Misuse of City Workers Hurts People in District 3, City Tax Payers.
Allegations surfaced today regarding the use of city workers to campaign for Jeff Koch, Candidate for City Council in district 3. The Bruce Kraus Campaign reacts strongly to these allegations and expresses deep concern over the possible misuse of city workers time.
The campaign also expressed the feeling that this is a deep insult to the people of the district. "Every day dedicated volunteers take time out of their busy lives to campaign for me. They devote their personal time and resources to my campaign because they believe I will best represent their interests on City Council," stated Mr. Kraus. "This undermines and devalues the time and effort of all those good people."
Mr. Koch, elected just last year in a special election won that contest by only 151 votes. The Allentown neighborhood contributed nearly 300 votes in that election.
Mr. Kraus noted that "if my opponent cannot get volunteers for his cause, he cannot then turn to official resources for support. It is both unethical and illegal."
Though Mr. Koch claims ignorance of these efforts, the pictures clearly show his campaign treasurer Ray Sansone. If this was without the candidates consent, at the very least the treasurer should be fired from the campaign and disciplined by the city argued the Kraus campaign. "If my opponent is unaware of what is going on in his campaign, how can he claim he will be an effective representative for the people who live in our district?" asked Mr. Kraus.
In closing Mr. Kraus added that he "welcomes participation by all people in the campaign process, whether they volunteer for me or my opponent, democracy is strengthened. But," he added "when city workers are used for campaigning it hurts the people of our district, the taxpayers in our city, and democracy itself."
The campaign calls for the city to bring disciplinary action against any employee or elected official who violates the law in this manner.
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Amber Steinmetz
Campaign Mananger
Kraus for Council
www.brucekraus.net
May 8, 2007
Response by Bruce Kraus Campaign
Here's the official response by the Bruce Kraus Campaign to the illegal campaigning by City workers in the Public Works Department:
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5 comments:
meh
No meh...If you want reform in Pittsburgh, it's this little stuff you've got to start stamping out. You have to change the attitude. People working for the public - from the Mayor's office on down - have got to stop treating their offices as positions of privelage rather than of enormous responsibility. They are charged with the very serious task of governance and if the people in government view insincerely the obligations of their position, you're not going to have good government.
You have to get rid of the people breaking the law. You have to remove the people who do this sort of thing from their office. If the people don't show that there is a political price to pay for abusing the powers and positions which our elected officials are invested with by us, they will never respect the people and only continue to serve themselves instead of promoting the interests of the community first and foremost.
If what I've heard about Kraus is correct, I hope the people of Pittsburgh do themselves a favor and elect someone who looks likely to ally himself with Peduto. If Kraus and the other guy(whose name I forget) gets elected, people who support reform in Pittsburgh should feel encouraged. I know alot of people had a dream of some grass roots revolution that would topple Ravenstahl and elect Peduto. That doesn't just happen. You have to work very hard and realigning the make-up of City Council by 1 or 2 seats is a start. And in the next election you try to hold on to your own and pick up 1 or 2 more. Precinct captains, positions on the party committee - these are all very low level offices that progressives in Pitt could easily work toward holding. And in a lot of ways, there very important - getting access to voter lists, influence the direction of the Dem. Party, etc.
Picking up two seats is good. It's momentum. You can build from it. And that's what the progressive movement in Pitt needs to do - grow and organize.
Kraus campaign is making a bigger deal out of this than what it really is.
Koch didn't and wouldn't condone this type of stuff.
Jayville,
Great comments!
(I assume the other person that you're referring to is Patrick Dowd. I'd add Rev. Ricky Burgess in the 9th to that list too.)
Matt H,
1. The Koch Campaign created shirts that were the exact same color as the Public Works Dept. shirts that ended up on the backs of Public Works employees.
2. Koch's own Finance Dir. was one of the Public Works workers who wore the shirt.
3. Koch has not fired his Finance Dir.
And, what do you take away from the above facts? That "Koch didn't condone it and had no idea about it."
Uh-huh.
Now pull the other one.
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