Court Strikes Down Pro-Gun Law, Saving City Some Fees

June 25, 2015 | by Paul Barker

Harrisburg Mayor Eric Papenfuse, left, and City Solicitor Neil Grover spoke about the Commonwealth Court ruling Thursday afternoon.

Harrisburg officials claimed a partial victory in the battle over its gun laws Thursday, after a state court struck down a law that emboldened gun-rights groups to sue Pennsylvania municipalities over their firearms regulations.

The Commonwealth Court, in an almost unanimous opinion, ruled the law violated constitutional requirements that a bill must have a single subject and must not depart from its original purpose in the course of being passed into law.

In its opinion, written by Judge Robert Simpson, the court rejected the argument that the provisions of the bill fit within the single subject of “amending the crime code,” saying such a subject was overly broad.

It agreed with the law’s challengers—three state senators, two state representatives and the cities of Philadelphia, Lancaster and Pittsburgh—that the bill was altered beyond its original purpose when the firearms provisions were added.

City officials celebrated Thursday’s ruling, though with the lawsuits still pending, they could not say precisely how decisive a victory it was.

“We know it helps us,” Harrisburg city solicitor Neil Grover said Thursday. “We just have to identify exactly how.”

The law aided gun-rights groups and their members by granting them automatic standing to sue municipalities, relieving them of the difficult legal task of demonstrating local ordinances had harmed them.

It also allowed them to recoup legal and other costs if they prevailed, leading attorneys like Justin McShane, whose firm is one of the two suing Harrisburg, to threaten the city with tens of thousands of dollars in damages.

Harrisburg Mayor Eric Papenfuse referred to those threats on Thursday, saying one consequence of the ruling is that the city will not have to make such payments.

“Attorney McShane was rather vocal about trying to bankrupt the city through his enormous legal bills,” he said. “I am pleased to say we will not have to pay them.”

Harrisburg has been defending its gun laws against two separate lawsuits since January, spending upwards of $65,000 so far, with mixed results.

A county judge has barred the city from enforcing three of its ordinances, while a federal judge, siding with the city, has voided a $21,000 default that was awarded to one of the plaintiffs.

The state law, Act 192 of 2014, began as a two-page bill about the theft of metals including copper and aluminum, but later was amended to incorporate almost verbatim the provisions on challenging local gun laws from a separate, stalled bill.

Kim Stolfer, whose group Firearms Owners Against Crime helped craft the law and is one of the groups suing Harrisburg, described Thursday’s ruling as “one of the worst examples of tortured logic I’ve ever seen.”

He said the ruling dodged the question of the legality of local gun ordinances, and pointed to a partial dissent by Judge Patricia McCullough arguing the majority left legislators in the dark as to how to amend the crimes code.

Papenfuse, for his part, claimed the opinion sent the right message to legislators. “Hopefully, the result of this will be, in the future, the public will be protected from lawmaking in that sort of last-minute, hidden-from-view style,” he said.

Stolfer, however, disagreed, saying the bill had been well-publicized when it was being considered and the legislature had “overwhelmingly” voted to pass it. “The people of Pennsylvania wanted this,” he said.

New Trash Bins Hoped to Fight Litter, Increase Recycling

June 24, 2015 | by Paul Barker

Dwayne Simon, of the 400-block of Crescent Street, with the city's new black trash toters Wednesday.

Dwayne Simon, of the 400-block of Crescent Street, with the city’s new trash toters Wednesday morning.

Beginning this week, Harrisburg is distributing 31,000 new trash and recycling bins throughout the city, as part of a sanitation overhaul aimed at increasing recycling, reducing litter and ultimately lowering trash bills.

The new bins—95-gallon black toters for trash and 32-gallon blue cans for recycling—are being distributed free of charge to residential properties ranging from single-family homes to multi-unit buildings with four or fewer apartments.

The bins, manufactured and distributed by Rehrig Pacific under a $1.2-million contract, will be handed out over the next several weeks, starting with Allison Hill this week and proceeding through south Harrisburg and the river wards.

“This is going to hold all the trash anyone could possibly need,” Mayor Eric Papenfuse said Tuesday of the new black toters. As for the recycling bins, he said, “They’re rigid, they’re strong and they hold an awful lot of recycling.”

Rehring Pacific is relying on city records to identify where to place the bins, which will be tracked by serial numbers linked to individual addresses. Residents do not need to be present to receive their bins, the city said.

On Wednesday morning, Dwayne Simon stood in front of his home in the 400-block of Crescent Street beside a line of toters dropped off minutes before by a crew.

