Open letter to OpenDebates.Org

This letter was sent to those at OpenDebates.Org.

I've followed your story. I've helped with some blogging. I think you are doing the right things. Now for some ideas:

Why not take 10 to 20 cities and help in 2005 with their democracy and debates for their Mayor's races?

It might be great if you had forums in various cities, and I would PUSH you to make Pittsburgh, PA, one such city. Then you could show the world how a real debate with real candidates and issues, should occur. You can tape the event, review it, offer analysis, and trouble-shoot -- both the process and the event itself.

If OpenDebates.Org wants to aspire to leading the national debates with the presidential race, we need you to prove yourself, be seasoned, be in the marketplace, and be with all the credit due to the task at hand.

Pulling together a debate is no easy matter, as I've done a few of them. I've been on both sides of the microphone. This is exciting, worthy and serious work.

Let me know if you want more insights and info. Please let me know how might I be able to push these matters to othes?

Market House Soccer winding down

The indoor soccer season at the Market House is about to conclude. Our family fun night with a parents game, pizza, trophies and a special guest, Riverhounds Head Coach, is Thursday, Nov. 18.

We launched the season in September with a lot of help from a crew of volunteer parents. John S. has been a tireless leader and most dedicated to the effort. He has done a wonderful job. I'm just there to coach and lend a hand here and there. The others are really working hard.

The Marke House had been closed for the prior year. Now we play and organize without any staffers. The costs went up quite a bit.

For the kids, the program has been much as it was in the past. This is a great program for the tykes and wee players, without a doubt. The liitle kids are so fun to watch, ages 4, 5 and 6. Most of them have not been on a team in the past, to say the least. All the ages have fun and get a nice experience, team play, some skills and new friends.

I took a few photos the other night and I'll try to get some more. If you're with the media and have room to cover something other than the kick-off to "sparkle season" -- give me a call. Our light-up night comes on the faces of the kids, not with some tall downtown buildings.

The indoor hockey, often called, "deck hockey" starts in January. The first night to sign-up is the family fun night. We play on the gym floor in sneakers. Kids often bring their own helmets, but some are provided. The little kids use our sticks, older kids bring their own. Kids have their own shin guards and gloves too.

We need more players, and a high school league, 3 on 3, is slated for Saturday mornings.

Parents and volunteers are also welcomed, for coaching and other duties. The play is on Monday, Wednesdays and Thursdays.

In the tank officially

The official start to the scholastic swim season is next Monday, Best of luck to all who are jumping into the pool, or "tank" for another season. For the bulk of last year I was on deck as the head boys and girls varsity swim coach with the Foxes.

This year I'm coaching my kids in swimming! Yes! They been swimming, and I've been coaching at Carlynton. I'm just with the swim club, and with the littlest ones too.

I did have a number of interviews this fall (Shaler Area H.S., Penn Hills H.S., Winchester Thurston for an afterschool start-up) and made an application to the Chartiers Valley Swim Club.

Given the year ahead, the kids' ages, our lifestyle and the fit at Carlynton -- I'm quite certain we are in the right place.

Election win

At the most recent general meeting and election with the Green Tree Swim Team, I was nominated and elected to a position on the board. Won in a landslide, so I was told. I'll be the fifth member there and the rep for the team in the swim league.

Got a team? Want to join our league?

We've been a part of the swim team for a number of years. The league includes Scott Township, Mt. Lebo, Crafton, South Fayette and Green Tree. Gotta freshen their site soon I guess, http://GreenTree.CLOH.Org.

For the record, I did get the firefighters vote. My cousin in law, John Kirby, a recently retired Pgh Firefighter, voted for me. He said he was the only one in the room to know how to spell Rauterkus. I asked if this was a one-year term, and he was quick to point out it was for ten.

One more election is on tap for later this month. More news later.

Sweetheart

My sweetheart and I celebrate our anniversary, Nov. 10. We were married on a rainy day in Springfield, Mass., in 1990.

On the 11th she'll be at CMU to speak to 150 at the monthly music convocation and with the Pittsburgh Symphony at their break in rehearsal.

The boys are off of school that day too. Perhaps we'll sit in and get some photos, video or an audio version of the presentations. Plus, we can have a family lunch date I expect.

The older team at the Market House. November 8, 2004.

Earl Jones, welcome to the mayor's race, again

Earl Jones, our teddy bear champion, is going to enter the mayor's race in 2005. His expressed theme is family values.

Earl ran in 2001. I expect he'll be a democrat, but there is no telling.

