Rule #32

In light of recent local events, Rule #32:

Cover thine own ass.

Any incriminating documents that you need someone to look after can be sent to notoriousadb@gmail.com.

Roll Call of the States...

Just a few observations about the role call vote at the DNC Convention -- the only time anyone actually cares about Guam.

Democrats Abroad, apparently, are allowed to split their votes in half. Must be Swiss.

Glad you could show up Florida.

Do the Hawai'ians have to wear leis everywhere they go?

Illinois passes.

Kansas is apparently famous only for being the home of Obama's grandparents.

Minnesota is really, really proud of their women's collage hockey team.

Nobody cares about Norman Maclean, Montana. Nobody.

Hey look! There's a black person in the New Hampshire delegation.

New Jersey made it a point to highlight the fact that they are the home to the Superbowl champions (read: "Suck it Massachusetts").

Everybody and their mother in New Mexico yields the floor to Illinois.

Illinois yields to New York... who hands off to Hillary Clinton, blindsiding Gov. David Patterson. She fades back...

And...

And...

Moves that the convention suspends the rules and moves that Obama be selected by acclamation.

And it's in the HOLE! It's in the HOLE! Do you believe in miracles?!? Elvis has just left the building.

---
Almost looked like a real convention there for a moment... and then they started playing "Love Train," drowning out Nancy Pelosi.

Pat Ford: First Shoe Drops

Bob Mayo posted it first: Pat Ford has taken his marbles and gone home. That doesn't surprise me. The tone of this, what can only be described as, invective, however, is a bit surprising.

Now, I've written/helped to write/read resignation letters before, but this one is pretty good. The normal resignation letter usually follows the formula: [Dear So & So] + [Announcement of Resignation] + [Resignation Effective Date] + [Statement of Warmth, Appreciation or other Acknowledgment of Time Served] + [Sincerely Whatshisname]. It is short, sweet and to the point.

This is not that kind of letter.

You can almost hear Pat take a big old, wet, Taco Bell-induced dump right on Ravenstahl's desk. Here's the short paragraph, by paragraph analysis of this letter:

(1) Dear Yarone
(2) I resign, but expect to be paid through the end of the year.
(3) Bob O'Connor was great.
(4) I'm a victim of Luke Ravenstahl's suckiness.
(5) You and Luke suck.
(6) You suck.
(7) You and this town obviously don't appreciate my awesomeness. Eat shit and die.
(8) Sincerely, etc..

I'm sure we'll be parsing, analyzing, and otherwise dissecting this letter in the days/weeks/months to come. My gut reaction is that the No. 2 which Pat so dramatically left is going to really hit the fan sometime soon. I would not be surprised if, with no bridges left to burn, he's going to take this opportunity to take somebody down with him, whether that's folks over at the URA, Yarone Zober, or even the Mayor himself. Pat has given the slobering mob some tasty morsels, which someone needs to take a closer look at. It will be interesting... especially if Ford turns into John Dean III.

Still, let's be fair here: there are plenty of dirty deeds left to be uncovered, and just because Ford fell on is sword as a martyr, does not mean that he is a saint and the rest of the administration is full of sinners.

What this all does illuminate is what seems to be a fractured administration being run by a guy who's not smart enough to realize how clever he's not. There's obviously tension between Ford and Zober, Ravenstahl and Ford, and Zober and Ravenstahl... Lord only knows how the rest of the Mayor's Office or any of the other City Departments line up on this fault lines (if there are only 3 of them, that is).

[As a side note: isn't Luke in Denver with Yarone this week? Isn't it convenient that Pat would drop this bomb with no one in town to rebut any charges?]

Getting back to the resignation, however, I find it preposterous that Pat ever thought he could return to the head of the URA. Even before this letter, Pat had lost valuable political capital and was increasingly becoming a liability to the Mayor. The Administration, however, dragged its feet on bringing down the axe on Ford, which allowed him to get in the first, angry strike.

I can believe that the current Administration was "interfering" with Ford while he was at the Housing Authority and the URA, but I'm sure that Ford's apparent aggressive and confrontational management style did not help matters much... and neither did some ridiculously stupid, public statements made by his camp in the last few weeks.

In the P-G report, Pat's lawyer did throw out the whole recent controversy over URA contracts to an engineering as "evidence" of corruption at the highest level. I think that's a bit of a red herring, especially considering it was a decision that was made, conveniently, while Pat was unavailable to make that decision. If there is an underlying culture of deception, Ford would have to be up to his neck in it, otherwise he's admitted to being deaf, dumb, blind, and stupid... or at least wholly unethical.

Stay tuned...

Pushing an Elephant up the Stairs

When you've been involved in a State Ethics Investigation about whether you've traded gifts for influence, the last thing you want to do is send out a request soliciting money to help pay for your legal bills on the matter:

Pat Ford, the city development czar who has been on paid leave since April during an ethics investigation, and his wife are reaching out to friends -- including developers who have worked with Mr. Ford -- for help with his legal bills...

