Mid-week Ramblings

-One of the blighted abandoned properties that I reported about, 857 Crucible Street, has now been cleaned up. This is the 1st time in 2 years that anyone has come out to clean the property up. It's about damn time.

-The Pennsylvania State Senate has voted to make it a secondary criminal offense to text on a cell phone while driving. What a waste of time and energy. We all can agree that texting while driving is dangerous but why just single out texting? Isn't eating, changing the radio station, chatting, having people in the car and talking on the phone equally as dangerous? I do not and will not support any measure by our state leaders that prohibit just these single items. Unless you list them all and ban everything that is distracting then it is a complete waste of time. But what else would we expect from our "leaders" in Harrisburg?

-Speaking of Harrisburg, when are we going to get a budget approved? What are these people doing out there?

-The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette had a nice front page article on the problems facing municipalities in recruiting volunteer firefighters. Volunteer firefighters currently only receive a sad $100 tax credit each year. This isn't enough. These lifesavers need more incentives to do this unheralded work. It's OK for our state leaders to get their car allowances and per diems but volunteer firefighters who seem to do much more work than our state lawmakers only get a $100 tax credit. Thanks a lot.

-Councilman Bill Peduto's push to make the City of Pittsburgh the most tech-friendly city in the USA is a good one and one that I support. Residents should be able to watch streaming broadcasts of all Council meetings, these meetings should also be achieved and search friendly.

-Rich Lord wrote a wonderful article about discipline problems within the city Public Works Department. "The Post-Gazette found that 137 department employees have faced criminal charges in Allegheny County, some before they joined the city, and some after their hire. Of those, 66 have faced charges within the last 10 years."

I believe that anyone who lied on their job application about being a convicted felon does need to be fired. I understand that these folks may have been worried that admitting their criminal past may have hurt their chances at landing the job. In all reality this shouldn't be an issue because if the city of Pittsburgh was doing a better job in their background checks then these issues would not happen. If applicant A checks that he has not been convicted of a felony then personnel employee A should be able to tell if applicant A is telling the truth or not by a simple background check. Why weren't these background checks completed?

-Former State Senator Vince Fumo was sentenced to 55 months in prison for corruption. Justice is served.

-A big stink occurred in City Council today when Council by a 5-4 vote approved 12 nominees to various Boards within the City of Pittsburgh. The 4 dissenters were Bruce Kraus, Bill Peduto, Patrick Dowd and Doug Shields. Voting yes were Theresa Smith, Darlene Harris, Jim Motznik, Ricky Burgess and Tonya Payne. Unanswered in all this was why certain nominees interview appointments were canceled at the last minute the day before by the City Clerks office. It doesn't seem like enough was done to interview these people for their appointments. Without these nominations being approved the Historic Review Commission would not have the necessary number of members to constitute a quorum.

-An update will come at the end of the week about the numerous 311 complaints that I submitted to the city 311 response system.

-New 311 complaints:

Navajo Way: potholes
Crucible & Lorenz Avenue: faded crosswalk lines
Neidel from South Main to Elbon: potholes
Neidel Street: Trash/debris all along roadway
Ernie Street: people parking their cars in front of fire hydrant

Bill Peduto press release

Council Gives Stimulus Oversight Commission Final Approval

PITTSBURGH – Today, City Council gave final approval to Councilman William Peduto’s proposal to create a Stimulus Oversight Commission. Members of the public can apply to be on the Commission online at http://forms.city.pittsburgh.pa.us/council/stimulus_intake/


The Commission will have seven members and must include:

-One certified engineer in mechanical or civil engineering with a background in infrastructure or energy

-One community planner with experience in neighborhood development

-One economic development specialist with experience in regional job growth

-One community leader with experience in under-served communities, workforce development, equal access and similar national programs

-One community leader with experience in worker’s rights, workplace safety, wage equality, and labor organization

-One certified environmental specialist with experience in green buildings, green jobs and technology

The goals of the Commission will include:

·Provide Accountability and Oversight of the City’s Stimulus Tracker Website

·Adopt a Priority List of All City Projects

·Provide Transparency and Details on the Value of Projects on Infrastructure, Energy, and Sustainable Employment For Pittsburgh’s Economy

Release

Brethren-Mennonite church group condemns Sen. Eichelberger’s “assault upon gay and lesbian people.”