“We needed these. Very, very helpful,” he said, adding that in the past bins often overflowed and bags were left spilling their garbage into the street. “But these are big enough to hold all the trash,” he said. “With these right here, there’s no excuse.”

The new bins for recycling (left) and trash, on display at city hall.

The new bins are part of an overhaul of sanitation services first contemplated under former Mayor Linda Thompson, after a state intervention into city finances recommended privatizing sanitation to improve results and lower costs.

The city rejected that option, however, and, under Papenfuse, has sought to prove its own fleet can provide a reliable service at a reasonable price.

The city also hopes to encourage recycling with a set of policy changes, which the new blue bins are designed to accommodate. Under the new policy, residents can recycle virtually all paper products, tin, steel and most plastics, but not glass.

(The full 2015 recycling guide can be found on the city’s website or downloaded here.)

John Rarig, the city’s recycling coordinator, said that preliminary results suggest recycling has doubled under the policy, and Papenfuse said his own household had doubled its recycling.

More recycling will mean less trash and reduced dumping costs, although the city must still reach an annual 35,000-ton “put or pay” target at the incinerator or else face a financial penalty.

The city hopes to boost its numbers by bringing commercial and other accounts back to the city from private haulers, an effort that has prompted at least one lawsuit so far.

The monthly charge for pickup for each trash container is $32.34. Residents can request additional containers, but must pay the monthly fee for each one. Additional recycling bins will be distributed on request and picked up at no extra charge.

Residents can also request smaller bins, though the city is asking them to “give the new containers a chance” before downsizing, Papenfuse said. Smaller bins will come with the same monthly pickup charge and can be requested by calling 311.

Once the new bins have been distributed, the city will cease to pick up other containers. Residents can drop off old containers at the public works building at 1820 Paxton St. or can leave them out with their trash for pickup by the city.

In Trash Bill Suit, City Sees Source of Sanitation Woes

June 23, 2015 | by Paul Barker

A trash hauler on the tipping floor of the Harrisburg incinerator. (File photo.)

A trash hauler tips waste at the Harrisburg incinerator. (File photo.)

When a south Harrisburg apartment complex filed a lawsuit against the city last week, it hoped to challenge what it called an “unconscionable” new city bill for trash pickup, one it says would more than triple what it pays a private hauler to provide the same services.

But the city says the suit, filed by Harrisburg Park Apartments, an affordable-housing complex in the 1400-block of S. 15th St., instead demonstrates one of the reasons officials are overhauling sanitation in the first place: private haulers are dodging city dumping rules.

An invoice attached to the complaint, from the complex’s private hauler Republic Services, strongly suggests the company is evading the $190-per-ton charge to dump trash at the city incinerator, Mayor Eric Papenfuse told reporters Tuesday.

“If you look closely at the lawsuit, they put forth a bunch of assertions and facts which would tend to support our contention,” Papenfuse said. “It’s direct proof of the fact…that they’re not paying the city rate. They’re paying the county rate.”

The Harrisburg incinerator charges vastly different rates for municipal waste based on where it originates—$190 per ton to dump waste from Harrisburg, as opposed to $80 per ton for waste originating anywhere else in Dauphin County.

The incinerator does not specifically monitor where the trash is from, depending instead on an honor system in which haulers themselves declare the point of origin.

“We rely upon the haulers to be honest and forthright,” said Katie Sandoe, a spokesperson for the Lancaster County Solid Waste Management Authority, which bought the incinerator in 2013. Sandoe said the authority also reviews historical totals for disparities, which it has not detected.

Robert Hasemeier, a consulting engineer who worked on a recent audit of city sanitation services, estimated there were 6,000 to 8,000 tons of city trash that were declared each year as having originated elsewhere.

Presented with these numbers, Sandoe said the authority has “not seen the type of disparity that’s being described,” though she did say she was referring to recent disparities, rather than the historic shortfalls the city claims it has been facing.

According to the suit, Republic Services charges the apartment complex $2,200 per month to pick up trash twice per week from its five, six-cubic-yard dumpsters.

The weight of the trash would vary considerably depending on what sort of materials are in it and how full the dumpsters are, and without a breakdown of tonnage in the invoice, it’s uncertain how many tons Republic is transporting to the incinerator from the complex each month.

But assuming the dumpsters are only half full, and using an industry estimate of 200 pounds per cubic yard of household trash, the monthly total would be around 12 tons of garbage.

The cost of dumping that amount of garbage alone, and excluding personnel and other costs, would be $2,304 if the company were properly declaring its origin.

A customer service representative at Republic Services referred questions to Andy Warntz, an area sales manager, who could not be reached Tuesday.