Ms. Sirk's e-mail says Mr. Ford is in the "fight of his life" and "he is committed to restoring his good name, his career, and the cooperative and productive relationships that he enjoyed with Pittsburgh's development community."

After saying that a confidential defense fund has been set up with Mr. Ford's attorney, she wrote, "I am contacting you because I know that you have worked with Pat in the past and appreciate how much he has given to our City. Pat wants what each of us wants, which is to move forward and get back to work."

Mr. Ford's attorney, Lawrence Fisher, said the fund was launched in June and has received "an outpouring of support." Neither he nor Ms. Sirk would identify who has given to the fund or how much is in it.

Asked if she was asking developers who work with the city for money, Ms. Sirk said via e-mail that the appeal "was a personal e-mail to friends. I never intended for the media to obtain a copy..."

Don't know what to say to all that. I'm seriously dumbfounded. I'm beginning to get the feeling that this whole sordid saga is just an Andy Kaufmann-esque meta joke about local government, because that seems to be the only justifiable and reasonable answer to this level of shenanigans.

I can't understand why anybody thought this was a good idea. Receiving gifts from friends was what got everyone in trouble in the first place... and why would you put the request in writing, where it can be easily copied, pasted, and distributed with a few quick clicks of a mouse?

I can only assume that Ford or Zober or Ferlo or somebody has something on the Mayor (hookers, blow, live boy, dead girl, etc.). That's the only other explanation for such cajones, outside of an intergender wrestling championship send up.

Special Announcement

I am Obama's VP pick.

Please tell the media, so they can stop pestering Joe, Evan, and Tim.

-O

Business Casual Friday

Because it's too long until St. Patrick's Day...



(Try not to look at Shane MacGowan's teeth.)

If it's Brown, Flush it Down

Saw this in the P-G this afternoon:

Former city councilman Len Bodack Jr. has left the boardroom of the Pittsburgh Water & Sewer Authority for its payroll.

Mr. Bodack has been hired to a $56,000 job as maintenance supervisor at the agency, after serving on its board of directors as a city councilman. He resigned from the PWSA board (which is appointed by Mayor Luke Ravenstahl) after applying for the position this month.

He had been council's District 7 representative for four years before being beaten in the Democratic primary by Patrick Dowd last year, and lost a three-way primary battle for a state House seat this year.

Before joining council Mr. Bodack served as operations director for his father -- a former state senator and head of the county's Democratic Party -- and ran an auto repair shop.

So, really this is a step up for Bodack, considering his past experience in human excrement. Although, I suppose if your goal was a do nothing job, your choices were either PWSA or running for City Council again.

However, don't most organizations frown on moving from the Board of Directors to employee?

Intercepted Messages

Through our contacts in the Mexican embassy, we intercepted the following message, apparently originating in Germany:

Wir beabsichtigen, beginnt am dreiundzwanzigsten August unsere sechste jährliche Hothouse Veranstaltung in den oberen Stockwerken der Union Trust Building in Downtown Pittsburgh. Die Veranstaltung dient als Bühne zu präsentieren, welche einige der innovativen Projekte und Führer der aufstrebenden Gemeinde erfolgreichen Initiativen unterstützt durch Sprout im vergangenen Jahr. Die Siedlung im Detail ist links auf unserer Website. Sie informieren die Bürgerinnen und Bürger die meisten heimlich so bald wie möglich zu gestalten. Bitte rufen Sie an alle Aufmerksamkeit auf die Tatsache, dass das Ereignis erzeugt eine unglaubliche Chance für den breiten Querschnitt von Pittsburgh's geschäftliche und gesellschaftliche Kreise, die zusammen kommen jedes Jahr zur Unterstützung Sprout-Mission zu treffen und vermischen. Unterzeichnet - ZIMMERMANN

Not sure what it means, but I've alerted President Wilson.

3-2-1 Contracts

Saw this in the Trib, which a couple people are commenting on. Let me pull out something a bit disingenuous from Jeremy Boren:

Matthew McTish, president of the company that bears his surname, gave $10,000 to Ravenstahl's campaign in December 2006. It is one the few five-digit contributions the mayor received between September 2006 and December 2007, the latest campaign records available.

Six Wilbur Smith executives, including company president Hollis Walker Jr., gave Ravenstahl a combined $7,500 between January and October last year, the records show. Wilbur Smith won three engineering consultant contracts worth $1.12 million in 2007.

The folks over at 414 Grant Street go a little further:

The head of the engineering firm McTish, Kunkel & Associates that, according to yesterday's Tribune Review article, won a URA bid for work at the Technology Center after being the highest bidder gave a $1,000 campaign contribution to URA Board Member and PA State Senator Jim Ferlo on March 9, 2008. It should also be noted that Senator Ferlo also happens to be URA Board Chairman Yarone Zober's former boss.

Of course, no mention is made of Trumbull's contributions to anyone... probably because they slyly run their contribution through their own political action committee, TC PAC... and, of course, that PAC gave generously to CAPAC (Constructors Association PAC), along with such names you might recognize like Ferlo, DeWeese, Roddey, Frankel, Stevenson, Orie, Wheatley, etc.

