Political Obstruction Works Here

Since RAD and the Port Authority share an attorney, the board of RAD is paying an outside lawyer $275 an hour to figure out whether it can fund Port Authority transit and thus avert the collapse of a fragile deal between the workers and state government.

The total legal bill should come to about $70 or a long liquid lunch.

All the Port Authority would have to do is to qualify as a "civc asset" in the minds of the RAD board itself, which is not remotely a stretch as these things go. Interpretable phrasing is there to interpret.

Some board members evidently felt the need to ask for a legal opinion either to provide them with political cover for making that leadership decision, or else drag this out further so as to continue poisoning the well against the deal.

There are three camps opposed to using the $3M in RAD money to leverage $30M from the state:

1) Ideologues to the political right of Tom Corbett who believe the biggest problem here is that the Port Authority is "addicted to money," who instead of supporting the compromise struck with the Governor would rather lock the Agency in a cell, starve and humiliate it until it dies, and replace it with something more private and less unionized.

2) Politicians who aren't wild about Rich Fitzgerald strutting around like he owns the joint, appointing notable crazy ladies to key advisory panels and saying "green this" and "I agree with my friend from the East End" that.

3) Folks who are anxious that transit funding should not diminish support for cultural organizations, and may be susceptible to "slippery slope" arguments involving long-term commitments, water treatment plants and parking garages.

Group #1 obviously can't get its job done by itself. Group #2 is happy to support Group #1's work in stirring up taxpayer outrage and popular chaos (more mentions of the drink tax, please!) at least up until the point where transit actually explodes. But in dealing with the RAD board, on which Fitzgerald has the upper hand, neither can really gain traction unless they involve Group #3.

Hence the need for more time to wage more back room campaigns and manufacture more news stories which include the word "tax," as though they're being raised somewhere. The notoriously secretive "ripcord" clause in the new Port Authority contract can only be so hard to activate, right?

MORE:

Pgh City Paper thinks the stability for transit and for other tax rates is worth it... Null Space notices the RAD tax didn't stop Allegheny County from outperforming most of the rest of the region.

Image: UFC, MMA Worldwide

Caption Contest #1, and Links

If that's not enough inspiration for you on a grey Tuesday which feels like a Monday, see the already inimitable Len Boselovic.

Don't you people want to comment any further on my sewers post?

If you wish to learn more about the responses and what is driving the continued debate over Clint Eastwood's RNC speech ("got together a group of deeply disaffected voters"), you can read the always surprising La Times.

If you'd rather learn about Romney's post-convention bounce, what it means for key states and who is looking more likely to win, see everybody's favorite FiveThirtyEight.

If you missed the latest in the riverfront / URA / Buncher saga, see the new boss, Jeremy Boren.

Photo credit - Roxanne Tuinstra

Harrisburg: A Case Study in Seduction

There is an 18-minute Planet Money story that I guarantee you will enjoy.

"So what you have is, you have the financial advisor, makes $142,000 on this $30 million notes; that's a lot of money. Now, the County had a law firm, the City had a law firm, you know it's..."

"How many law firms are on this list?"

"It's, um -- financial advisors like to call this the Noah's Ark of public financing. Meaning, there's two of everything."

My guess: no "criminality" here, Certificate 81-10B notwithstanding. Not unless for decades, every room and phone in Dauphin County was bugged 24/7 for passing ill-advised intimations of quid-pro-quo type arrangements -- and even then it would be a matter for interpretation.

Transparent stupidity which befuddles generations is not against any law.

TERRIFYINGLY RELATED: Wall Street's War Against Cities -- Why Bondholders Can't, and Shouldn't, Be Paid (Michael Hudson, Naked Capitalism)

Image credit *SnowFright, deviantart

Meachem Gone as Head of HACP

As reported:

A. Fulton Meachem Jr. is resigning as executive director of the Pittsburgh Housing Authority.

The authority announced his resignation this morning, saying Mr. Meachem has accepted a similar position in Charlotte, N.C. (P-G, Joe Smydo; see also Trib)

[BIGGER: Sat. P-G and, most interestingly: Sat. Trib. I stand by the below.]

