“I’m not certain how the city will be served with only three fire stations,” said Harrisburg Councilwoman Susan Brown-Wilson.
It was November 2010, and former Mayor Linda Thompson had just proposed an austere budget for 2011 that included several significant changes to the operations of the city’s Fire Bureau, including the closing of one of the city’s four fire houses, the aged Paxton Fire Co. station in Shipoke.
A furor ensued.
Downtown business owners, apartment residents and Shipoke homeowners all flocked to City Council meetings to complain. The firefighters’ union held a press conference condemning the proposal. Signs popped up in the windows of city homes and businesses asserting that they were with the firefighters (and, by implication, against the mayor).
“I’ve been inundated with phone calls and emails about the closing of [the Paxton] station,” Councilwoman Eugenia Smith said at the time.
By the time council passed its 2011 budget, most funding had been restored to the bureau, and the fire station remained open. Thompson wisely never went there again.
Fast-forward three-plus years.
Late Thursday, somewhere around 5:15 p.m., a press release popped into the email inboxes of the usual gang of City Hall reporters. Mayor Eric Papenfuse, it said, planned to shut down the Paxton station, citing the same reasons that Thompson had back in 2010—the aging fire station needed costly repairs, was in a flood zone and was not essential to ensure the safety of city residents. A press conference Friday afternoon affirmed this plan and these reasons.
The surprise, late-afternoon statement was the second press release that Papenfuse issued that day on a controversial subject. A few hours earlier, he had publicly called for the dismissal of Gene Veno, the school district’s chief recovery officer, as well as the approval of the proposed Key Charter School, which hopes to open in the old Bishop McDevitt site at 2200 Market St.
On that day, he even let leak that he had been called to testify before a grand jury in Pittsburgh that is investigating actions that led to Harrisburg’s financial crisis.
My reaction to these events can be summarized in a single word: why? Or, to be more specific and slightly more verbose: why now?
Since taking office in January, the Papenfuse administration has been trying to find its operational groove. It spent the first month attempting to get acclimated, only to find itself battling with council over budget priorities, raises for key managers and the attempted creation of new cabinet positions. Almost immediately afterwards, it fell into an unexpected controversy over a deteriorating church and, more significantly, the arrest of the man who owns it.
Now this.
What struck me most about the announcements was how unnecessary they seemed. I respect Papenfuse’s commitment to improving the city’s low-performing schools (even though the administration has little power over them). And I further respect his desire to remove the chief recovery officer if he feels that Veno is not the right man for the job.
Papenfuse, however, already had privately urged state Secretary of Education Carolyn Dumaresq to replace Veno. I saw little value in a public statement lambasting him, followed by press interviews that once again placed the city in the midst of conflict in the public eye. Furthermore, Papenfuse has little say in how the city’s schools operate, making his high-profile stance seem like turmoil for no real purpose.
Likewise, I don’t understand why Papenfuse decided to reignite the firestorm over the Shipoke fire station at this time. I accept his word and and that of Fire Chief Brian Enterline that the station is in need of repair. In addition, closing the station, it seems, will result in substantial savings to the city.
Papenfuse, however, set himself up for exactly the backlash that greeted Thompson. Moreover, the proposal was dropped on Shipoke and downtown residents without preparation or warning, again recalling the former mayor. The completely predictable uproar caused Papenfuse to hastily arrange a public forum late Sunday at the closed restaurant, Char’s Bella Mundo, to try to undo some of the damage from engaging only the press–and not the impacted community–before acting.
As to the grand jury leak–as much as I desire justice for this city, that information isn’t supposed to be public at all in fear that it will affect the investigation.
The Papenfuse administration has a great deal on its plate, foremost continuing to adjust to the business of running an effective government. The Paxton fire station is simply not a high-priority issue and easily could have put off for six months until the administration had a firmer bearing and had addressed more pressing issues. In addition, it should have learned a lesson from the Thompson days, taking the time to engage residents instead of potentially angering them.
Harrisburg needs stability and confidence. Residents need to be assured that there’s a steady hand on the wheel, an administration that does not seek out, manufacture or exacerbate controversy.
Our two previous mayors embraced, even relished, conflict and controversy, offering this city more than its share of unnecessary melodrama. Harrisburg now needs sober, methodical leadership, even if that means feeding less red meat to the 6 o’clock news.
