PA Civil Service Law Amended

Governor Rendell recently signed a package of bills that will tweak Pennsylvania’s process of hiring civil servants.

The bills amend Pennsylvania’s Civil Service Law to more closely it align with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act. Sponsoring Representative Chris Ross says the state law was drafted before the ADA, forcing some municipalities to violate one law or the other.

Ross says the affected municipalities brought the issue to the state legislature. The Chester County Republican says all kinds of Pennsylvania municipalities will be affected by several changes.

“While you’re allowed to stop someone from being hired if they’re drug-addicted or fail a drug test, you’re not allowed to inquire about whether they previously had been treated for drug or alcohol addiction,” says Ross. “Also, the physical limitations have to be job-related.”

Ross says the new laws were written so hiring civil servants like police and firefighters would still be based on competency.

To Congress: End Racial Profiling

A University of Pittsburgh law professor told a congressional sub committee today that the federal government should do everything it can to end the use of racial profiling in law enforcement. “The use of racial or ethnic appearance as a way to target law enforcement efforts does not help police catch more criminals; rather, racial targeting nets fewer criminals and in the bargain turns the public against police efforts,” says professor David Harris. Harris says the research supports his opinion at all levels, from watching for drugs on the highway to fighting street crime in Pittsburgh. Harris spoke before the U.S. House Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties. Harris says officers need to rely more on a person’s behavior rather than their race or ethnicity. He says all officers are trained to watch for behavioral clues and looking for race distracts their attention. “Police should move away from the short cut,” says Harris. Harris says police also need to rely on good intelligence. He says, “You have to get [intelligence] from the community, and if you are using profiling that targets a whole group, a whole community, just because we think we know who the enemy is, what happens is the community becomes fearful and suspicious instead of trusting you.” Harris says community policing and intelligence gathering is all about trust.
Harris takes his message to police chiefs as often as he can because that is where policy is set. He says even though congress does not set local policy it can have a big impact on what appears in local training manuals and what happens in local training classes. Harris says congress can pass legislation similar to the End Racial Profiling Act proposed in the last Congress. “[A law] that would provide incentives to police department receiving federal funding to have policies in place against this, to have training, even providing some funds for some of that. To provide incentives to move towards best practices in law enforcement,” says Harris. He notes that this type of incentive has worked when it comes to encouraging states to take action such as lowering DUI limits and requiring seatbelt use. Those efforts use federal highway funds as the motivating factor.

Allegheny County Emergency Crews Getting Shale Ready

With two accidents at a pair Marcellus Shale drilling rigs in less than a week many opponents of drilling in the geological formation are questioning the safety of such operations. The same accidents have prompted Allegheny County Emergency Services Chief Bob Full to think about responding to future accidents. When first responders arrived on the scene of this week’s gas well explosion in Moundsville West Virginia they found that the workers had left to get medical treatment. The emergency crews were not fully prepared to deal with the flames. Right now there are no Marcellus Shale wells in Allegheny County but Full says he does not want to get caught flatfooted. He says they have already been looking at training opportunities and equipment needs. Full says emergency response and HAZMAT teams in the county already have an understanding of traditional gas wells and natural gas transmission lines but he thinks it is a good idea to beef up that training, “We will do our due diligence on it, we will learn every bit as much as we possibly can about it.” Full says some of those training opportunities might be best found in Texas where shale gas formations have been tapped for years. The county plans to work with industry leaders when it comes to training and equipment needs. Full says they hope to be able to offer some training to the fire and police departments throughout the county.

Citizens Urged to Report Nuisance Bars

Pittsburgh City Council discussed nuisance bars at today’s post-agenda meeting.

Councilwoman Theresa Smith says she called for the dialogue because she wants city residents to know what to do if they have a nuisance bar in their community.

City Solicitor Dan Regan says citizens must continually file complaints with the Nuisance Bar Task Force. He says as complaints must grow more frequent, agencies like the police and the Task Force will compile that data and give it to the District Attorney’s Office. From there, the D.A. can decide whether to pursue legal action.

Regan says even if there is no court case taken against the bar operator, the state’s Liquor Control Board will take the complaints into consideration when the bar is up for a liquor license renewal.

Smith says even if it takes a few years, communities can see results when complaining about nuisance bars. She urged residents to remain persistent when it comes to these bars.

The Nuisance Bar Task Force can be reached at 412-323-7761.

