Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Accountability and Public Spending
Friday, April 2nd, 2010
Recently there has been a trend towards increasing accountability and transparency in the government spending of public money. Citizens are demanding more information from local, state and the national government about how public tax dollars are being spent.
A New American City article documents some of the most recent developments in transparency in government spending, not just throughout the United States, but internationally as well. From New York City to the Philippines, people are demanding the right to open records and are looking for new methods of keeping an eye on the destination of their tax dollars.
Read the New American City Article
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Purchasing Power in Local Government
Tuesday, March 30th, 2010
The Local Government Academy is offering a course on the legal and ethical obligations of local government to follow proper purchasing procedures. The program, called Purchasing Power!, will review the basic purchasing rules for local government, and also information about competitive bidding, emergency purchasing and special purchasing requirements. This program is being offered free of charge to all officials and employees of municipalities that have been designated as Act 47, fiscally distressed.
Visit the website for more information.
Developing and enforcing purchasing guidelines is beneficial for taxpayers, and works to ensure that taxpayer money is spent wisely and efficiently. It is important to have a transparent system that allows everyone the opportunity to bid, and such systems ultimately save money for local governments.
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A New Snow Removal System for Pittsburgh
Thursday, February 11th, 2010
As the City of Pittsburgh continues to recover from record amounts of snow, many are already beginning to discuss a revamping of the City’s snow removal system for the future.
Earlier this week, Carnegie Mellon University President Jerry Cohon offered to City Council the support of CMU students, faculty and staff to help Pittsburgh create a new winter weather operations plan. While many other cities pay large amounts of money for new operations systems, CMU has offered to design and create a new system free of cost. This new system will become a model for other cities around the country to follow. In addition to this, Councilwoman Natalia Rudiak will be leading a task force that will review the City’s response to the recent storms. Councilman Bill Peduto will begin working with Councilwoman Rudiak, Public Works Committee Chair Councilman Bruce Kraus and CMU to create this new operations system.
In order for this system to be successful it must be a result- based operation plan, in which goals and timelines are set and allow for more accountability. It also must rely on computer software to determine the most effect route system, which you can read about here. Also, it should utilize GPS technology in snow plows so that residents may track the removal progress in real-time online. Read more about Howard County, Maryland’s GPS system here, and see the map here. We must create an outcome-based budgeting process to reward results and enforce accountability, and we need to calculate the size of the worker and equipment force necessary to clear snow within 48 hours.
Learn more about these efforts:
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
WTAE
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Bringing Transparency to Government
Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009
Yesterday, City Councilman Bill Peduto and City Controller Michael Lamb announced that a reform package to bring transparency to City Government, which was passed by City Council in May, will take effect on January 1st, 2010.
“It was a historic day for Pittsburgh when City Council passed the reform package in May,” said Councilman Peduto. “The changes that Controller Lamb and I are implementing are an important step in ending pay-to-play politics in Pittsburgh.”
Controller Lamb and Councilman Peduto have been working for the past 7 months to create a user-friendly system that will make the City of Pittsburgh government more transparent and accessible to all. The new tools for transparency will include lobbyist registration, the disclosure of lobbyists on all RFP responses, and a new searchable dataset of all campaign donations.
View the Searchable Database of all City Government Contracts
Frequently Asked Questions About Lobbyist Registration
View the Lobbyist Registration Form
Campaign Finance Reform Frequently Asked Questions
No Bid Contracts Reform Frequently Asked Questions
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The Universities Strike Back
Saturday, December 12th, 2009
On Friday, December 11, 2009 the Pittsburgh Council of Higher Education put out the following letter to Mayor Ravenstahl. Among many important points, the PCHE stated AGAIN that there can be no negotiations until the Education Tax is taken from the table.
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City’s State Senators Call on Local Non-Profits to Commit to $6 Million Annual Contributions
Wednesday, December 9th, 2009
State Senators Jay Costa, Jim Ferlo and Wayne Fontana wrote to non-profit organizations asking for a $6 million dollar payment per year to the City of Pittsburgh in lieu of taxes.
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Mayor Offers Counter Budget Proposal
Thursday, December 3rd, 2009
On Wednesday afternoon, Mayor Ravenstahl offered this alternative budget to the Oversight Board.
Many of the recommendations from Controller Lamb and Councilman Peduto were adopted by the Mayor as part of his new proposal. The notion of an Education Tax to balance the books in 2010 was taken out of the budget, but the Mayor still intends to pursue the idea and five members of City Council still support him.
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Act 47 Has Weighed in on the Budget Crisis
Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009
Act 47 appears to support the Peduto/Lamb alternative. Read the letter, and the Peduto/Lamb alternative below.
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Your Libraries
Wednesday, November 18th, 2009
Update: The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh has responded – read the response.
Today, Pittsburgh City Council will hold a preliminary vote on the legislation introduced by Council President Shields that would give the Carnegie Libraries of Pittsburgh $600,000 this year. This funding is contingent on the CLP agreeing to keep all library branches open and also opening their books, and will be a temporary solution to continue to keep all library branches open in Pittsburgh. The final vote will be held next Tuesday. It is imperative that City Council take action before the library board meets to vote on the issue in December.
View Council President Sheilds’ Legislation
Please contact City Hall and voice your support for keeping Pittsburgh’s libraries open!
State Representative Chelsa Wagner and State Senator Jay Costa have promised to match these funds from Council to keep these libraries open in the short term. Next, we must work to find a long term solution to ensure that all Pittsburgh libraries remain open. CLP must also examine its budget to make sure that all money is being spent wisely.
Read a Letter from State Representative Chelsa Wagner
Read a Letter from State Senator Jay Costa
Read a Letter from State Senator Wayne Fontana
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Big Brother is NOT Watching
Thursday, October 22nd, 2009
On Tuesday, Councilman Bill Peduto introduced legislation to change the process through which a supervisor may access a city employee’s emails.
Under the proposed legislation, officials would need to go through a 6-step process, including obtaining the approval of both the city solicitor and the director of City Information Systems, in order to access a city employee’s email account. The employee would also have to be notified that their email had been accessed.
City employees currently receive a pop-up window notification when signing onto their computers which warns that information on that computer may be accessed by a third party.
Read more about this initiative:
Pittsburgh Officials to Propose Email Safeguards – Pittsburgh Tribune Review
Peduto Wants New City Email Rules – DUQ News
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