Statement by Brethren Mennonite Council for LGBT Interests says he
“brings shame to himself and to the Church of the Brethren.”

(HARRISBURG, PA)—In a strongly worded statement, a church-based lesbian and gay advocacy group has condemned Senator John Eichelberger’s recent remarks as bringing “shame to himself and to the Church of the Brethren.”

The Brethren Mennonite Council for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Interests (BMC) issued their statement in response to the growing controversy around Eichelberger’s comments calling LGBT people “dysfunctional” and saying of same-sex couples that “we are allowing them to exist.”

Last week, activists presented Eichelberger a petition with 5,000 names asking for an apology. He refused, saying, “You know where I stand.”

Senator Eichelberger’s state-funded website says that he is a member of First Church of the Brethren. BMC is the LGBT caucus for his denomination, the Church of the Brethren, which prompted their condemnation of Eichelberger. Their website (www.bmclgbt.org) says, “The mission of BMC is to cultivate an inclusive church and society and to care for the Mennonite and Brethren lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and allied community.”

Carol Wise, executive director of BMC, is a former Pennsylvania resident, now based in Minnesota. She called on Sen. Eichelberger “to educate himself and cease his assault upon gay and lesbian people. His uninformed and callous remarks do little to promote understanding and serve only to foster an atmosphere of fear that gives rise to acts of violence and discrimination. Our families, and all families, deserve better.”

Welcome back

-I hope everyone had an enjoyable 4th of July holiday. I know I did. I loved coming back to all of the asphalt & concrete! Not!

-Now that Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is resigning who will the Democrats have to kick around?!? Oh wait...Governor Mark Sanford, Senator John Ensign, Senator Larry Craig, Rush Limbaugh

-What's all the sadness and tears over Michael Jackson? He was a pedophile who slept with young children. He had serious problems and far too many people are making his death such a big deal when in reality it shouldn't be. The 24 hour coverage of his death was nauseating on every level. What did he really bring to us?

-Verizon is here Verizon is here! Finally the City of Pittsburgh & Verizon have come to terms on an agreement that allows Verizon to offer cable tv service to us folks who have been getting raked over by Comcast for a few years now. I just felt by pocket book getting less lighter.

-Congratulations to Pittsburgh City Council on working the tough hours to get the ACT 47 plan agreed on. The plan was a good one and it needed to be implemented even if it is against the wishes of local union leaders.

"This city is done. This is an injustice," railed Darrin Kelly, a firefighter and a vice president of the Allegheny County Labor Council, after the vote. "That [plan] is another way to say, 'union busting,' right there."

I don't think so. Pittsburgh is far from what Kelly describes as "done". Just because the politicians didn't give away the house doesn't mean the city is done. The Council agreed to give a $2,000 bonus coming to all city workers in the first year of their next contracts to $2,000, but not to award across-the-board 2.5 percent-a-year raises. What's not fair about that? Times are tough right now for everyone. There are times when raises are justified and when they aren't. The time isn't ripe for raising salaries in the City of Pittsburgh government.

-City foreman Vincent Manzella has been charged with burglary, theft and calling in false alarms so firefighters would leave the house on a call so Manzella could steal from them to feed his drug habit. I believe in the innocent until proven guilty theory but if he is found guilty he needs fired from the department. How can you allow someone like that back in the ranks? He stole from his fellow brothers in fire. If he can steal from his own brothers then who's to say he never took anything from city residents?

-The most absurd part of all of this is the trial board system that the city fire department gets to use. When a firefighter is disciplined, the public safety director and the accused each choose the names of 25 firefighters of rank equal to, or higher than, the accused. The names are then placed in a box, and seven are drawn. Each party can remove two, leaving three to decide his/her case. What fireman is going to fire another fireman? Who wants to be blamed for firing a fellow fireman? This system is greatly flawed and it needs to be changed by the State Legislature.

