Federal court documents throw doubt on the city Law Department's ruling that there was no conclusive evidence that former Pittsburgh mayoral aide Dennis Regan interfered in the operation of the police department.Interfered? How? In a sworn statement by former Police Chief Dominic J. Costa, we find some innnnnteresting details. Costa said that Regan approached him in February about whether his housemate's brother (that would be Rende - the guy McNeilly had tried to discipline) was being passed over for some work by the department. No evidence of it.
Then in March, Regan asked Costa to promote Rende to detective. Costa said no, but he'd transfer Rende to a graffiti task force - to improve his overall work performance.
And finally:
On Aug. 16, after a meeting on another matter, Mr. Costa said Mr. Regan ordered him to promote Mr. Rende and two other officers to "graded detective" immediately. Mr. Costa said he and Mr. Specter explained that under the police contract that position no longer existed but the officers could be made acting detectives.And this guy was at the center of city hall politcs? Anyway, if all this is true, how do we reconcile that with something else Mayor Luke said:
"I says, I can move them in a couple weeks," Mr. Costa said. "He said, 'No, I want them moved now.' "
Mr. Costa said he considered that a direct order and moved the men the next day.
As far as Mr. Regan's actions were concerned, the mayor said it would be improper for anyone in the mayor's office to influence police decisions, but he's not convinced Mr. Regan did anything wrong.Mayor Luke really needs to pay attention to what he's saying. It's "improper" for someone in the mayor's office to influence police decisions (which Regan reportedly did - if he didn't then Chief Costa should be investigated for committing perjury. It was a sworn statement, right?), but dude, if it, like you know, did happen or whatever it's probably just "bad judgement."
"There was no rule broken, no law broken," he said. "If anything, maybe bad judgment was used."
The Trib has more - and from a slightly different angle.
Lawyers representing a Pittsburgh police commander said Thursday the city's top lawyer did not impartially investigate allegations that former Operations Director Dennis Regan engineered a promotion for a family friend and interfered in police operations.And they point out a few other times when Regan "influenced" police matters:
Mayor Luke Ravenstahl denied suggestions that the investigation was flawed, or that there was wrongdoing in his office.
"I believe that the Mayor's Office acted appropriately throughout this endeavor, and it's not uncommon for the Mayor's Office to have interaction with the police department," Ravenstahl said yesterday. "No rules or violations took place in that regard."
According to a memo from Officer Christine Luffey to Cmdr. RaShall Brackney, Regan visited the South Side police station April 28 and told Luffey that Brackney would be "walking a beat" if officers didn't begin attending community meetings in Arlington, as he thought they should.Oops. That's a no-no. Doncha think?
On Oct. 5, Regan overturned the firing of a police officer, and imposed a five-day suspension. He signed the order as the city's director of public safety, even though his appointment to that position wasn't confirmed by City Council. [emphasis added]
13 comments:
It's all about choices, and Luke had several opportunities to cut the Regan-Cassidy-Zober-Skrinjar albatross from around his neck. At every opportunity, he deliberately chose not to. Most would forgive him for not immediately asking the bunch to tender their resignations upon Bob O'Connor's death, however, Luke, and only Luke is to blame for:
1. Promoting Regan to operations director
2. Attempting to promote Regan to public safety director
3. Ignoring Commander McNeilly's October 6, 2006 e-mail warning him of Regan's tactics
4. Covering up the allegations made by Zone 3 officers of possible criminal conduct by Regan
5. Failing to refer the allegations by Zone 3 officers to the attorney general or U.S. attorney
6. Publicly humiliating and punishing Commander McNeilly for exposing Luke & Denny for what they are
7. Publicly defending Regan and lying about whether "conclusive evidence exists" - Pittsburgh Police and their union should be appalled by the interim mayor's suggestion that officers were lying about Regan's behavior
8. Repeatedly thumbing his nose at Judge Ambrose during interviews post-court decision by announcing how "proud" he is of his decision
9. Employing his friend the gas thief to go on the radio to disparage Commander McNeilly's record - ironically, during an interview where Motznik says McNeilly did wrong by disclosing information about an officer's personnel record - apparently, once again, the rules don't apply to Luke's boys (meanwhile, it was probably Motznik who released McNeilly's e-mail to the media while he was still stinging from Regan's betrayal of him in making a hollow promise that Motznik would be council prez)
10. Blasting McNeilly for disclosing confidential records to council, but failing to investigate who on council (Motznik?) disclosed the records to the media (again, protecting his friends on council)
11. Failing to reconsider his mistakes by apologizing to McNeilly and referring Zone 3 allegations to an outside criminal investigative agency
12. Allowing Regan's girlfriend to remain on the city payroll making $70,000/year
13. Failing to admonish his new chief of staff, (who, by the way, was Luke's choice for that position - not O'Connor's) Yaroon Zoober for giving him such poor advice (what do you expect from someone w/no experience???) on how to handle this "personnel" situation
14. Deciding for himself that McNeilly was not a whistleblower instead of relying on a legal opinion (let me guess - he relied on his "loyal" pal Yober, once again for the answer he wanted to hear...)
and...(PittGirl will enjoy this one):
15. Smugly defying challenges by media interviewers to his poor decisions by announcing that he's..."moved forward"...
Not so fast, Luke. You have a lot of explaining and apologizing to do.
