Darlene Harris, Defender of the Faith & Small, Noncompliant Creches

When we last left our heroine, Pittsburgh City Councilor Darlene Harris was keeping an unauthorized $2,000 plaque labeled "Ravenstahl" safe and sound. But now, she's having a devil of a time keeping a wood-and-porcelain nativity scene -- and therefore Christmas, and possibly all of Christianity -- out of harm's way. From the Post-Gazette:

The nativity scene that she places under the council Christmas tree — on display every year in the City-County Building — has gone missing. If it doesn’t turn up within a couple days or so, Mrs. Harris said, she will file a police report. 

“And when I put my police report in, I will let them know who has been at the bottom of all this,” she said, although she didn’t name names in council chambers.

But even if there is no Christmas miracle that sees its safe return, it warms the cockles of all good yinzers' hearts to know that, nevertheless, she persisted.

Darlene Harris: Keeper of Public Plaques

Reporter Bob Mayor to Pittsburgh City Councilor Darlene Harris, upon learning she was securing an unauthorized $2,000 plaque labeled "Ravenstahl" after the last mayor in her office, "You're not the Keeper of Public Plaques, right?"

What is it with Lil Former Mayor Lukey's administration? Taking home his city-owned desktop computer before leaving office because he was afraid the Peduto administration would move in and hide it?! Hiding plaques named after him because there was fear that it would be taken away and destroyed?!

It's like they were preparing for an invasion by a herd of thundering barbarians instead of a normal change in administration. The paranoia runs deep with this one. Or perhaps just projection...

Anyone want to guess what the next bizarre revelation regarding Lukey's departure will be?

Best #UndercoverBoss Tweets

With that #UndercoverBoss episode, @billpeduto finally vanquished Darlene Harris by caring more about pets. #whispers
— Mr. Slopiak (@SouthSideSlopes) December 22, 2014

WATCH BILL PEDUTO MAKE THE CASE FOR CONSOLIDATION OF MUNICIPAL SERVICES. THIS IS WHAT REALITY TV IS ALL ABOUT PEOPLE
— Chris Potter (@CPotterPgh) December 22, 2014

A public works guy planning to run for city council? WHAT ARE THE ODDS?
— Chris Potter (@CPotterPgh) December 22, 2014

And in reply to that:

@CPotterPgh C'mon. You knew he'd be trouble as soon as he said he went to North Catholic.
— Maria Lupinacci (@maria_in_pgh) December 22, 2014

(Yeah, I'm favoriting myself.)

And, please someone do make this happen!

Can I get a .gif of that, internet? "Wassa wasa what?" #UndercoverBoss
— Laura Meixell (@lauratypes) December 22, 2014

Really!?!

Really, Darlene Harris? Really!?! You dropped out of the Pittsburgh mayoral primary race polling in the single digits and now you're contemplating an independent run in the general election? Really? Even the embattled current mayor thinks it's a bad idea and he spent $161,000 against Democratic nominee Bill Peduto who he now supports. Where do you think your support will come from? That's the sound of one hand clapping you hear. Really!

Really, Ken Cuccinelli? Really!?! You want to restore anti-sodomy laws -- the same ones that were ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court a decade ago. Really? In a state whose advertising declares "it's for lovers." Really! Are your trying to out-Santorum fellow Virginian Rick Santorum? Is there something in the water there? This begs the question have you ever had a blow job, and if not, can someone legislate you one so you can get over it? Really!!

Really, Anthony Weiner? Really!?! Your name is weiner and your sexted photos of your wiener made you have to resign as a congressman. Yet you're saying you won't drop out of the NYC mayoral race even though there's more sexts coming out now -- ones you did after your resignation. Really? Does NYC need a Mayor Carlos Danger? Can you maybe take just a little sip of whatever Cuccinelli is drinking? Really!!!

Really, American Media? Really!?! We fought the British so that we never had to give a royal f*ck about all things royal and here you are orgasiming over the birth of the latest royal. Really? Sam Adams isn't just a beer you drink to toast the latest in the line of inbreds whose worth is determined by between whose legs they popped out of. He was one of many who risked life and limb to publish articles against the idea of royalty. History. Journalism. You might want to look into that. REALLY!

Hat Meet Ring

Hail, Hail, the Gang's All!

