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BRT
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| Courtesy of Committee of 70 |
Zack Stalberg, president and CEO of good government group Committee of Seventy, has become something of a mythical Philadelphia character recently especially after the abolishment of the Clerk of Quarter Sessions (CQS) office and the Board of Revision of Taxes, both of which the Committee has long said should be shut down. (CQS, it should be noted, isn't completely abolished yet; the First District has taken over most of its responsibilities, but City Council legislation to officially shut it down is still in committee.)
So, while we definitely take the Public Record with a grain of salt, their recent pieces criticizing Stalberg are interesting for their singularity, if nothing else. The first article takes aim at Stalberg's annual salary the Record reports it's $248, 733 and how he allegedly "caused a meltdown" in the CQS; the second attacks his relationship with the local real estate industry, since he advocates for the abolishment of the Sheriff's office. Sez the piece:
Nearly seven out of every 10 contributors who attended the last breakfast fundraiser in November have financial ties to the local real-estate market, or provide professional or consulting services to the public sector.
The Committee of 70 touts its independence from special interests on its website and takes great pride in the fact it does not seek government funds.
Yet its take from the real-estate sector raises questions, in a city where Sheriff sales have emerged as a major target for the local giants in that industry.
This has become evident with the forecast by commercial real-estate experts of a second huge wave of foreclosures and defaults which will now involve the commercial real-estate sector, including multifamily residential projects and signature buildings.
You can read the rest of the articles here, if you're so inclined. There's no dirt in the pieces, though the Record promises it, but they do leave us wondering: What does labor have against Stalberg? And does it have something to do with Johnny Doc?
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Committee of Seventy. Committee of Seventy said: RT @phillynewsnow: Wait, someone criticized Zack Stalberg? Oh, but its the Public Record.: Courtesy of Committee of 70 Zack Stalber... http://bit.ly/bQMjec [...]
Once upon a time, a sheriff named John Green stood up for financially-struggling homeowners in Philadelphia. While other sheriff offices throughout the land added staff and scheduled extra sheriff's sales to handle the economic housing implosion, Green set up a task force as far back as 2003 to come up with ways to reduce foreclosures and sheriff's sales. (Sheriff Sales dropped 21 percent in 2005 - after changes were put into effect.) Green also called representatives from the national banks to Philly to talk about local constituents' complaints regarding predatory lending, predatory servicing and outright fraud. (This was back before these stories became front-page news.) He told them their policies were draining wealth from the city's neighborhoods and putting other homeowners in jeopardy (The bankers would later tell Congress they didn't have a CLUE what was going on. Nobody told them) The renegade sheriff made the bankers with big bonuses very unhappy because all his talk - and all these rules - cost them money. (I know this because I happened to be the one who talked to these nice people on the sheriff's behalf.) One day, a real estate developer - who had friendly relationships with banks and owned lots of houses and buildings - decides he will be sheriff for his people. Well, there was joy, again, throughout the land. The developer contributed $100,000 to his own campaign - during the very same year the Committee of Seventy was trying hard to get money out of Philadelphia campaigns and politics. The voters of Philadelphia were asked to make a choice. Would they would go with the guy who was keeping an eye on the bankers and foreclosing attorneys - why yes, they would. Green was re-elected in November, 2007 with more than 96 percent of the vote. The people's sheriff went back to his job of saving homes. But 15 months later - the Committee of Seventy - which is filling its coffers from money from banks and attorneys with real estate practices - comes out with a report to abolish the sheriff's office. Now for my question: If you were watching this story on TV, and it was happening in some other city - which side would you root for? I called Zach Stalberg recently to discuss whether COS should 1) accept funds from Seventy members who have financially benefit from policies set by an appointed bank-friendly sheriff 2) Should these members recuse themselves from the decision-making process? Mr. Stalberg declined to return my call. (Now my feelings are hurt) And he doesn't seem very anxious to explain how a non-diverse group like COS can fully represent the views and needs of an ethnically rich and economically diverse city. My name is Linda Wallace. I am a former real estate editor at the Philadelphia Inquirer as well as the former coordinator of John Green's Task Force for Mortgage Foreclosure Prevention. I've decided to start telling the other side of this story on blogs throughout Philadelphia. I congratulate you for taking note of this information. Sometimes, the little guy (or little newspaper or singular blogger) is the first to see the hungry lion. That is why whenever I hear someone yell "help, watch out," I check it out. If we wait until a crowd gathers and reaches a consensus before attempting to assess danger - it may be too late.
