Harrisburg City council won’t approve entire bailout plan, only pieces
A meeting of Harrisburg city council scheduled for this Wednesday night, August 14, to introduce aspects of the Corbett administration’s planned bailout of the state’s capital city has been put off at least to the end of the month.
The council meeting was postponed due to continued negotiations involving Receiver William Lynch’s plan, those familiar with the ongoing discussions say.
“The meeting was meant to introduce an initial list, for first readings, on a whole list of stuff connected with the receiver’s plan,” a source connected with city council says. Due to the ever-changing nature of the negotiations, “Why put people through a set of things if the proposals are going to change?”
More details are emerging of the approval process of the receiver’s ever-evolving bailout plan.
It’s becoming clear that neither the public, nor the public’s elected representatives, will be involved in any depth in the plan’s approval.
There will not be an up or down vote by Harrisburg city council to approve the entire receiver’s plan, in an omnibus fashion.
“The entire plan doesn’t get approved by city council,” says a source familiar with the negotiations.
By statute, the state receiver will submit the plan to a Commonwealth Court judge. The judge in turn will hold hearings. But judicial hearings in Commonwealth Court are a far cry from public hearings.
By the state recover act statute, “The only persons allowed to decide about the plan are the receiver and the judge,” says the council source.
Only those parts of the plan requiring the sale of city property, or directly involving city statutes that must be modified for the plan, will go before Harrisburg city council.
The Harrisburg Authority, and not the city of Harrisburg, for example, owns the Harrisburg incinerator.
So city council will not have a direct vote on the proposed $130+ million sale of the incinerator to the Lancaster County Solid Waste Management Authority (LCSWMA).
In authority minutes dated July 22, 2011, LCSWMA CEO James Warner informed his board that the sale price of the facility was set by Dauphin County Commissioners in order to placate the bond underwriter.
Harrisburg city council will only vote on a host fee to be paid by LCSWMA to Harrisburg.
The matter of the refinancing of the city parking garages appears more complicated.
The Corbett administration plans to partially fund the bailout by leasing parking spaces for the use of state workers.
“I think the public does get brought in, but the point is, at what point?” one source says.
Under the Gov. Corbett’s proposed bailout of Harrisburg, it’s apparent that existing conflict of interest and state sunshine laws will not apply.
The public, and public interest, is only an after thought.
