Anyone remember when Luke said he wouldn't seek re-election because "nasty and vicious" personal attacks took too great a toll on him?
— Chad Hermann (@ChadTRM) April 30, 2013
Mayor Ravenstahl must be somewhat disappointed that two Facebook comments of others regarding his "dark money" Republican-connected campaign committee are receiving more "Likes" from the P-G online audience than his own...
The gold medal and107 FB Likes so far belong to Ravenstahl nemesis former Pittsburgh City Council President Doug Shields...
The Pay to Play crowd in Pittsburgh, so well served by Mayor Ravenstahl (as documented by the P-G’s “the Network” series by Rich Lord), is desperate to keep some sort of hold on the the public's purse no matter how tenuous it may be. As we know, the Ravenstahl Camp packed up en masse and ran to the the Wagner Campaign for shelter. In return for this support, there will be some form of consideration to retain those who served us so poorly in a possible Wagner administration. These ties that bind, that have lead to scandal after scandal in Pennsylvania, will remain in place.
The appropriate response by Mr. Wagner would be to immediately disavow Mayor Ravenstahl’s vengeful intrusion into the people’s electoral process and demand that the "Swift Boat" actors unmask themselves. Saying nothing and benefitting from this is a de facto acceptance of Mayor Ravenstahl’s endorsement and tacit acknowledgement of the “Newtwork’s” support. That is an unacceptable arrangement. In Mr. Peduto I find integrity in his character and new broom that sweeps clean in his hand.
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You can tell the race is heating up, with the Mayor chiming in on the PG boards (hi5 for that). The city has been on a roll over the last decade gaining national and international attention. I've seen it first hand with the role of the Shadow Lounge and AVA. I may not agree with all of Luke Ravenstahl's policies and/or actions over the years, but having a young face in the mayor's office has done wonders on the "We're old as ish" category. It's help change the perception of the city and region. Going forward, Bill Peduto adds quality strategic policies with the young face. And I have nothing against Mr. Wagner (I'm friends with some of his fam). I think Mr. Wagner would make a good mayor; but I know Mr. Peduto will make a great one. This is that Good to Great Moment.....now I'm sure I'll start getting those "anonymous" noise complaints from Zone 5 again...sike nah. Hopefully in 2014 everyone can come together like Voltron.
The mayor's Facebook comments on the subject of "'haters' who preach about the law and following it" merited only a bronze.
Today, Bill Peduto's campaign talked about a new iBurgh app that will offer traffic, weather and public safety info, operate as an electronic 311 hot line to submit and track complaints, and provide customized alerts.
On the bright side, now we know what the mayor has been working on. And I think we can all agree: shame on Bill Peduto for making Luke Ravenstahl hate him this much.
Yes this is interesting, but it is soooo last night. Get with it Bram, todays scandal is Burgess's attempt to strip Pittsburgh of its domestic violence policy -and I always thought rumors of his temper were spread by teh haterz.
ReplyDeleteWhat is the scoop on this?
It's the first link in the post, and I do not know the scoop.
DeleteI do know that this was some last-minute surprise (without consultation not only with City Council, but with womens' groups who do prefer consultation) to STRIP PGH OF ITS POLICE DV POLICY. Out of nowhere.
It wasn't so much a surprise as deliberate bait-and-switch.
ReplyDeleteThe problem with the DV policy is that it needs to be expanded to ALL City employees. Without that, the current policy is worthless in court.
ReplyDeleteBill Peduto really helped in the discussion by getting up and walking out. Is this what he is going to do every time a sensitive subject is broached? That is not the leadership we need.
On the whole ad issue, NO ONE has shown a linkage to Wagner. They have simply said that it must exist. And these same people who are so offended by the ad have failed to say that the mayor, even through another organization, has the right to free speech. I wish that he would have done it in a more straightforward manner (since he chose to do it); but, he does have the right to do what he did.
A simple, and more positive, response by Team Peduto would be to do an opposing ad. Start off with the same type of maps with areas starting off brown or gray. Then change the neighborhoods to green in which Bill had a positive impact. By the end of the ad, the whole map should be green based upon Team Peduto's crowing of all his achievements.
This approach would have been much better than the constant, unsubstantiated sniping WELL, WAGNER HAD TO KNOW ABOUT IT. It would also get this election back in a positive direction.
Right now, all Team Peduto is doing is giving Wagner ammunition to call him and his team childish.