Clean this up

814 Ernie Street



816 Ernie Street & 857 Crucible Street

Clean this up & 311

I took one of my usual rides around the neighborhood and captured some pictures of things that need attention to by the City of Pittsburgh. All properties have been turned into the 311 response line.

1012 Chartiers Avenue: Owner is John Pace Jr.



1039 Chartiers Avenue: Owner is Confluence Realty. Jeffrey & Lisa J Broeker I tracked down the owners of this property and had a conversation with them regarding her property. She didn't seem to think that she was an absentee landlord even though she lives in the North Hills and hadn't been to Elliott in two months to look at the property.




They also own this property at 1037 Chartiers Avenue



817 Crucible Street: Owner WHOLESALE RES LLC


857 Crucible Street: Owned by Dwayne Drewery & Jamie Deakings. Has been vacant for some time. Myself and the neighbors around this property have been struggling with the City of Pittsburgh to get this property cleaned up for the past 2 summers. This property is very unsafe and has very high weeds and grass all around it. There is also a large pile of debris in the rear of this property.







809 Crucible Street: owned by Iris Sesay.
Abandoned white Ford van in the rear of the property/ Van is out of code. Trash, tires and other debris all over rear of the property.


811 Crucible Street: owned by Otto & Charlene Muehlbauer. This property has an out of code van sitting in the rear of the property. Property also has high weeds in the rear.



129 Furley Street: Owner unknown. This property is not listed on the Allegheny County real estate website for some reason.



I also turned in the following complaints, I will make mention when it gets completed. Let's see how fast or slow some of these get addressed. All were entered into the system on June 22nd.

919 Chartiers Avenue: High grass & weeds on side of property
1112 Crucible Street: Abandoned truck
1016 Crucible: High grass in the front and rear of property
1008 Crucible: High grass and weeds. CITY OF PITTSBURGH owned property
Woodlow & Steuben on Woodlow: Potholes
Woodlow & Steuben: White crosswalk lines are faded
Willett Street: Potholes
Hollywood Street: Blue Hollywood Street sign is hanging
Whitewood Drive: Blue Whitewood Drive sign is missing
Logue Street: Faded no parking sign. On pole SL04484
957 Lessing Street: Abandoned car
972 Lessing Street: Abandoned car on property
1010 Lessing Street: Abandoned car on property
1023 Lessing Street: Abandoned vehicle
923 Wilton Way: Pothole
Calcutta Way & Berdella Street: potholes
1110 Oswin: High grass & weeds all over property
827 Steuben Street: Abandoned car
Lorenz Avenue & Crucible Street on Lorenz: Caved in sewer
1264 Dickens: Abandoned car on property
1050 Ringgold: Abandoned vehicle
1014 Ringgold Street: pothole
1320 Dickens: Abandoned vehicle
214 Fairview: potholes
811 Furley: Abandoned car
920 Gibson: Abandoned car on property
912 Gibson: Abandoned car
901 Wilhelm: High grass and weeds
920 Wilhelm: Faded no parking or stopping signs
Parnassus Way: Missing blue street signs
921 Wilhelm: Hanging shoes from wires
705 Lorenz Avenue: Abandoned vehicles in rear of property
Uvilla & Lorenz on Uvilla: Potholes
Mark Way & Werder on Mark Way: Potholes
Uvilla Street: Faded stop sign
210 Uvilla Street: High grass and weeds
900 Uvilla Street: Abandoned car on property
1041 Valonia Street: High grass and weeds
1017 Marena Street: High grass and weeds, holes in roof by chimney
1038 Marena Street: High grass and weeds in the front
1015 Herrod Street: High grass, abandoned and opened, needs secured
301 Werder: Abandoned car
2 Bond Street: High grass and weeds, debris all over property, abandoned, no numerical house marking
Harker Street from Weaver: Potholes
719 Wymore Street: High grass and weeds
509 Lovelace: High grass and weeds
Harker Street: Bent blue street sign. Harker Street is bent.
Lakewood Street: Shoes on wires, POLE #SL34958
819 Neidel Street: Abandoned car
730 Harker Street: Abandoned car on property
641 Harker Street: High grass and weeds, trash and debris all over property
1325 Lakewood Street: High weeds, abandoned property
7 Bond Street: Grass is extremely high, house is abandoned, front door is open, needs boarded up
915 Elkton Street: Weeds and grass are high
112 Crucible Street: Collapsing front cement steps
1026 Crucible Street: Rear porch collapsing, vacant house
Chartiers Ave & Ernie to Janewood & Ernie: Trash and debris on street.
842 Crucible Street: High weeds in rear of property outside of fence
302 Fairview: High weeds in front
Comstock Way: Blue street sign hanging
310 Fairview: Abandoned car
300 Fairview: High grass and weeds in rear of property
140 Fairview: High grass and weeds all along property
153 Fairview: Abandoned cars on property
Uvilla Street: Missing blue street signs, both are missing
112 Herndon: Abandoned car on property
Herndon Street: Rusted yellow watch children sign Pole: SL26174
Furley Street: Abandoned vehicle
115 Attica: Abandoned car
701 Attica: Abandoned vehicle
212 Attica: High weeds in the front
612 Attica: Abandoned car
606 Attica: Abandoned car
721 Wymore: Abandoned car
806 Steuben: High weeds in front
805 Elbon: Abandoned car on property
8 Elbon: Abandoned car