Lil Mayor Luke does Pittsburgh a solid and drops out of the race, but now apparently every Johnny-come-lately (and Joanne-come-lately) wants to throw their hat into the ring. Retired PA State Auditor General Jack Wagner and City Council President Darlene Harris are already gathering petitions. PA State Sen. Jim Ferlo is planning to begin gathering signatures today. And, according to The Trib, City Councilman Ricky Burgess and State Rep. Jake Wheatley are feeling out the unions, but aren't commenting to the media. They of course join City Councilman Bill Peduto and City Controller Michael Lamb.

Who's on first? According to PoliticsPA:

Today’s developments benefit Peduto most directly; Wagner and Lamb share a political base in Pittsburgh’s south side/south hills.

Lamar Advertises for Lamar, Uses Image from City Website

Pittsburgh City Counselors Natalia Rudiak and Darlene Harris have cosponsored a proposal to create a 10% tax on billboard rentals which they say could raise a couple of million dollars a year towards purchasing new police cars. (Philadelphia and other PA towns have a similar tax.)

Here's Lamar's response:

(Via Facebook)

(Via http://twitpic.com/b52ep2)

In the Pittsburgh City Paper, Harris rightly notes that the Rudiak sign is "very misleading," since it implies that Rudiak is proposing to raise taxes on everyone, rather than on a select industry."

Rudiak comments:

Although one thing about the billboard did strike her as odd: Lamar, she says, apparently took the photo of her from the city's website. "But in the original photo, my dress was red."

Here's the image from the City of Pittsburgh website:

Here's a detail from Lamar's ad for Lamar:

How does Lamar get to use an image from the City of Pittsburgh website anyway in an ad that means to profit Lamar? They obviously did not pay for the image -- I'm assuming either the City or Rudiak did.

And, how the hell does this company from Louisiana constantly insert itself into the politics of this city???

"BRUUUUUUUUUUUUCE!"

That was the cry heard repeatedly last night at Pittsburgh City Councilman Bruce Kraus' victory party.


Crappy photo, but fantastic Councilor and great party!
Kraus joined Darlene Harris and Patrick Dowd in beating back Lil Mayor Luke's BFFs to win their primary races. (We sure hope that Corey O'Connor is serious about being independent and we keep a progressive majority on Council.)

I have to say how much it still burns me that ACDC endorsed Jeff Koch this year for City Council District 3. Koch won 3 in a special election in 2006. He had two years to prove himself. But the voters of my district rejected him in 2006 for Bruce Kraus. Why did ACDC think that they knew better than the voters this year? Thank goodness that the citizens ignored both ACDC as well as the lies from the Koch camp and went with the candidate who has proven his worth. The citizens prevailed and Kraus won handily.

Congratulations to Bruce and congratulations to Harris and Dowd. And, while I would have rather seen Chris Zurawsky win, I also offer my congratulations to Corey O'Connor. Their race was notably free from shenanigans and negative campaigning.

(And, if you're waiting for me to congratulate Rev. Ricky, you've obviously never read this blog before.)
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VOTE!

Been poll-watching since 6:45 AM, just taking a ten minute break now to post my usual election day post. Here it is:



VOTE!
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Pittsburgh City Council Races -- It's getting really ugly out there!

First, if you haven't already, you should read this article by Joe Smydo in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. In it, incumbents Darlene Harris and Bruce Kraus allege that there's been mayoral interference and "improper use of city resources" in this year's primary races. Harris notes that street paving and pothole filling has been delayed and that PWSA workers have been seen removing her campaign signs. Kraus brings up "Ravenstahl's decision to hold up a $100,000 study of problems in the South Side entertainment district" and that "the administration allowed city police Chief Nate Harper last week to address a meeting organized by one of the councilman's opponents, Jeff Koch, a city public works supervisor who's backed by the mayor." There's also the matter of a stop sign on Pius St. that was disallowed before the race, but suddenly appeared when Koch contacted his public works colleagues.

So what's the latest?

First, from the Lucille Prater-Holliday campaign:

11th Hour Trickery Clouds Race in District 9

With two days until the Election Day, and the campaign of Lucille Prater-Holliday gaining momentum, illegal campaign tactics are apparently being used to cloud the campaign.

A series of outgoing calls have apparently been made with the return number masked so that it appeared as if the calls were made from the Prater-Holliday campaign office.

Multiple calls are going out to the same individuals. Anyone who received a call that may have contained inaccurate or offensive information is asked to contact the campaign office at 412-259-3866.

A police report has been filed.

We are asking the campaigns of Phyllis Copeland-Mitchell and Ricky Burgess to repudiate any illegal or deceptive campaign tactics that are being used to harm the campaign of Ms. Prater-Holliday, and to let the campaign know if they have any information about the calls.

