Jeff Koch is doing something on city council -- except it is as clear as mud

Here is a snip from the city clerk's web site showing the agenda of a pending (this week) Pgh City Council Meeting. This is a future city council meeting and we can expect a vote on something.

Bill number: 2006-0995

Resolution further amending and supplementing Resolution No. 180, effective April 5, 2000, entitled "Providing for an Agreement or Agreements, or use of existing Agreements and/or a Contract or Contracts, or use of existing Contracts, and for the purchase of materials, supplies, equipment, and/or services for various projects in connection with the Neighborhood Needs Program in Council District 3; and providing for the payment of the costs thereof," By adding new projects and by deleting various other projects. Total cost of all projects is not to exceed $970,000.
SPONSOR(S): JEFFREY S. KOCH

Wow. I bet you can't tell what is happening either.

We don't know how much money has been spent. We don't know how the money is slated to be spent. We don't know anything of the new spending plan for the money. We don't know squat.

This is a good example of why we have overlords in town running the city. The ones on city council are not responsible for being transparent and trusting when it comes to the spending of our money.

This makes for another good example of why those on council in a time of crisis should be put up for re-election every two years, not four. But, in this case with Mr. Koch -- that request will come true. Mr. Koch won a special election in March 2006 and will need to come before the voters in May 2007 for the primary and November 2007 for the general election, if he survives the primary challenges.

When bills such as these come before our city council, without specific insights in the slightest, then I'm saying we need different members on council.

In other city council news, I've put up a new public Google Calendar called Pittsburgh City Hall. If anyone wants to post dates and help to manage this calendar, or if you'd like to subscribe to this calendar, feel free to do so.

Mayor Ravenstahl will seek full term -- hardly. This election isn't for a 'full term' -- thankfully

Luke's in the race. Everyone knew he'd run for the job that he now holds. But, let's get the headline straight.

Mayor Ravenstahl will seek full term in office next year - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Mayor Ravenstahl will seek full term in office next year

Luke runs in the primary with a vote in May 2007. If Luke wins the D primary, he'll be able to advance to the general election in November 2007.

The winner of the November 2007 general election will take the oath of office shortly after the election is certified by the department of elections. That should occur a week or so after the general election, in mid-November.

The victor in the general election of November 2007 gets to serve as mayor for two years, the good lord willing. A full term of four years isn't going to be granted until after the election of 2009. Yes, another election and set of campaigns for Pittsburgh's mayor will occur in 2009 with its spring primary and fall general election.

I'm glad that voters get to choose who will be the mayor for the remainder of the term that began as Bob O'Connor was sworn to uphold the constitution and city charter in January 2006. I welcome the arrival of a full and robust election cycle in 2007, with both primary and general votes.

Come 2009, we'll do it again for the same office. That's great too, in my humble opinion.

We need a more robust system of self-government and democracy in this region. We need to supercharge all aspects of our self-reliance. That occurs, in part, on the campiagn trails and at the voting booths.

When the overlords arrived in the City of Pittsburgh, (i.e., Act 47 team and I.C.A. czars), I suggested that terms of service for all elected officials be cut in half. The mayor, controller and city council should come up for re-election every two years, not four years, when overlords are in town doing the jobs of the mayor, controller and city council.

We can talk about cutting the size of city council, from nine members to seven or five. We can talk about cutting the size of their budgets and perks too. But, perhaps we should cut the lenght of their time in office. Let's double-up on our democracy and vote more often. I want to better leverage the issues of the day with a match of the candidates.

The city's finance troubles of recent times came because of the poor jobs of the mayor, controller and city council. In these times of crisis, we need more accountability -- not less.

With oversight and its distressed status should come an automatic reduction in the length of terms.

Sure, some of those people have since departed. Let's keep them honest.

Thailand -- a photo opportunity thanks to Phipps

From texture - misc.

Bringing the tropics to Pittsburgh - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens soon can walk into a lush, jungle-like paradise, with cascading waterfalls, streams, rocks, towering palm trees, the scent of jasmine and numerous wild plants native to Southeast Asia.

