Wednesday: All Manner of Issues

Last week, Mr. Dowd put a hold on legislation that would formalize the transfer of state funds through the city to the URA, saying he wanted to see the agency's budget first. The URA board then passed a budget, and council got it Friday. (P-G, Rich Lord)

Good to know how to get answers.

Mr. Dowd said that the $10.3 million administrative budget, which does not include the money to be spent on bricks-and-mortar projects, includes $2.8 million that looks like one-time, unsustainable revenue.

That includes the tapping of $1.5 million in repayments of loans made with federal funds. The budget also includes a $1.5 million payment to the city.

Someone could conclude that there's "a financial shell game here, and federal money is being used to fund the city," Mr. Dowd said.

This will be one interesting conversation among several today.

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The City of Pittsburgh asked firms yesterday to submit proposals to study whether men earn more than women within its 3,300-person work force. (P-G, Team Effort)

Good for the City. The Post-Gazette News Room deserves some kind of Pulitzer for the Excellence in the Field of Blurbs for getting this one about right.

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In winter 2007, as soon as the new Penguins arena was announced, Hill District residents began working together, forming the One Hill Community Benefits Agreement Coalition. (P-G, Morgan and Williamson)

Actually, in winter 2007, that was most definitely the other alliance -- then again, some elements of One Hill are now tracing their involvement in arena benefits back to 2005.

Be that as it may, an op-ed making the broad, broad, broad case for CBA's now exists.

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"So now we've almost declared war, and I'm not sure that's good for anybody," said Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, who blamed council and defended a 5-year-old practice of allowing Lamar to put up one digital sign for every five or six vinyl ones it took down. "I guess it would be bad to have 42 LED billboards in communities, and that's why the swap process was done methodically." (P-G, Rich Lord)

Differing definitions of "process" and "methodically" at work, is all.

City Council is legally challenging that maneuver, which might be an administration thank-you to Lamar for providing free billboard space last year to promote the city's 3-1-1 help line and anti-litter campaign.

Those billboards featured the face of a beaming Ravenstahl, who coincidentally happened to be engaged in a mayoral campaign at the time. (Trib, Eric Heyl)

It is the looking into of such seemingly political connections that would be the most blatantly political act, obviously.

The Solicitor Issue: Things We Know Now

1. The resolution authorizing a council solicitor was never introduced.

2. Doug Shields is home sick today, and that may or may not have played a role.

3. Councilman Motznik was on KDKA this morning with Marty Griffin talking smack on the very idea of a council solicitor. That may or may not have played a role.

4. A member of Council who differs with Jim ought to go on KDKA, ASAP. If Councilman Motznik really wants to grandstand this issue out on the airwaves, he ought to be prepared to get as good as he can give.

5. There are currently four votes for a Council solicitor. GUESS WHO'S NOT THE FIFTH VOTE YET.

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Is there anyone out there who still thinks that our City Solicitor is in a position to play the role of impartial umpire of the law?

"(Shields) wants to do this because he doesn't get the answers he likes when it comes to billboards or vehicles, the petty stuff that a few council members worry about," Motznik said. "It's kind of like going to a different doctor because you don't like your prognosis that this doctor is giving you." LINK.

First of all, we would hardly call deep-seated balance of power issues, and issues of rampant ongoing noncompliance with our own law, "petty stuff."

Secondly, all lawyers -- by definition -- are wrong approximately half of the time. It is their job to argue a position. That is why we use the "adversarial" relationship in modern legal practice and consider it such an efficient and valuable thing. If we are going to deliberate at Council, both sides should have some technical expertise. It is what the framers intended.

It would also be good for the people. Why should we have one wizened figure emerge to say, "I am a lawyer; I know." This is not robust dialogue.

We should be unafraid to have spirited, public legal conversations, to show both our deference to the law and our concern that it be applied uniformly and in good faith.

It is said that the man who represents himself has a fool for a client. City Council should be at all times responsible, serious and cooperative with the administration. But we can afford it to be a fool no longer.

RELATED: The Burgher

Council Getting Lawyered Up!

Jeremy Boren lets the cat out of the bottle.

Councilman Jim Motznik said Shields' proposal is a waste of money because council has access to a staff of 12 to 15 lawyers in the city's Law Department who earn salaries ranging from $44,000 to Specter's top salary of $94,592.

"(Shields) wants to do this because he doesn't get the answers he likes when it comes to billboards or vehicles, the petty stuff that a few council members worry about," Motznik said. "It's kind of like going to a different doctor because you don't like your prognosis that this doctor is giving you." (Trib, Jeremy Boren)

Doug Shields spells out his reasons. Bill Peduto and Ricky Burgess are involved, somehow. Alecia Sirk says that Mayor Ravenstahl is pleased with Geroge Specter.

George Specter has no comment. Why would he?

Councilwoman Tonya Payne introduced a resolution Aug. 1 that year to put an attorney for council on retainer, after then-Mayor Bob O'Connor abruptly fired City Solicitor Susan Malie and two other top officials during a power struggle.

Payne argued then, as Shields does, that because the city charter allows the mayor to appoint and dismiss the city solicitor at will, the solicitor isn't likely to produce a legal opinion that contradicts the mayor's wishes for fear of political retribution.

