A funny thing happened in July as the Pittsburgh City Council prepared to vote on approval for a planned $2 billion expansion by the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC).

Just weeks earlier, the Council had declined to approve the controversial expansion, fiercely opposed by community groups, local activists, and unions, until a community benefits agreement (CBA) was signed. Now they had gotten their wish.

Except the CBA that councilman R. Daniel Lavelle held up on July 31 dealt with none of the demands locals had made at the earlier meeting. In fact, it appeared to have been negotiated overnight, and without community input; some activists only learned about it from the media. Worse, the agreement was just two pages of bullet points attached to a letter from UPMC referencing an earlier agreement. The pages weren’t even signed.