today's the day harrisburg

This morning Pennsylvania’s first-ever municipal Receiver submitted his resignation to the Commonwealth Court.  Appointed to the position on December 2, 2011 after being nominated by Governor Corbett, Unkovic has only been in the Office of the Receiver for just shy of four months.  It seems another one of the City’s potential champions just got devoured … Continue reading →

It was a whirlwind. From start to finish.  Notice of press conference at the Office of the Receiver. Soon. Be there, right? Yes, I’ll be there.  Hurriedly getting to the Capitol Complex, to the Finance Building, to a back corner on the 4th floor, the significance of what Receiver David Unkovic was about to do was … Continue reading →

The creditors TD Bank, M&T Bank, Bank of New York Mellon and the bond insurer Assured Guaranty (AGM) said, “Give us our receiver!” And Dauphin County Court Judge Todd Hoover has finally replied, “Yes, let them have their receiver.” This case has been going on for a long while. Originally filed in September of 2010 … Continue reading →

On Friday, March 9th at 4:26pm, Commonwealth Judge Bonnie Leadbetter issued an Order approving Harrisburg Receiver David Unkovic’s “preliminary” Recovery Plan for the troubled capital City of Harrisburg. Accepting Unkovic’s contention that a comprehensive plan cannot be presented to the Court until the City’s assets—the Incinerator, the water & sewer systems, and the parking system—are … Continue reading →

Referring to themselves collectively as the “Suburban Municipalities,” this morning 10 municipalities and municipal agencies filed a request to intervene in the Commonwealth Court hearing on the Receiver David Unkovic’s Recovery Plan in order to oppose the Plan. The Suburban Municipalities are: Susquehanna Township, Susquehanna Township Authority, Steelton Borough, Steelton Borough Authority, Lower Paxton Township, … Continue reading →

In order to help offset budget woes, this past summer the City of Harrisburg applied for a Dauphin County Local Share Municipal Gaming Grant. Asking for at least $2 million, the City aimed to secure the funds in order to prevent the layoff of public safety officers in 2012. In its application to the Dauphin … Continue reading →

It’s a balancing act.  Every day for those of us involved with the City of Harrisburg whether a citizen, an elected or appointed official, a business owner, a non-resident, or the Receiver, it’s a challenge of weighing the good and the bad, the pros and the cons. We’re all struggling with it. It’s the plight … Continue reading →

***The Receiver’s Plan was filed Monday, February 6th. Access: Receiver’s Recovery Plan Let’s talk Receiver’s Recovery Plan for the City of Harrisburg. It comes out Monday for all to see. And the big question is, what will be in it? The Receiver himself has given us some indication on what we can expect and what we … Continue reading →

It’s here. In the public’s hands. The report of the investigation into the Harrisburg Incinerator financings, aka the forensic audit.  Timelines are provided with analysis of financial transactions going back as far as 1998. People, companies, and players are named. Some cooperated with the investigation, some didn’t.  Conducted, compiled, and presented by ParenteBeard LLC and Klehr Harrison Harvey … Continue reading →

It’s over. This phase at least. Six days in the Courtroom, and now the attorneys on both sides have a scheduling order to give to the Court a number of submissions, the first due a week from now, 45 days from now, then another 30 days after that with the possibility one attorney or the … Continue reading →

At a June 2007 presentation to Harrisburg City Council, Andrew Giorgione declared, “If you would ask me again, should we have done the CIT transaction, that one I would have said no. I would have said no. I’m aggravated that we did that to this day. And I was probably as principle as anybody else … Continue reading →

Update: On Monday, January 9th, Harrisburg Mayor Linda Thompson vetoed the 2012 Budget that City Council had passed before the end of 2011. After the mandatory 3 day wait, City Council convened and overrode the Mayor’s veto with a vote of 6-1. Kelly Summerford was the only Councilor to cast the vote against the override. … Continue reading →

I know, I know…..it’s been awhile. A few weeks.  I haven’t maintained the site on its usual schedule. It’s easy for me to say it’s because it’s the holiday season. The days are getting shorter. The cold air. These are the things which slow the business of the world down.  Families and friends, decorating and … Continue reading →

