PGHIMC - Pittsburgh Independent Media Center

From the open publishing newswire, donahue writes:

Those who are neither Democrats nor Republicans are being asked to flock to the polls on May 17 because Pennsylvania law makers have got a couple of questions put on the ballot that day.

One ballot question is called Growing Greener II and it asks us if we want to let, "the commonwealth borrow up to $625 million for the maintenance and protection of the environment, open space and farmland preservation, watershed protection, abandoned mine remediation, and other environmental initiatives?"

The other ballot question is called "Row Office Reform." Row Office Reform is being touted as a sort of cure all by its proponents. First of all they call it "reform." Just what is "reform" anyhow?

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Candidates for the upcoming Pittsburgh mayoral election discussed issues related to design & quality of life in Pittsburgh at a recent forum hosted by the Pittsburgh Civic Design Coalition.

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Also, at a forum hosted by the African-American Chamber of Commerce of Western Pennsylvania, the candidates were asked if they would compel police officers to testify before Pittsburgh's Citizen Police Review Board about alleged police misconduct. Mayor Tom Murphy does not require officers to testify. The board was created by citywide referendum in 1997 after cases of police brutality in Pittsburgh brought the department under federal scrutiny. The review board has been largely powerless since.

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The City of Pittsburgh has received a nearly $500,000 grant from the Justice Department to begin installation of a network of computer-controlled security cameras in neighborhoods across the city, part of federal anti-terrorism initiatives that have seen even larger camera networks installed in New York City, Washington DC and Chicago.

Some Pittsburgh City Council members were worried about privacy implications of the extensive camera network, but City Operations director Bob Kennedy shrugged those concerns off, saying that the network would be used mainly for massive emergencies, like the evacuation of Downtown on September 11th 2001, and would not be a "Big Brother" monitoring network.

In DC, installation of a similar network of cameras 2 years ago met extensive scrutiny by local elected officials, who demanded specific criteria for the camera network's use and argued that internal Police Department policy was insufficient. For example, guidelines suggested that police might record over any material after 72 hours, although they did not require that step.

Pittsburgh's City Council has yet to set any specific guidelines or legislation for the use of the camera network.

[ Read More ] [ Post-Gazette Story ]

On Tuesday, June 29, 2004 the Pittsburgh City Council in a 5 to 4 vote made the Municipalities Financial Recovery Act (Act 47) Recovery Plan for the City of Pittsburgh the law. Effective immediately the plan will be implemented wherever it can be. As union contracts run out, new contracts will include wage freezes for city workers along with increased contributions from these same workers for their health care. Also the Act 47 Plan implements a punishment to bargaining units that do not bend over a kiss the boss’s ass. Called a Labor Agreement Implementation Delay Adjustment, it mandates a 1% decrease in wages for each month that a city union does not have a collective bargaining agreement that follows the Act 47 boiler plate. In other words, collective bargaining in Pittsburgh is now dead. Privatization, outsourcing and managed competition will also be the law for Pittsburgh for now on.

[ read more | The Final Recovery Plan | Stories about Oversight Board 6/7/04 5/5/04 3/6/04 2/23/04 ]