Campaign Finance Reform agena released by Mark Rauterkus to those who attended the Economic Club of Pgh event

At the Economic Club of Pittsburgh meeting in January, they do an international, national and regional forcast. The speakers are some of the top economist of our time and of the area. At this event, I released a campaign finance reform agenda and news release.

We are at the Economic Club of Pittsburgh event downtown.

part 2 -- still rolling downhill

Too many people (back to district 3 and the hilltop communities) are stuck in their homes because of the public policies of elected politicians who can only know enough to merely spoon feed ice-cream and sheet cake to seniors at community centers. The depth and scope for serious progress for Pittsburgh is found in more advanced concepts.

Making a slew of bills about absentee landlords that the police are not even going to know about, yet alone enforce, is NOT going to fix the struggles of those on the hillside communities. Enforcement isn't going to fix the over-arching problems. If we hired 20 new building inspectors, we'd only fix a few of the pimples of life for ourselves.

People are afraid to invest in their house. That is a great statement. It came from Bruce Krause last night. He can frame and issue but can't do anything else except pull tires from a hillside. So, what are the others going to do about it? They'll offer to hold hands, morning, noon and night, from start of the meeting to the end of the meeting. Then they'll pick up the shovel and dig some more. They'll work hard.

I'm different in that I want to "Lay The Shovel Down." They need to stop digging in the same hold of depression and debt. They are doing the wrong things. They want to do more of the wrong things. They are missing the big points -- the obvious -- the real fixes.

In my talk last night, I mentioned, in passing, "assessment buffering." Someone from State Senator Wayne Fontana's office was in the audience. I ran in the past against him for State Senate and gave him an earful on significant issues such as PROPERTY TAX REFORM.

Let's talk about the deed transfer tax. Let's nuke that! My brochure mentions "taxing land."

Let's talk about public housing and the number of Section 8 units per neighborhood -- but even after we get a handle on how many are in certain areas of the city, we've still not done a darn thing about the fix. You can't tear them all down because the city is broke.

People won't invest in their homes because of public policy and recent actions on Grant Street that reward people for letting the property fall into the realm of blight and punish those who fix up their homes.

People are stuck in their homes and won't consider a fix-up because Gene Ricciardi and Mayor Tom Murphy raised the deed-transfer tax. They've been going the wrong way. And, those acts are "clueless" when it comes to what is really the best behavior.

If people (from hillside to South Side, throughout District 3 and the rest of the region) want a better neighborhood and life for themselves and their kids, they should tell city council, the school board, and county council -- NO MORE TIFs. End of story.

David Matter and the Urban Development Authority -- if you can't build a building without a TIF, then don't build it.

Then, call me, I'll get you a sign for your front window. I'll get you a button for your coat or hat. Then -- elect me.

As the ninth person on city council, I won't be able to put an end to all TIFs. I've been calling for an end to all TIFs for years. However, we'll send a message. And, I won't, like Bill Peduto, play a game of 30-questions with developers and authorities.

Bill Peduto is going to think about how to vote for the TIF after he gets the answers to the 30 questions he put on the table. The TIF already got preliminary approval from the council. Sigh.

We have to take back our city by going after the real solutions. We have to have the perspectives to see what's really going on.

The big deals items are not going to be talked about by the others on the campaign trail. I'm going to talk about what really matters and people understand this.

Now to run to the swim pool.......

Shit rolls downhill and other comments about the big time stumbles from St. Clair's candidate forum

"Shit rolls downhill!" was stated on a couple of instances from a citizen as many other grumbles were expressed as the 24-year old, Green Party Candidate for city council presented at a candidate forum before a packed house in St. Clair. Jason Phillips even said, "Don't nail me to a cross here."

Jason's campaign went poof. Others to lesser degrees got cooked as well. There were a number of show stoppers to dwell upon.

All in all, it was a great night for me and my campaign as I didn't get beat up at all. People were most respectful of the stances I displayed and were opened to further discussion and exploration. Everyone in the audience was given a CD package for later listening and/or playing on their home PCs.

I'm sure Jason was suprised at the negativitity and blunt force dispair that was slung his way. For him it might have been like one of those nightmares you have when you were an adolescent and dreamed you had to take a big test in high school -- but didn't have anything on execpt a bow-tie.

To bad the writters from the tv show, The Art of News, were not there with the film crew.

