Saturday, December 18, 2004

Roddey to bail, not bail out

PG: Roddey plans to quit city oversight board Asked in July why Pittsburgh's government should not have direct access to those gambling funds like other communities, Roddey's answer was, 'Because all the other communities aren't as screwed up.' ... Later he went off on council members who spent thousands of dollars on books, picture frames and other miscellaneous items even while the city was facing bankruptcy. ... Council had 'no intention of changing the way they operate, and have no appreciation for the crisis the city is under ... They don't get it. They simply don't understand what it means to be frugal,' Roddey said in October."


Meanwhile, our Gov, Fast Eddie, shows how he is like the others doing too little too late. "Rendell said yesterday that he plans to submit legislation next year expanding the board to seven members, which he said would make the board more diverse. Board members are currently all white males."

As for Mr. Roddey, it is hard to call him a critic of Tom Murphy. Roddey was no critic of Tom Murphy in 2001. One can only wonder how much of a help or hinder he'll be in 2005 when it comes to protecting the machine in the city. Time will tell.
Finally, I think it is sad to hear that another on the board is talking about putting external pressure on Mr. Roddey. What is that about?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hard to tell if you're for or against expanding the Oversight Board to 7 members for the sake of 'diversity'. Diversity, in and of itself, is a joke. I will never hire employees so as to have a 'diverse' workforce.

Hey, Fast Eddie -- Why stop at 7 to achieve 'diversity'? Why not expand to at least to 21? That way you'l be able to recruit a gay-25%Asian-25%African-American-25%Norwegian-25%whatever. Where does this 'diversity' nonsense stop?

Get the best people for the job. End of discussion.

Mark Rauterkus said...

My knock to Rendell is his year-long wait with only a hope of a change in the year to come. If he had really wanted to make the board diverse -- he would have moved on this sore spot much sooner.

I think we have bigger problems with a member of the oversight board trying to go after a gambling license. That makes for a great conflict of interest in my opinion.