47 Update

From Councilman Bill Peduto:

"Negotiations with Act 47 has continued all day. Progress has been made. Still don't have final resolution or five votes, but we are closer"

Thursday Thoughts

-Pennsylvania could get an additional $165 million in annual gaming revenue if table games were in operation at all 12 of the state's larger casinos.

So why isn't this in play right now? Table games would draw much bigger crowds and would create a lot more money for the state to fill the budget holes that they sorely need to do. Bring on the Black Jack.

-Gov. Ed Rendell's plan to raise the state income tax by 16 percent is just flat out wrong. The residents of Pennsylvania shouldn't be burdened with tax increases because this state government can't ever find a way to cut the fat.

-How about the scandal that has emerged from the Hill District Dwelling Place bank? Money just disappeared from this bank and no one has been charged with anything in the crime yet. One of the more questionable quotes came from Tim Stevens, who heads the Black Political Empowerment project, Stevens said "He sees little need to press bank officers for answers on how so much capital has disappeared. "The point now is not to dwell on those issues. For us, it's not a time to focus on blame."

Are you serious? Should the bank not figure out what happened? This was a serious crime that was committed. Questions need to be asked and no stone needs unturned in this investigation.


More tomorrow...

HACP audit review

Sorry that this has taken some time to get to. I have been busy with work and other matters since the audit came out and have found little time to write this out.

The much awaited Housing Authority City of Pittsburgh Audit was released by Pittsburgh City Controller Michael Lamb's office.

**Update I left a voice mail for Michele Jackson Washington at the HACP for her to return my call, I had a few questions for HACP that I would like answered.

Finding: The City of Pittsburgh spent approximately the same amount in 2006 and 2007 on training and travel ($483,933) as the Housing Authority ($442,954) but with an average of over 3,250 employees compared to HACP’s 430 employees (not including those on disability and workman’s compensation). The Authority’s per capita educational/training costs were $506 in 2006 and $523 in 2007 compared to the City average of $75 per employee.

I know first hand about this. I was sent to Las Vegas Nevada for a week long training session to become a NEHRO certified Public Housing Manager. I thought this was sort of excessive and would be costly but there was nothing I could do to object because I needed the certification even though I didn't learn anything relevant at the training session. Overall the training at HACP is important but it seems to be out of line in terms of cost. Each time a travel request comes up it needs to be checked and someone needs to ask "is this really necessary?" Travel costs are way too high at HACP. There is no reason why HACP is spending nearly as much as the city of Pittsburgh when the city of Pittsburgh has 2820 more employees than HACP.