I think it's all jealously.
Look - who among us wouldn't want to be Mayor at 26 yrs old! OK, so he had a couple of bumps in the road, but he's learning on the job. There's no "mayor" school out there to prepare him.
Can you imagine, after he makes all his mistakes, the lessons he'll learn will make him a great politician, or community leader in the future. Let's cut him a break, and allow him to make his stumbles. He's only 26!
Every young person needs to make his or her stumbles. But, not at the expense of the city already on the brink.
BTW, where is officer Rende now? Is he on the job? What is his role / grade?
BTW2, Where is Regan now? Is he working in a lobby position? Unemployed?
BTR3, Who is the PUBLIC SAFETY Director now? Is that position still empty? Has anyone been nominated? Will anyone be nominated / appointed?
Once you have to use the line "he's only 26", you've admitted, at a minimum, the he's immature, untested, & inexperienced. And, yeah, there is a "mayor school", it's called "life". No matter what his age, he's neither the boy nor the man for the job.
And the things he's done are hardly "stumbles" - you don't get hauled into federal court for "stumbles".
Uh, hopeful, do you think the CEO of a 400 million dollar organization should get OJT?
Especially an unelected mayor ...
A cook at Boston Market gets OJT; a Mayor does not.
It's not Luke's fault he isn't elected.
No one ever explained how the mayor's secretary makes $70K.
"It's not Luke's fault he isn't elected ..."
That doesn't mean he gets free passes on every mistake.
Luke volunteered for the job. He had the right to decline and remain as a city councilman. It's absolutely his "fault" that he put himself out there. Go to the city's website and click on the home rule charter:
(Re: Vacancy in Mayor seat)
"Until the vacancy is filled by an election, the president of council shall serve as Mayor. IF the
president of council accepts the position of mayor, he/she shall immediately relinquish his/her position as council member. Council shall then elect a new president of council.
If the president of council shall be unable or UNWILLING to serve as mayor, a mayor shall be elected
by a majority vote of all the members of council. The person elected shall be a resident of the city of Pittsburgh. If a member of council is elected and accepts the position of mayor, he/she shall
immediately relinquish his/her position as council
member.
No one put a gun to Luke's head & he didn't take his promotion because the law "required" it. He did it because he's a kid in a candy store & Denny told him this would be fun.
Why would anyone turn it down when the position was handed to him?
Are you nuts? That would make any politician look weak and scared.
Re: Are you nuts?
Spoken like a true meat head/O'Connor/Luke supporter - it's all about projecting your virility, not about being a responsible citizen. In my day, boys who had that problem went out and bought themselves a Trans Am.
So we're supposed to sit back and tolerate this great hoax in the interest of understanding that in order to preserve his political career, Luke has to assert his manliness? Uh, that may be the reason he volunteered to be king, doesn't mean that I'm nuts for not supporting his decision. The collective concern should be for the well-being of the citizenry, not for the preservation of some 3rd-rate politician's political career.
Marlene Cassidy is the Ravenstahl's Executive Secretary, which is a misnomer. Caliguiri's Executive Secretary had a law degree and Murphy's Executive Secretary had an MBA. An Executive Secretary does not type and answer the phones.
Marlene Cassidy? She used to be a beautician. She has been seen at the receptionist desk in the mayor's office. O'Connor paid back a favor to Denny by hiring Denny's "housemate", and Lukey continued the mistake.
Here is the deal on the Luke-Heinz Field non-event. The word was out that certain city Police Officers were going to get a promotion because they had allegely 'quashed" the Luke arrest. The names that were out and about for the "pay-off" promotions did not get the the promotins(two very qualified persons did. Almost to the day that the promotions in the Police were anounced; "Luke-Gate" started and has migrated fromthe blogs to main stream press.
Did somethig happen at Heniz Field--sure did--anything of consequence--nope. Had somethng occured that was significant it would have hit the blogs long ago.
Had it occured Bob McNeilly would have known about it despite what he says on the media--sour grapes over his wife so he has no credability.
Luke, however, made a stupid move demoting Cathy McNeilly should have given her a bonus for getting Dennis Regan sacked. Nice enough guy but did not belong in government maybe in the Davey Lawrence days, not in the 21st Century.
Bottom line Luke-gate is not news that is no news nothing happened except someone did not get a promotion that thye mostly tried to extort and now that are trying "Pay-Back".
In the fine tradition of Law Enforcement--"Move along nothing to see here--move along"
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