Sunday, June 26, 2005

Jack Writes Letters: 'world' of a mayor award and ICA's wind in its sails

Jack Wagner, quck to write a letter about Tom Murphy, might want to consider sending in a piece of his mind to this outlet, CityMayors.com, too:

Tinley may have a 'world' of a mayor: "The City Mayors profiles of Richard Daley and Tom Murphy, of Pittsburgh, are credited to 'Josh Fecht, U.S. Editor,' but in fact are ripped word-for-word from biographies published on the cities' Web sites.


If Jack's words can re-ignite the ICA (oversight board), perhaps they can skuttle any hope for glory on Tom's exit.

Here is the Trib's Whispers mention in the Sunday paper:

Wild Thing, you make them Dems sting - PittsburghLIVE.com A GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY TO MAKE MAYOR MURPHY MISERABLE? Pennsylvania Auditor General Jack Wagner just couldn't resist.

With only six months to go before he leaves office, time is running out to take shots at Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy. Wagner, a longtime political foe of the mayor, evidently realized the clock is ticking.

Wagner recently sent a letter to Gov. Ed Rendell and key state legislative leaders requesting they maintain the city financial oversight board established last year by the General Assembly.

There has been talk in Harrisburg of dissolving the board, which has been a frequent thorn in Murphy's side. Most legislators don't mind the panel being a mayoral irritant, but they are concerned about it also sparring with the Act 47 financial recovery team appointed by Rendell.

Wagner, a former City Council president who lost to Murphy in the 1993 Democrat mayoral primary, had a hand in establishing the board when he was a state senator.

As a state row officer, he really doesn't have standing to inject himself into the debate over whether the oversight board should survive. Knowing how miserable the panel could make Murphy's final days in office probably helped convince Wagner to lobby to keep it alive.

1 comment:

Mark Rauterkus said...

The short list of Mayor's did NOT include Tom Murphy. Somehow, the article in the paper in the Chicagoland did have his name:

Akron Mr Donald L Plusquellic

Atlanta Ms Shirley Franklin

Baltimore Mr Martin O’Malley

Charleston Mr Joseph P Riley

Chicago Mr Richard Daley
New York City Mr Michael Bloomberg

San Francisco Mr Gavin Newsom

Seattle Mr Gregory J Nickels

Tinley Park Mr Edward J Zabrocki

Washington DC Mr Anthony Williams