Saturday, September 25, 2004

Ripple from the blast about the new "PHONY" ink

As I reach out via email, (often called an email blast) a number of interesting ripples appear. See the comments.

Phony Budgets and Current Events - archived of my blast email, 412-public-remarks, to more than 8,000 contacts on Wed. Sept. 22, 2004.

7 comments:

Mark Rauterkus said...

Fran wrote to ask: What do you mean? "bucking" & moving out?

Lieberman, chair of the ICA (intergovernmental cooperative agency/agreement) = oversight board, is in the hunt for the lone gambling parlor license in the city. He is in partnership and a wheeler-dealer. He'll have ownership stake in the downtown (or South Side or Strip or North Side, but in the city) gambling place.

He should resign from his role with "oversight" as he seeks the gambling right.

Another member of the same 5 member board, Jim Roddey, is slated to move out of the city to Oakmont from Shadyside. His business is in Green Tree. The law that created the ICA board said its board members must either reside or have the location for the conduct of their main business within CITY LIMITS.
So, once he moves, he would not be eligible to serve on the board.
Roddey is well connected, of course. But, being well connected isn't part of the law that established the ICA.
Roddey is on a "board" of a records management company on the North Side. He said he's set up an office there and use that as a front to get around the requirement.

In the long view, two out of five on the oversight board are suspect. That would make room for a female and minority representation on the board.

Good question. Make sense?

Mark Rauterkus said...

This contact has a PASEN.Gov email address. She works at the PA Senate. And she writes to me:

Mark... please remove this email from your address book... this is my work email and it is very improper for me to receive political emails.

Thank you

Mary Larcinese

Talk to me. How can a person who works in government not be okay with email from a concerned citizen. I'm not a 'candidate.' (yet) This is a message to those in Harrisburg about what is really happening in Pittsburgh. That Harrisburg to Pittsburgh connection is frail. Mary, talk to me as I don't understand your request.

Mark Rauterkus said...

The wonderful Supervisor of the Mayor's Service Center, Dolores Hanna,
412-255-2621, wrote to me about my blast comments and the phony budget.

The Mayor's Service Center is being phased out with elimination on December 31. Customers will be directed to each individual department with their concerns and problems by an automated system.

Thanks for the info. That stinks.

But the funny rub in this is her first message to me. She asked me to NOT send her any more emails because her department is getting cut in that phony budget. This isn't a phony problem. This is serious and is sure to damage the city. But the budget solution is phony as a solution.

And, if I am not able to send an email that complains about the mayor's budget to the Mayor's Complaint / Service Center -- who should I send it to?

The one-stop shopping and service is needed. All calls from citizens should not go to 911. We need the call center. And, we need you to keep reading my messages as we need a new approach that isn't phony.

Mark Rauterkus said...

It is sorta funny that you ask me to not send you my 'complaints' via email. I'd like to lodge my complaint about the mayor's budget -- and calling the mayor's service center seems like the very best place to do so.

Here is another complaint. I want a copy of the budget proposal in PDF format. Don't mail me one as I don't need 500-pages and all the dead tress. But, get the report to the web in PDF format.

I'm going to do all I can to save the cable breau -- and the Mayor's complaint center. I'd change the name of your department in a heartbeat. And, I NUKE the shows on the TV that are just PR fluff. But, both need to continue.

PS: It was great to see that the guys in Public Works and Water Authority fixed the broken sewer lid cover at 12th Steet and Bradish. We didn't even get too many drunks to fall in the open hole for the past two months.

Anonymous said...

The city of Pittsburgh is useing its last resources to make loan
payments. I think that many Pittsburghers are going to wake up and say hey what happened here. Believe me, I try to inform everyone about the impending huge tax burden that all the council members want to give to the pittsburghers. I am against another commuter tax. I am also against taxing non profits. I believe belt tighting, and getting rid of unused property is the best way to redirect the tax structure.

Mark Rauterkus said...

Someone wrote:

> We need tax reform

We need to toss the bumbs out. We need new people and new thinkers at the helm of this voyage. I don't want to get tax reform with these idiots in place. The ship isn't broken, the captains are.

Sure, in time, with clear thought, with clear discussions, with heavy lifting -- we can evolve and do some tax reform. But, we MUST get rid of Tom Murphy and most of city council. They don't think. They don't work hard to dig to uncover the real problems. Hence, the real solutions are going to evade them.

Anonymous said...

Mark, you touched a nerve on budgets. I am doing a project on budgets and what is funny is all the union contracts are up on Dec 31, 2004. SO with Pittsburgh without any money get ready for huge tax increases and less shops. THe poor people of pittsburgh might as well sign up now for
relief.
THere is no money to pay anyone anymore your thoughts are welcome?