A defeat for an attempted ballot referendum to prevent the City from doing business with any companies with ties to Israel.
Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge John McVay issued a consent decree saying groups trying to get the measure on the ballot did not get the required number of qualified, registered signatures to put the controversial measure on the fall ballot.
The Pittsburgh Democratic Socialists had been behind the effort.
City Controller Rachael Heisler tells KDKA's Marty Griffin the measure may have even made it illegal for police and EMS to respond to a shooting at a synagogue, because of its ties to Israel.
“I do not believe that this referendum, five and a half years after a massacre at Tree of Life is how I would approach the war in Gaza,” said Heisler.
She calls the defeat a Victory for the City of Pittsburgh adding it would have violated both the City's Home Rule Charter and State Law and lives would have been in danger.
“The city would’ve cut off more than a third of the world’s Naloxone supply, epi-pens would no longer have been able to be purchased by city medics, fire safety equipment, there are two primary companies in the world . . . are MSA, right here in Cranberry and Dreger out of Germany, both of those entities do business in the state of Israel,” said Heisler.
Heisler believes those are among the reasons why proponents couldn't get enough valid signatures.
She calls the defeat a Victory for the City of Pittsburgh.