Welcome to Pittsburgh's mini-Thailand.

Next weekend, Phipps will open 'Tropical Forest: Thailand,' a $7.5-million, 12,000-square-foot exhibit that is part of the most ambitious expansion project the conservatory has undertaken since it opened in 1893, officials say.

Church and Christmas event: Eastminster's Light Up Night

Church event for Christmas, with buggy rides. (Click for larger view.)

Saturday, December 9, 2006, 6 - 8 pm at Eastminster Church (right across the street from Home Depot). Each year gets bigger and crazier (camels, sheep, live nativity, lights, drama and food). A great event for kids of all ages.

We won our swim meet on Saturday!

QCTimes.com / News / Vilsack returns to his boyhood home

I didn't go out of my way to see the political guy from Iowa -- err -- from the 'Burgh. But, I should have. I'd be interested in getting some feedback on the visit and events. What did you think?

QCTimes.com / News / Vilsack returns to his boyhood home: "Vilsack returns to his boyhood home
By Susan Schmeichel | Sunday, December 03, 2006

PITTSBURGH — At age 5, “Tommy” Vilsack loved chicken pot pies and orange Popsicles, the Iowa governor’s former baby sitter reminisced Saturday during the Democratic presidential candidate’s visit to his boyhood neighborhood.

Vilsack’s campaign stop Saturday in Pittsburgh was part of the candidate’s five-state “Courage to Create Change” tour which began Thursday in Mount Pleasant with his formal announcement of his candidacy. The Democratic governor returned to Des Moines on Saturday night to attend a fundraiser before continuing on to stops in Nevada and South Carolina. "

Christmas Cards begin to arrive

The first Christmas Cards arrived in the mail this week. The first two are from: Jason Altmeyer and his family, and George and Laura Bush.

Anyone know Ryan Paul Boody?

kdka.com - Police Probe 23-Year-Old's Disappearance Police Probe 23-Year-Old's Disappearance

(KDKA) MOON TOWNSHIP Moon Township Police are investigating after they say a 23-year-old man disappeared.

Police say Ryan Paul Boody went to the 'Image Bar' on the South Side Thursday and hasn't been seen since.

Authorities say they're concerned because he hasn't used his cell phone or debit card.

He drives a 1995 teal Ford Mustang with the PA license plate DML 0322.

Anyone with information is asked to call Moon Township Police at 412-262-5000.

This is a problem. How do you do an Amber Alert for an adult? We should have a better system of staying connected and raising alarms.

Perspectives: Restore trust first - Costa makes me giggle.

This letter caught my attention. It made me giggle.

Perspectives: Restore trust first Perspectives: Restore trust first
It's time to change the way state legislators do business

Friday, December 01, 2006 By Jay Costa

Then I got this email as a reply. It is worthy of posting here, regardless of if the P-G prints it or not.

RESPONSE TO: http://postgazette.com/pg/06335/742602-109.stm

In response to Senator Jay Costa’s perspective: Restore Trust First, on December 1st, I am in agreement with the proposed rule changes and reforms that have been recommended and hope our legislature does even more to see that the people’s business is done in a moral, ethical, open, and honest way. After gambling lobbyist’s contributions have quadrupled, even more must be done to stop their anonymous influence, as well as those of other profit seeking lobbyists. That influence was observed in the recent lame duck session in Harrisburg.

The legislature decided to offer us free drinks at gambling facilities as part of twenty six pages of amendments to a bill. This decision was done: without public hearings or input, without the constitutionally required waiting period, and without giving small business owners who will be affected by this provision the time to contact their representatives and let them know how it may affect them. The people were left out.

This was done even after a bipartisan house group signed on to the REFORM agenda. Twenty three of the fifty three house members of this group voted for these recent changes. (See November 12 Forum: The pay off and July 10: House Rebels try to break the Iron grip of Leadership, both in the Post Gazette)

While Senator Costa’s initiatives should be commended and would be a great service to the Commonwealth, a greater service would be done if the members of the general assembly simply followed the rules that were already in place.