Year Travel/Training Costs Staff* Spent/Staff
Housing Authority (from invoices):
2007 $ 197,009/377/$ 523
2006 $ 245,945/486/$ 506
Total $ 442,954/863/$513

City of Pittsburgh (from CAFR):
2007 $ 263,317/3,281/$ 80
2006 $ 219,716/3,221/$ 68
Total $ 483,033/6,502/$74


Finding: In 2006, HACP hired an executive recruiting firm to find not only an Executive Director, but other upper management personnel at a cost of $150,910.05. Other City of Pittsburgh authorities and the Pittsburgh School District have used recruitment firms for assistance in finding Executive Director candidates. The City of Pittsburgh recruits and hires its directors through the City Personnel Department.

$150,910.05 to search for people who will be making lots of money? What happened to the old fashioned way of using the classified section? I know that is a little bit archaic but no way should over $150,000 be used to hire companies to fill positions. There is a lot of talent at HACP that deserve a shot at the positions that are being advertised. If HACP HR doesn't believe so then that's ashamed. These sorts of job recruitment's and listings need to be done by the Human Resources Department. Isn't that one of the purposes of the department?

Finding: Executives recruited from out of town received $57,902.91 in rental and moving fees for relocation to the City. Three employees were given several months rental as an incentive for relocation. Moving fees were also reimbursed. Rental and moving reimbursements are considered customary incentives by HACP as housing industry norms, and are acceptable to HUD.

This is absurd and should not happen. I always heard about this going on but I did not believe it because it seemed so outrageous. I believe that Caster Binion, Chief Operating Officer, was one of these Executives who who took full advantage of these fees. Were there no local candidates available for these jobs? How is this an acceptable expense to HUD? Eliminate the assistance. It is not needed and it is absurd that someone who will be making $70,000+ a year will need to be reimbursed for moving expenses. Especially when you consider the "talent" that these recruiting firms brought in.

Finding: HACP spends over $50,000 per year on employee parking leases.

Time to get rid of these. Have everyone pay for their own parking. Isn't this how most places do it? If you want to drive to work then you pay to park. At the worst have employee pay 50 percent of this fee. It's only fair.

Finding: During the 2006-2007 audit period, HACP spent $449,722.55 on promotions
and various other events. These included catered community and hi-rise gatherings,
demolition parties, advertising fees, various outside non-profit & charity functions and legislative tracking fees.


This is a big bone of contention for me. Demolition parties? Are you serious? Catered community gatherings? These are absurd and should be done away with immediately. There is no reason to be throwing money down the toilet like they are doing with "parties" like these. When the HACP is spending almost half a million dollars on things like these the last thing it is to the tax payers is a party. A total elimination of parties is the course of action for HACP.

Refreshments are something that do not need to be provided by a government agency. Why can't people purchase their own refreshment? Why did HACP spend $51,307.99 in 2006 and $33,016.37 in 2007? These expenses are unreasonable and should be cut from the budget.

HACP'S ADVERTISING & GOODWILL EXPENSES 2006-07
Category 2007 2006
Cater/Lunch/Flowers $ 33,016.37 $ 51,307.99
HACP Sponsored Events $ 28,723.42 $ 74,336.93
HACP Supported Events $ 10,858.00 $ 11,870.81
Ads/PR/Legislative $ 136,370.20 $ 60,010.89
Total $ 211,174.99 $ 197,526.62

Finding: Utility payments in HACP managed communities appear to be excessive compared to the budgets of other public housing communities. In 2007, HACP’s average utility cost was $3,121 per unit compared to Cleveland Housing Authority average of $1,956 per unit. Utility costs represent 8-1/2 to 9% of HACP’s entire annual budget.

Way too much of the budget is going down the toilet in utility costs. Residents don't pay anything for their utilities so there is no advantage for them to conserve or to not let the AC run all day. Residents are not penalized for going over any dollar value in utilities. The only system in place that HACP uses is a spot check during annual housekeeping visits from the property managers. If a second refrigerator is found in the unit then an extra charge is placed on that tenant's monthly rent charge. In my experiences I have found that not many residents care about utility usage. AC's are run all day even when the tenant is not home and lights were usually on for most of the day. This was a huge waste but there was nothing that we could do about it. One thing that HACP could do is at the time of a tenant move in there could be an educational pamphlet or session given to the tenant about the benefits of energy conservation. All future construction by the HACP needs to have single unit utility meters instead of the one for every building system that is currently utilized. When and if these individual meters are ever utilized there needs to be a cap for the residents so to assure that they aren't wasting.