Earl was invited to speak at the RCAC.net 2004 GOP Picnic in Scott Township this fall. Great hospitality.

All in all, Earl's expressed desire to enter the race is really bad news for Rich Fitzgerald, Dem., County Council from Sq. Hill. Earl has a mean streak and hankering against Rich to the nth degree. Otherwise, I'm sure the move to run is a great favor to Tom Murphy. Tom even mentioned Earl Jones from the podium today at the outset of his budget address. Tom Murphy blew Earl a wet kiss from the podium.

Mayor's Budget Address = Full of lies

The Mayor's budget address happened in city council chambers today. As expected it was full of lies.

This time it only took minutes before a city council member, Jim Motznik, started to talk to the media. KDKA was able to start filming the mentions from Jim about how the matters are less than truthful.

Furthermore, I wasn't allowed to get a budget book. The citizens are the last to know, by design.

The promise from the Mayor's spokesperson, Craig, was that the document would be put onto the city's website today.

The deed transfer tax has been increased by 33%, not .05 percent.

The property tax increase for home owners is going up 34%. It is still in there.

The mayor said that this budget follows the guides set forth in the Act 47 agreement, but it fails to do so by increasing salaries to some, and replacing others with job switches.

Police legal advisor, slated to be terminated, appears under another manager's title wit an 2004 salary of $53k moving to 2005 to $73k.

Twelve commanders are up on pae 287 so as to make the overall public safety budget an increase of $140K.

A building inspector gets a raise of $7,700. The city is to be on a wage freeze.

The public works director gets a new job title and ups from $67K to $77K. Same to with an assistant director to deptuty director, and an operations manager moving from $60K to $67K.

Uniforms were cut last year, but re-appear this year for $8,600.

Joe King pointed out how the mayor has padded his budget with a misc. account and education. Then he cuts it and claims a 10% savings.

Others are saying that there are lies. I've yet to list the one's I've noticed.

We don't need to reform first. We need to replace this mayor, now.

Take this message to Harrisburg

This letter has been passed to my city councilmember, Gene Ricciardi, in advance of their trip to Harrisburg. http://dsl.cloh.org/v1/call-11-04.pdf

November 8, 2004

Leaders of the PA House & Senate
Elected Leaders of the City of Pittsburgh

Dear Neighbors and Friends of Pittsburgh,

We need the state's assistance to allow the Pittsburgh region to form its own public, governmental entity, called the Pittsburgh Park District.

Illinois has Park Districts. Pittsburgh needs to have the same. The formation of a Park District should be debated and confirmed by the voters in a spring, 2005 referendum. An introduction of park district concepts are in a position paper at http://DSL.CLOH.Org/v1/

Background:

An oversight plan for the city calls for $0 in funding for Pittsburgh's Citiparks for 2006.

We've already told our children that they can't play ball in their Recreation Centers nor swim in the swim pools. Those closings happened in August 2003. The Mayor's 2004 budget was to keep the facilities closed.

In 2002 the Mayor told the Pittsburgh Interfaith Impact Network that he would prohibit the opening of computer labs in some Rec Centers. Labs were promised without charges to the city with donated equipment, services and net fees as per the cable franchise agreement -- all rejected.

Serious conditions swirl in the city with teens: drugs, shootings, and with few places to seek shelter for sport, coaching, friendship, and structured activities. Meanwhile, the Mayor proves again that he won't play well with others. The kids, yet alone the volunteers, coaches, and parents, need relief.

When the Pittsburgh Park District is formed, recreational matters can be solved in open, democratic ways with elected trustees, sunshine laws, and accountability. Then real community can flourish, outside of the grasp of potholes, pension funds, and games of "political chicken with our kids" instigated by city hall. The Park District solution makes for self-reliance, stewardship and bucks against the mayor who has trashed the kids' opportunities and facilities.

Thanks for your consideration and urgent follow-up on this matter as our kids can't wait.

Les Ludwig's ideas on Fire

Mr. Ludwig is putting forth an idea to address the city's budget and its fire breau.

The Fire Department costs the city $76-million. The city's budget hole is some $20, $40 to $60-million depending on how you count. (The numbers are fluid as proposals are still under wraps and undetermined.)

The State of PA charges 2% on the gross premiums for all insurance companies transacting business in the state. This maked $558-million a year (figure obtained from July 1, 2002 to June 30, 2003). That money goes, in part, now to pay for police pension, retirement or disability purposes, fireman pension.

