Burgess to vote YES for anti fracking referendum

Last week Councilman Ricky Burgess abstained from voting on having a referendum to amend the city's Home Rule Charter to include a ban on fracking.

He just said in council chambers that he would vote yes on the final bill (even while questioning the motives of Council members who were for the referendum).

He said he was voting yes because he favors letting the people decide and in hopes that his bills for referendums would be able to go through.

So, that would be six yes votes -- making it veto proof from Lil Mayor Luke.

Yes!

"BRUUUUUUUUUUUUCE!"

That was the cry heard repeatedly last night at Pittsburgh City Councilman Bruce Kraus' victory party.


Crappy photo, but fantastic Councilor and great party!
Kraus joined Darlene Harris and Patrick Dowd in beating back Lil Mayor Luke's BFFs to win their primary races. (We sure hope that Corey O'Connor is serious about being independent and we keep a progressive majority on Council.)

I have to say how much it still burns me that ACDC endorsed Jeff Koch this year for City Council District 3. Koch won 3 in a special election in 2006. He had two years to prove himself. But the voters of my district rejected him in 2006 for Bruce Kraus. Why did ACDC think that they knew better than the voters this year? Thank goodness that the citizens ignored both ACDC as well as the lies from the Koch camp and went with the candidate who has proven his worth. The citizens prevailed and Kraus won handily.

Congratulations to Bruce and congratulations to Harris and Dowd. And, while I would have rather seen Chris Zurawsky win, I also offer my congratulations to Corey O'Connor. Their race was notably free from shenanigans and negative campaigning.

(And, if you're waiting for me to congratulate Rev. Ricky, you've obviously never read this blog before.)
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Pittsburgh City Council Races -- It's getting really ugly out there!

First, if you haven't already, you should read this article by Joe Smydo in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. In it, incumbents Darlene Harris and Bruce Kraus allege that there's been mayoral interference and "improper use of city resources" in this year's primary races. Harris notes that street paving and pothole filling has been delayed and that PWSA workers have been seen removing her campaign signs. Kraus brings up "Ravenstahl's decision to hold up a $100,000 study of problems in the South Side entertainment district" and that "the administration allowed city police Chief Nate Harper last week to address a meeting organized by one of the councilman's opponents, Jeff Koch, a city public works supervisor who's backed by the mayor." There's also the matter of a stop sign on Pius St. that was disallowed before the race, but suddenly appeared when Koch contacted his public works colleagues.

So what's the latest?

First, from the Lucille Prater-Holliday campaign:

11th Hour Trickery Clouds Race in District 9

With two days until the Election Day, and the campaign of Lucille Prater-Holliday gaining momentum, illegal campaign tactics are apparently being used to cloud the campaign.

A series of outgoing calls have apparently been made with the return number masked so that it appeared as if the calls were made from the Prater-Holliday campaign office.

Multiple calls are going out to the same individuals. Anyone who received a call that may have contained inaccurate or offensive information is asked to contact the campaign office at 412-259-3866.

A police report has been filed.

We are asking the campaigns of Phyllis Copeland-Mitchell and Ricky Burgess to repudiate any illegal or deceptive campaign tactics that are being used to harm the campaign of Ms. Prater-Holliday, and to let the campaign know if they have any information about the calls.

Then there's this -- Darlene Harris' campaign headquarters were vandalized:




(Click to enlarge)
Hmmm, what does this remind me of? The accompanying press release also says that items have been thrown at Harris' personal vehicle while she was driving at night.

Lastly, the previously mentioned P-G article notes that Lil Mayor Luke's buddies Koch, Tony Ceoffe (running against Patrick Dowd), Vince Pallus (running against Harris), and Ricky Burgess (running against the world) have all made allegations of improper campaign financing. Now, these charges have been looked into repeatedly by Chris Potter at the Pittsburgh City Paper (here, here, and here) and found wanting. You can also read Bill Peduto's detailed explanation of the city's campaign finance reform law here*. It's worth noting that the biggest critic of how others follow this law -- the Rev. Ricky Burgess -- wants to scrap it altogether.

Not surprisingly, Jeff Koch has come out with a new flyer that mostly slams Bruce Kraus on the false allegations of failing to follow the campaign finance law:




(Click to enlarge)
We already addressed the raise increase and redecoration "issues" here. And, Kraus is not "fighting bars." He's trying to get businesses and residents to exist in harmony for which, as noted above, Koch's buddy, the Mayor, is holding up money to do.

*Note: I posted that piece at Reform Pittsburgh Now.
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Peduto's response to Burgess’ legislation to rescind the City’s campaign finance reform laws

I receivied the following statement from Pittsburgh City Councilman Bill Peduto today regarding Councilman Ricky Burgess’ legislation to rescind the City’s campaign finance reform laws:

“In 2009, City Council passed campaign finance reform legislation - a reform that was long overdue for the City of Pittsburgh. It is disappointing to learn that Councilman Burgess would bow to the pressure of big money interests and reverse the reforms that Pittsburgh fought so hard to enact. Councilman Burgess’ attacks against the law are hollow and wrong. He is simply giving in to special interests and working to hide who is funding his campaign. The voters deserve to know who is pay-rolling this effort before they vote – and state law requires he tell them.

The City’s laws on acceptance and disclosure of contributions follow the federal rules and this was clearly discussed during Council’s debate in 2009. These efforts to rewrite history and create turmoil for political gain right before an election are being done at the expense of good government and transparency.

I look forward to the debate on this issue. It is further regrettable that Councilman Burgess would try to waive the rules of Council to vote on this bill tomorrow even further taking away the public’s ability to voice their position on this matter. I am dismayed that Council Members Lavelle, Dowd and Smith would support the waiver of rules to bring this up for a vote before the public has an opportunity to comment.

The people of Pittsburgh should be vigilant. Those who favor a "pay to play" government have given their orders and Councilman Burgess is working to deliver a gift for them – at the public’s expense.”

Pittsburgh Pension Problem: Almost There

Those of you listening to 80's pop on the City Channel for a couple of hours today probably were wondering what the holdup was. We understood that Pittsburgh City Council was to hold a Legislative Session at 1:30 today to overturn Mayor Ravenstal's "cooperative" veto to attempt to stave off state control of the city's pension. The meeting actually started around 2:00 and almost immediately was recessed until after 3:00 PM.

Here's why:



(Click to enlarge)

Council did overturn the Mayor's veto today (8 to 1; Rev. Burgess being the only dissenting vote), thus putting the new Council/Controller plan into place which dedicates the asset of future parking taxes to the city pension fund to bring that up to 50% funded.

The hold up -- the reason why Council must meet again tomorrow -- is that upon further reflection by everyone (PERC, ACT 47, ICA) it was decided that the City must dedicate $735,680,000 over 31 years instead of $414.7 million (the difference between a 5% and 8% discount rate).

New legislation is being drawn up to amend the Pittsburgh Code, Title Two - Fiscal, Article XI (I believe).

The Mayor will need to "cooperatively" veto this new legislation quickly so that Council may then override that veto. Council did note that the Mayor and his Administration have been very forthcoming in providing whatever Council has needed these last 24 hours or so. And in an email exchange between Council President Harris and Yarone Zober, Zober indicated that the Mayor will quickly veto this latest round so that Council may overturn the veto in time to meet the Midnight December 31st deadline.

Council will hold a Legislation Session tomorrow at 1:00PM (followed right after with a Standing Committee Meeting) and another 11:00PM Legislative Session -- yes, 11:00 PM on New Year's Eve -- followed by another Standing Committee Meeting.

Um, Happy New Year, City Council?
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