Commander McNeilly Rates Luke's P-G Report Card

Commander Catherine R. McNeilly wrote a letter to the Post-Gazette with her thoughts on their report card on Mayor Luke Ravenstahl. As they have declined to print it, she's sent it over to us to print.

As I emailed her back, I'm more than happy to have her do the hard work of reviewing the P-G's review:

"I must take issue Sunday’s article regarding the “Mayor Meeting Most Goals.”

He was given an “A” when in April, 2007 he began charging businesses an administrative fee for hiring off-duty police officers. However, the city had been charging this fee for years to help recoup losses incurred by administrating these details. But this fee was nixed by the Mayor late last year. ("Ravenstahl dumps plan to add service fee to bill for off-duty cops" November 22, 2006). It was only re-implemented (grudgingly) in April after great pressure by his then-challenger, Councilman Peduto.

So, his “A” is truly not deserved!

In September, 2006 the Mayor was given a “C” on the goal of creating a “Women’s Commission” that would bring “concerns of women to the city and improve gender diversity in top staff.” This goal has stalled, however, because his chosen co-chair has moved out of town and has yet to be replaced.

If the Mayor were truly sincere about his commitment to the “concerns” of women, he had a valuable and unique opportunity in September, 2006 to tout the Command Staff of the Pittsburgh Police as a “model” of female representation in “top city staff” when 7 out of 12 people (or 58%) who held the rank of Commander or higher were female.

Since becoming Mayor, there have been seven promotions made to the Command Staff of the Pittsburgh Police. Six of those promotions were male. Today, 6 of the 14 people (or 43%) of the Command Staff is female. Sadly, Mr. Ravenstahl missed a golden opportunity, and as of the date “Ravenstahl’s Report Card” was published, the same Command Staff of the Pittsburgh Police is no longer the “model” that it was just 10 month ago.

One of the most recent males promoted to the Command Staff jumped over a number of females (and males) who have rank, formal degrees, higher degrees and well-respected police management training which highly qualifies them for such a move upward – but they were not even considered for such a move.

Additionally, as has been widely reported, the last three promotions have raised concerns to a number of women’s groups in the Pittsburgh area because of allegations of domestic abuse; however, Mr. Ravenstahl will not even address the “concerns" of these women.

The Post-Gazette has been very lenient in giving the Mayor a “C” in these areas. If I were his professor in “Women’s Studies” and he were my student, it would be obvious by this time that he just isn’t getting it - he would have failed my course miserably."

Catherine R. McNeilly
(the writer is a Commander with the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police)