Then there's this -- Darlene Harris' campaign headquarters were vandalized:





(Click to enlarge)
Hmmm, what does this remind me of? The accompanying press release also says that items have been thrown at Harris' personal vehicle while she was driving at night.

Lastly, the previously mentioned P-G article notes that Lil Mayor Luke's buddies Koch, Tony Ceoffe (running against Patrick Dowd), Vince Pallus (running against Harris), and Ricky Burgess (running against the world) have all made allegations of improper campaign financing. Now, these charges have been looked into repeatedly by Chris Potter at the Pittsburgh City Paper (here, here, and here) and found wanting. You can also read Bill Peduto's detailed explanation of the city's campaign finance reform law here*. It's worth noting that the biggest critic of how others follow this law -- the Rev. Ricky Burgess -- wants to scrap it altogether.

Not surprisingly, Jeff Koch has come out with a new flyer that mostly slams Bruce Kraus on the false allegations of failing to follow the campaign finance law:





(Click to enlarge)
We already addressed the raise increase and redecoration "issues" here. And, Kraus is not "fighting bars." He's trying to get businesses and residents to exist in harmony for which, as noted above, Koch's buddy, the Mayor, is holding up money to do.

*Note: I posted that piece at Reform Pittsburgh Now.
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Councilwoman Rudiak to lead task force on City's performance during snow emergency

Via Councilor Rudiak's office:

(Pittsburgh) – Pittsburgh City Councilwoman Natalia Rudiak today was named to lead a task force convened by Council President Darlene Harris to look into the City's performance during the current snow emergency. The task force will be tasked with investigating, reporting key findings, and making recommendations on how the City can better administer its emergency operation systems in the future, with a specific eye toward snow emergencies.

“Four days after the storm there are still thousands of people across our City who are snowed in,” said Rudiak. “People are angry that it is taking so long to get power restored and streets cleared, and there needs to be accountability.”

The task force will initially convene later this week to begin its review. Until then, City Council will focus on helping the Mayor’s Emergency Operation Center with constituent calls. Once the snow emergency is over, the task force will begin a full review.

“We want to make sure we can dig out of this storm before we start getting too academic. We are in an emergency and we need to be focused on that right now,” Rudiak said.

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Post-Election Interview w/Bill Peduto

The line has been attributed to Otto von Bismark. It's old and by now it's cliche - Politics is the art of the possible (Die Politik ist die Kunst des Möglichen, auf Deutsch).

That line was at the heart of the situation facing Bill Peduto in the run up to the recent election for Pittsburgh City Council president.

Prior to the early evening on Sunday, the vote was more or less set. He, Peduto, didn't have the 5 votes needed to secure the presidency of the council and, as I wrote before, 5 votes were already lined up to support Theresa Smith.

But the phone calls kept flying. Peduto was able to confirm to me that he'd called Darlene Harris in the early evening to ask for her vote.

And here's where things get interesting.

By Sunday evening, she responded to Peduto and told him that she could not vote for him. How about a compromise? How about keeping Doug Shields as president? No, she responded again. Her only possible vote was, she said, for either Smith or herself.

So Peduto engineered an end run. His 4 votes plus her 1 vote for her to become president. Not his first choice for the seat (that would have been himself, of course) or his second. Or even his third. While no one's first choice, Darlene Harris (whom Peduto called "honest to a fault" and "incorruptible") sitting as president would at least guarantee the independence of the council.

This was necessary for a city government, Peduto said, rife with graft.

Otherwise with the inexperienced Smith in charge (the plan orchestrated by Patrick Dowd and Luke Ravenstahl would have given those with the least experience the most power) all legislative actions would be controlled by the Mayor's office. Favorable legislation to the Mayor's office would survive and unfavorable bills would be killed.

This - the legislative and executive branches run out of a single office - was unacceptable to Peduto. The first order of business, he said, was to make sure council was not taken over by the mayor. It was necessary to maintain checks and balances.

He added, "When you are in a no-win situation the first order of business is to protect a functional government - if we did not support Darlene, independence is lost. We did not have the luxury to choose our first, or second or even third choice for President. Those options were taken away from us. If you analyze it objectively, rather than subjectively, it becomes the only option."

Hence the deal.

