[PRCo] ({[pat's]}) Budget (NOT--Short!:)
Jim Holland
PghPCC at pacbell.net
Tue Apr 29 16:20:43 EDT 2003
Good Morning!
Rendell: PAT Must Prove It Needs Money
Consultants To Review Agency, Offer Opinions
POSTED: 5:35 p.m. EDT April 28, 2003
UPDATED: 6:05 p.m. EDT April 28, 2003
Gov. Ed Rendell told WTAE's Sheldon Ingram
that the Port Authority of Allegheny County must live within
its means, even with big cuts in state funding.
PAT says it's facing a $19 million deficit
because of Rendell's budget cuts. The Authority's proposed
solutions include stopping weekday bus and trolley service
after 9 p.m., drastically reducing Saturday service,
eliminating Sunday service and raising fares.
Rendell thinks more internal cost-cutting
should be done first. He told Ingram that PAT must prove it
has done all it can before he authorizes more state funding.
"We'll send in management and productivity
consultants and take a look," Rendell said Monday. "The proof
will be in the tasting of the pudding ... Before we even think
about restoring the cuts, we're going to make sure they made
the painful cuts themselves."
PAT says it has produced savings and cuts
totaling $116 million over the past six years, and it is open
to Rendell's suggestions.
"We'll show them anything they want to
see," said PAT spokesman Bob Grove. "Certainly, we welcome
them to come in here and give us some ideas.
"We are willing to do whatever we can to
take some of the burden off our customers. We certainly
realize we can't take everything out on them. We've had fare
increases in each of the last two years."
The state House Appropriations Committee is
hearing from dozens of state agencies who say they're getting
battered by the budget crisis.
Rendell says each agency will be addressed
based on its level of priority. In PAT's case, a lot will
"depend on how much cost-cutting they're willing to do," he
said.
A public hearing on the major rollback in
PAT service is scheduled for May 21 at the David L. Lawrence
Convention Center.
Text of above at following URL:::::::
http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/news/2164300/detail.html
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November 27, 2002: Team 4 Investigates PAT Spending
Team 4 Investigates PAT Spending
WTAE-TV's Jim Parsons Reports
POSTED: 6:18 p.m. EST November 26, 2002
UPDATED: 5:28 p.m. EST November 27, 2002
It's your money -- and the Port Authority
wants more of it.
At a time when PAT is raising fares and
cutting service, Team 4 has uncovered some questionable
spending.
The following is a transcript of an
investigative report by WTAE's Jim Parsons, which aired Nov.
26, 2002, on Action News at 6 p.m.
Last December, all 10 people on the Port
Authority's board of directors got a silver Oneida platter
from Kaufmann's as a Christmas gift. The Port Authority
explains that the cost was minimal -- just a few hundred
dollars -- compared to the $29 million it got from Allegheny
County taxpayers last year. But when you find a few hundred
dollars here and few hundred dollars there, it adds up.
It's your money -- and it's going for
Steelers tickets, Pirates tickets, a day at Kennywood Park for
thousands of Port Authority employees, satellite television
with HBO at the bus garages and trips to Las Vegas for drivers
who win the annual bus rodeo competition.
Jan Thomas: "But it's not their money. It's
our money."
Thomas rides the bus Downtown every day
from Collier. In the past two years, her fare has gone up by
more than 40 percent. Service cuts have increased the time she
sits on the bus every day.
Thomas: "I guess my question is, if you're
charging me more money and you're providing me with less
service, is everyone at Port Authority tightening their belt?"
So Team 4 sifted through thousands of Port
Authority expense vouchers, going back 18 months. Did we find
a waste of your tax dollars? You decide.
The Renaissance Harborplace hotel is the
swankiest place to stay at Baltimore's Inner Harbor. A room
here runs more than $300 a night. And this is where Port
Authority police Chief William McArdle stayed while on
Authority business in June.
McArdle spent four nights at the
Renaissance at $347 a night. It was a bit cheaper in June
2001, when McArdle stayed here at a rate of $325 a night.
Other Port Authority executives have also stayed at the
Renaissance.
Paul Skoutelas, Chief Executive Officer,
Port Authority: "At times, we search for lower rates.
Sometimes, we will take advantage of those when they are
there, but it depends on where you are in the city and the
things that are going on. Sometimes rooms are available,
sometimes they are not."
Thomas: "If I need to go somewhere for my
company, we get the best deal around. Is a $300 room at the
Inner Harbor the cheapest one they could find? They don't have
to stay in a fleabag, but do they have to have the best?
That's called being fiscally responsible."
On more than 50 occasions since March 2001,
Port Authority executives have stayed at hotels with room
rates of more than $200 a night. Government Affairs Chief
James Barthen is responsible for eight of those trips, and
twice for Chief Technology Officer Maureen
Last December, board Chairman Neal Holmes
stayed two nights at New York's prestigious Waldorf Astoria
hotel. He took a limousine four times during that trip.
In late 2000, Skoutelas and board members
Irene Kane and state Rep. Joe Markosek traveled to San
Sebastian, Spain, for a week. They stayed at a beachfront
hotel on the Bay of Biscay. They also made an overnight trip
to Paris.