Ferlo and McKrell's involvement in the Wagner campaign and Pittsburgh being a notoriously small town as it is is enough of a connection for me.
DeleteBill Peduto called asst. city solicitor Wendy Kobe a" liar" as he stormed out of the room. If this was Luke or hey Bram, Paul McKrell, you and Helen would be flame throwing them both by now, but Bill get a pass.this is what Darlene Harris and others in City govt mean when they say, Bill is not someone you can work with. He calls names and runs when not happy!!
DeleteThe problem with the DV policy is that it needs to be expanded to ALL City employees. Without that, the current policy is worthless in court.
DeleteThat's absurd. None of the other city employees are required to carry weapons and there are valid laws about who can carry weapons.
As absurd as you may assume it is, that is the way that the courts and the arbitrators have been measuring it.
DeleteSo, if you want it to continue to fall to challenges, continue the policy as is.
As near as I can tell, it has never been tested in court* and only failed once with an arbitrator. An arbitrator also said that letting a guy die rather than walk through some snow isn't a firing offense. The problem is the arbitrators aren't reasonable in some cases.
Delete*That is Pittsburgh's rule. The general idea that a domestic violence conviction is a reasonable bar to carrying a weapon has been tested.
"Ferlo and McKrell's involvement in the Wagner campaign and Pittsburgh being a notoriously small town as it is is enough of a connection for me."
DeleteC'mon Bram. So I guess that means Bill supports the corruption at the Turnpike because of Brimmeier's support or corruption in general thanks to Ben Woods or megalomania because of Fitz. Connections matter right?
"Connections" are a little like "negative ads". It depends on how truthful they are, what they say and what they mean exactly. I guess I just reject all these false equivalencies from the Anonyouses in toto as ridiculous on their face.
DeleteMay I give a shout out to the 14th Ward? Luke saw fit to calls us out specifically in his rant.
ReplyDelete"The facts are that this is legal in every sense of the law and nothing more than a committee expressing it's first amendment rights. You 14th warders should love that right?"
Bill represents only part of the 14th Ward. I wonder if Luke was referencing the 14th Ward CLUB, since he seems to have in mind a non-aligned group working independently.
In the past days, Ravenstahl, Wagner, Burgess, Harris, and others have put new meaning to the word "disingenuous."
ReplyDeleteFlyby worked for Doogie Shields who spent his last couple years on council grooming a leftist persona to run for DJ with Elvis Costello glasses. Disingenuous was given definition in her office. I remember all those cookie cruises with Doogie crushed! A telling moment was when the CEO of the parking lease company was speaking to council Doogie sat in the back of the room goo goo eyeing Rudiak while they joked with the city's pensions on the line. Oh yeah pull out the tapes flyby!
ReplyDeleteAnon 10:58
DeleteConcur completely. They had a chance to have an intelligent discussion on the issues; but, they already had their minds made up. Therefore the public was not entitled to have their elected representative actually listen and ask questions that may have addressed some of their constituents concerns regardless of which side of the issue you fell on.
Concur in that I too wish the parking issue had received a more impartial airing. When the Mayor was not doing business in China. As part of a side-by-side-by-side comparison of the different plans.
DeleteWouldn't this iBurgh app need to go out to bid? The way things are worded on Peduto's website, it sounds like the vendor would be receiving special treatment in that they are already selected, even prior to the completion of the product?
ReplyDeleteYou make a sound point. Although it might fall into the "professional services" exclusion.
DeleteSurely we're not looking for exclusions where city contracting is concerned...right? Whole lot of development groups out there these days, not to mention in-house possibilities..who's to say the YinzCam folks are the right ones for this, unless we go through a public bidding process?
DeleteI said it's a decent point -- but there are legitimate exclusions. It's hard for some to think of the laws regarding public contracting as "sensible" or "judicious" instead of merely "arbitrary rules written by moralistic haters," but just like staring at a 3D painting once you adjust your focus you should see the boat. Besides I bet YinzCam could put together a competitive package, they're locals and they've done groundwork already.
DeleteNot trying to bicker, but I'm not sure what that means, really. This is a very competitive vertical. There is a great deal of expertise emerging in the City for app development, no way that a specific vendor should be preferred at this point simply because they worked with/were friendly with Peduto in 2009.