Steve Karas, Forest Hills

Did Costa agree to the rule change for free drinks at casinos, or not? How did he vote? Why didn't he protest from the floor to ask that the bill be held? Where is the text of his statement from the floor of the chamber?

Book fest with Tom Poole of PCTV

Below is a press release reminder of our Barnes & Noble event this Saturday. Most of the producers being showcased at this venue work with youth or are youth themselves. This is an excellent opportunity to bring children that are close to your heart

Since this store is closing at the end of the month many of the books will be 40% off (perfect for Holiday shopping) and, just as importantly, PCTV will receive a potion of the total sales for the time period that we are presenting. So come down some time between 10am and 4pm and let family, friends and associates know about our book fair. And bring your vouchers for PCTV to be credited for a sale the vouchers need to be presented)

PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December 1, 2006

Pittsburgh Community Television (PCTV)-1300 Western Avenue-Pittsburgh, PA 15233

Darlene Terry, Outreach Director (412-322-7570) e-mail darlene@pctv21.org

Meet Pittsburgh Community Television's (PCTV) Producers at Barnes & Noble-Smithfield Street Downtown Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh, PA--Barnes & Noble's Book-fair will be showcasing several PCTV producers that work extensively with youth. Brother John's daughter Ms. Nay Nay; Karen Jones, author of children's stories; Da Button Pusha, hip-hop artist; Bill Heh, illusionist; Rick Murray, Slick Rick youth exercise; and Umoja African Arts Company will all demonstrate the talents that they regularly exhibit to the community on their television shows to those attending this event. This is a wonderful opportunity to meet these dedicated artists, a convenient time to do some holiday shopping and to support literacy in general.

Barnes & Noble will donate a percentage of every sale made with a special Bookfair voucher. Attached is the voucher. Please help support PCTV and our producers by attending and shopping at Barnes & Noble, downtown store on Smithfield and 6th Avenue, on Saturday, December 2, 2006 from 10 am - 4 pm.

Times in which producers will present:

Sat. Dec 2, 2006

10 am - 11am Umoja African Dance Company - drumming instruction

11 am - Noon Universal Street Academy's presents Ms. Nay Nay - host of Kid's Spot, a forum for youth

Noon - 1 pm Karen Jones "Imagination Way"-reading children's stories she wrote

1 pm - 2 pm Slick Rick - exercise demonstration

2 pm - 3 pm Bill Heh - a magic show

3 pm - 4 pm Da Button Pusha - a showcase of positive spoken artist and Q& A with teenagers

PCTV is a non-profit community access station. Our mission is to encourage dialogue, promote media literacy, provide a platform for free speech and build a stronger community thru training and by providing local citizens and non-profit organizations with the tools to produce and broadcast programs from their own unique perspectives

For more information about PCTV, please visit our website www.pctv21.org

###

Lastly, visit PCTV's on-line auction site you might find some packages that you can use or give as gifts for the holidays http://pctv21.cmarket.com Let me know what you think of the site and I look forward to seeing you this weekend.

Honz show: Voter in Plum gets away with fraud

Solutions offered on the air by my call in:

First: If a voter is not known to the poll workers and fails to present I.D. before voting, the voter should be asked to dip his finger into an ink bottle. The purple thumb is a mark of voters in the middle east. It could work here too to snag people who might run around from poll to poll to vote for others who don't generally vote.

Second: Take everyone's photo before they vote. Use a digital camera or video, like a security camera used in schools or a gas station / retail store. Then when the real voter arrives and a conflict is noted, the authorities will have a photo of the one who created the voter fraud. If the chances of being caught on tape are high, then that type of fraud might not occur. But still, the multiple voters would need to be punished and spend five years in jail or with house arrest.

The guest on the KDKA Radio show was from the Allegheny County GOP, Dave M. (spelling?)

Fred H (show host) blames the Dems for always blocking voter ID use at the polls.

