While Allegheny County does include gender and gender expression in its anti-discrimination policy for employees, I support a county-level ordinance similar to the City of Pittsburgh fair employment ordinance (Chapter 659.02), is appropriate and feasible. The County often models its legislation after city policies pass.
Meet the Candidate
Welcome to the 2025 election season series ‘Political Q&A’ – interviews with candidates throughout Pennsylvania. Since 2013, we’ve published nearly 150 of these interviews. We use an email Q&A format to allow the candidates to speak directly to you, the readers.
Candidates can be anywhere in Pennsylvania running for any level of office. Please note that these are not necessarily endorsements, more of an opportunity for candidates to connect with the LGBTQ community, progressives neighbors, and others with an interest in Pennsylvania. If your candidate would like to participate, contact us pghlesbian at gmail dot com. We welcome candidates at all levels of government across the entire Commonwealth. We publish in the order that they are returned and will accept Q&A’s until Election Day.
Please note that Pennsylvania has over 500 school districts. We’d like to talk with candidates in any one of them. Tell your district’s story statewide.
Important to note that I do not edit the responses, including their framing of LGBTQ identities.
These Q&A’s are lengthy because there is a lot of ground to cover. This year, I created about 20 questions per candidate. This is and should be a deep dive because you deserve as much information as possible.
By participating in this Q&A series, candidates are saying that they
- are an LGBTQIA+ ally, specifically supporting equality and dignity for transgender persons
- identify as pro-choice
Kathleen responded to my open call for participants in under 24 hours. And she returned her Q&A in a thoughtful amount of time. I really enjoyed reading her responses, especially her eagerness to push the County forward step into its own, one might say. Her LGBTQ responses are solid.
She’s also the first candidate for Allegheny County Council to respond. And I think her responses will give you renewed interest in County Council.
Name: Kathleen Madonna-Emmerling
Pronouns: No response
Office You Are Seeking: Candidate for Allegheny County Council-District 1
How do you describe your identity? I’m a cisgender, heterosexual suburban wife, mom, and community-focused citizen.
Tell us about your district. What is a hidden gem most people might not know about?
County Council District 1 is a bow-tie shaped district comprised of 14 suburban municipalities and parts of 7 school district. It reaches from Findlay Township in the West, across the Ohio River, and up to Ross Township in the east.
The majority of residents are in Ross and Moon. Neville island is a hidden gem of the district. The RMU Island Sports Center houses an ice arena, indoor driving range, mini golf, and a great track and field. You can also walk to Paradise Island Bowl, Neville Roller Drome, and excellent boat and kayak launches. It’s a great place for family fun or date night.
With the long tenure of our last County Executive and several council members, there was a level of comfort of the division of responsibility. The new ACE and a fresh wave of council members are asserting their power and pushing the boundaries. It’s really interesting because this government structure was just adopted in the Home Rule Charter in 2001, so there is a lot to explore and test.
Questions and Answers
What professional accomplishment gives you the most pride?
When I was Housing Coordinator for a new refugee resettlement agency, we had a huge influx of evacuees and a mandate to find them rentals with their own leases, assuming a need for public transit, they could afford on $15 an hour per worker, in 90 days. I was proud to be their advocate and negotiate safe, fair housing for approximately 200 of our new neighbors in over 30 units in 89 days, and over 90% of landlords went on to rent to additional immigrant tenants.
Your attention to transit connectivity caught my eye – it seems so logical that workers need to have transportation to employment hubs. What role do employers have in creating this connectivity?
If employers expect workers, they need to be invested in the infrastructure that allows folks to live near and travel to the workplace.
This issue of connectivity is front and center in my district. PRT route cuts to the 28X airport route. It takes thousands of workers to make the airport run smoothly, not to mention the students and workers from Findlay through Carnegie and into the city and Oakland who rely on the West Busway for a reasonably priced, efficient route.
However, without an infusion of capital from the State and an emphasis on incentivising dense housing near *distributed* transit hubs , Pittsburgh’s transit woes will become a self-fulfilling prophecy of declining ridership because of ever-longer and shorter-reaching routes.
