Harrisburg Mayor Linda Thompson wants to end infighting, council leader says
By LARA BRENCKLE, The Patriot-News
February 06, 2010, 12:00AM
Harrisburg mayor-elect Linda Thompson holds Public Transition team meetings.JOE HERMITT, The Patriot-News, file It seems Harrisburg Mayor Linda Thompson and City Council members would like to hash out their differences.Mayor Linda Thompson doesn’t intend to stifle public budget hearings, two Harrisburg City Council members said Friday.
What the mayor wants to end is unproductive political infighting that she believes has taken place over the last five weeks, when she urged moving some discussions “behind closed doors,” the council members said.
Thompson’s 15-minute address to the council during its Thursday hearing over the $65 million proposed budget took former Mayor Stephen R. Reed to task for leaving the city’s finances in shambles and chastised media and local bloggers for trying to “assassinate” her young administration.
The city faces an immediate $3.8 million shortfall and a projected $164 million gap over the next five years, the city’s consulting firm, Management Partners, has said.
The city, which guaranteed $288 million of the debt for the Harrisburg Authority’s incinerator, owes a $68.7 million debt service payment this year.
“I don’t believe [closing public hearings] is what she said,” council president Gloria Martin-Roberts said. “What she wanted to do is sit down with council members and talk about any concerns they had. As president of council, I wouldn’t permit [closing the hearings] to take place.”
Martin-Roberts also said Thompson was “absolutely accurate” in her comments about Reed’s administration. Things were so deeply concealed, Martin-Roberts said, they are just being revealed now — despite the fact Thompson served on council since 2001.
“Some people expect instant gratification,” Martin-Roberts said. “This is 28 years of mess, and it can’t be solved in 32 days.”
What the media should do, Martin-Roberts said, is encourage residents to come forward with ideas to move the community forward, instead of fixating on who is responsible for the problems.
“We need to get over the blame and move forward,” Martin-Roberts said. “Behave like a healthy city.”
Thompson, it seemed, was also urging civility, stating she had yet to “take up a microphone against my colleagues on City Council.”
“We have to show we know how to get along,” Thompson said. “We know how to handle complex crises.”
The Patriot-News e-mailed or phoned all members of the City Council, as well as Thompson’s spokeswoman, Joyce Davis, to ask if either planned to close budget hearings — something that would be in violation of the state’s Sunshine Law resulting in possible civil or criminal penalties.
Davis, when reached by phone, said the Mayor had “no response” to five questions sent by The Patriot-News.
Councilwoman Patty Kim responded via e-mail saying she “was going to pass today.”
Councilman Brad Koplinski said he, too, believed Thompson had asked council to take personal disagreements out of the public realm.
“I’d be happy to talk to the mayor any time,” Koplinski said. “But major decisions about the future of the city should be made in public.”
Kim de Bourbon, executive director of the Pennsylvania Freedom of Information Coalition, said directives to close down communications typically backfire on public officials.
“It’s the true sign of an unsophisticated leader who lacks confidence in the democratic process,” de Bourbon said in an e-mail. “Ironically, it is usually these types of efforts to seize control that cause control to be lost, because Americans just don’t like people telling them who they can and can’t talk to.”
Mayor Thompson’s proposed budget revisions:
* Increase property taxes by 20 percent to generate an extra $2.9 million in revenues.
* Raise water rates by 40 percent.
* Cut overtime for police and fire.
* Increase fees for those who use special services.
* Reduce code-enforcement costs by $150,000
* Cut garbage-collection costs by $100,000
* Have Dauphin County handle the city’s 911 calls instead of the city’s communications center.
http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/ind...thompso_5.html
unbelievable...that's about all i say here. i'm tired of hearing blame, especially on Reed. everything about her administration has been centered on herself, her friends, and not on Harrisburg and it's citizens. it was wrong for people to believe she was capable of this office. i hope everyone who voted for her expecting responsible change, will eat your words! this is going to kill residents, businesses, and the flow suburbanites into the city...especially Midtown.