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From YouTube: CityTalk with John McIntire: Michael Lamb
Description
On this episode of CityTalk, John McIntire interviews City Controller Michael Lamb.
A
Welcome
to
another
edition
of
city
talk,
Pittsburgh
I'm,
John
McIntyre
and
meet
the
controller
for
the
city
of
Pittsburgh.
Michael
am
Michael
welcome
together.
Thank
you
thanks
for
having
me
so
the
controller
I've
always
defined.
That,
generally
speaking,
let
me
ask
if
you
agree,
as
the
watchdog,
the
guy
who's,
trying
to
make
sure
that
money
is
well
spent
and
spent
well,
I
think
that's.
B
Right,
I
mean
either
main
function.
Our
day-to-day
function
is
watching
all
of
cities.
Spending
like
where's
the
money
going
is
the
city
getting
what
it
was
supposed
to
get.
So
we
have.
We
have
auditors
and
inspectors
who
are
checking
each
purchase,
that
the
city
does
to
make
sure
that
the
goods
are
the
quality
that
we
want,
that
the
meets
the
specs
that
required
for
the
job
and
and
then
auditing
the
math
and
making
sure
we're
getting
the
right
price.
So.
A
B
Sure
we
have
a
very
good
staff
down
there
of
of
auditors
and
accountants
and
and
clerical
people
inspectors
who
are
basically
doing
that
function.
You
know,
that's
our
day-to-day
function
that
where
every
invoice
that
comes
into
the
city,
you
know
we
do
a
pre
audit
to
make
sure
that
we're
getting
what
we
got
and
that
the
math
was
done
right
and
then
we
cut
a
check.
B
You
know
it's
funny,
because
sometimes
we
do
we
do
get
some
invoices
from
departments
that
maybe
not
all
the
I's
are
dotted.
So
we
have
to
go
back
and
forth
with
the
department
sometimes,
but
we
have
a
great
working
relationship
here
in
the
city
with
the
with
the
departments
with
the
directors
in
with
the
staffs,
and
it's
usually
a
pretty
smooth,
smooth
flow.
Now.
B
Well,
it
is
because
you
know,
in
addition
to
just
doing
that
day
to
day
function,
we
have
the
responsibility
of
going
into
each
of
the
parts
and
basically
assessing
how
well
they're
doing,
and
it
would
hard
to
do
that
if
you
weren't
independent
of
the
mayor's
office
and
of
the
of
the
government
structure.
So
we're
able
to
do
that
and
I
think
sometimes
people
get
upset
with
some
of
the
criticism
that
we
lodged.
B
B
When
we
go
into
the
apartment,
you
know,
typically,
we
will
have
you
know
12
or
15
findings
in
an
audit,
but
we're
looking
at
hundreds
of
things.
You
know
so
you
know
we.
We
can
see
that
the
city
we
know
they
do
a
very
good
job
at
emergency
medical
services
in
the
city.
You
know
we're
I
think
nationally
known
for
our
for
what
we
do,
but
when
we
go
in
and
we
start
looking
at
response
times,
obviously
we
wouldn't
response
time
to
be
better
and
then
than
they
are.
B
Same
boy,
you
know
I'm
a
lawyer
and
you
know:
I
have
been
involved
in
public
policy.
My
entire
career
I
was
I,
was
I,
went
to
the
Hines
school
at
Carnegie
Mellon
and
got
my
master's
degree
in
public
management,
and
so
I've
always
wanted
to
be
at
the
table
where
we're
making
decisions
about
the
region,
and
so
I've
found
my
way
into
this
position.
With
that
goal
sounds.
B
B
Well,
I
hope
so
I
hope.
If
they
disagree
with
you
exactly
I
mean,
and
they
do
I
mean
you
know.
We've
had
issues
here
that
lately
that
I've
been
out
in
front
of
that
I
don't
agree
with
they.
We
bought
a
building.
Recently,
I
didn't
agree
with
that.
Buying
that
building
you
know,
I
thought
we
paid
too
much
for
it
frankly,
but
but
we
bought
the
building
anyway.
Despite
my
buy
hesitation
and
my
opposition
to
it,
well.
A
B
Here
in
this
building
was
not
good.
What
I
found
is
that
when,
when
you're
in
a
public
trust
and
you're
working
with
public
dollars,
the
best
thing
you
can
have
is
a
process
and
when
we
operate
without
process,
that's
when
we
get
into
trouble-
and
that
was
my
concern
about
this
building.
At
the
end
of
the
day,
we
don't
know
whether
it
was
the
right
price
or
not,
because
we
really
didn't
have
the
process
behind
behind
the
purchase.
I.
B
I
can
tell
you
that
you
know
when
I
came
into
the
controllers
office,
which
is
now
10
years
ago.
I
had
that
concern
I
had
that
concern
about
that
office,
because
I
wasn't
sure
what
I
was
what
I
was
getting
into
and-
and
we
found
pretty
quickly,
that
there
are
some
very
skilled
practitioners
in
that
office
from
the
audit
staff
and
the
way
they
think
about
audits,
the
way
they
think
about
measuring
performance
on
the
performance
audit
side.
B
You
know
the
work
that
they
do,
our
accounting
staff
that
puts
out
the
annual
financial
report
every
year
and
do
a
great
job
at
it.
There
there
was
some
excellent
staff
there.
Then
you
have
to
supplement
that
with
training
as
well,
and
so
we
take,
you
know
we
try
to
train
people,
we
try
to
get
quality
staff,
but,
interestingly,
the
staff
that
was
here
was
pretty
good
and
you.
B
We
try
to
do
what
we
try
to
do
is
give
residents
and
those
interested
a
snapshot
of
where
pittsburgh
is
at
a
moment
in
time.
You
know
this
is
where
we
are
on
December
31st
of
2017
and
and
we
try
and
we
do
that
every
year
and
we've
gotten
phenomenal
response
on
that
report.
You
know
we
we
get
to
distribute
that
pretty
widely
and
and
it's
online
it's
available
online
on
our
website
in
the
controllers
office.
B
B
You
know
I
enjoy
the
work
I
enjoy
the
people
we
work
with.
You
know,
even
when
they're
a
challenge
you
know
enjoy
working
with
the
public
and
some
of
the
best
ideas
that
we
come
up
with
come
from
the
public
who
say
hey.
Why
don't
you
look
at
this
or
why
don't
you
take
a
look
at
that?
You
know
we
had
someone
call
me
and
said
you
know:
I
was
at
Schenley
Park
at
the
ice,
rink
and
I
was
concerned
with
the
way
that
they
were
handling
the
cash
register
ring
system
out
there.
B
Everything
sure
enough
we
went
out
looked
and
there
was
a
problem.
There
was
a
problem,
I
mean
we,
it
wasn't
a
theft
or
anything,
but
it
was
something
to
need
to
be
addressed
and
needed
to
be
corrected,
and
so
you
know-
and
we
have
those
kind
of
eyes
out
there,
helping
us
along
find
things
that
we
should
be
looking
at.
That's
that's
that's
fun.
B
B
The
the
annual
report
that
we
do
on
Finance,
but
you
know
we
have
a.
We
have
an
app
now
that
people
can
contact
us,
take
pictures
of
stuff
and
show
us
things
that
we
can
go
out
and
respond
to.
We
have
we
have
a
fiscal
focus
Pittsburgh,
which
is
part
of
our
website,
which
is
basically
a
visualization
of
the
city's
budget
and
spending.