But really, Jason deserved it. And, the block watch audience was very civil. They were polite. They just lit him up like a christmas tree by tossing a few switches and gave the appropriate "ohhs, and awwes."

This wasn't a total melt down by Jason, but he is now running on four flat ties in a pick-up truck with Ohio license plates. Since it rolls downhill, I'm sure he was able to drift home after last night's bar-b-q.

Blow-by-blow: First, Jason patted himself on the back for being the media star that he is. (gulp) Then he jumped into the hole he dug by taking all the credit for getting the college kids the option of voting in the booth on March 14. That went over poorly. Second, to add insult to injury, Jason framed the issue about community wide understanding of drug sales in the neighborhood. Jason has some first hand experiences as he lived on a near-by street. Upstairs in another apartment, visitors at all times of the day and night would come and go. Everyone knew they were dealing. So, Jason voted with his feet. He moved to the South Side flats apartment, lower rent. Yeah, right. Hence the name of this post.

Jason removed himself from a bad situation. But this situation is home for the people at the meeting and throughout St. Clair. Jason hit the problem square on the head of the nail -- and then punched the listeners in the gut with his solution.

It does (or did) roll downhill. Jason didn't buck up.

Jason is young. He'll live to fight another day. He might be a Jedi in the future.

The air left the room when Pat Sweeney offered a bit of voter number insights from the back of the room. The students at Pitt turned out in good numbers to cast votes for the Presidential election. But only 34 of them voted when Bob O'Connor was up in November. So, Bob O'Connor got something like 1.5 to 2 percent of the sway that John Kerry delivered over at Pitt's Towers. Jason might have some buddies in Oakland, being the media star that he his, so we hear, but given Patt's technical history of trends, we're left to think that the spring break end run might net 30 votes for Jason.

Interestingly, Pat Sweeney, an attorney with the public defender's office chimed in with the voter numbers in response from an audience question -- on behalf of the case being made with Jason. Pat defends the bad guys. Pat gets them back out on the street. Those points were not lost upon the people in the audience -- and Pat got his share of heat from the crowd too.

Mr. Sweeney is a big boy who makes a few good ethical, legal and spin-mister shots. He wins a lot of cases, I'm sure, so getting these bad guys into jail and off the streets is a whole lot harder given the attitudes and short-handedness of the police, the retired institutional knowledge that hit the force recently, and the shake-up of the zone commanders.

The citizens and the other candidates are beating up on the police because of crime and the little crimes -- like getting beat up. People don't feel safe in their homes yet alone on a walk to the neighborhood business district that isn't really there anymore.

Pat didn't win any votes from his realm as a public defender. Not in my opinion. He might have earned a few leads however. One woman said, "Hey, I might need you one day." She must have been thinking about how she would like to score a revenge on an absent land-lord or a rude renter/pusher/blight-builder. So, Pat, it is good to have you stay put in the public defenders office -- as revenge is sweet. And, with you there, getting off the hook is more probable and affordable.

Then comes the clincher of the night, when it comes to police. Bruce Kraus. Bruce, Bruce, Bruce. Yes, there are two in the race.

Bruce, so we are told, fought vo-sif-er-is-ly to keep the Zone 3 Police Station where it was three years ago. Okay. Now that parking is totally a mess (something he had a big hand in creating too) he thinks that the police station should be moved. So he's doing this flip flop on the police station because of equipment and because he remembers it being built way back in the early 60s. Bear with this as it gets better, beyond the twists in logic. The place he'd move the station to is, (drum roll please....) Mt. Oliver. Yep, we'd annex that building and put the Zone 3 police station behind that big parking lot ex supermarket location. So the city is going to acquire a piece of Mt. Oliver for the police station for Zone 3. Of course, there would be a lot of town hall meetings.

All that 'hands on vision is getting us right where we don't want to be' if you ask me.

I was floored. I stood, made a parting comment and departed. I hadn't packed a boogie board for my campaign manager to surf home upon. There was a tidal wave of deep brown stuff about to swish downhill. I was ready to hop upon my ironing board as a surf-board -- but she would have been awash in that crud of empty promises.

On top of all this, Bruce Krause, as a city council member, you can't control the mayor nor the mayor's decision to relocate a police station, yet alone a zone commander. As proof, Alan Hertzberg was on council in a district when the Zone 4 police station closed. Hertzberg didn't want that station to close. They had legal standing to keep it open as well. But, it didn't matter.