There have been indications that this actually was a forced resignation; perhaps of the sort that is strongly forewarned while an employee with songs to sing finds work elsewhere.

Two weeks ago, a controversial contract with a private security firm utilizing constables for policing at public housing sites was terminated with Meachem stating he was "exploring" the feasibility of getting City police to do the job.

In 2008 there were accusations of misspending at the Housing Authority under Meachem, although the source of that whistle blowing has since been rendered questionable. Those accusations eventually resulted in a milquetoast audit which was held back for some time. Meachem was accused of "smearing" then-Authority chair Pat Ford to divert blame for these and other managerial concerns, though the source of these accusations also left the city in disgrace.

Director Meachem oversaw the roll-out of a Clean Slate scholarship program for Housing Authority residents, and the replacement of Addison Terrace in the Hill District. He is survived by the authority's Chairperson, Council member Ricky Burgess.

Fitzgerald faces Tough Choices on Sewer Strategy

The ALCOSAN Draft "Wet Weather Plan" for satisfying the federal decree mandating that we stop letting our sewers overflow when it rains thereby allowing so much poop into our rivers can be found here.

Good luck with it.

Pittsburgh City Councilman Bill Peduto describes that plan as "huge holding tanks under our rivers and a series of smaller tanks throughout the city to trap excess stormwater and wastewater until it can be safely released for treatment" -- which looks about right, near as I can tell.

He goes on to recommend that we utilize parks, ponds, community gardens, permeable pavements, green rooftops, tree plantings and rain barrels to limit the amount of rain water that needs to enter the sewage system in the first place. And furthermore, that this will save us all money on steel, concrete and boring machines. (RPghN and BP.com)

Allegheny County Chief Executive Rich Fitzgerald was reported also to be "urging" ALCOSAN at community meetings to incorporate such green tactics.

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This seemed strange, since ALCOSAN stands for Allegheny County Sanitary Authority -- 3 of whose seven board members are appointed by the County Executive himself, 3 by the Mayor of Pittsburgh (Luke Ravenstahl) and one jointly by them both. Why can't Fitzgerald simply instruct his board members to do what he wants?

"Rain water is not free. We're all paying for how we handle it," Mr. Fitzgerald said. "Alcosan, if it can divert some of it to green spaces, parks and gardens, won't have to pay to treat it." (P-G, Don Hopey)

Make it so, numba one! Am I right?

Well, the main reason this is going to be difficult is...

Alcosan has said it's been on their minds -- but that implementing or ordering use of those technologies in municipalities is not within the authority's purview. Executive director Arletta Scott Williams further explained that if municipalities include "green infrastructure" in future plans they submit to Alcosan, the authority will consider them.

"We fully support that," Ms. Williams said. "We would like to see the municipalities implement more green." (P-G, Molly Born)

Neither ALCOSAN nor Allegheny County can simply tell its 130 municipalities and umpteen millions of private property owners to replace asphalt and use rain barrels. The municipalities themselves can use zoning and other law to influence development -- but that's a slow process even if they each are in the mood to undertake it.

Which leads us to the next Peduto idea...

A stormwater utility is a governmental entity – usually an independent authority or a branch of the municipal water system – that levies a fee on property owners, from owners of single family homes to owners of large retail or industrial facilities, for how much excess stormwater enters the system from their property. In effect, a stormwater utility puts a price on runoff. One of the benefits of a stormwater utility is that a cost that was previously invisible – stormwater runoff – is brought out into the open and property owners are held accountable for their impact on the overall system. We’re all already paying for stormwater in our water and sewer bills, but in a stormwater utility system the property owners that are contributing most to the problem pay the most and those that are taking steps to reduce their impact pay less or even get credits for the improvements they make. Thus, a tangible financial incentive for improving stormwater management is created. (RPghN)

... which in fairness is hardly just "a Peduto idea" at all, but he is the one pushing it lately and in the context of routine sewage treatment instead of flooding and safety. If a stormwater utility turns out to be "infeasible," he has a backup idea involving zoning overlay districts, or possibly a sliding scale for regular ALCOSAN sewage rates.

