The Persing Administration continued to move forward towards the abyss at the City Meeting of 3/24/14, as the unraveling camera debacle threatened to destroy what little credibility they had left. Once again former city resident Drake Saxton probed the murky depths of the bid process with a whole series of questions about both the bidding itself and also the subsequent purchase and installation.
Sunbury Animal Hospital
All pet owners have been in a situation like this, it’s 10pm and “Sophie” came in from outside and is limping around the house. What do you do? Do you call the vet? Are you overreacting? The answer is that it is never wrong to call and ask one of our qualified technicians to determine if your pet needs to be seen right away, or if they can wait to be seen as a routine appointment.
Cameras – You can see Them, but can They see You?
How do you lose $200,000 in federal grant money? Quite simple really. Give it to Captain Persing and the rest of the jolly crew at the good ship Sunbury to fund a controversial new security camera system. Yes, the money has been flushed away. The City is now the proud owner of 52 cameras which can’t see in the dark, and for which they would seem to have neither the IP addresses nor the combinations to the locks on the networking boxes, and the guy who does have this information, and on whom nobody bothered to carry out a background check, is facing a double felony 3 count at Westmoreland County Court.
It is hardly surprising, given the above, that Persing does not want to talk about it. Former Sunbury resident Drake Saxton informed the City Meeting of March 10th 2014 that he had submitted multiple right to know requests in an effort to establish both the present status of the project and also receive confirmation that full consideration had been given to the interests both of local citizens and also those of the federal taxpayers, whose money had been used to provide the $200,000 grant back in 2009. The fact that he had not received satisfactory replies to his inquiries he found disconcerting, and a clear reflection of the way in which our city is currently being managed.
In a nutshell, he was trying to discover who, if anyone, was in charge of this project, how efficiently the camera installations had been managed with regards both to best use of resources and also proper placement, whether there had been any checks carried out to insure that the cameras finally installed were in fact the same ones purchased initially by the simple device of checking serial numbers, and also whether there were any unused cameras or other materials, and if so, where they were presently being stored.
Some of us were lucky enough to attend the Democracy School, held February 21/22 at Apfelbaum Hall, the Business and Communications Center for Susquehanna University, and sponsored by our friends at Shale Justice. Presented by Chad Nicholson and Ben Price of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) the course began on a Friday evening and then ran for 7 hours on Saturday, including a break for a delicious lunch.
Apfelbaum Hall, Susquehanna University
Over 20 people came along and they certainly comprised an eclectic bunch, ranging from college professors to senior citizens and from farmers to journalists to environmentalists. All were eager to learn about the democratic background and history of our country.
Fluoride Newly Identified as Dangerous to Brains (via PR Newswire)
NEW YORK, Feb. 20, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Fluoride joins lead, arsenic, methylmercury, toluene, tetrachloroethylene, and other chemicals known to cause harm to brains, reports the Fluoride Action Network (FAN). Fluoride is newly classified…
Sunbury PA senior citizen Ms. Regina Russell, despite her disabilities, is a regular attendee at meetings of the city council. She is actively concerned about public safety issues and has volunteered to be the voice of people in her local community – people who are themselves afraid to speak up, attend meetings and file lawful complaints because of the ever present threat of retaliation.
Regina with her Car and Walker
Issues raised by Regina are regularly stonewalled by an administration who regard city code enforcement as discretionary and not mandatory – that they can pick and choose which regulations to enforce, and when, depending on whom the complaint is made against and their influence and standing within the community.