Authority 2007 Utility Occupied Units Cost per Unit
Pittsburgh, PA $ 11,157,176/3,575/ $3,121
Cleveland OH $ 20,471,321/10,466/$1,956
Erie, PA $ 2,700,000/1,750/$ 1,543
Portland, OR $ 3,673,098/2,492/$1,474


Finding: HACP is one of the City of Pittsburgh’s larger property owners. Its family and hi-rise communities alone consist of over 4,000 units, are worth over $97,000,000 in fair market value and occupy 343-1/2 acres of land, according to the Allegheny County Assessment site. The Authority also owns approximately 225 scattered site homes.

This is unfortunately true. HACP pays zero in property taxes and nothing in lieu of taxes to the City of Pittsburgh.

Finding: The Authority has a five-year agreement with the City of Pittsburgh to pick up non-bulk residential waste in return for HACP purchasing a pair of waste trucks and leasing them back to the City of Pittsburgh.

HACP & the City of Pittsburgh should share services wherever possible. Cooperation between the two is vital and it would benefit the city of Pittsburgh as a whole to explore all possibilities of shared services.

Finding: HACP communities do not participate in a recycling program, which is in violation of Pittsburgh’s City Code Section 619.06 (a) and (b).

Big problem here. HACP needs to get in compliance with the city code as soon as possible. There is no excuse for not having a recycling program. Tenants need educated on recycling and the overall benefits to them and to the city about it.

Finding: The educational component of the FSS involves GED training, and produced only 12 applicants out of 44 tenant referrals, with two successfully graduating the program during the audit period.

I don't think HACP needs to be doing anything in terms of GED training. This is a waste of time for the FSS program. There are plenty of high GED programs that tenants can be referred to across the city. Clearly this is an area in which HACP is not performing well. A partnership with another agency is what I recommend here.


Finding: HACP spent $92,736 in 2006 and $74,288 in 2007 of its own funds on Clean
Slate plus an additional unknown amount in privately donated funds.

Everything about this program is a huge waste of money. No taxpayer money should be used to fund Clean Slate. The giving away of IPODS and other gifts is not a good use of taxpayer money. I know that there needs to be some sort of incentive to get the kids to come to this event but all of these gifts should come from private sources. $167,024 of HACP money is far too much for a program that has no tangible measurable results. This money would be much better spent within HACP. This money could hire close to 5 maintenance workers that would much more beneficial to the community.

Finding: The money spent on temporary employees is roughly the same as the cost of
hiring four or five full time employees at $30,000 per year with benefits, or several part time employees.

Just hire the full-time employees. Enough of these temporary employees. It's costing the same amount of money.

Finding: Prior to the Honeywell contract, HACP had awarded a 10-year energy services contract to Custom Energy, which was expected to save $4M in utility costs over the lifetime of the contract.

This audit neglects to tell us how much this contract was for and what the actual savings were for the length of this contract. Was this a good contract or not?

HACP Reimbursements for City Services:
The HACP does not compensate the City of Pittsburgh through a Payment In Lieu
of Taxes (PILOT) program for its City-provided services. According to Authority
administrators, HACP cannot make purely voluntary PILOT payments.

But they do in Erie:

The Housing Authority of the City of Erie (HACE) has paid a voluntary PILOT to
Erie since 1941, voluntarily contributing $53,000 in 2006 and $78,000 in 2007 for City services, along with payments to the school district and Erie County. HACE also gives financial support to city policing, code enforcement, and recreational activities worth an additional $532,000 in 2007 and $449,000 in 2006.

Something seems funny here. In Erie they do it but here in Pittsburgh HACP administrators claim they can't.

On another note that wasn't addressed in this audit I would like to to see HACP put all of their monthly board meeting minutes online so the public can see what was discussed and voted on.