Harrisburg Park says its complaint was prompted by a February letter notifying local businesses that the city would be taking over all waste collection and recycling within its boundaries this year.

The letter noted that several properties previously relied on private haulers for such services, but that the city was compelled to reclaim those accounts to meet “trash volume requirements” agreed to in the course of the incinerator sale.

The city must deliver 35,000 tons to the incinerator each year or else pay to cover the shortfall, providing extra incentive to recover lost city accounts, especially if the audit has correctly estimated the amount of trash being improperly declared.

“We are confident the city’s waste disposal and collection services will meet or exceed the services provided by private haulers and potentially save your business money,” said the letter, which was signed by the mayor and public works director.

According to the lawsuit, however, a new bill based on existing city rates would more than triple Harrisburg Park’s current trash costs, bringing them from Republic’s $2,200 per month to nearly $7,500.

The strongly-worded complaint blasts the city’s takeover, calling its rates “facially unconscionable,” “unreasonable and absurd” and “usury.”

It claims the city takeover, if not prevented by the court, would either force the owner to charge higher rent from tenants or go bankrupt and close the property, thereby reducing the stock of affordable housing available to low-income families.

Jordan Cunningham, a partner at the law firm Cunningham, Chernicoff and Warshawsky, which is representing Harrisburg Park in the complaint, could not be reached Tuesday. Ralph Salvia, another attorney at the firm, declined to comment, saying only that the complaint had to be re-filed to remedy a procedural error.

Papenfuse, for his part, said he has arranged to meet with Harrisburg Park’s attorneys to explain the city’s position. In the meantime, he offered his own opinion of the lawsuit, which he says is not the first one that has been threatened over the sanitation takeover.

“There is no merit to their case at all,” he said.

TheBurg Podcast, June 19, 2015

June 19, 2015 | by Admin

Welcome to TheBurg Podcast, a weekly roundup of news in and around Harrisburg.

June 19, 2015: This week, Larry and Paul chop through some red tape and try to shed some light on two rather abstract-sounding projects afoot in the city – the comprehensive planning process, which held its first public meetings this week, and Impact Harrisburg, a non-profit that has been quietly setting the stage for what to do with $16 million in public money.

Special thanks to Paul Cooley, who wrote our theme music. Check out his podcast, the PRC Show, on SoundCloud or in the iTunes store.

TheBurg Podcast can be downloaded by clicking on the date above or by visiting the iTunes store. You can also access the podcast via its host page.

Ad Company Donates Billboard Spot to City

June 12, 2015 | by Paul Barker

A digital advertising company has donated a rotating billboard spot to Harrisburg city government, the mayor and company representatives announced today.

Jeff Cook, president and owner of Advanced Digital Advertising, said the 6-second spot on the billboard at 7th and Forster streets was his company’s way of helping the capital city’s recovery.

The city expects to use the easily-updated ad spot primarily for public safety, for example by posting information about wanted persons, or for informing citizens about street closures, said Mayor Eric Papenfuse.

The spot is one of several that appear in the digital billboard’s rotation, which stands above the entrance to a parking lot and looks over a traffic circle behind state office buildings.

On Friday the city’s ad was a picture of Papenfuse and Police Chief Thomas Carter shaking hands, beside the message “Targeting Crime: A Safer Harrisburg For You.”

The billboard is viewed by an estimated 18,000 people each day, according to the company.

The donated spot, which the company said would typically cost an advertiser $1,800 per month, has no set end date.

TheBurg Podcast, June 12, 2015

June 12, 2015 | by Admin

Welcome to TheBurg Podcast, a weekly roundup of news in and around Harrisburg.

June 12, 2015: This week, Larry and Paul discuss a pair of hires discussed at Tuesday’s night’s City Council meeting and the future of City Island, the city’s gem in the middle of the Susquehanna.

Special thanks to Paul Cooley, who wrote our theme music. Check out his podcast, the PRC Show, on SoundCloud or in the iTunes store.

TheBurg Podcast can be downloaded by clicking on the date above or by visiting the iTunes store. You can also access the podcast via its host page.

TheBurg Podcast, June 5, 2015

June 5, 2015 | by Admin

Welcome to TheBurg Podcast, a weekly roundup of news in and around Harrisburg.

June 5, 2015: This week, Larry and Paul welcome the podcast back from its vacation to catch up on the results of the May Democratic primary. Then, they discuss the raid of former Mayor Steve Reed’s home in Midtown, the latest legal trouble for Councilwoman Sandra Reid and the impending arrival of new tenants on N. 3rd Street.

Special thanks to Paul Cooley, who wrote our theme music. Check out his podcast, the PRC Show, on SoundCloud or in the iTunes store.