The plan calls for the 2% fee to go to 4%, earning an extra $500-million per year. That would fund the entire cost of the Pgh Fire Breau and allow for the reduction of some taxes. Additionally, other funds would go to Phili for its fire costs so as to make this a poltical win for both of the states biggest cities.

Furthermore, Ludwig calls for the Fire Department to spin out from the city and become an entitiy, such as a Fire Authority, that would never come back to the city for additional funding. The Fire Union would be the driving force, working in a more entrepreneurial way to raise its own funds, much like the suburban volunteer fire companies.

As a safeguard for performance, a contract for services would be established with accountability and monthly performance reviews to insure compliance to standards.

His letter has been posted to the Wiki, Platform.For-Pgh.Org: http://platform.for-pgh.org/wiki/index.php?title=Taxation_and_the_City_Relationship_to_State_Government

Directory of video clips as Les tries to make his case.
http://65.254.51.42/~player/content/ludwig/

Qutoe: That's why he's the mayor.

Cute quote from the black and gold dressing room: Big Ben said, "That's why he's the mayor." He's speaking of The Bus.

Ox on Fox: "Jerome Bettis, Mayor of Roethlisnberger."

Mayor's Office Budget -- print to PDF, please

Again!
On Monday, November 8, 2004, the Mayor is to give his budget address. The budget is not online.

Meanwhile, the budget was approved by the Oversight Board on Friday, November 5, 2004. The budget could have been posted as it went to them.

On Oct 4, an online version of the city's budget became available.
That budget was rejected by the oversight board. But, it was made available to the media with a press release on September 23, 2004.

We should not need to wait for two or three weeks to see a current snapshot of the budget. Print it to PDF. That's not hard.

Mayor's Office Press Releases
NOTE: Members of the media can obtain a copy of the Mayor's budget submission at the reception desk of the Mayor's Office on the 5th Floor of the City-County Building.

We waited since Sept. 23 for the release of the massive budget in a PDF. Print to PDF takes minutes if open-source software was utilized.

What if the choice was, for mayor: either Murphy or O'Connor or G.W. Bush

This blog gets plenty of page views and few comments. Let's turn the tide with this posting / question.

Who would you vote for?
Who would win in the city?

I don't think G.W.Bush has done many financial moves, if any, that knowingly, intend to cripple and/or inflict pain. On the other hand, Tom Murphy has.

Murphy has closed pools, closed rec centers, jacked taxes on property by 34%, put parking up to 50%, cut the Great Race that made money, etc.

The nexus of this posting comes from a conversation with a true Kerry supporter who admitted to me that Bush's vote would be a lock if he were in a race with either Tom Murphy or Bob O'Connor.

Perhaps this is a question to get Lynn Cullen thinking.

Sadly, this week's knee jerk seems to be a puzzle to me. Many are starting to rally and begin to gun (pun intended) for PA's Junior US Senator, Rick Santorum. They want him out. They'll start working now to get him out. Anybody but Bush has seemingly morphed to anyone but Rick. Oh my gosh. Don't let the wheels fall off. The rubber hits the road right here in Pittsburgh, our home town. We need folks to care about Grant Street. It is time to refocus -- and not upon the US Senate, please!

Deed Transfer Tax -- going up 33%

The Deed Transfer Tax is going up from 1.5 percent to 2 percent of the total sale of the house. That's an increase of 33%. Please don't fall into the trap of thinking that this half-of-a-percent is no small matter. For example, a house for $100,000 used to be hit with a $1,500 tax burden as it is purchased. Now it is going to be saddled with a $2,000 payment to the city.

Out of all the taxes, the deed transfer tax should be eliminated. That is the first I'd remove as mayor.

Put this code into your blog. Freely comment too.

Super Bowl Saturday

Today is Super Bowl Saturday for the South Side Sabres, a youth football program in my neighborhood. They have three teams in "super bowl games." What a feat. Way to go Mike D and all the other volunteers, coaches, players, cheerleaders and officials. Way to go to all the teams in the league and fans too.

At least two of the games are to be played at Steel Valley High School. One is against a North Hills team.

Here is a program that is flourishing, despite the city.

Yes, there are stories about how the city has given this program its share of headaches. The field was to be re-seeded. The city wanted to stop the team from playing on the field for an entire season. No joke. Talk about fumbles.

There are stories of how the city can't play well with others that never see the light of day on this blog. The road-blocks put up by the city are massive.

Furthermore, I do understand that there are lots of other places with lots of other challenges as well. Pittsburgh does not own the patent on headaches. But, we do seem to push the limit in frustrations. And, as with the Sabres, we overcome and soar, in spite of the submarines from Grant Street.

