter of the calls and emails we received from residents were about us intervening in something that Pittsburgh Water, then PWSA, wasn't being responsive enough about. I saw firsthand how much mistrust there was of this authority. That was between 2014 and 2018, a really active time, and also the time when things really started to turn around. **Brian:** With your experience, what makes boards effective? What are green flags for good governance? **Erika:** Part of it is a balance between efficiency and respecting everyone's time, since it is a volunteer position, and full deep dives into important topics and educational opportunities for the board members so the conversations are productive. What I've seen effective boards do is consistently do a self-audit within the board, asking through surveys and discussion how transparent and effective the board is, and then having pretty open discussions about that. We've done that at Pittsburgh Water too. One change made fairly recently is that executive committee meetings, which happen every other week and virtually, are open to any board member who wishes to attend. We spend time being presented the annual capital budget, and months before there's any public conversation about a rate case, the board gets a full look at what might be proposed and has the really tough discussions and interrogation at that phase. **Brian:** So there's an executive session before each meeting? **Erika:** Yes, in addition, before every monthly meeting, at the very least an hour-long executive session, which allows for the same topics covered in executive committee to come with a full board in executive session. Oftentimes those issues are just a deeper dive and a deeper discussion of what's going to be on the agenda that day, so that we can, as responsible board members, say, "I'm going to ask the same question I asked in executive session, but for the purposes of the public to hear it." Now I will say we all could be better about that. Once we've discussed it, we don't want to grandstand, but we could be better about daylighting some of the hard discussions we have internally. **Brian:** What's your process for preparing for a board meeting? **Erika:** The actual items up for a vote are shared in our board portal ahead of time, so reading those gives us the opportunity to have questions prepared. Questions often involve a change order — why is there a change order, they promised to do the work at this rate and now it's going to cost a million dollars more, why? Generally there is a reason given, but we want to daylight it. Another line of questioning could be about the women- and minority-owned contractor work. The nice thing about the board is there's a culture of openness, no shame if you ask a so-called dumb question. What's also different about Pittsburgh Water's board is Frank Sedari, whose role in environmental compliance and ethics is fairly recent. He was brought on out of the tougher years. His position exists in part because of the Attorney General investigations and EPA consent decrees. He's created a culture of whistleblower protection — if you're not sure about anything, whether it's a gift you received around Christmas time from an engineering firm that you need to return, or something that happened on the ground that needs to be reported to EPA, everything is above board, everything is reported, no shaming, no wrong answers. **Brian:** From my analysis, almost 70% of resolutions have no discussion, and all votes have been unanimous for two years with just abstentions. Is it fair to say most discussion is happening in executive session? **Erika:** Yes, but also, what we end up voting on is fairly uncontroversial. It's spending on the contractor that was chosen for the lead replacement, the contractor chosen to do all the paving work for that following year. Much like at city council, the majority of resolutions that we vote on are uncontroversial, and there wouldn't be much reason for discussion. It might be one resolution per meeting that someone has a question about, and it's answered in an executive session. Public Source did a big profile of Jim Turner, a former board member. He was brilliant at asking the same question he had asked over email or in executive session in the public forum. We all should take a page out of Jim Turner's book and do more of that, to highlight what has already been discussed. I'll own that, and we should all own that. **Brian:** Talk to me about equity and rates. **Erika:** How do you maintain and grow your infrastructure — in our case, deferred maintenance over 50 years — while protecting those most vulnerable to rate increases? I don't think anyone has the exact answer, except for very robust customer assistance programs. [Strassburger cited a customer-assistance income-eligibility figure here, then said on the recording that she did not want it stated on the record without verifying it. The specific percentage is omitted for that reason.] Every rate case before the PUC asks for an increase to that so more people can be covered, and employs people with a social-work background to actively market it and ensure they're working hand in glove with customer service and the community engagement arm — going to community meetings, festivals, highlighting what is possible with signing up: moratoriums on winter shut-offs, assistance with a sewer line replacement, a proactive water audit, discounts, monthly catch-up plans. **Brian:** Anything you want to put on the record that I didn't cover? **Erika:** One interesting dynamic people should be aware of is that the board members don't take a vote on the rate increase itself. We are given the same type of education the public is given, but we authorize the negotiations to commence, never the actual rates themselves. That's the PUC. --- ## Follow-up email, November 13, 2025 **Brian (to Strassburger):** You mentioned the board has "at the very least an hour-long executive session" before each monthly meeting. What kinds of topics typically come up, and how do you think about what can be discussed privately versus in public? **Erika Strassburger (written response):** The topics tend to fall into a few categories. Informational: updates on large-scale projects such as the lead line replacements and the ABC project, which are generally also presented to the public at the board meetings and can be viewed on Pittsburgh Water's YouTube page. Personnel: confidential personnel matters. Legal: updates on legal matters. Board resolutions: occasionally a board member will have a question about a resolution up for a vote, and executive session offers a place to discuss it before the meeting; best practice is to repeat the question and respond publicly to daylight that discussion, and I will take it upon myself to recommend that to fellow board members. That said, most resolutions are fairly straightforward and are either discussed only at the board meeting or not at all, because no clarification is needed. Personnel and legal matters are most appropriate for executive session due to confidentiality and the need to avoid outside influence on outcomes. Most importantly, board minutes are an insufficient reflection of the board meetings, and our recorded board meetings offer a much more accurate view of the topics covered and the questions asked by board members.