TheBurg Podcast can be downloaded by clicking on the date above or by visiting the iTunes store. You can also access the podcast via its host page.

Fitness Studio Planned For Site Of Evicted Corner Store

June 4, 2015 | by Paul Barker

Ivan Black in the retail space at 3rd and Herr streets where he plans to open Next Step Performance this July.

A fitness studio plans to open next month at the corner of 3^rd and Herr streets in Midtown, replacing a convenience store that was evicted late last year after a string of citations and complaints from the neighborhood.

Ivan Black, a personal trainer and former college baseball player, hopes to launch the new training studio under the name Next Step Performance in the remodeled space on July 6, with a focus on calisthenics and bodyweight training.

The space will look like a “typical CrossFit studio,” Black said, referring to the popular high-intensity fitness regime, with lots of open space and some minimal equipment like pull-up bars and medicine balls.

Next Step Performance will fill a first-floor, corner commercial space that has sat vacant since the eviction of the T-Mart, a convenience store that repeatedly ran afoul of neighbors and city officials during the two-and-half years it was there.

The store and its owner, Tika Siwakoti, were the subject of several citations, including for selling loose cigarettes and failing a codes inspection.

Midtown Square Action Council, a neighborhood group, was particularly active in pressing for change from the city and the landlord, who finally filed for eviction in mid-October.

“It was an absolute wreck, but there was something charming about it,” Black said of the space. “I had a bat hanging from the ceiling. I took a picture of that.”

Black and his wife moved to Harrisburg two months ago from Washington, D.C., where he taught classes at Reformation Fitness, an area gym. He also launched Ivan Black Fitness, a website for his personal training services.

He said he was getting familiar with Harrisburg and was happy to “hit the ground running.”

“I feel good about the neighborhood, too,” he said, describing the Midtown location as a growing part of the city.

Black said the neighbors’ involvement in the ousting of the tenant before him, which he learned about from the building’s owner, encouraged him.

“That made me feel good, because the sort of business I have, I need the community involved,” he said. “I knew if I did the right thing, I’d be OK.”

A Well-Spun Lie

June 4, 2015 | by Lawrance Binda

Agents spent much of Tuesday hauling Western-style artifacts from the home of former Harrisburg Mayor Steve Reed.

In early 2014, TheBurg’s former managing editor, Dan Webster, conducted an interview with a man who had virtually disappeared from the public eye: the long-serving mayor of Harrisburg, Stephen Reed.

The interview was the result of months of hard work and persistence by Webster, who, after letters, phone calls and visits to Reed’s house, finally cornered him in one of his usual haunts–a barstool of Der Harrisburg Maennerchor on North Street at about 2 a.m., the seven-term mayor sipping his usual drink of a light beer over ice.

Reed didn’t know Webster and, at first, was put off by the young man’s tenacity. According to Webster, Reed said to him something like, “Oh, so you’re the guy who’s been stalking me?”

But, after some conversation, Webster persuaded Reed to sit for a lengthy, wide-ranging interview that covered everything from his biography (though no questions about his personal life were allowed) to the city incinerator debacle to the Old West museum that Reed had proposed. Webster later published portions of the interview in his magazine, “Local,” a Harrisburg-focused issue released about a year ago. The cover featured a portrait of Reed, grinning slyly, a caption overlaying the picture and asking the question, “Sinner or Saint?”

On Tuesday, I thought about Webster’s story as I stood across the street from Reed’s Cumberland Street home (along with the rest of the media scrum), watching agents haul away items such as saddles, a statue of an Indian, a totem pole and a stuffed coyote. The bounty would have fit perfectly into the “Old West” museum that Reed had wanted to build, for which he had spent millions in public funds to acquire thousands of artifacts.

In particular, I kept remembering when Webster asked Reed why he wanted to build a Western-themed museum in the unlikely location of Harrisburg, Pa. His response:

“Everybody assumes that I must be a collector of those items. I never was. I never was. I do collect stuff, WWII-related stuff, some Vietnam and old books. Just people assume, ‘Oh, he’s building museums related to his hobbies.’ No, actually, I wasn’t. But, in this town, a well-spun lie will trump truth or fact any day of the week.”

In his story, Webster cast doubt on Reed’s veracity by mentioning that his old city hall office was filled with Western-themed artifacts, including his “two prized possessions”: Wyatt Earp’s card table and Doc Holliday’s revolver.

And now we know that his personal home also was loaded with objects from the American West. After the faded, chipped green door opened, the Cumberland Street house spit out three truckloads of artifacts, including a spinning wheel, a whiskey barrel, statues, antique-looking furniture, Western-style clothing, horse-riding gear, Indian ceremonial items and box after sealed box of other things.

