PublicSource (https://www.publicsource.org/category/money-and-politics/)
President and CEO of Peoples Natural Gas Morgan O’Brien has a grand plan for the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority. And, in spite of skepticism from some officials and recent opposition from local activists, he wants you to trust him.
Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration carefully orchestrated how the state would maintain a competitive edge as it helped Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and other entities vie to be the home for Amazon’s second headquarters. Keeping the details of the incentive package close to the vest was chief among the priorities to ensure bids coming out of Pennsylvania had an advantage. Non-disclosure agreements were signed in early to mid-October, before a bid was ever submitted to Amazon. And Wolf’s officers wrote in a clause, reserving the right to keep information about the state’s quest for HQ2 under wraps for up to five years. The governor’s office is fighting in court to not release information about incentives the state offered to Amazon.
About two dozen activists, public officials and onlookers gathered in front of the Peoples Natural Gas headquarters on the North Side Wednesday morning to oppose the company’s efforts to, as they say, "privatize the city’s water infrastructure." Holding signs, attendees engaged in a call-and-response with Rev. Vincent Kolb, a member of the Pittsburgh United’s Our Water Campaign and a minister at the Sixth Presbyterian Church. “Do we want to see our water become a commodity?” Kolb asked as the protesters stood behind him. “No!” the crowd responded. During the event, a few officials gave short speeches and the Our Water Campaign launched a petition drive to gather support for keeping PWSA’s assets public.
New information has emerged about an aggressive push by Peoples Natural Gas to take control of parts of the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority’s infrastructure, a deal the company hopes it can strike by promising to fix some of PWSA’s problems.
Details of Peoples offer — which to activists and public officials who have heard the company’s pitch in recent meetings looked like an offer to privatize parts of the city’s water system — indicate that the company is offering to leverage its capital and expertise to solve Pittsburgh’s water woes. Led by Morgan O’Brien, the company’s CEO and president, and Kevin Acklin, a Peoples executive and former chief of staff for Mayor Bill Peduto, Peoples has been pitching its idea to city council members, PWSA officials and local activists. O’Brien has also courted Peduto, as the Post-Gazette reported in February. Acklin wrote in an email Tuesday that he wasn’t present at the meeting with the mayor or the meetings with city council members as his presence would violate city ethics rules. He said those meetings were conducted by O’Brien and other Peoples staff.
When Amazon launched a national search to find a home for its second headquarters, the corporate giant said it was looking for a site that could offer access to major highways, a population of more than one million people, tax breaks and other financial incentives. Cities across North America, including Pittsburgh, spent weeks and money ($300,000 to $400,000 in Pittsburgh’s case) to formulate pitches that would stand out to Amazon as a suitable HQ2 location. A group focused on equitable development in Southwest Pennsylvania believes it should be a two-way road. If members of the Community Power Movement had it their way, the city would be demanding just as much in return from Amazon as the company is requesting from the applicant cities. No one really knows what regional officials have asked for in return, other than the implied infusion of jobs and development.
Jackie Smith, Ashley Cox, Dan Kubis, Rachel Brown, Adam Clark… The list read before the City of Pittsburgh Planning Commission on Tuesday afternoon included the names of almost 1,300 people who wrote letters to the commission, opposing the development plan proposed by LG Realty for the former site of Penn Plaza Apartments. After more than four hours, the commission voted to approve design plans for the $150 million development in East Liberty. One year following the controversial demolition of Penn Plaza and after six months of mediation between the community and developers, LG Realty presented plans to put commercial retail space, a park and several office buildings at the former site of affordable housing. About 30 to 40 people spoke at the meeting, some of them in support of the project. A few of them took their three minutes of time at the podium to read the names of the people who submitted letters opposing the Pennley Park South Redevelopment Plan.
Do you want to learn about the future of public transit in the Pittsburgh area?
We tend to think voters choose politicians. But what if politicians actually pick their voters?
That’s exactly what has been happening in America, thanks to gerrymandering, according to journalist David Daley, author of “Ratf**cked: The True Story Behind the Secret Plan to Steal America's Democracy.”
It was the first direct action related to Pittsburgh’s bid to Amazon, and organizers said it was the beginning of a broader campaign to push local leaders to make the city’s process of economic development more equitable and transparent.
At times, government may seem like a black hole with little transparency on how your tax dollars are being spent. That’s why shedding light on how the state of Pennsylvania spends your money is a top priority of ours. As we have been since 2014, PublicSource requested and is publishing data on the salaries that state government employees earned in 2017. All told, those figures account for several billion dollars of taxpayer money. Our data includes the agency an employee works for, when they were hired, their annual salary and the overtime they earned.