Takeover sits on the horizon of the City’s view. Out there approaching like an unidentifiable ship, hazy and mysterious, but definitely there.  Of course, it’s sardonic to use a ship analogy since it is one Harrisburg’s Mayor Thompson has used time and time again, famously saying, “I’m in control of this ship.”  No, she’s not. … Continue reading →

The deadline for the City of Harrisburg to submit a Consent Agreement to the Secretary of PA’s Department of Community and Economic Development is tomorrow, Monday November 14th.  So far, there have been two public sessions where–for the first time ever–the Mayor and all City Council members sat around a table and discussed solutions to … Continue reading →

Originally written on November 5, 2010, this essay is one-year old. I would’ve forgotten it if the author Paulo Coehlo hadn’t retweeted the poem. I remembered this write-up & pulled it out of the archives. It’s remarkable & interesting that this was the City of Harrisburg one year ago today. The Fifth of November Remember, … Continue reading →

Okay, so I’m doing something I haven’t ever done before.  For the sake of getting a chronicle out of the first ever PA Consent Agreement Meeting as modeled by the first ever Governor-declared PA Fiscal Emergency, i.e. The City of Harrisburg, I’ve transposed my tweets from last night’s meeting. Below is the stream of my … Continue reading →

Within days of the new PA law signed, i.e Senate Bill 1151, Governor Corbett did it. He used the law. He declared the capitalcity, Harrisburg, a “fiscal emergency.” So what’s that mean?  We don’t know exactly. It’s the first time it ever happened. There seems to be two parts to it: 1) the Governor determines … Continue reading →

This morning at 10:00am, Federal Bankruptcy Judge Mary France began the first formal proceeding of more to come in the City of Harrisburg’s Chapter 9 Municipal Bankruptcy odyssey. Judge France opened by saying things are “a little bit awkward in this particular case,” because the Mayor and City Councl have taken different positions. She then … Continue reading →

Number nine, number nine, number nine.  Harrisburg’s lucky number or its hex? It depends on who you’re asking. Last evening, Tuesday October 11th, the State of PA’s capital city voted to file a petition for Chapter 9 Municipal Bankruptcy protection. Immediately afterwards, the petition was filed with the Federal Bankruptcy Court. Right from City Hall. … Continue reading →

In a series of Town Hall Meetings entitled, ‘THE CITY OF HARRISBURG, MOVING FORWARD’, Mayor Linda Thompson is going around the City with a mic, a lectern, costly blown-up charts, her Administrative directors, the Ombudsman, and cameras in order to give a talk on why the City is where it is today.  In a press … Continue reading →

The explanation from the Thompson Administration was a strange one.  Is Brad Koplinski telling the truth? Is Brad Koplinski lying?  Is the Thompson Administration telling the truth? Is the Thompson Administration lying? What’s true and what’s not true? During caucus before the City Council Legislative Session on Tuesday, September 13th, Councilmembers were presented with the … Continue reading →

Hard money loan. A last, desperate resort. Begging, if you will, for money now whatever the terms. Just get it. The Mayor needs it now. To pay the General Bond payment. To pay the vendors from this year and last. To pay the City’s employees.  At last night’s Harrisburg Parking Authority (HPA) Board meeting as members … Continue reading →

Harrisburg City Council is under great pressure right now. From the Governor and the State. From the Mayor. From the County. From the financial world. From the people. In two days, City Council is scheduled to vote on the Mayor’s Act 47, and with a confusing, contradictory chronicle of the Mayor’s Best Plan in front … Continue reading →

Never mind that the Mayor told City Council President that she was ready for the vote on her Act 47 Plan the day after she presented it to Council, she has respectfully given the public time to submit comments on her plan so that she can take them into account for revision. We have until … Continue reading →

The Mayor has delivered her plan. Finally. Of course, she was forced to, by statute. Still, we have a Mayor Linda Thompson Plan after more than a year and a half of her Administration.  An hour late to her own media presentation of the alternative Act 47 plan, Mayor Thompson was seemingly making edits, copies, … Continue reading →

I’m going to have to agree with Councilman Kelly Summerford. He’s right. This is tiring. This whole City of Harrisburg financial mess thing is tiresome, and the Act 47 process has provided no relief.  The latest news of this saga. As was reported last Friday, three days after Harrisburg City Council voted down the Coordinator’s … Continue reading →

