As many of you know, last week a public hearing, called for by citizens of this city, was held in Council Chambers to speak against the promotions of three officers with histories of domestic violence. The room was packed – standing room only.
The mayor had been invited to attend the hearing, both in writing by City Council and verbally, by leaders of women’s organizations. Instead he chose to golf at a two-day charity event. Cost of his participation, $9,000 - UPMC picked up the tab.
It’s up to us to keep the focus on this story, many in the administration would like to see it just go away. NOW is considering several actions to take, as I get information on any help we can offer/further actions we can take, I’ll spread the word.
In the meantime I encourage you to write letters to the editors of local papers, comment on blogs and call in the talk shows. Let them know we’re watching, we’re not happy and that we want the mayor to understand that his number 1 priority is the people of this city.
I plan to post this on the Run, Baby, Run listserv & to email to other contacts in the city, I encourage you to do likewise.
A. Letters to Editor
Editor, Chris Potter: cpotter@steelcitymedia.com
Email: letters@post-gazette.com
Email: opinion@tribweb.com
B. Talk Radio Call In Numbers:
KDKA (1020 AM): 412.333.5352
Hosts:
Marty
Kevin Miller, 12:15 – 3 p.m., M - F
Chris Moore, 4 – 8:30 p.m., Sundays
WPTT (1360 AM): 412.333.1360
Host: Lynn Cullen, 9 a.m. – noon, M- F
The ZONE (93.7 FM): 412.333.9370
John McIntire, 1 -4 p.m., M - F
C. Local Political Blogs:
The Burgh Report: http://burghreport.blogspot.com
2 Political Junkies: http://2politicaljunkies.blogspot.com
if he had said he was going to be in the golf event, that would have been alright by me, but to lie. a dumb childish lie, well it's insulting.
ReplyDeletejust my little say.
oh and i think he should have paid whatever money required out of his own pocket.
ReplyDeleteJust so folks know ... I'd be happy to run a letter, but the policy at City Paper is to print only letters that respond specifically to articles or commentary that appear in the paper itself. (When we get letters that aren't directed to us specifically, we generally assume they're going to daily publications as well. And naturally, those folks will get several chances to publish before our next issue comes out.)
ReplyDeleteWe have written about this issue in a couple of places. Admittedly brief coverage of the public hearing appears here:
http://www.pittsburghcitypaper.ws/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A32775
And I did a column about the promotions here:
http://www.pittsburghcitypaper.ws/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A32504
Hope to hear from some of you.
-- Chris Potter
As long as rabble is being roused and actions are being taken, there is the very related issue of UPMC hijacking city government, in order to reap benefits that include, but are not limited to, soiling our shared skyline and the historic U.S. Steel Tower.
ReplyDeleteIt is not out of the question that there might be a similar public hearing on this, to which I would urge all our newly awakened masses to attend. But a lot could be accomplished simply by calling your councilperson and giving them proper hell.
Chris,
ReplyDeletethanks for the guidelines, they apply to the other papers too, so, letter writers, please refer to an article in the newspaper you're submitting your letters to.
Bram,
yes, the web grows stickier. The sign atop a building is one thing, the fact that UPMC is one of the major suppliers of health insurance for city employees is another. If memory serves, they recently lost the contract or part of it to Highmark who underbid them. Is this why UPMC needs to double up efforts to cozy up to the administration?
Also the athletic trainer the mayor just hired left his position with UPMC to work for the administration. And it wasn't such a simple switch - he had to sell his home (in Mars) and move to Pittsburgh (in Troy Hill) - in order to meet the residency requirement. Wonder if the city picked up his moving expenses?
i'm begining to think that all this man has done is give a youthful face to an old attitude and i am hoping that i am wrong.
ReplyDeleteSome perhaps crazy thoughts ...
ReplyDeleteIf Luke won't come to our meeting, let's go to his. Just received an email that he's launching a series of neighborhood meetings (starting here in the North Side). Why not mobilize and turn out to ask him the tough questions?
Why not turn out wherever Luke is?
Why doesn't the Society sponsor a miniature golf tournament to raise money for domestic violence victims?
Just some thoughts ...