Please tell me about your familiarity with the LGBTQ community in Allegheny County.
My political origin story revolves around fighting a book challenge at Moon Township Public Library. I am in my 10th year on the Board of Trustees, and in 2021, a number of news outlets picked up that our Facebook Book of the Day was The Drag Queens on the Bus Go Swish,Swish,Swish. The library was inundated with email, phone calls, and our librarians were doxxed. Our local leaders did not find the threats credible and overtly said that the Public Library was at fault for pushing a liberal agenda. At this point, I decided to run for Township Supervisor. I was a substitute public school teacher at the time, and I was very familiar with the increased exploration and understanding of gender expression and identity among the youth, teens and young adults in our district. The public discourse was so damaging and demoralizing to them, and I’m dedicated to making my community a place where everyone feels like they belong. It’s important that those in positions of power and influence speak when it may be unsafe for LGBTQIA+ people to stand up for themselves. I’m dedicated to serving every person in my district with dignity and respect.
Based on this, what do you understand to be our current top LGBTQ concerns and priorities for the Allegheny County Council ? How will you respond to those priorities?
While this community is very diverse, there are some themes I often encounter:
The erasure of “DEI” language from not only the public sphere, but also disrupting the important research initiatives affecting this population are a tremendous mental burden. The public discourse othering LGBTQIA+ community, and the use of appropriate, inclusive language, promotes a dangerous environment for violence and discrimination.
-We must keep showing up in allyship, LOUDLY and CLEARLY accepting zero tolerance for hate, violence, and backward rhetoric from the dinner table to the board room. We must actively promote the tremendous value our LGBTQIA+ neighbors bring to our communities.
This feeds into the issue of health and welfare. The strain of constant public attack, and whispers behind closed doors, exacerbates an already bad mental and physical health crisis in the community. This is compounded by the lack of available, qualified physical and mental health professionals with the cultural competency to serve them.
-Our department of health and human services and public health offer resources for the LGBTQIA+ community, but I want to ensure these services are making it to every edge of the county. We must equate mental and physical health and advocate at the State and National level for better availability and coverage.
Cost of living: housing, transportation, health care, and employment are challenging for most of our community, but more so among marginalized groups. If it was easy to fix, everyone would be clamoring to lead this charge. I think we on County Council can continue the effort to improve housing and transportation infrastructure here. It will take many years, and a clear, bold vision, but I am confident that the new wave of Council Members is up to the task and is bringing the energy to meet this challenge.
Tell us about an underappreciated or little known asset in the Allegheny County government?
This is very boring, and it should be. The County Elections Office runs a tight ship. Documents, policies, and data are searchable and available. Citizens can pull reports to slice and dice election data in really convenient and interesting ways. You can make cool data visualizations with that data. Staff answers questions kindly in person, over the phone, or email. And, of course, our elections run securely, accurately, results come out quickly, and the process is transparent.
You advocate implementing smart growth policies to balance development with environmental preservation. What is a specific policy you’d propose or even reference as an example of this approach?
There is a constant push and pull between the need for businesses, housing, and the preservation of our natural resources. No one policy can address it all; however, we can implement measures that can promote good behavior.
-For example, increasing permit fees and fines on industrial polluters. Opponents say businesses will relocate to less-restrictive places, but I can’t abide selling out our kids’ health so the rich can get richer.
-We can continue the effort to build high density housing (efficient land use) near clean public transportation (clean energy) and expand both of these outside the city so everybody doesn’t have to live here to work here.
-Another policy proposal that straddles this issue is around a thoughtful transition to sustainable energy.
As a resident of Beaver County in the 80s, I saw first hand what happens when you shut down an industry, and it’s generations of poverty, poor education, and all the generational socioeconomic tragedies so many Pittsburghers experienced. We can’t divest from fossil fuels without a plan to realistically retrain, retool, and retire members of that community. Many folks will be unable to transition to a family-sustaining job, and we need to prepare, in advance, to protect them and their communities from being left behind.