Tom Murphy, mayor, the guy who mentioned Ed Jacob name from the podium at the budget address, closed the police station. City council couldn't do squat. Same too for the story unfolding about the re-shuffling of police captains.

Some citizens groups (Lawrenceville United, Citizens in the Strip) love their captain and don't want a new one. They've made strides in recent years and don't want to turn back the clock with a shake-up and new stick-ups -- like 3 and 4 years ago.

Council folks who don't see the big picture are going to keep digging a hole for the city. We need to lay the shovel down. We need a big-picture person on council now -- as our 9th councilman.

Another question was asked to Kraus, a Ricciardi knock off question: "Will you (keep) bring(ing) ice-cream to the seniors?" Kraus said, "If that's what you want." So far, Kraus has been bringing sheet cakes. He had better get on his game. There were plenty of sweets in the room last night. The politicians were not needed to provide them. The people, themselves, did a fine job of providing for their sweet tooth.

Oh, there was more. I've not even talked about my opening. I followed the other guy with the bow tie and lit into his statement in the first breath. He had just spoken. He was WRONG, so WRONG. And, that reply I made cuts to the big issues here.

I live on the South Side. The South Side gets everything. I'm not happy. I have not been happy. Go figure.

I got to get the kids to school now.

The room was filled with skeptical people, angry at the way things have gone. They feel as if they have gotten the short end of the stick. And, they are right. I agree with their skeptical positions. I agree and stand with them in distain for situations of the present and recent past. We are not better than we were.

Where I part company with others in the field of candidates is HOW we deal with real solutions.

Case in point: The "winner take all" attitude and statement is WRONG. Case in point #2: I was the ONLY one to mention the $18-million TIF to PNC for a downtown office development.

Coverage of event in S. Pgh Reporter

: "Candidates for District 3 Council seat introduced on the Slopes
Margaret Smyka 17.JAN.06
What would you do about our enormous home heating bills? What about the tax-emempt status of non-profits? And what, exactly, has council the power to do?
Those were some of the questions residents asked the nine candidates seeking the unexpired city council seat for District 3 at last week�s �Candidates Night� at the South Sides Slopes Neighborhood Association meeting."

Enhancing Downtown - PittsburghLIVE.com

I know CPR. I think we should be teaching CPR all around the city every week. We need to make our city healthy.

What is really happening here?

Enhancing Downtown - PittsburghLIVE.com In addition to training in services such as cardiopulmonary resuscitation, conflict resolution and problem-solving, the ambassadors will have knowledge in human services so they can address homeless issues.

Perhaps this is a case where the rich are getting richer and the poor getting poorer. However, there needs to be energy put into downtown. But, street lifeguards are much like the sillyness that the Pgh Downtown Partnership did when it hired college kids to sweep streets while telling jokes and singing.

Perhaps seven of the eight on duty could be hired to do chalk art on the sidewalks while the eighth person does clean-up with mop and water. Then we'll harken back to the days of Mary Poppins. "Good luck will rub off when he shakes hands with you." Then comes the jump right into the chalk art of the merry-go-round.

Imagine the thrill of jumping onto a bit of chalk art on the sidewalk of a downtown corner and being teleported to Oakland -- and find yourself on a horse in the new merry-go-round next to Dippy the Dino between the Carnegie Library of Oakland and the Hillman Library.

Will these street lifeguards carry whistles and twirl them on their fingers? Can they be outfitted with white jungle pith hats too? Perhaps we'll get them painted black and gold.

PA Clean Sweeper -- and 80 others gather in Penn Hills

PA Clean Sweep founder, Russ Dianmond, presented at the Penn Hills Senior Center last night to about 80 people from all around western PA. People attended from as far as Beaver.

I got to talk to a gentleman from Mt. Washington and Bridgeville. Also in the gathering was Gary English of VoicePAC.org. He was one of the first to fight against the legislatvie pay raises, but not in July 2005. Rather, he began his fight against the greed in the past decade and with other pay raises prior to this one.

Four others were there who are now going to run for state house as well. And, a few others who had been candidates in past elections were present.

The PA Clean Sweep offices got six new applications from potential candidates in the past day. More and more are gearing up for their run to toss out all the members of the PA house and half of the members of the PA senate. More are needed however.

