Brown: Be ready for continued storms of governmental incompetence

Snowpocalypse. Snowmageddon. Even the Snowlocaust. Who would have thought such strong… Snowpocalypse. Snowmageddon. Even the Snowlocaust. Who would have thought such strong identifiers would have come as a result of some nimbostratus clouds producing a little precipitation?

OK, perhaps a lot of precipitation.

Over the holidays, New York found itself shrouded by 29 inches of accumulation, practically halting parts of the city that never sleeps. The series of events that ensued — from accusing the mayor of preferential treatment toward various boroughs to investigations of the city’s failings — brought back some fond memories of the extended break that we had here last February.

It got me thinking. In recent years when Frosty the Vengeful Snowman has decided to take his rage out on some unassuming city, why has there been such a cataclysmic breakdown when it came to fixing the problem?

Blame it on the budget. Following the 24 inches of snow we had over a two-day span last February, former columnist Giles Howard reported that Pittsburgh’s road-salt budget for 2010 totaled $559,640 — a figure City Council approved that cut salt expenditures by about $400,000 from 2009’s figure.

But given other budgetary pressures, why should City Council devote its financial attention to the winter maintenance budget?

Pittsburgh’s legislators have had to devote all of their resources to solving a $1 billion pension crisis, lest the city find itself under state control. A piddly slush fund for snow plows and salt almost seems trivial by comparison.

Struck with an unexpected cost burden last winter, Pittsburgh didn’t put enough of its budget into keeping the roads drivable. Not to say I didn’t enjoy my Winter Break Part II, but there were times when I wondered if the city would ever dig out Oakland.

To compensate for the extra costs associated with plowing and salting the city, Mayor Luke Ravenstahl petitioned the state through the Federal Emergency Management Agency — the wonderful organization that so promptly cleaned New Orleans in the wake of 2005’s Hurricane Katrina — for emergency funds.

Fast forward to May, and City Council was still grilling civil servants on what they could have done better to prevent the city’s snow blunders.

It was a noble afterthought to make the city’s politicians look like they cared. Good for them. What they should have done, however, was give the whole matter a little more foresight. Fortunately for this year, at least Pittsburgh has issued mailings with emergency snow weather plans to apartments and homes around the city.

But much like Ravenstahl last year, New York’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg committed many of the same sorts of blunders this December — a late response, not bringing in any privately owned plows to expedite the cleanup effort, poor planning and no strong leadership from any city officials.

Regarding our handy-dandy mayor’s situation specifically, it turned out that Ravenstahl found himself stranded at the Laurel Highlands — Ski Resort — during the snowfall and his 30th birthday.

Interestingly enough, the mayor has had plenty of all-weather transportation at his disposal in the past, such as an SUV paid for by the Department of Homeland Security that he used to go to a Toby Keith concert back in 2007.

It would have been nice if Ravenstahl had found the same sort of ride back to Pittsburgh when it counted.

With the recent weather and the city’s priorities, it brings up a valid question as to what will happen this year if another severe weather incident were to occur. According to the Pittsburgh Tribune Review, 16 years had passed between Snowpocalypse and the city’s last great snowfall on Jan. 4, 1994.

If we were to ignore the early onset of Northeastern snow storms, a yinzer might tell you that 16 years seems like a good span of time to plan before the city sees another large-scale storm. Why plan ahead?

It’s that same mentality that has gotten Pittsburgh where it is today in many other aspects, now finally purged of its stall tactics to put up more debt to keep the old pension liabilities afloat. It is a practice that dates back to 1998, when the city retired $66 million of debt just to simultaneously issue five new municipal bonds totaling $403.8 million, according to the Tribune Review.

This city prides itself with living on half-cocked plans, its officials looking the part in suits and ties, but really never grasping the true meaning of the tasks at hand, much less a semblance of planning in advance. It’s not so much an individual issue as it is a mentality issue, as several of the faces have changed over the years, but the mindsets haven’t.

During the last hours of 2010, the council passed a resolution, which would reallocate $736 million in parking taxes to the pension fund over the next 31 years — another stopgap rather than a fix. For the plan to work, Ravenstahl and the council must also cut $13 million in spending — which is something they’ve never been good at doing.

With recent infighting between this city’s politicians, it ought to be interesting to see how they handle the city’s funding together. Whether something as seemingly simple as snow or as complex as ensuring financial stability for future leaders of this city, they’ve demonstrated little in the way of real skill at knowing what’s best for Pittsburgh.

Despite our snow disaster becoming a memory left behind in 2010, I predict the forecast to remain the same — showers of heavy snow at times surrounded by consistent storms of legislative incompetence.

E-mail Jacob at jeb110@pitt.edu or visit his blog at thingsthatrhymewithcars.wordpress.com for uncut musings, rants and revelations.