So, you know how everyone hates the BRT so much that we just voted them out of existence? We did, and they totally had it coming. But the voter-enforced oblivion doesn't take effect until Oct. 1, which gives the BRT folks the ones still threatening litigation to keep their jobs a few more months to, well, fuck everything up.
Enter local do-gooder Zack Stalberg of Committee of Seventy. In a press release, he kindly asks the BRT to play nice and bow to the will of the people. Here's part of it:
Zachary Stalberg, President and CEO of the non?partisan organization that champions effectivegovernment, said it is time for the BRT to respect the voters and property taxpayers by also: Foregoing an appeal of the Pennsylvania Supreme Courts decision to keep the BRT?eliminationquestion on the May 18 ballot. Working in cooperation with the new Chief Assessment Officer, who will head the new Office ofProperty Assessment and whose initial four?year term will start on July 1, 2010. Ensuring a smooth transition of its assessment appeals responsibilities to a new and separateBoard of Property Assessment Appeals, whose seven members will begin their initial terms onOctober 1, 2010.Given the publics complete lack of trust in the BRT, prolonging the inevitable will only inflict furtherdamage, Stalberg said. Noting that the fallout from the BRT scandals is still continuing, he cited grossinaccuracies in the property assessment system as a key factor in the opposition by 7 of City Councils 17members to a temporary 9.9 percent property?tax hike, which some have said could face a legalchallenge.Regaining the taxpayers confidence will take a massive overhaul of the assessment system and thepeople who administer it, Stalberg said. The soon?to?be?extinct BRT shouldnt force Philadelphians towait until the lights go out to start that process.
Cosign.
Joe Sestak won. Dan Onorato won. Manan Trivedi won (or so it presently appears). The BRT went down in flames. Conclusion: You guys listened to Election Kitty, and we don't have to kill her. She thanks you.
Related: We <3 this guy:
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| Does he dream of BRT data sheep? |
A new and likely-doomed blog series, in which I fuss about the city budget. Oh yeah.
What, exactly does Budget Director Stephen Agostini do? The budget, of course as evidenced by the hours and hours he spends sitting in on Council's budget hearings, ever-ready with reams of numbers and answers to obscure fiscal questions.
But what else does he do, eh?
The answer, apparently, is: a lot.
A recent visit to Mr. Agostini's office confirms that the man is not only in charge of the budget, but also of overseeing stimulus spending and, the great glorious crown of municipal drudgery: fixing the lousy Board of Revision of Taxes data.
Quietly, and even amid the budget hearings, Agostini is leading a small group of people who meet every week, for "about 4 or 5 hours" to discuss the latest in efforts to repair what appears to be a city-wide data crisis.
According to Agostini, the problem has grown far beyond the BRT, since various city departments among them Water Revenue, Streets, Revenue, Records, L&I, and the Water Department have been relying on (bad) BRT figures, thereby creating even more sets of useless data. (As one source deep in the bureaucracy put it, "It's so bad.")
He estimates it'll take a year to 18 months to get it all fixed.
Why has such a task fallen on a man ostensibly busy with the budget?
"Why this fell to me is because I started working on it a year ago," he told me, shrugging.
You have an answer for everything. Go Citypaper go.
Dear Kenneth, Mr. Agostini was given the opportunity to provide his own photo for this blog post, and advised that I'd have to scour the internet otherwise. When Mr. Agostini replied very politely, I might add - that I should go ahead and dig one up, I Google-Imaged the man and found this photo, which is, after all, his public Facebook profile. All that being said, I think it's a rather charming shot, don't you? Isaiah
you used his facebook photo?
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| Pittsburgh Post-Gazette |
I'm a bit late on this one, but the Post-Gazette reported last week that a wastewater pond used in Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling caught fire. Two nearby residents of the site, which is operated by Atlas Energy Copr. (one of whom is already suing Atlas for "ruining his land with toxic chemicals") say that they had smelled a gas odor for days . . . and had reported it to the Department of Environmental protection without hearing back:
Mr. Lengauer said he contacted a hotline for the state Department of Environmental Resources on Sunday, but was unable to reach agency officials because their voicemail boxes were full.
"I tried to call them for three days straight," said Mr. Lengauer.
I've called DEP for updates or further response, since the P-G seems to have dropped the story for now.
One thing that's interesting about this story is that it was the wastewater pond that caught fire. I've had several officials indicate that these ponds (like the one pictured above) are mostly storing freshwater yet I reported on a toxic mud spill resulting from a similar pond last week, and, before that, on an incident of pollution in Clearwater county that resulted from the lining of another waste pit being ruptured.
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