What are your thoughts on merging the County Police with the Sheriff’s Department?
I know this has been considered for 20 years. If it reduces cost without an impact on public safety, I’d like to dig into the reasons this issue is unsettled.
The County eliminated domestic partner benefits in 2015, benefits that were limited to only some employees and only same sex partners unlike the City which has cultivated a more robust benefits plan since the late 1990’s. Do you think the County should restore and expand domestic partner benefits? I would support County Council reinstating domestic partner benefits for all Allegheny County employees.
Several of your campaign agenda items reference federal funding or federal cooperation/partnership, meanwhile the President has already attempted to freeze federal funding that the County relies upon for health care, infrastructure, and more. What’s your Plan B if that funding is slashed?
Plan B is work harder and longer. I’m very clear-eyed that our near future is going to be financially, emotionally, and politically difficult.
Not only will the Federal and State funds shrink, the philanthropic environment will also contract, so there will not be a ton of financial alternatives. What we can do on County Council is prevent backsliding and protect our programs and services that impact our residents. Our most vulnerable community members can’t be abandoned in the face of this challenge.
We as citizens can advocate for and support hard-working candidates so we can end these candidates’ careers as fast as possible, and we can do the hard work of elevating and developing people who care about our community, getting them on boards, commissions and preparing them to lead. We need members of council with the time and energy to weather this storm and thoughtfully navigate the difficult choices ahead.
In about 70% of Pennsylvania, it is legal to discriminate against people based on gender identity and sexual orientation – to fire us, to refuse to rent to us, even to deny to serve us in a business. The few protections we have come from municipal ordinances, court rulings, and executive decisions none of which carry the weight of legislative action by the General Assembly. Name three things your office will do to address the fallout of this legalized bigotry?
1. We can better educate our judges, law enforcement personnel, HHS, and public defenders to recognize and thoughtfully address intimate partner violence between trans and same-sex couples. The relationship dynamics are often misunderstood, and therefore not given the full attention and protections under the law. For it to work, these need to be codified in law and have investigatory and punitive powers.
2. While Allegheny County does include gender and gender expression in its anti-discrimination policy for employees, I support a county-level ordinance similar to the City of Pittsburgh fair employment ordinance (Chapter 659.02), is appropriate and feasible. The County often models its legislation after city policies pass.
3. I am also interested in revisiting existing ordinances to ensure they are appropriately inclusive of our most marginalized groups that may not have previously been included. For example, on November 27, 2024, the City of PGH amended the Gender Equity Commission Ordinance to include those living at the intersection of race and gender, prioritizing black women, black men, trans and non-binary individuals, immigrants, and those with disabilities.
What have you personally and professionally done to protect trans kids?
My home and family are safe spaces for gender questioning and queer kids and their families. When I was a substitute teacher, kids knew me as someone who they could ask to use their chosen name, which is really stressful for a 9th grader to navigate. I fought an LGBTQ book ban at my library with grassroots organizing, public spectacle, and hard work.
Every school kid learns that we have three branches of government – executive, legislative, and judicial. We also have three levels of government – local, state, and federal. Democracy is supposed to rest at the intersections of these branches and levels. Those intersections also include people – citizens, residents, voters, workers, neighbors. It can be overwhelming when the balance of power is heavily tilted in one direction. What three specifically actions will you take address this imbalance from your office?
This is a bit of a hot topic on County Council. The 15 County Councilpeople are the legislative branch of county government. They pass the budget with a supermajority of 10/15 members, and must vote to approve the Allegheny County Executive’s (ACE) policies. With the long tenure of our last County Executive and several council members, there was a level of comfort of the division of responsibility. The new ACE and a fresh wave of council members are asserting their power and pushing the boundaries. It’s really interesting because this government structure was just adopted in the Home Rule Charter in 2001, so there is a lot to explore and test. One topic of particular interest is the budget. Council approves a total budget, but not line item, which allows the ACE to reallocate funds without approval. I need to better understand the issue, but that would definitely shift the balance of power! There are also proponents of term-limits for County Council members, which would be an interesting change in power dynamic as well!