DeleteOn my resume is volunteering in Doug Shields' office to work on the Police/Domestic Violence issue in 2007. I have worked on Bill Peduto's campaigns. But for a living I worked four years in Councilwoman Harris' office. I don't know why this is germane, but as long as you mention it, anonymously.
ReplyDeleteSelling the City out to Wall Street was always a bad idea - Chicago already hated their deal, and Anchorage had bought their way out *and* raised taxes just to escape, to name a couple.
Doug Shields did roll his eyes a lot during that fiasco, didn't he? Yet Burgess was the one most eager to sell us all out. Which councilperson is disingenuous, again?
I have to say, though, that the parking lease deal was one instance in which Council actually worked together behind the scenes, not surprising each other (too much) with documents presented live before the cameras. Staff members worked together combing through the numerous documents, crunching the numbers. And the numbers showed that we would be giving a potential $4 or 5 billion away for $350 million.
Except for the Mayor not listening and trying to sabotage Council's efforts, it played out the way Council runs best. Pull out the tapes! I believe I'm on there, too, covering the numbers and the contracts.
Now, again, why does any of this pertain here?
Pertinence...isn't it all fair in love and blog scuttlebutt?
ReplyDeleteBe we for or against the Parking Lease deal, it should be noted that essentially, the can got kicked down the road...again. We still have the same pension liability problem we did before. Devoting parking revenue to the problem...proved untenable, if not laughable.
I've come to learn can kicking at least can be preferable to can eating, if you're not a goat.
Deletehttp://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/legal-fight-settled-chicago-parking-meters-19067955#.UYADuhwjTwo
It's true that Chicago was a mess - a different deal was on the table for PGH, one that was even sweetened after community meeting input.
DeleteAnchorage was so upset with its Wall Street Parking deal that they paid to get out of the deal and then raised taxes to cover the difference.
DeleteThere were other cities. But the truth was in the numbers. The Wall Street folks stood to make between $4 and $5 billion over the 50 years of the contract, while only giving the City $350 million now, and having control of our parking for those 50 years.
There was no sweetening. There was virtually no difference. I personally sifted through every clause in those contracts, and found nothing sweet about them.
The only thing sweet-sounding was that technically Scott Kunka could have signed the contract in three places - as Director of Finance, as head of the Pension Fund, and for the Parking Authority.
There is no reason why our Parking Authority cannot upgrade customer service as was outlined in those agreements. And they were supposed to have done that long before now, in order to make parking in our City more of a pleasure.
There are some 50 middle-management positions paid middle-management salaries in the Parking Authority. What do they do? We never did find out. But they sure aren't modernizing and customer-friendlying our parking.
No can was kicked. We kept control of all of this. Except that Ravenstahl is still in control, and nothing is getting done.
I agree fly-by keeping control of parking was key, probably the most important thing council did during the Ravenstahl tenure. And the pension fix now seems more than just a trick. It actually helped stabilize the fund. Funny now to note that those battles were won by Dowd and Lamb not Peduto or Ravenstahl.
DeleteAnonymous 8:46, not "won by Dowd and Lamb," but by the entire Council. I was there. Council worked as it is supposed to (although it would have been better if it did not have to worry about sneaking vetos and staying until midnight on New Year's Eve). Councilwoman Rudiak provided numbers, the budget office provided numbers, Dowd and Lamb provided numbers. Peduto provided fiscal policy. Harris ushered all the Councilpersons in and out of rooms, keeping them talking (no more than four in a room at a time so no quorum was achieved). She practically ordered Smith, Lavelle, and Burgess to come in to the office.
DeleteWith a solid conviction that something practical, effective, and workable could be achieved, Council made it happen. It was beautiful.
Forgot to mention Kraus, who spoke continually of practicalities of parking, and public policy.
DeletePick you poison: Folly or else too little and too late. That is generally the way things unfold.
ReplyDeleteEven Rev. Ricky, with all of his vitriol could not save the parking sell-out for the sneaky administration. Those were some nasty days and I hope that Rev. Ricky' days are numbered akin to Lil Lukey's. Will he carry the water for Wagner? Laying down with dogs is his M.O.
ReplyDeleteI wonder was the Airport Authority lease deal with CONSOL worse than the proposed Wall Street parking deal with the City of Pittsburgh? Fitz made it sound great. All those $. Inquiring minds want to know. Guessing Allegheny County residents will live to regret it the same way Chicago regrets their parking deal.
ReplyDeleteThat may be.
Delete