Democracy Has Prevailed.

February 20, 2007

We'll Pay for Mayor Luke's Blunder

Jon Delano's reporting that there may be a settlement deal in the Catherine McNeilly case:

If Commander McNeilly's lawsuit is settled out of court, it would avoid a public trial that could prove embarrassing to Mayor Luke Ravenstahl.

The terms of the agreement are not at all final but sources tell KDKA it could include:

  • McNeilly Reinstated to Commander Position
  • City to Pay McNeilly a Cash Payment under $100,000
  • City's Acknowledgment of Whistle Blower Protection
    • As Delano points out in his story, if the two sides settle then that'll keep Mayor Luke from having to testify under oath about certain things (like the exact circumstances of his being handcuffed by the police at Heinz Field, and so on).

      As the Burgh Report blogged lastnight,

      There is no way to spin a cash settlement as anything other than complete,
      embarassing defeat for the interim Mayor. The city is literally paying for
      Ravenstahl's mistakes.

      See what happens when you're too young to play in the majors?

      UPDATE: I forgot to link to Jon Delano's post. My mistake - it's now been corrected.

      4 comments:

      Anonymous said...

      Has anyone found out that cathy mcneily and her husband have a company called mcneilly group llc (www.themcneillygroupllc.com - google it, they didnt even take the time to develop the website, just publish it and make $$$), where they make money for consulting on police policy. She also stands to make money with the program she and commander barrone implemented, run, and have created last year for police to work details on a rotating schedule - they are in complete control of the program and make a commission off of every detail booked through their program. Pretty interesting why she is fighting so hard, money will do that to people. SUCKERS!

      Anonymous said...

      Sounds like Yoron is panicking over his decision to advise Opie to retaliate against McNeilly - The real "suckers" in this situation are the taxpayers who are going to have to bear the burden of Yoron and Opie's immaturity - if the kiddies had implemented the 10% fee program, they would've been able to pay for some of their blunders through this program instead of having to burden the rest of us with their stupidity.

      Bram Reichbaum said...

      How would the Mayor's testimony in the McNeilly demotion case lead to the subject of the Heinz Feild detention? The connections I have heard whispered so far sound a little tin-foily to me.

      Anonymous of 7:28 ... you missed my blog ... admittedly, I hadn't written anything on the McNeilly settlement, but I'm still offended ... I'll forgive you if you come to Civic Duty with a bag over your head and call us all SUCKERS.

      Anonymous said...

      I imagine the connections would be a subpeona of the phone records from Haloween 2005. There may well be nothing there. But it could show that a certain call was made, and if that call was made, it'd be relevant to the case and be entered into evidence. That would be very, very politically damaging to the Mayor.

      The only way to know whether that call was made or not is to have a trial. The Mayor undoubtedly knows. If he settles the case, I will suspect there was something to hide.