Tonya Payne was right. From the Home Rule Charter:

310. POWERS OF COUNCIL Council shall have the following additional powers:

a. to employ or retain its own staff and consultants including a city clerk and an attorney qualified to practice law before the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, who may act as a legal advisor to council, and may represent council as a body in legal proceedings. Council's attorney shall not represent the City as a municipal corporation in any legal proceeding;

This is the first of nine listed ordinary powers of council, before the more extraordinary ones are dealt with. It must have been fairly important to the framers, for reasons that ought to be immediately apparent.

Malloy Unseated as Union President

Officer [Dan] O'Hara unseated retired Sgt. James J. Malloy, a 38-year veteran who has served in the union in some capacity since the 1970s, by two votes Thursday night.

"The membership decided they wanted a younger man and an active officer," said Sgt. Malloy, adding that active and retired officers often have different concerns. (P-G, Moriah Balingit)

A sensationalistic headline might have read, St. Patrick's Day Brawl ends in K.O. at Pittsburgh P.D.

Vaya con dios, Jimmy.

Jeremiah Wright: What is the Big Deal?

We just posted this comment over at 2 Political Junkies, and we thought ultimately it deserved its own post.

Who cares about the Rev. Wright's comments? I mean, aside from the fact he denounced them.

I mean, is what he was saying even that far outside of the mainstream?

Seriously. If you listen and understand it in context -- sure it's a little volatile, and sure it's a little provocative, but none of it is exactly new or not-acceptable. Like black Americans don't have some reasons to be upset, looking back. And not even looking that very far back ... dude was old. How many Republicans should resign because they were friends with Strom Thurmand?

That hardly puts them in KKK country ... it's ironic anyone would even equate the two.

Two points.

Number one, it is pretty reprehensible, in our own humble opinion, that a preacher speaking from the pulpit would choose to say the words, "G-d Damn America." Very bad decision.

Let's not disqualify him as a human being, or declare him toxic.

Number two, the whole Strom Thurmond thing got us thinking. Generally, we make allowances for people who have reached a certain age. Who among us does not have some people in our own family, or dear loved ones, who are good people but sometimes say things that make us cringe?

Remember, this fellow is sixty-seven years old. He was a young black man during the Civil Rights era, and a younger black man growing up in America before it. His father also was a preacher. He hails from Philadelphia, actually. And now, one of his favorite parishioners is running for President, and he got all excited.

And now, we're gonna pin these few chosen words on Barack Obama like a scarlet letter? Like he's some kind of dark automaton, plotting and scheming his revenge against America?

Bottom line: this is nothing!!!

If Barack Obama says the Rev. Jeremiah Wright helped make him who he is today -- and if who Barack Obama is is the same person who has acted with seeming grace and decency and measured judgement at all times over the past two years during which we've all scrutinized him -- then the Rev. Jeremiah Wright is okay with us.

Monday: Doing it Rightways, Always

[URA deputy director Rob Stephany] said Larimer's "adjacency to stability affords an opportunity they haven't had for 40 years. There are mixed-income housing market pressures a few blocks away. So instead of Larimer surrounded by blight, Larimer finally has some strong edges to build off of."

"And if you do it right," said Paul Svoboda, legislative assistant to state Sen. Jim Ferlo, D-Highland Park, "the people who have been invested can stay invested, and they will get to meet new and diverse neighbors." (P-G, Diana Nelson Jones)

You must think the Comet is about to gnaw this article apart. After all, the words Walnut Capital's $113 million Bakery Square development appear prominently near the top, which to us is basically like catnip.

Not so fast! All that flat land -- all that vacant property -- this is the kind of neighborhood that really needs redevelopment. One way or the other, Larimer's time is fast approaching.

The URA is buying up cheap property all throughout Larimer, and putting it in what it calls a "holding pattern" -- something involving nonprofits, sunflowers and possibly unicorns.

That's fine -- really, it is -- but what is it being held for? This is where Larimer makes such an interesting case study.

As we move forward, are we going to optimize the opportunities for some, while surreptitiously mitigating the influence of others? Are we going to plan exclusively from on high, manufacturing only a plausible facsimile of community participation, picking and choosing? Or are we going to regard community members as the invaluable, indispensable experts that they are when it comes to their own neighborhood?

More to the point, will the community organize itself politically in time to lead its own redevelopment?

Ms. [Ora Lee] Carroll, who for years has touted her neighborhood by pleading for investment, now is plotting the future with Pat Clark, a community development consultant who has worked on land-use and investment strategies for communities throughout the region.

This is a legitimate good news article. The Comet is going to put this issue in a holding pattern, as it were.

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The last time a customer stepped inside the Lord & Taylor building, Downtown, Luke Ravenstahl was serving his first year on City Council and a guy by the name of Roethlisberger was in his rookie season with the Steelers. (P-G, Mark Belko)

Wow, when you put like that, it sounds so ... not very long ago.

Arthur Ziegler, president of the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, said he is not surprised by what has transpired. Mr. Ziegler and other local preservationists loudly protested the renovations that turned the former bank's majestic open interior, with its marble columns and floors, into a multilevel department store.

"We said it would be a tragedy when Murphy wanted to destroy that space. The building's significance was not only its magnificent exterior but its magnificent and unique interior. I certainly think what happened to it was tragic. Since it so far hasn't worked, that only compounds the situation," he said.

The maintenance of our historic structures (our built environment is the new catch phrase) can to help improve the prospects for sustainable and profitable development, even if it does not seem readily apparent to particular developers at a given time. Please make a note of it.

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