The city of Pittsburgh is great. The people running it are a bunch of idiots. Public service does not mean the public is here to serve them.
All the backroom deals are coming home to roost and it's getting ugly. Yesterday Pat Ford, the head if the Urban Redevelopment Authorty, (can anyone tell me what the heck they do?) was asked to resign. Why? Well we weren't told. We do know he may have accepted gifts and played a role in a sweetheart deal for Pittsburgh's Lamar Advertising.
Even the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development asked Ford to resign from his post as chairman of the Pittsburgh Housing Authority board. Yet instead of resigning, Mr. Ford is on on paid leave pending an investigation. PAID leave. Did you get that? He get's paid NOT to go to work. How do I get that deal?
Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's spokeswoman happens to be the wife of Mr. Ford. Now she is just a wife, because Alecia Sirk resigned from the Mayor's office yesterday. You should have asked for paid leave Alecia.
Luke Ravenstahl said the URA board will ask the State Ethics Commission to review Mr. Ford's receipt of gifts from Lamar Advertising. But while the investigation gets underway, Lamar is thumbing their nose at the city.
According to lawyers for Lamar Advertising, they will not stop construction on a contested Downtown billboard, arguing the council members will have to seek an injunction and post bond to halt their efforts. Basically they told the city to shove it in spite of an appeal of their permit, and a provision in the city code that says an appeal "shall automatically stay all actions" being taken under the permit.
There currently is a lawsuit filed alleging that council members engaged in a "plot" to nix the permit that may have included secret meetings and abuses of power.
This is a mess that never should have happened. How does a company get a permit, start construction and then get challenged? Why does the URA have any role in this? Why isn't the Mayor and Council working together on these issues? See my first sentence for the answer.
No comments:
Post a Comment