It’s said that the mid-summer heat does strange things to people.
In the usually loopy town that is Harrisburg, Pa., that’s a strong statement indeed.
The week started out with folks trying to figure out the city’s take from the seven-day Wild West artifact auction, itself one of the more surreal episodes in this city’s (or maybe any city’s) history. Wielding the advanced technology of a calculator, TheBurg’s writer, Paul Barker, seems to have finally settled the question of how much Harrisburg is owed.
The week next snaked to a reminder that, among former Mayor Steve Reed’s thousands of bizarre artifact purchases, one still lies in ruins in a city garage : a disassembled war ship from the Revolutionary War (cost: $42,500 — but, heck, who’s counting when it’s only the public’s money?).
Then, at mid-week, we were treated to a Seinfeldian media frenzy about nothing. Bleary-eyed news humans (including yours truly) were shaken awake by a promise that some major announcement would surface during the early-a.m. gathering of the financial recovery advisory committee.
The media swarm was driven into City Hall by a couple of embargoed news releases from the receiver’s and mayor’s offices. Would a comprehensive agreement be announced? Would we find out just how much the city would get for its cursed incinerator or maybe the parking garages?
No and no.
The usually tight-lipped receiver William Lynch capped off the meeting with the “news” that the city and its creditors have agreed to “stop negotiating against each other.”
That’s it?
As strange as that was, Mayor Linda Thompson, who is a member of the committee, was purposely absent so she could grab the spotlight herself at a press conference two hours later. Before a packed room of local and national media, she gave herself credit, thanked all her supporting players and basically took a victory lap.
But for what? A solution, she said, was “imminent,” but exactly what that solution would be was no clearer than before the morning’s events. In fact, her press conference added no new information from the earlier advisory committee meeting.
Having said that: there was some movement in the melodrama of the city’s financial crisis. However, it was, in news jargon, a “process story,” the incremental progress of a much larger, more complex story.
So, after two years, the city’s creditors — who were entirely complicit in getting Harrisburg into this financial wreck — are finally realizing that they should deal in good faith with the city. OK, that’s good.
We also have a timeline (late August) for when Lynch expects the sale of the incinerator and the leasing of the parking assets to be fully negotiated and up for court review. Well, everyone in the room had been expecting this announcement for months, so the statement that “something’s coming” surprised no one. In fact, the original target date for the incinerator sale was more than a year ago.
This is not to deny credit where it’s due.
Thompson may have made the right call all along in backing the Act 47 process and the receivership. The taciturn Lynch may have been the right replacement for the jumpy David Unkovic. The McKenna Long law firm (along with a few other consultants) may have been the right choice to conduct much of the ground-level, day-to-day work on a recovery solution.
And, in the end, Harrisburg may end up in much better shape and may be able to build a future on much more solid financial footing.
Personally, I think all these things are likely. But, unlike some news people, I’m not going to jump to conclusions. To borrow a cliche, the devil is in the details — and, in this tangled mess, there are an untold number of details that could yet trip up Harrisburg and its residents.
So I’m going to be patient and see what emerges over the next few months. Perhaps, in the end, Thompson will be justified in saying that the next mayor should gratefully “accept the gift we’ve given you.” But, at the moment, that bold statement seems way, way premature.