So, without delving into more specific records, I find it hard to believe that somehow Trumbull missed the payment on their yearly bribe to the Ravenstahl Administration and was, therefore, "disqualified" from the bid in question. There's plenty of money floating around, so this is just a red herring.*

The other error, speaking as a Bureaucrat, is that the general public somehow erroneously believes that contracts should go to the lowest bidder. That's just plain stupid.

Contracts are supposed to go to the lowest responsible bidder, to use the jargon. *I* could have bid on this contract and I could have said that I could have done it for $1, but only an idiot would have accepted my bid, based on the fact that I have little or no experience in road paving, utility line relocation, or landscaping. The result would have been me out in the middle of Second Avenue with a pick axe and a shovel, trying to avoid the on-coming traffic. I would not have been a responsible bidder.

Still, there's more than just experience.

Some of you may recall back in the 90s when Sala Udin tried to mandate that a certain percentage of work that was done with City money be given to contractors from the City of Pittsburgh. While that decision was defeated, if it had passed, the above referenced contract would have had to have gone to the contractor (all other things being equal) to the contractor that was from the City. If two of the contractors had no representation from the City whatsoever, the URA would have had to have given the contract to the remaining contractor, even if the cost was higher. Again, those who fail to meet this threshold would not have been a responsible bidder.

Finally, Zober, insisting that the URA move away from using the same firms repeatedly, shows, what I would consider, a lack of knowledge regarding the practicalities of public bids. The public bid process, of course, requires some initial effort on the part of the bidder; there is always an up front hurdle in getting your foot in the door. Once you go through the public process, as it is with nearly any process, you know what to expect for next time and you can refine your proposal so that you do better next time.

Of course, if you either (a) decide that this is too much work or (b) repeatedly can't make the grade, you'll probably give up, leaving the contracts to folks who are willing to work through the process and fulfill the qualifications of a responsible bid. Success, in this case, begets success... unless Zober is comfortable with using failure.

I appreciate Mr. Boren, et. al.'s attempt at controversy, but sadly, I think there's less going on here than meets the eye.

Sort of like a reverse Transformer.

---
* Like Communism, Mr. Green.

ADB Reads Craigslist So You Don't Have To

Saw this on Craigslist:

$13,000,000 100 year-old Government Office Building

Barely renovated, 14 half baths.
Comes with own Housing and Redevelopment Authorities, Building Inspection, Planning, and Fire Departments.

OK, maybe not on Craigslist, per se.

I'm having difficulty trying to figure out the logic of selling that building, so bear with me.

I'm assuming that the URA or the City owns the building out right, so there's no outstanding debt on it.* I would also assume that that means that nobody's really paying rent to be in the building, so a sale means that the occupants would have to either (a) have to find new, cheaper space or (b) start ponying up some dough.

I'm also, also assuming that the City/URA can't collect any tax benefits on the depreciation of the building or any of the systems. So, like GE Capital does, it may make sense from a market perspective to have a private owner reap the benefits of owning a building and improvements.

Obviously, the building is tax exempt, so the City/County/School District is missing out on about $163,000 in taxes/year, although only $77,000 of that would go to the City's coffers. That works out to about a value of $1.1 million over thirty years, at a 5% interest rate.

According to the P-G, it costs about $12/square foot to maintain the building,** so the trade off for the Municipality would be that it would have to start paying rent and improvement costs to a private owner now... which, according to the underlying assumption, should be less than $12/sq. ft. That's doesn't really seem reasonable if you think a private company is supposed to, you know, make money off of the building.

Now, I don't know much about Real Estate, but I do know that the Union Trust Building has sat vacant for a long time. I would consider this a comparable building to 200 Ross Street, for lack of a better example at hand. I'm inferring from this that there is, in fact, a high vacancy rate for this kind of office space. I would question, therefore, what the demand to purchase this kind of building would be.

I guess you could boot out HACP/URA/City and turn the whole building into residential condos, but, with the exception of maybe Cyril Wecht, who really wants to spend more time in that part of town than they have to? Ross Street is not exactly the center of Pittsburgh nightlife.

Maybe the sale has something to do with that new, proposed hotel across the street? Is someone trying to get a sweet deal?***

Intuitively, I don't see any real interest in 200 Ross Street and I'm not convinced that the City will be netting any money from its sale and that the net value of the deal is going to be close to zero. That leads me to believe that this is either a feel good, "look-at-us-we're-trying-to-return-publicly-owned-properties-to-the-tax-roles" proposal from the folks in the City-County Building or a cynical "look-at-us-we're-trying-to-return-publicly-owned-properties-to-the-tax-roles-before-an-election-year" proposal from the folks in the City-County Building.

---
* I mean, if you can't pay off your loans in 56 years, you're probably Bernardo Katz.

** Although, having been down in that building one or two times, I kind of wonder if someone isn't scrimping on the repairs; 12/sq. ft. doesn't sound like enough money.

*** Not that we're implying that anyone would ever do something like this in Pittsburgh, and we will gladly admit that we're grasping at straws here, but this is really the only other new building that's occurring in that part of town since they built the PNC building on First Avenue.