Joseph Sabino Mistick: Dry spell may be Gainey's defining moment

There are moments in every big-city mayor’s administration that define the mayor’s performance and values better than anything else. For the administration of Pittsburgh’s Mayor Ed Gainey, the failure to turn on the city’s over 200 drinking fountains in this hot summer may be such a moment.

As first reported weeks ago by KDKA-TV investigative reporter Andy Sheehan, the city has only one plumber in public works to repair and activate the drinking fountains and get the city’s pools open. The city has known for months that this was coming.

If you are wondering what this says about Gainey’s priorities, consider this: While the city approached this summer with one plumber and the certainty that the great majority of its drinking fountains would not be turned on, Gainey found the money to triple the size of his staff.

Other Pittsburgh mayors have had their signature moments, and sometimes it has been a big event. When the Fern Hollow Bridge collapsed after years of neglect and warnings by experts, it cemented Bill Peduto’s reputation as a globe-trotting mayor with little interest in the everyday problems of his city.

Mayor Luke Ravenstahl was celebrating his 30th birthday at Seven Springs resort — 60 miles away — when “Snowmageddon” paralyzed Pittsburgh with 2 feet of snow in 2010. People want their mayors to be around when trouble strikes, and snowstorms have been a common test.

As University of Massachusetts American history professor Vincent Cannato told ABC News in 2010, “The thing about snow, it is symbolic. It’s symbolic about other problems. It’s symbolic about the way people see the whole city functioning.” And so it may be with drinking fountains in scorching weather.

To be sure, Gainey has plenty of big problems. There is a city-issued credit card controversy that could become a bona fide scandal. When a fired city employee was later retained off-the-books and paid with a city credit card, the whole issue of city credit cards — who has them and what have they purchased with them — has attracted attention.

Gainey has opted for an in-house investigation instead of answering City Controller Rachael Heisler’s legitimate questions about the credit cards. Many good government experts agree that it is not a good sign when the organization being investigated insists on keeping control of the investigation.

Then there is Gainey’s reckless ongoing pressure campaign against UPMC that seems to have veered out of control. The Gainey administration recently stopped work on UPMC’s $1.5 billion hospital project in Oakland, sending as many as 150 union construction workers home because of a permitting issue that is usually resolved on-site.

Gainey’s gripe has been that UPMC has refused to recognize SEIU Healthcare — his biggest supporter — as the employees’ union. He has pressured UPMC in the past, with no concern that it is our region’s largest employer. Now he has hurt workers and their families.

And there are other problems that will not go away. Development has been blocked throughout the city. Downtown Pittsburgh property values are headed in the wrong direction. Random violent daytime attacks on Downtown streets have continued.

But sometimes it’s the simplest things that speak loudest. Gainey’s failure to turn on the drinking fountains while finding the money to triple the size of his own staff could be a signature moment. In Pittsburgh — the city of three rivers — there is “water, water, everywhere.” But in many of the city’s parks, there is not a “drop to drink.”