Harris announces some Chairs

President Pro Tempore: Theresa Kail Smith

Standing Committee Chairs:

Finance and Law: Bill Peduto (Peduto retains Chair)

Public Safety Services: Theresa Kail Smith (formally Kraus)

Public Works: Bruce Kraus

Land Use and Economic Development: Doug Shields (formally Burgess)

General and Government Services: Natalia Rudiak (formally Motznik)

Others TBA
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Darlene Harris is Pittsburgh City Council President! (Updated 2xs)

Nominated by Bill Peduto, 2nd by Doug Shields.

Voted for by: Peduto, Shields, Rudiak, Kraus & Harris.

UPDATE: Forgot to add:

Congratulations, President Harris.

UPDATE 2:


Darlene Harris (Photo via Matt H)
..

HAPPY 40th!

Today is the 40th anniversary of the first broadcast of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood" which as every Pittsburgher knows originated in our fair city.

****************************************************************

In related Rogers News:

While there is apparently no truth to the rumor that Rogers' boyhood home in Latrobe, PA will be denied historic designation due to any balls being dropped, it is true that the trolley in Pittsburgh's “neighborhood of make-believe” was in a snow-related accident last Tuesday (King Friday suffered minor injuries).

City Councilwoman Darlene "I have cameras on my house" Harris told reporters that this never would have happened if the trolley had been traveling in her neighborhood of Springhill.

Upon hearing of the accident, Mayor Luke Ravenstahl declared a surge was needed in his war on snow.

More Strings!

It seems that each day brings a new revelation in the demands being made by the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center from the city in return for their gift donation bribe to The Pittsburgh Promise for college scholarships for city public school grads.

We first learned this week that UPMC wanted a tax credit equal to any monies that they might give to The Pittsburgh Promise.

Today, it was revealed that they will stop making their $1.5 million annual payment to the city for general government.

Neither of these details were revealed in their original splashy press conference announcing their "gift" at the beginning of the month.

Now, 2 Political Junkies has learned that there are even more demands in the rider to UPMC's agreement and we present them exclusively to our readers. These include:

Any and all parking tickets incurred by UPMC vehicles shall be paid out of promised Pittsburgh Promise funds.

All City of Pittsburgh Library overdue book fines incurred by UPMC employees shall be paid out of promised Pittsburgh Promise funds.

The City of Pittsburgh will supply complimentary beverages and lite snacks to UPMC executives. (All brown M&Ms must be removed!)

At Thanksgiving, UPMC shall always be declared the winner of any wishbone pulling contest no matter the size of their respective piece.

12 de-thorned roses shall be delivered daily to the feet of UPMC President and Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey A. Romoff.

Any meeting between UPMC and the city shall take place in an all white room (White flowers. White tablecloths. White curtains. White candles. White couches. Low watt light bulbs.) Coffee to be stirred counterclockwise and 25 cases of Kabbalah water provided.

Any UPMC executive may refer to any elected city official as "Charlie" in a public meeting without being called out for being an arrogant, disrespectful dick.

Pittsburgh City Council members Shields, Peduto and Harris are expected to bulk at the additional requests while Councilman Jim Motznik has been seen helping Mayor Luke Ravenstahl sort through an industrial size bag of M&Ms removing offensively colored candies.

When contacted by 2pj about the other clauses in UPMC's rider, city Chief of Staff Yarone Zober said, "It would be unfortunate if the actions of a few council members have the effect of preventing the class of 2008, those [2,000] seniors, from participating in the Pittsburgh Promise . . . Hey, guys! How are those M&Ms coming?"


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It's official: Jeff Koch is a widdle pootie cat!

As I posted last week, Pittsburgh City Council took their first vote on koi pond-owner Councilman Jim Motznik's cat licensing bill last Wednesday with the final vote scheduled for today's legislative meeting.

The last vote was a four to four tie with District 3 Councilman Jeff Koch abstaining but promising to choose sides today.

So was Koch fish or feline?

As the headline suggests, Koch cast his vote with the kitty lovers:

From the Post-Gazette:

"The ordinance, the way it's written, is just an extra taxing burden on those who follow the law," Mr. Koch said. He predicted that irresponsible cat owners, whose pets are more likely to cause property damage to neighbors, would just ignore the measure.

"If I thought for one minute that this would help control the population of wild cats, I would be for it," he said.

Councilwoman Darlene Harris argued that an existing code provision requiring that cats carry identification -- be it a tag, tattoo or microchip -- was enough.

Hooray for the purty pooties!
(...And Councilors Dan Deasy, Darlene Harris, Jeff Koch, Bill Peduto and Doug Shields!)