We all know that City Council President Gloria Martin Roberts was furious the night of the “no” to the Act 47 Plan. She ranted & chastised her colleagues and the public as if everyone in the room were children deserving of a whipping she was too angry to give. So instead she lashed out in fury, reprimand, … Continue reading →

7/20/11 Update: 4-3, Harrisburg City Council voted not to adopt the Act 47 Plan. Now the Mayor has 14 days to present an alternative plan for Council’s consideration.  In a Special Legislative Session, on Tuesday, July 19th @6pm, Harrisburg City Council will vote to adopt or not to adopt the Act 47 Plan as presented … Continue reading →

On Tuesday, July 19th, Harrisburg City Council is scheduled to vote on the Act 47 Plan as presented. Here’s the Plan: Harrisburg’s Act 47 Plan filed July 8, 2011 Here’s the Summary of Revisions (note: no revisions have been made to the part of Plan addressing the Incinerator debt, only to part of Plan addressing the … Continue reading →

We’ve all been wondering what will be in the complete Harrisburg Act 47 Plan. We’ve also wondered how the Act 47 Coordinator, Julia Novak (The Novak Consulting Group) used the public’s input as her team formulated the Plan and its revisions. While the public has a right to submit comments, it’s within the Coordinator’s right … Continue reading →

Harrisburg Act 47 Plan: On Tuesday June 13th, the City of Harrisburg, PA was handed its first look at the Act 47 Plan designed to save it via the State’s guidance & hired help, the Novak Consulting Group. As we were given the 418 pages of words, charts, can’t-be-determined, and vagueness, Harrisburg residents and elected … Continue reading →

Click links below to read the Act 47 Plan: View Harrisburg’s Act 47 Recovery Plan filed June 13, 2011 View Harrisburg’s Act 47 Executive Summary The 418 page Act 47 document was filed and made publicly available on June 13th. According to the Statute (access Municipalities Financial Recovery Act 47 Statute pp. 11-14): . –the public … Continue reading →

View Harrisburg’s Act 47 Recovery Plan filed June 13, 2011 View Harrisburg’s Act 47 Executive Summary It’s a project. For all of us–Harrisburg residents & businesses, our City Council, our City Administration, the County of Dauphin, and the residents and businesses there, too. It’s been a project–one not yet done–for the Act 47 Team and … Continue reading →

What a week for the City of Harrisburg. On Monday, the Act 47 team of coordinators met with the public and conducted a very underprepared, inadequate  public input meeting. Team captain, Julie Novak of the Novak Consulting Group stood too fixed and too staid in front of the room of City citizens who ended up … Continue reading →

Timing is everything, That’s how the saying goes, right?  It’s all a point of when something happens.  That’s what matters.  It’s the actual moment of an action which determines the success or failure of that action.  Like a loaf of bread baked on a humid day—if the timing is off, the whole initiative will be … Continue reading →

Pro bono publico. Latin meaning “for the public good.” It means to offer professional services without charging fees.  In other words, work for free. Law firms commonly do this, offer their legal services for no charge.  It’s a noble thing to do and part of the ethical code of lawyers. Contribute to the public interest … Continue reading →

Harrisburgonian.  I heard this term for the first time this past week. I’ve always preferred “Harrisburgian” to the more common “Harrisburger, “ but “Harrisburgonian” is a whole new thing.  It means something else. It’s part of a concept of one City resident. In a talk I had with him this past week, he shared his … Continue reading →

This is where Harrisburg, PA—the capital of its commonwealth–is at this moment in time—an uncertain place. What will happen in Harrisburg? What will become of Harrisburg? The City is an ongoing battleground of money, politics, race, and democracy with the latest shot fired coming from the Incinerator bond trustee and the bond insurer. Harrisburg, Pa is … Continue reading →

The Start    [Handout:   #1 The Program] On Wednesday, August 11, 2010 from 6-8 p.m. the public was invited to the Midtown Scholar for an open forum on the Harrisburg Financial Crisis. A panel of experts had been organized to address three components of the City’s current financial situation:  How did we get here? … Continue reading →