My solution is cheap. An ink pad at each polling place might cost $1. And, it would be darn effective. The person might get two votes, but not a third. And, a video camera at the doorway could go a long way to curb those who vote under false names.

Loss of HQs pondered in Arizona

Smug. What's up with that statement? It comes at the end of the article from Jon Talton.

Valley again risks loss of HQs - 4 this time The truth is that Phoenix is the last big factory town in America. The product is building houses, along with all the services that are needed by a rapidly growing population. It's a move that has 'worked' for the past half-century, and right now we're as smug as Pittsburgh steelworkers in, say, 1979.

Lien sale looked good then - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

See, I'm not the only one who is still knocking the ugly deals that former mayor, Tom Murphy, stuck to the citizens of the region. He was bad news and still has a bad approach in North Carolina with the Land Institute.

Lien sale looked good then - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review With Pittsburgh short on cash but flush with unpaid tax bills in the mid-1990s, then-Mayor Tom Murphy received an offer that must have seemed too good to be true.

Capital Asset Research, a private company later taken over by MBIA, a New York-based bond insurer, wanted to pay Pittsburgh more than $32 million for liens against property owners who hadn't paid their taxes.

More than a decade later, Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's administration is negotiating to undo the agreement with MBIA by purchasing the tax liens for pennies on the dollar.

'Everybody realizes it was a bad deal on all ends,' said Adriane Aul, vacant property program manager for the Pittsburgh Community Reinvestment Group. 'It was a short-term solution that created a very long-term problem for everybody.'

I'm waiting for Tom Murphy to come back into the state-wide news by organizing a new deal so as to sell off the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

Perhaps I should send him an invite to hatch a deal for the Wabash Tunnel. He could unload that for PAT's sake as they don't want to operate it any longer. Funny how I want to turn one lane of the Wabash Tunnel into a bikeway while cars and buses can still travel on the other lane. That is something that Murphy should support as he is so pro trails. Such a joke too.

Back to the article. "Did anybody expect this nightmare? No, no, no. Nobody did it intentionally. It's a real process we've gone through." Well, I expected the nightmare.

People will wake up to the evil that lurks behind the increases (recent and more are proposed) in the deed transfer tax too, some day.

Put off the 'day of reckoning' -- or -- as it should be stated, 'era of wreckoning.'

Blind spots are killers. Too often people choose to accept blind spots. Think again!

We're hosting an invitational swim meet on Saturday.

We don't get to swim outdoors in our December swim meet like we did in August.
Swimming through the lilly pads.

Bad technique in the pads, with Grants head high. Grant says he is standing on the murky bottom in this photo.

I'm going to bring my voice recorder and try to get swimmer interviews and make up a podcast for the kids. More news later. Swimming has "pads." The touch pads are at the end of the lane(s) for the electronic timing in a swim pool. They are often called, "touch pads." Swimming in a lake brings a different set of 'pad' to the swimmer, 'lilly pads.' When they rub against your skin, they can evoke a shout, as the video reveals.



There were videos of the swim in Canada through the pads.

The Libertarian Party of Pittsburgh Meetup Group (Pittsburgh, PA) - Meetup.com

The Libertarian Party of Pittsburgh Meetup Group (Pittsburgh, PA) - Meetup.com Our next Meetup: Holiday Party at John Harvard's in Monroeville

Join us for the Libertarian annual Holiday Party! All are welcome!

Hope to see some Running Mates there.

Music and Drama tidbit

Anne Feeney wrote in her newsletter, in part:

On Monday night, Dec 4th, my friend Jerry Starr debuts his new play, BURIED: the story of the Sago Mine Disaster in a standing-room-only reading at Pittsburgh Playwrights. Directed by the amazing Marci Wood, the play features an all-star cast and music by me and Sue Powers. The reading will be filmed in the hope of finding funding for full-scale productions in 2007.

Break a leg!

College Football Poll Bowl Games

Pitt is not slated to attend a Football Bowl Game at the end of this season, so says this site.