The house’s contents didn’t surprise a few of the veteran reporters. Rumors had circulated for years that Reed’s house was jam-packed with artifacts, though, until Tuesday, no reporter I knew had ever seen them. In a 2009 interview, Patriot-News reporter John Luciew asked Reed directly if any city-owned artifacts were inside his house.

“Never have I kept city- or authority-owned anything at my house, other than my pager,” Reed replied.

Luciew also asked about the reimbursement that Reed had requested from the Harrisburg Authority for artifacts he said he had purchased with his own money years earlier.

“These weren’t personal items,” he said. “There were items I had purchased for the archives and museum projects. These were delivered here (to the city) from the beginning. They were never anywhere else but delivered here.”

Emerging from his house yesterday, Reed–the non-collector–told the media gathered outside that the artifacts seized by agents the day before were, indeed, his personal property. He then went on, as he did with Webster, to offer reporters a lesson in lying.

“A well-spun lie repeated often enough becomes almost gospel truth,” he said before the cameras when asked about reports of corruption during his lengthy tenure in office.

After speaking for a few more minutes, Reed got into his car and drove off, saying that he was under a court-imposed order not to talk to the press and, in any case, was on his way to meet his lawyer.

Utilities Launch Anti-Imposter Initiative

June 1, 2015 | by Lawrance Binda

PUCCommissionerPamWhitmerCEOShannonWilliamsCReWBryanGenesse

Capital Region Water CEO Shannon Williams (right) is joined by PUC Commissioner Pam Whitmer and Bryan Genesse of Capital Region Water at today’s announcement.

A utilities coalition is joining forces with the state and with law enforcement organizations to help prevent robberies caused by people posing as utility workers.

The Keystone Alliance to Stop Utility Imposters today said it will work to battle this type of fraud in conjunction with the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC), Pennsylvania District Attorneys Association and Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police Association.

At a press conference at the Capitol rotunda, the alliance also declared June 8 to 12 to be “Utility Imposter Awareness Week” in Pennsylvania.

Across Pennsylvania, thieves have gained access to residents’ homes by posing as utility workers, according to a statement from the group. Once inside the home, the imposters typically divert the resident’s attention by sending them to another floor while they rob the home.

“We haven’t had any utility imposters in our service area, but as part of our commitment to be community focused and proactive, we want to keep it that way,” said Shannon Williams, CEO of Capital Region Water. “Capital Region Water’s CReW rarely, if ever, needs access to a customer’s home without an appointment. When they do visit a home, they will have proper identification, a uniform with Capital Region Water’s logo, and will travel in a vehicle that is also branded with our logo

Williams added that, if customers want to confirm that the staff in question works for Capital Region Water, they should call 888-510-0606. If someone feels unsafe, they also can call 9-1-1.

The Keystone Alliance to Stop Utility Imposters formed to educate consumers on how to protect themselves via a new public awareness campaign with print, broadcast and online media advertisements.

“The PUC shares the concerns of utility providers and law enforcement and supports the need for greater consumer awareness about utility worker imposters,” said PUC Commissioner Pamela A. Witmer. “We are happy to join the participating utilities in this important effort as they strengthen their outreach on safety and continue to build strong relationships with their customers.”

At the news conference, the Keystone Alliance to Stop Utility Imposters unveiled its media campaign aimed at informing consumers about the illicit practices of utility imposters. For example, the coalition’s ads inform customers that impersonators are not easy to spot. Homeowners are advised that before letting any worker into their house to always check for a company-issued photo ID.

“These criminals typically prey on seniors and use a variety of excuses to enter and steal from the home. But if homeowners know what to look for and how to protect themselves, we can not only prevent this crime but also catch and prosecute these thieves to the fullest extent of the law,” said David J. Freed, Cumberland County District Attorney.

The coalition’s campaign materials were designed by Meinert/Mashek, a Pittsburgh-based agency. In addition to television and radio public service announcements, the member utilities will distribute the newly created communications tools among their customers to raise awareness.

“We’re glad to be part of this alliance and help alert homeowners about these imposter schemes. Take the time to examine the ID badge whenever someone from a utility company arrives at your home. Be safe, stay vigilant and if you have any suspicions about the individual’s identity, call 9-1-1 immediately,” said Dane Merryman, executive director, Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police Association.

The resolution also should serve to highlight the issue of phone scams, said Christopher Cardenas, PPL Electric Utilities’ customer services vice president. In those cases, thieves target customers with a false claim they are behind on their bill and will have service shut off if an immediate payment is not made with a pre-paid debit card.

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