Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Council to Review Appointees
[Dis]appointing Authority Protocol
“To the victor go the spoils”. That describes the ability of an election winner to hand out jobs and appointments as a way to reward campaign supporters. It happens at all levels of government, and it just so happens that the new Mayor of Pittsburgh is about to have his say on the authorities that help the City carry out its functions.
We have argued before that these authorities—particularly the Stadium, Redevelopment, Parking, and Water and Sewer—need to help the City with its recovery by divesting themselves of assets that could be put to use by the private sector. Through an auction, potentially valuable pieces of property could be sold and returned to the tax rolls.
We have also argued that the Mayor needed to make appointments that would shy away from the “business as usual” approach that got the City into the current state. Many of the appointments are merely shuffling people from one board to another and keeping a representative of City Council in a slot. While this no doubt helps to improve coordination and communication, it is more of the same approach.
Most distressing on the face of it is that the Mayor has made an appointment to the Stadium Authority, which has not had a stadium to manage since the demolition of Three Rivers. Ownership of the two new stadiums is handled by the City-County Sports and Exhibition Authority, while the City Stadium Authority essentially acts as the final arbiter of development between the two structures. Proceeds from parking and land sales are continuously re-circulated into a development fund, thus ensuring continual subsidy to the North Shore.
The Stadium Authority is essentially a shell organization that was kept in place for the previous Mayor to use to control development. The authority has no staff, and, prior to the new Mayor’s appointment, had the same chairman as the SEA. Simply put, the Stadium Authority’s remaining functions ought to be transferred to the SEA and the Stadium Authority needs to be dissolved. Hopefully, the first new appointment will set those wheels in motion.
“To the victor go the spoils”. That describes the ability of an election winner to hand out jobs and appointments as a way to reward campaign supporters. It happens at all levels of government, and it just so happens that the new Mayor of Pittsburgh is about to have his say on the authorities that help the City carry out its functions.
We have argued before that these authorities—particularly the Stadium, Redevelopment, Parking, and Water and Sewer—need to help the City with its recovery by divesting themselves of assets that could be put to use by the private sector. Through an auction, potentially valuable pieces of property could be sold and returned to the tax rolls.
We have also argued that the Mayor needed to make appointments that would shy away from the “business as usual” approach that got the City into the current state. Many of the appointments are merely shuffling people from one board to another and keeping a representative of City Council in a slot. While this no doubt helps to improve coordination and communication, it is more of the same approach.
Most distressing on the face of it is that the Mayor has made an appointment to the Stadium Authority, which has not had a stadium to manage since the demolition of Three Rivers. Ownership of the two new stadiums is handled by the City-County Sports and Exhibition Authority, while the City Stadium Authority essentially acts as the final arbiter of development between the two structures. Proceeds from parking and land sales are continuously re-circulated into a development fund, thus ensuring continual subsidy to the North Shore.
The Stadium Authority is essentially a shell organization that was kept in place for the previous Mayor to use to control development. The authority has no staff, and, prior to the new Mayor’s appointment, had the same chairman as the SEA. Simply put, the Stadium Authority’s remaining functions ought to be transferred to the SEA and the Stadium Authority needs to be dissolved. Hopefully, the first new appointment will set those wheels in motion.