San Sebastian is a frequent destination
these days for Port Authority executives, since the agency
signed a $150 million contract with the Spanish company CAF to
build new light-rail cars.
When CAF executives traveled from Spain to
Pittsburgh, they got a special treat from Louis Anthony
Jewelers in the South Hills, and you paid for it. Holmes and
his wife chose Waterford crystal and an $80 bottle of perfume
as gifts for their Spanish guests.
Skoutelas: "The chairman of their board
traveled here to Pittsburgh for the first time ever. We
greeted him. Our chairman did provide a gift to him as a way
to express our appreciation, as a courtesy to him -- a new
relationship in Pittsburgh that we would hope the Spanish
carbuilder would grow upon."
Thomas: "That's bull. I'm sorry, I don't
want to hear it. I live within my budget. Why can't they?"
The Port Authority says it has taken a
number of belt-tightening steps. For instance, they are not
allowing employees to use vending-machine money on whatever
they want, like HBO.
Again, we have seen a lot of these things
going on over the past 18 months. How much of it will continue
in the future?
Text above at following URL:::::::
http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/team4/1808462/detail.html
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November 27, 2002: Team 4 Investigates PAT Spending,
Part 2
Team 4: PAT Perks, Part 2
WTAE's Jim Parsons Reports
POSTED: 5:10 p.m. EST November 27, 2002
PITTSBURGH -- Depite fare increases, Team 4 found
that Port Authority Transit executives spare no expense on
goodies and trips.
Team 4's Jim Parsons filed the following
investigative report on Nov. 27.
The Port Authority said one of the ways
it's dealing with a funding crisis there is to freeze
salaries. For folks at the top, that freeze probably didn't
hurt very much.
When it comes to top executive salaries,
few public agencies in Pennsylvania can match the Port
Authority. Seven executives there get paid more than $100,000
a year.
Board members don't get a salary at all,
but chairman Neal Holmes still benefits.
Holmes is part owner of Blade Runners Ice
Complex in Marshall Township, which recently signed a $10,000
lease agreement with the Port Authority for a Park 'N Ride
lot. Because of his conflict of interest, Holmes abstained
from the vote on that lease. Holmes also abstained in 1999 on
the $6 million decision to move Port Authority headquarters to
the former Gimbel's building, Downtown.
Holmes' conflict here? Allied Security, a
company Holmes founded 50 years ago, provides security in the
Gimbels' building.
Crystal Hart picks up her bus every day
right in front of the Gimbel's building.
"It's just more money I'm taking out of my
pocket for less service," she said.
Two fare hikes in the past year and a half
are costing Hart more than $100 extra per year.
Parsons: "Is that something that's a
problem for you, an extra $100 and some odd dollars a year?"
Hart: "Oh yeah, especially since my
company's not giving raises this year. That hurts me in the
long run."
Hart said her company also doesn't throw a
retirement party every year. But the Port Authority does. A
$10,000 party at the swanky grand ballroom in the Priory on
the North Side.
CEO Paul Skoutelas even signs the checks
for strolling violinists, flowers and balloons at the
retirement dinner.
"It's an opportunity to bring them
together," said Skoutelas. "(And to) thank them for their
years of service, congratulate them."
Skoutelas also hires strolling violinists
for annual holiday parties at the Port Authority's bus
garages.
"They're to bring our employees together at
different locations," said Skoutelas. "Thank them for the work
they've done during the year."
County Controller Dan Onorato said: "This
would not happen to departments in the county."
"In a time, when you're raising rates and
asking the poorest of society to pitch in more because the
budgets are right, it's probably not appropriate."
When Covenant Church of Wilkinsburg went
looking for sponsors for a youth program, it found a willing
contributor in the Port Authority.
A $400 donation here, a $100 donation
there.
Penn Hills Varsity Football Boosters is
another charity that got recent help from the Port Authority.
In all, we found that in the past 18
months, the Port Authority has donated to more than two dozen
charities, many of them religious organizations, like the
Greater Pittsburgh Community Leaders Prayer Breakfast. It had
a stated goal of "discovering more about Jesus to
intentionally build bridges of friendship between his
followers and seekers."
"It's our way of staying in touch with
those organizations," said Skoutelas.
Hart said she'd rather see the Port
Authority stay in touch with her.
"I don't know, it's a debate anymore," she
said. "Should I drive or should I take the bus?"
Onorato said he recently discovered that
the county controller's office has never conducted an audit of
the Port Authority, even though more than $25 million a year
in county taxes go there.
Onorato saID he plans to audit the port
authority next year.
Note: One of the charities that gets Port
Authority help every year is WTAE-TV's Project Bundle-Up.
Text above at following URL:::::::
http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/team4/1810726/detail.html
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Waiting for a bus is about as thrilling as fishing,
with the similar tantalisation that something,
sometime, somehow, will turn up.
George Courtauld
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James B. Holland
Holland Electric Railway Operation.......
___"O"--Scale St.-Petersburg Trams Company Trolleycars and...
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______Pennsylvania Trolley Museum http://www.pa-trolley.org/
___Pittsburgh Railways Company (PRCo), 1930 -- 1950
N.M.R.A. Life member #2190; http://www.nmra.org
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