College Football Poll Bowl Games International Bowl, Toronto, Canada $750,000 1/6/07 Noon
ESPN-2, TSN MAC #2 or #3 vs. Big East #4 or #5 Western Michigan vs. Rutgers

This is the first year of the International Bowl, to be played in Canada on January 6 at noon. Pitt had hopes to get an invite there. But, it looks like a long shot now.

Ohio University football and OU Alumni Tailgate

The Ohio Univeristy Bobcats are playing for the MAC Championship on ESPN tonight at 7:30 pm.

Ohio U plays Central Michigan. And, OU footballers accepted an invitation to play in the GMAC Bowl on January 7th. This is the first bowl game for the Bobcats since 1968.

On December 7th, the OU alumni are holding a tailgate before the Steelers Browns game from 5 - 8 pm. At the tailgate we will have various types of food, drinks, and giveaways. The tailgate will be held in Red Lot Clark East, beside the Clark Building. Look for the Ohio Bobcats flag to find the tailgate. If you are interested in attending, please RSVP by November 30th and send a check for $15.00 to:

Colleen Doughty
c/o OUAA Pittsburgh Chapter
5605 Pavillion Court
Wexford, PA 15090

Please make checks out to OUAA Pittsburgh Chapter. In addition, please bring your ID so that I can give wristband to individuals that are over 21. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at colleenedoughty@aol.com. Please join us and invite your friends!

Need 10 (or more) folks to email me to assist with a new e-forum hosted by international / national expert

Steven Clift, founder of E-Democracy.Org, is a net advocate that I've followed for years. He does fantastic work. Steve has been around the block and around the net on issues and with plenty of tech-based tools and thoughts.

We now need a dozen or so from Pittsburgh -- and from Allegheny County too -- to email me, Mark -at- Rauterkus -dot- com, so we can make a steering group and form a new online community forum. Steven Cliff's associates provide the infrastructure and leadership.

They've got a nice tech partner in New Zealand and a forum there. They've done great things in Minnesota, and I've lurked and participated there too.

Now, they are trying to roll this out in various markets in the country. Others have wanted to lift-off in various cities and Pittsburgh should ride this wave with our own community forum too.

Excellent. Any more takers?

The first step is to create a steering committee with at five members. The more diverse politically, gender-wise, etc. the better. If you can get some representation from community institutions even better, particularly on larger steering groups.

Once you have a small steering team, then we'll set you up with a place-team@ group so you can work on your charter - forum purpose statement and any special rules above our common rules framework. Circulating a draft around the community helps build buy in and interest.

As Carol said, then you need to select a volunteer forum manager.

Then the forum is created and together we put lots of energy into recruitment before the forum opens for posting. Our built-to-last model, requires 100 member to launch. That might seem like a lot or to some too little. The key benefit is it creates a sense of community - I was there from the beginning - ownership. It also forces you to be strategic in your outreach!

So one step at time, create a short e-mail letting people know that you plan to start a local Issues Forum if other join you in the effort. Ask them to e-mail you if they are interested in the idea or might participate. Perhaps what they might want to see discussed. Then in your reply ask them if they have any objection to being part of the steering committee. Feel free to share a draft if you like - make it short and
snappy.

When you think you have enough interest, come back and we can discuss steering committee first steps (like a meeting) and charters. Let's plan to reconnect in two weeks when you have the base of your steering committee recruited. Sound good?

Cheers, Steven Clift. E-Democracy.Org

So, I need to email Steven and provide him with a list of names and email contacts from folks who want to be on this new venture's steering committee.

Please consider this request, if you can use email. And, most of all, we need to get folks from all parts of the political landscape. We can only take three more white guy Libertarians who live on the South Side Flats who have two kids.

First come first served. I'll submit a list at 20. If you don't want to email me, leave a comment in the blog.

FWIW, this won't be a Rauterkus.com effort. It won't be a specific campaign tool. This is a community forum and all are welcome.

UPDATE: I've got three takers within the first day. We still need more. And, I don't yet need to cast a wide net.