I've been talking to three potential candidates who are strongly considering a run for PA House as well. One would run against Walko, but is a Republican. Another is a Dem that lives in B.P. So, most of the people I'm talking with would be challengers for the November election.

PA Clean Sweep wants to get ONE candidate to run against each member of the Harrisburg crowd in the PRIMARY.

Mark Rauterkus (left) and Craig Patrick (right) after the Pittsburgh Airport Area Chamber of Commerce meeting on January 17, 2006.

(Click image for a larger view. Scroll down for the press release delivered to the Penguins and those in attendance.)

Allegheny County Libertarians meet on Wednesday

The monthly chapter meeting for the Libertarian Party of Allegheny County will be at 7 pm on Wednesday, January 18, at Ritter's Diner on Baum Blvd. All are welcome to attend.

FAQ&Q

Question:

Do the minutes of a past meeting (was it NOVEMBER 2005) reflect the POSITIVE endorsement for me for this position in the special election for city council district 3?

Answer:

Yes, the minutes of the November meeting state that Mark was nominated as our candidate for city council district 3 by unanimous vote of the members present at the meeting. Thus, Mark is our candidate in accordance with paragraph "A" of the Bylaws section posted by Harold.

We hope to pass the paperwork to the Election Department in a matter of days.

Statement about MLK Day and Super Heros

I went to Grant Street today to speak about Martin Luther King day and Super Heros. I think I'll send this out as an email. The re-run is tonight at 7 pm and on Friday too, if you have city cable.

KQV poll on the date of the special election

January 13, 2006

Do you agree with the decision to reschedule the special council election after Spring Break?

Internet Results

Yes: 158....64%
No: 89....36%
Total: 247...100%

Phone Results
Yes: 41....32%
No: 87....68%
Total: 128...100%

Raises repaid to leaders' accounts - PittsburghLIVE.com

The meeting slated for 7:30 Tuesday at the Penn Hills Senior Center near Rodi and Jefferson Road is sure to have plenty to say about this latest move. I'll be there. So to will Russ Diamond of PACleanSweep.org.

Raises repaid to leaders' accounts - PittsburghLIVE.com: "
Stephen Miskin, spokesman for House Republicans, confirmed that repayments of so-called 'unvouchered expenses' go back into leadership accounts. An audit in April showed those accounts -- controlled by top leaders in the House and Senate -- contained about $135 million as of June 30, 2004.

Recap of the O'Connor team, building upon the P-G article

The O'Connor team is getting a lot of 'miles' (pun intended) about its media members.

New mayor assembles varied team to run the city
It's a role she's suited to, said her former boss, WQED President George Miles. Together they turned a 'dysfunctional' public television station into a winner, he said, by opting 'to focus ourselves back on Pittsburgh.'

QED sold QEX. QED does cooking. QED does do-whop. QED does debt even better than the city. QED does history as in what's not here any more and has its eyes trained onto the past and into the rear-view mirror.

The QED magazine, Pittsburgh, isn't mission critical. Its web portal is a yawn. The QED candidate debates, consumer affairs and public interest from that public statation are thin.

In terms of potential, QED's boss is standing on thin ice when he says they turned a dysfunctional station into a winner.

"Zero-based development" (stripping it back to its core mission and building from there) does NOT include more "green space downtown." Rather it means we take care of the parks we already have and let the cobblestones in Market Square stay as they are.

The other one to rest upon his laurels is PEN-DOT's past spokesperson. Yep, there was a time not long ago when the Ft. Pitt Bridge was being re-built (1-way) and the entire South Side could not get to the South Hills (West Liberty Ave) without first driving to downtown and getting onto the Blvd. of the Allies.

So, because one bridge was OUT one way, I had to cross TWO additional bridges rather than NONE. That was his to 'sell.'

With this rant, I sound like QED, looking into the rear-view mirror, just to kick up some recycled electronic dust.

Frankly, I'm glad to see some media types on Grant Street's team. I'm a media type and I'd like to go there to work as well. But jeepers, let's not give Ms. Leber credit for publishing THE BIBLE nor heap upon the credit to Skrinjar for being Moses' press agent during his term when he parted the Red Sea.

Then we have the "new idea person" -- one who did the flip-flop on the stadiums, perhaps. The guy spoke out for the increased taxes and for the building of the stadiums. Then he went to work for Ferlo, on the other side. So, perhaps he didn't flip nor flop, but he was certain to be in LEFT FIELD and far beyond the shaddow of #8.