Ron Morris and being serious

A blog comment elsewhere about a "a serious candidate" has gotten under my skin and here is my vent.

Consider the business world and what Ron Morris mentioned on his Saturday radio talk show. A fellow asked him for some angel investment money to work on a new-business plan. In turn, that plan would then be able to be shopped to venture capitalists. In this early stage of the business, the principal would be collecting a six-figure salary. Hence, some of the need for angle investment. Plus, the principal was not putting his house on the line.

Ron's point was that he wanted to see more skin in the game from the individual involved. He wanted the owner to work with the start-up for nothing. He likes to make investments when the owner is hungry. He likes to see married folks who put their house on the line and then wake up with a watchdog, often in a cold-sweat.

He said it was better to write the business plan on the weekends, nights and while working for someone else.

Humm....

I know what it is like to write and pitch business plans. Before the kids were born, I worked in a start-up, my own small-press. I tried to move SportSurf.Net to the AOL Greenhouse, before Netscape went public. I had a relationship with a California client and furnished them with a modem so they could email me orders, well before Amazon.com ever opened. After we moved to Pittsburgh, I could see the business climate.

As a candidate, I feel at times like I'm in a start-up. I've got some skin in the game. I work for nothing. I scratch with others on evenings and weekends, to mine for ideas and plant seeds for a better community.

Meanwhile, those in the ivory towers of old-school thinking need have a measure of being 'serious' that is about something else. Theirs has little to do with civics, with freedom and with community. Perhaps the insulting remarks can be tempered. Perhaps the goal-posts can be moved, again.

What we have is serious miss-management. We have serious miss-spending of public money. We have serious breaks in democracy and accountability. We have serious instances of corruption. We have serious efforts to posture and back-pat with false praise for doing next to nothing.

So J.P., does a serious candidate for public office need to be serious in those realms?

Chief Robert McN -- enrages audience in West End

Our Chief of Police went before a citizens meeting in the West End at the end of October. Folks there are really hacked off at the loss of their zone's police station. Furthermore, the streets have been filling with shootings (even outside of schools), drugs, 3-AM outdoor parties, and lots of open bad-boy actors.

The chief's talk and his Q&A made matters worse. The people became more upset.

People are doing what has been asked. They are reporting the car's license plate numbers as drug deals go down. They have been holding their turf. They have been getting the threats and turning the details over to police.

However, no dective has called back. The follow-up is abset. One women's story was documented in detail -- but nothing from the good guys. Not even a phone call for an interview.

The chief is oblivious to it all. He thinks that things are fine. There is much more going on other than a group of citizens who are whinners.

The chief can't tak sides in elections, by law. It still has been know to happen.

Citizens groups, call a big meeting and get the Chief to come for a presentation. See for yourself.

On election day another dad shared a story about how he has seen, since September, 14 drug deals in front of his house. He reported everything on each. This dad, also a committee man, faced down a kid with a gun on his front step. This citizen / dad told the punk in so many words that that gun will be up his butt the next time he comes here with a threat.

It seems as if the police are hoping these troublemakers overdose. That is the frustration of how they are fighting crime.

Chief, it is time to "Think Again."

Murphy and McNeily need to exit at the same time. Let's make it soon.

Sales Job in Harrisburg

PG: ..."further cuts mean the city will need smaller amounts of new tax revenue to bridge its budget shortfalls, possibly making tax reform an easier, but still difficult, sell in Harrisburg."

The folks in Harrisburg understand that it is more prudent to replace, re-direct and then, thirdly, reform. To get tax reform and put it into the same messy hands that made this crisis is going to insure that the city stay in its hard-luck status for another decade.

Mayor Murphy needs to resign, for the good of the city. Then we begin to heal.

Once that offer is put on the table, and people other than Murphy need to put it there, then we have a new ray of hope and begin a day to remember.

Murphy needs to get out of the way. Democrats, Democrat-party leaders, and state-wide party leaders need to make this demand known and put it to Mayor Murphy and the media. Barbara H., Dan O., Tom R., Ed R., Bob C., Jack W., Dan F., Sala U., Brenda F., Johnny D., Mark N. (of Pitt), and a team of others need to say the obvious.

Praise be

AP Wire | 11/05/2004 | Recovery plan for fiscally troubled Pittsburgh approved "State officials praised the city and the oversight board for reaching consensus after long and sometimes contentious negotiations.

Understatement, "sometimes contentious."
Wait until these guys talk. Hope it isn't in a year from now.