What excites you about serving on County Council?
Allegheny County Council will make decisions that can affect your healthcare, wages, housing, and transportation for decades. I want you to know that I can be reasoned with, but I absolutely cannot and will not be bullied or bought. I want to continue the work of ethics reform on council. The county has implemented additional checks on campaign finance and board/committee appointments, and I want to see it through to broad and strong enforcement and penalties for violators. Many of the most impactful powers of council can only pass with a supermajority of 10 votes. This election is a pivotal time to gain seats needed to raise permitting fees for polluters and put forth legislation allowing council more robust oversight. There are a number of kind, smart, energetic people on and running for Council. It’s a really exciting time to be a part of it.
There’s a clear need to actively create space for women, especially Black women and other women of color, in elected office AND on campaign and legislative staffs. These are issues of representation and realities. Tell us about your campaign team.
At this time, my campaign team is 100% volunteer. I have advisors, allies, and support across the democratic spectrum because I’ve put in the work to support my community and candidates over several years. I am seeking to expand the diversity of my advisors and volunteer base. It’s just plain smart to get opinions and critiques from a variety of people and more effective to canvass with locals who know their communities. I’m particularly grateful for tremendous amount of work that retired women and small, grassroots organizers put in on these down-ballot races. They educate me, uplift me, and knock a helluva lot of doors.
How do competitive primary elections benefit the residents of a community?
I think it’s so important to the democratic process and the evolution of our political parties. A good primary offers informed voters the choice of who BEST represents them across the spectrum of our platform. It also makes your candidates work A LOT harder for your vote.
Why did you agree to complete this Q&A?
I first saw candidates answering in the 2023 cycle, and people I respect thought it was worthwhile, so I do too!
Tell us about your endorsements.
Allegheny County Democratic Committee
Allegheny County Young Democrats (recommended)
Steel-City Stonewall Democrats
North Hills Progressive Neighbors
University of Pittsburgh Democrats
United Steelworkers-District 10
Allegheny County Treasurer: Erica Rocchi Brusselars
Sitting Allegheny County Council Members: Bethany Hallam, Dan Grzybek, Bob Macey, Nick Futules, Jack Betkowski
Former County Council Members: Tom Duerr, Mike Crossey
Please list your social media accounts and your donation links.
facebook.com/kathleenforcountycouncil
IG: @kathleenforcouncil
www.KathleenForCouncil.com
Donations: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/kathleenforcouncil
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
It’s the honor and thrill of my life to have the opportunity to serve my community in this new way. I’m very grateful for your time and consideration.
As a resident of Beaver County in the 80s, I saw first hand what happens when you shut down an industry, and it’s generations of poverty, poor education, and all the generational socioeconomic tragedies so many Pittsburghers experienced. We can’t divest from fossil fuels without a plan to realistically retrain, retool, and retire members of that community. Many folks will be unable to transition to a family-sustaining job, and we need to prepare, in advance, to protect them and their communities from being left behind.
Other Q&A’s
Other Q&A’s in this election cycle series. You can read previous cycle Q&A’s here. If your candidate would like to participate, please contact us pghlesbian at gmail dot com.
The 2025 Political Q&A Series: Lauren Leiggi, Candidate for Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas
The 2025 Political Q&A Series: Amy Mathieu, Candidate for Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas
The 2025 Political Q&A Series: Matt Rudzki, Candidate for Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas
The 2025 Political Q&A Series: Amy Bridges, Candidate for New Castle School Director
The 2025 Political Q&A Series: Sarra Terry, Candidate for Allegheny Court of Common Pleas
The 2025 Political Q&A Series: Eva Diodati Candidate for Pittsburgh Public School Board District 7
The 2025 Political Q&A Series: Amanda Neatrour for Pittsburgh City Council, District Two
The 2025 Political Q&A Series: Kathleen Madonna-Emmerling, Candidate For Allegheny County Council
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