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| Son of the Nostalgia Zone |
I mean, wow. It was all there.
If you don't today re-read the whole story, or at least the entirety of Part III: Capitulation, I'm afraid to inform you that you are still not a remotely serious trader in Pittsburgh news.
From all indications, every element of these long-planned and much-needed reforms to the secondary employment system are quickly unraveling within the Pittsburgh Police Department. We paid for a computer system to manage it, but it isn't being used. On those occasions where the system is used, its controls are being subverted by public servants who share passwords with each other, and who apparently face no significant consequences for doing so. We are have paid (and continue paying) two city employees to manage the Special Events Office, but it is being bypassed and becoming irrelevant. The old-style patronage system of cops staffing these off-duty details with their friends and supporters continues unabated. We have lost what could have been a vitally important stream of revenue. (PRP, "Adm. Richmond K. Turner", Feb. 12 2007)
Compare all that archival material with today: Pittsburgh police accounting gaps catch eye of FBI investigators, Moriah Balingit.
Interim Mayor Luke Ravenstahl replacing Police Chief Dom Costa with Police Chief Nate Harper during the height of a battle over Special Events oversight. Harper described as being more likely to "appease his peers and subordinates" by reversing reforms which strengthen the Bureau and protect taxpayers and residents. Encouraging the accrual of back room power to people such as the Mayor's intended nominee for Director of Public Safety, Dennis Regan, who had no experience in public safety but the right friends on the force. Not sweating consequences as long as he could secure his tenuous hold on power within that building through inside political deal making. All there.
And he scolds the rest of us for being political. What a phony.
The Admiral is haunting us from beyond Bloggers' End.
When the primary is over will you go back to being objective?
ReplyDeleteTell it to the judge.
ReplyDeleteOh wait, sorry. You are not the target. You're just responsible.
ReplyDeleteThe Goof-Ball Mayor is a "POLITICIAN" and smears his enemies as being POLITICAL. The irony is just too delicious.
ReplyDeleteHave you heard a peep from Huss or is he on vacation with Dovan in 7 Springs? He needs to be under investigaion for the fact Mayor Goof Ball does not see anything wrong with his paid posse having debt (gift) cards from the accts. He should have known, but he's all in it to party.
This city is jacked.
I don't get all the security. Murphy didn't have that much and everybody wanted to hurt him.
ReplyDeleteNobody has a problem with the headline? Nobody finds anything written factually inaccurate? Good.
ReplyDeleteDouble canister at ten yards, Gridley
ReplyDeleteEngage.
ReplyDeleteSomeday, when the book is written about the Ravenstahl administration, I look forward to reading details about where it all started: the vote to make Ravenstahl council president. Although Shields, Peduto, Dowd, et. al. couldn't have known what they were launching at the time, fate undermined the cynical conclusion that the kid wouldn't cause any trouble and would be easy to control. Although, come to think of it, exploring what led to him beating Barbara Burns for the council seat in the first place might be revealing as well. Actions have consequences.
ReplyDeleteMGguy - Dowd didn't join Council 'til Jan. 1 '08.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I was waffling on including him. Thanks for the fact-checking.
ReplyDeleteChickens, welcome to the roost!!
ReplyDeleteMonk said...
ReplyDeleteCan't say I'm surprised by turn of events. Surprised Mike Lamb didn't catch situation earlier. Thinking Mike knew...years ago? Complicit in obstructionist politics...
Double Yoi! Lamb, Peduto....
ReplyDeleteI am the Monk.
ReplyDelete...I see all and hear all...
I am the Monk.
I see a Mountain of Paperwork in control of those who control...
...those that hide, those that want a free ride.
I am the Monk.
I feel...
...the feelings of 'ill' ilk.
I am the Monk.
Bud Light W Lime for all....
http://www.facebook.com/events/375055285926116/
ReplyDeleteAre you going to be there?
Mark Rauterkus could use a new pair of sneakers...
ReplyDeleteBud Light with lime, Monk E. Pants. :-)
ReplyDeleteMark - I dunno. That's a big forum, not a Televised debate right? Right before the ballot access sacrificial deadline...