Responsible Hospitality Institute Comes to Pittsburgh

More than 80 business, community and government leaders from cities spanning from Cincinnati to State College will gather in Pittsburgh Tuesday for a day-long Responsible Hospitality Forum. Pittsburgh City Councilman Bruce Kraus invited the Responsible Hospitality Institute to hold the forum in Pittsburgh. He says they have helped businesses and residents find middle ground in nearly 200 cities over the last 25 years. He says this meeting is about introducing participants to ideas that have helped other communities. Kraus says those ideas include things such as public safety ambassadors, public safety kiosks, clean teams, code enforcement teams and responsible hospitality panels. Those panels usually include businesses that operate in a neighborhood during the day, those that operate at night, residents and city officials. Kraus says this is not about better code enforcement in alcohol saturated entertainment districts, “if we wait for a situation to reach the point that we have to introduce a public safety official then we have failed to manage that problem proactively.” He says the panels will help build, “effective front-end proactive management.” Kraus has been busy since being elected to represent the South Side in beefing up the city’s public drinking and intoxication laws. He says this is not just an East Carson street issues. He says this is something that impacts all neighborhoods with bars and restaurants in every municipality.

Emergency Protocol Changed, After Hazelwood Death

Pittsburgh Public Safety Director Michael Huss says emergency protocol has been changed as of midnight last night. That’s due to an incident in Hazelwood where 50 Year old Curtis Mitchell died after he and his wife made several emergency phone calls over a two-day period without emergency crews ever arriving until after his death. An EMS crew became stuck on the snowy roads during the storm of February 5-6 and an operator asked Sharon Edge if she could get Mitchell to the ambulance 4 blocks away. She said "no" because he was in too much pain. The dispatcher then canceled the call.
Ron Roth, the medical director for the public safety department, says the situation was made more complicated because each call from Mitchell and Edge was considered a separate request for help and information from the previous calls to 9-1-1 was not made available to the operator taking the most recent call. There are three emergency priority categories that will be altered. They are now going to send first responders to all E-0 calls, which is the most serious category that’s usually life-threatening. Fire fighters will now be responding to E-1 calls, which are things like shortness of breath. If any call that’s categorized as E-2 does not get a response within 30 minutes, a first responder will come. Huss says the purpose of this is to get someone to a site as quickly as possible. The Hazelwood man who died originally was categorized as an E-2 call because of abdominal pain. Huss says this new system will hopefully prevent an event like this from happening again.
Also, the Allegheny County Health Department will be thoroughly reviewing the situation in Hazelwood.

CMU Prof: Pgh. Roofs Can Withstand the Snow

Despite the roof collapse of the Rostraver Ice Garden Sunday, a Carnegie Mellon University professor says locals shouldn’t worry about the safety of their own buildings.

Engineering Professor Irving Oppenheim says the structures in and around Pittsburgh are designed to withstand as much as three feet of snow. He says until the buildup of snow reaches four or five feet, residents need not worry about their roofs caving in.

Oppenheim says even the older structures of the city are capable of holding up, as evidenced by their survival over the decades.

He says he advises strongly against climbing onto a roof to extract snow by hand.

The CMU professor says the relatively small number of collapsed roofs among the hundreds of thousands of structures is a testament to the sturdiness of Pittsburgh’s buildings.

Safe Schools Rules Soon to Come

State education officials are rolling out a new set of initiatives they say will lead to safer schools across the commonwealth. Education Secretary Gerald Zahorchak and State Board of Education Chairman Joe Torsella want to establish clear guidelines and mandates spelling out what Pennsylvania’s schools need to do to ensure a safe and welcome learning environment. Torsella says the effort is modeled after the expectations the state sets for teachers when it comes to education, “We set forth clearly what it is that we want, for example, a fourth grader to be learning in math class. We need to set forth as clearly what our behavior expectations are for that student and others in the hallways outside of math.” The guidelines will be introduced at a Board of Education meeting next month. Torsella says he hopes to have them in place before the 2010-2011 school year begins. The officials are also endorsing legislation requiring educators to collaborate with their local police districts on setting procedures for what to do if a student breaks the law while on school grounds.

Greensburg Prison Guard Sentenced

A former Westmoreland County prison guard will serve nine months of probation for forcing inmates to kneel, bark like dogs and sing nursery rhymes. Scott Rogers, 39, of Mount Pleasant, plead guilty yesterday to three counts of official oppression. Rogers was charged in September 2007, two months after he was fired from the Westmoreland County Prison in Greensburg. County officials rescinded the firing and allowed Rogers to resign to protect themselves from a lawsuit if he was acquitted. The inmates Rogers abused were in a unit housing sex offenders and prisoners mental health problems.