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So the state would all of a sudden start charging property owners and businesses -- small businesses, mind you, job creators -- more money if they don't plant enough trees and use the right kind of pavement, so that government bureaucrats can afford to build swamps and fern gullies or whatever.

You can see how, while an elegant and progressive solution to a real quandary, this could be a bit of a lift.

With his county-wide constituency, Fitzgerald has yet to endorse charges based on stormwater runoff to pay for sewer improvements or incentivize on-location green solutions. He did as a candidate criticize his Republican opponent Raja for increasing sewer fees in Mt. Lebanon -- though perhaps only for "not owning up to it" in regards to certain counter-accusations.

At any rate, let's call up that Fitzgerald quote again... "Rain water is not free. We're all paying for how we handle it. Alcosan, if it can divert some of it to green spaces, parks and gardens, won't have to pay to treat it."

Fitzgerald probably was not even talking about producing new green stuff -- simply diverting some water to green stuff that already exists, instead of building bigger and more tanks. A notion which appears not to be in the ALCOSAN draft plan.

Which brings us back to ALCOSAN's makeup -- for this plan was years in the making.

Three and a half board members are appointed by the County Executive, it is true. Until recently that county executive was Dan Onorato.

Dan Onorato was something of a Grey Infrastructure guy, having a solid relationship with several engineering contractors. Onorato appointee and board chair State Rep. Harry Readshaw approaches these questions from a similar background. Heck, even Onorato's solution for animal control was grey (lasers, fencing, poison gas) rather than green (moving eggs). And finally of course there is the Mayor's share of ALCOSAN to consider.

The path to any significant and effective "green" water management in the region, whether through a stormwater utility or something similar, will lead ultimately through ALCOSAN. If Rich Fitzgerald is going to work towards these allegedly more affordable and sustainable solutions, he may indeed need to embrace a campaign which will entail clashes and involve wagering some real political capital.

NOW Head: Mayor "Screamed" At, "Threatened" Me for Criticism over Trosky Promotion

After a week of taking heat related to issues of diversity, a second promotion by Mayor Luke Ravenstahl of the intermittently controversial George Trosky now to Assistant Chief of Police generated predictable criticism:

“The message is that the mayor doesn’t care about women,” she [National Organization for Women President Jeanne Clark] said. “He doesn’t care about domestic violence. When we disagreed with this appointment for Commander Trosky to become a commander, he [the mayor] said he got it, he was zero tolerance policy and nothing like this would happen again.” (Lynne Hayes-Freeland, KDKA)

That was Tuesday. Allegedly on Wednesday, this happened:

Your public attack on me in the reception line at the Cookie Cruise – berating me for criticizing your promotion of George Trosky to assistant police chief, screaming that I was a "hypocrite," and threatening to "go public" with what you perceive to be my failure to support all domestic violence survivors – was bizarre, to say the least. (Everyone's Entitled to Jeanne's Opinion)

More coverage of the epic fracases back in 2007 which attended Trosky and two other officers' promotions are available here, here, here, here, and here. These stories involved not only a lack of sensitivity at that time to domestic violence accusations, but also an oversensitivity to political relationships -- 102 officers were then passed over.

Charges against Trosky for domestic violence were dropped long ago, and he was never convicted of anything. Recognizing that victims are frequently pressured to drop charges in cases against authorities, innocent-until-proven-guilty still has to mean something, and it's difficult to justify a single accusation limiting somebody's career for all time. However, after all the controversies in 2007 an agreement was reached regarding formal deliberative processes for handling these delicate cases, including advocacy group outreach. That agreement appears to have been retired.

*-UPDATE: This month saw the launch of a "Run, Jeanne, Run" (for City Council District 8) movement on Facebook and Twitter.

Ravenstahl, Yabolonsky, and Harris on Natural Gas Drilling

Full article here. This is probably a huge election issue in terms of fundraising and connections-building. The funny thing about having attorneys, engineers and advertising sales reps grow invested in industry expansion is, these then become attorneys, engineers and advertising platforms and their extended families predisposed to believe "safe" natural gas drilling is a very achievable thing, probably safe enough already, and can we get over it.