Overall I thought the Controller's office did a good job on the audit. I unfortunately don't believe that the big wigs at 200 Ross Street will take any of the advice from the audit. HACP officials have shown in the past that they have flawed leadership and judgment, why would this change anything? The most disturbing part of all of the findings was that HACP officials will continue to use public dollars to cover any private funding shortfalls. Are they not reading the findings? Are they that out of touch with reality? No public dollars should be used to fund Clean Slate! The taxpayers got billed how much for the recruitment and salaries of these people making the decisions? What a ripoff.

HACP has taken no responsibility for anything and continues to try to fool themselves and the public into believing that they are a good agency that is out there for the betterment of the community when time and time again they have proven to be nothing but a problem landlord who continually wastes taxpayer money year after year. Is there a bigger problem landlord in the City of Pittsburgh than the Housing Authority City of Pittsburgh? I challenge you to find me one.

From the City of Pittsburgh

PITTSBURGH) The following streets are still closed due to floods from last night’s storm. The City’s Department of Public Works (DPW) worked all night, and is still hard at work, to remove trees and debris in order to open the closed roads. City Public Safety Director Michael Huss will be briefing the media at 11:45 a.m. today, outside of City Council Chambers.

Still closed:

Washington Boulevard from Allegheny River Boulevard to Frankstown Avenue.

Swinburne Street from Greenvield Avenue to Parkview Street

All power outages are to be reported to Duquesne Light. If residents experience downed wires they are to call 911; if they experience trees down they art to call the City’s 311 Line .


If you left your car for safety and your car was towed from the CITY, you will be able to retrieve it at McGann and Chester which is open 24 hours and located at 700 Hargrove Street, near West Liberty Avenue at the south end of the Liberty Tunnels. They can be reached at 412-381-9400.

With more rain in the forecast for tomorrow, DPW is in preparation mode- clearing catch basins in an attempt to prevent issues.

PWSA will be putting out media information regarding Washington Boulevard shortly.

From Theresa Smith's office

A public meeting will be held for the residents of Sheraden to discus the recent rash of fires occurring in the Sheraden area.

Time: 7 PM
Date: Tuesday, June 30
Location: Sheraden Senior Center
Who: City of Pittsburgh Public Safety Director - Mike Huss, Bureau of Building Inspections - Director Sergei Matveiev, Pittsburgh Police & Councilwoman Theresa Smith.

For additional Information, please call Kim O’Toole (Chief of Staff for Councilwoman Theresa Smith): 412-255-8963

Odds and Ends

-Iron City beer will no longer brewed in the city of Pittsburgh. Who likes this beer anyway? Iron City has been tasting nasty for a couple of years now. I hold my nose and drink this at political events when it is the only beer being served. One of the more ridiculous things down by a city authority was a few years back when the Pittsburgh Water & Sewer Authority "forgave" Iron City Brewing $1.2 million of $2.7 million in unpaid bills. That should have never happened. They should have been forced to pay their bill like the REST OF US have to.

-In more absurd news from the West Mifflin school district:

Post-Gazette

According to his contract, which runs through Oct. 1, 2011, Mr. Risha was permitted to carry over from his previous employers -- South Allegheny and McKeesport Area school districts -- 55 unused sick days. The contract says those days can be taken, but Mr. Risha cannot receive financial reimbursement for them if they are unused.

Is this board stupid? Carrying over 55 unused sick days? That school board should all be thrown out of office.

-What the heck is going on at the Shuman Juvenile Detention Center? County Executive Dan Onorato had to fire 7 employees for not doing thier job. It's time for some new leadership over at that facility.

-HACP Audit recap coming on Monday.

-GO PENS! Bring home the Stanley Cup!

Ironic

I first read this:

"The city of Pittsburgh doesn't systematically discriminate against its female and minority employees, according to a study released today."

The this:

"City of Pittsburgh Personnel Director Barbara Trant has resigned, effective July 7, she said today, after submitting a resignation letter yesterday.

The post pays $91,850."

I guess Barbara felt bad about making that $91,850 a year salary.

Audit

I am currently reviewing the newly released HACP audit from the City Controller's office and I will be making extensive comments on it in the coming days. It should be a lengthy post. I appreciate your patience.