I've talked about the "New Idea Factory" at the Platform.For-Pgh.org. We don't need new ideas as much as we need to distill old ideas. We need to think again. We don't need to churn and burn. But, this description is just what I am looking for, a person who can "think again." Perhaps he did it with the stadiums, after Ferlo got to him.

BERNIE Lynch! YES!

I saw Bernie Lynch on Bob O'Connor's first day on the job at city hall. She was very sorry she did not call me back. I had called her and left a message weeks prior to ask her if she would be my media coordinator for my campaign. I wanted Bernie to be a part of my campaign and O'Connor hired her with a real job. At the time she said something was cooking, and she didn't mean the polish sausague in the sidewalk of the city-county building tailgate.

I worked with Bernie as she helped to battle Mayor Murphy and his wrongheaded downtown redevelopment plans. We crossed paths again and again including with efforts at Mt. Washington, with the Duquesne Heights Community Center, with my campaign for State Senate and even with a debate on TV by the non-QED station.

I am an idealist. I think Bernie is that as well. I'm not sure I'd call her an alturist, but I'll go look it up and ask her next time we talk.

Finally, in the article, comes new Solicitor Susan Malie. I fear to write anything about her as she's a lawyer and I don't want to get sued. She's on the city's side in terms of "defending" police brutality -- yeah, I shouldn't have typed anything -- but on the winning side for all involved when it is reported that she is to vet city policies to prevent lawsuits. The city's margin of litigation is too low. It would be wonderful if the city had a great lawyer and never used her.

When I go to city council, I'll do my best to make sure she had the most boring job in the world. She'd be so bored, that perhaps we'll give her a second job. Perhaps she'd like to be the city's designated downtown shopper. She could be the one walking around the lone downtown department store in business hours.

Then if anyone on Grant Street wants to sue someone -- we'd have to weigh the consequences of lossing our shopper. We wouldn't want to do that.

Beaver County Times Allegheny Times - News - 01/12/2006 - Three small political parties challenging signature threshold

Democracy matters.

Beaver County Times Allegheny Times - News - 01/12/2006 - Three small political parties challenging signature threshold HARRISBURG - Third-party political candidates are complaining that Pennsylvania law is making it nearly impossible for them to get their names on ballots.

It was the Sports Illustrated JINX hitting The Bus

OMG....

Take a knee.

Make a prayer.

Lots to say about green space in downtown

New Mayor O'Connor made some statements that ran in the P-G about green space downtown. I have plenty to pine about on this topic. But I'll save it for another day.

Downtown needs more green, mayor says Downtown needs more green, mayor says
He wants to tear up Market Square, close it off to vehicle traffic

Saturday, January 14, 2006, By Ed Blazina, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

If Downtown Pittsburgh is going to have several thousand new residents, it needs more of the amenities that make residential living pleasant, Mayor Bob O'Connor said yesterday.

Headed to Butler to morn and figure out how to better the situations

Today, we were at a swim meet at Blackhawk. Good meet. Nice swimmers from both squads. We won.

But, a group of swimmers was gathering to remember Eric Namesnik in Michigan.

In Western PA, friends will be received at the Martin Funeral Home, 429 Center Ave., Butler, Monday morning from 9:00 am to 10:30 am. A funeral mass is slated for 11:00 am on Monday (MLK Day) at Saint Paul's Catholic Church, 128 North McKean St., Butler. Interment will be in Calvary Cemetery, 1004 North Main Street, Butler.

Memorial donations may be made to:

Snik's Kids
The Eric Namesnik Memorial Fund
United Bank and Trust
2723 South State Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48104

---

I want to see if there is something more to do. The spring Dapper Dan or the scholar athlete YMCA banquet should be engaged. Coach Mike said, "Knock yourself out Mark." So, I've got a green light in that more could and should be done.

Where is the MLK event hosted by Pgh Public Schools

The MLK Day special event that I've attended a number of times in the past -- mostly at Westinghouse High School -- isn't on the agenda this year. Why is there no big event for MLK Day within PPS? Are the folks who were pivotal just gone? (i.e. Westinghouse has a new principal and PPS has a new superintendent). Or, was the event nixed so as to not allow for citizens to gather and compare notes about the "right-sizing" plan. ??

Hummm.....

Job posting at Bloomfield Garfield Corp

An interesting job posting is in the comments.