Mayor Bob O'Connor's firing last week of Robert W. McNeilly Jr., whose tenure as police chief corresponded with this decade of change, suggested more changes may be on the way under the next chief, who is expected to be named by week's end. Mr. McNeilly said the week before Mr. O'Connor's inauguration that he had been told by the incoming mayor's advisers that he would not be kept on because "they wanted to go in another direction."
ReplyDeleteI miss Chief of Police McNeilly...Mayor Luke
Not that anyone gives a shit about an old monk... I'm telling you (bram) Mayor Luke need search soul.
ReplyDeleteBring back Robert W. McNeilly Jr. 'Chief Of Police'.
I am partial to elavator conversations.
I happened to see Mayor Murphy on KDKA... My Favorite Mayor.
ReplyDeleteI knew his bodygard Pat.
I can attest to Mayor Murphy's speil. Murph, traveled light...
My Dad was amused by Tom's 'lack of credentionals'. Beat up car, no parking spot...no security.
My oldest daughter gave speach @ Brookline VFW on Dr. Kings holiday...
African History Month, knows not....
I knew Mayor Murphy's bodyguard's Aunt. Pat's Aunt... Meter Enforcement with a bad hip. She was never comfortable @ my Grant Street Adress.
I Like Mayor Luke.
... Gut Feeling!
Monk - Your favorite mayor was Murphy? Nobody's favorite mayor was Murphy, at the time.
ReplyDeleteHe fired me and rehired me. You're kidding with robot security?
ReplyDeleteI never talked about robots. Paul's hair just does that.
ReplyDeleteDoven and Zober are rude and lie to the taxpayer. That is not ever acceptable. That's the culture of this administration and they must be replaced.
ReplyDeletePittsburgh Comet, I disagree with your comment on Asst Chief McDonald's ties to ex-convicts in today's Pittsbugh Post Gazette. Max H Homer is a Federal convict, who was Indited and convicted in 1976 of Perjury, Extortion and Bribery. These are the same problems we are dealing with within the Pittsburgh Police Department, corruption, bribery and lies. So why would we put a person in charge with ties to crime in the past. It does not matter if he did his time. He still did the crime and now he has a connection to a major police department..what a joke. Then you stated that it is not a "Law" to associate with felons, well Mr Pittsbrgh Comet, this is a rule and regulation of the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police and you can still be terminated from the city, witout it being a "law" like you said. So much for your "Law". Check your facts first before you open your mouth.
ReplyDeleteYes. Doven THINKS she's more important than she really is. She's really quite insignificant and frankly, like the rest of Luke's cronies, is not very politically astute - or smart.
ReplyDeleteFred Crawford, just a brotha helping anotha brotha, motha
ReplyDeleteAnon 10:57 - It's not my area of expertise. I read the law/policy as quoted in the P-G and seemed to see quite a bit of interpretive wiggle room in terms of whether a reputation that was deserved but is 40 years old is still "open" and "notorious". If it's as clearly against the law like you write, somebody just sue the City and be done with it. My opinion won't change things one way or the other.
ReplyDeleteI'm old enough that it hurts to go down steps first think in the morning if I don't stretch first and I can barely remember 1976.
ReplyDelete2006 is also a blur, but for other reasons.
ReplyDeleteGo back in the PG archives and he was convicted again for harassment charges when he was threatening his wife in front of the Public Safety Building when it was downtown . He lost his job with Pittsburgh school district over that one. Key witness in his trial was "Officer Friendly" in the schools AKA Officer McDonald at the time.
ReplyDeleteFollowing this, she started her rapid rise in the ranks.
Ironically, the judge in this trial in the 80s was Orie Melvin.
Why does this Mayor keep sticking us with the leadership of the likes of McDonald, Trosky's and Holmes?
ReplyDeleteDoesn't he do a minimum background check?
Why does all of their problems always surprise him when they are easily found on a basic Internet search?
Pittsburghers deserve better in their Police leadership.
Trotsky got an ice axe down in Mexico.
ReplyDelete