[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Today's UCReview ran an informative item about the University City
Community Stakeholders, spearheaded by Sharif Ali & Tony West.
link: http://tinyurl.com/293ecp
UC community stakeholders plan to host public forums on
UCD
By Nicole Contosta UC Review
The University City Community Stakeholders will be
distributing petitions at this week's first Thursday
meeting, October 6 at the Walnut West Branch of the Free
Library, 40th and Walnut streets.
As an independently formed community group, the
Stakeholders' mission is to host a series of public
forums, which will address questions and concerns
University City residents and business owners have for
the University City District (UCD), explained the
Stakeholders' organizer Sharif Ali. For Ali, distributing
a petition that's intended to show the public's desire to
question the UCD's activities at the University of
Pennsylvania's monthly public meeting resonates with a
certain poetic irony. After all, at these monthly
meetings, Penn's Director of Community Relations Glenn
Bryan discusses University plans that will affect the
area "so Penn is never seen as not being transparent,"
said Ali.
And the lack of transparency is one of the major problems
that Ali and other Stakeholders such as Tony West, of
Friends of Clark Park, have with the UCD.
"The UCD's meetings are closed," said West. The public is
kept out of the loop about the UCD's plans, and people
cannot give the UCD feedback.
Ali also took issue with the way the UCD selects its
board members. According to Ali, the UCD asks other
community associations, such as Squirrel Hill, to
nominate two representatives. Then the UCD selects which
one it wishes to appoint. "The community doesn't even get
to select its own appointments," said Ali.
More feedback and communication with the UCD has become
an ever-increasing point of concern for many. While West
and Ali claim that there's been a growing frustration
between the community and the UCD for quite some time,
that tension "came to a head" this spring, when John
Fenton was placed on paid administrative leave after
allegations were made that he had helped set-up a
political rally for mayoral candidate Tom Knox in Malcolm
X Park.
Because the UCD a non-profit CDC with a tax-exempt
status, the suggestion that it could have been supporting
a political campaign caused quite a stir. What followed
were denials that the rally had anything to with Tom
Knox. "This was a community event," contended
Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell in other published reports.
Blackwell was the one who asked Fenton for help setting
up the rally.
John Fenton has left the UCD since the time those
allegations were made, and is now working in Blackwell's
office as her Communities Activities Director.
Through the series of public forums, the UCD Community
Stakeholders plan to address the UCD's mission and
services; board composition and policies; founders;
accountability and transparency, policies and practices;
and BID/NID proposal and recommendations. After the
forums are complete, the Stakeholders will draft a series
of recommendations to present to the UCD.
- - - - - - -
..................
UNIVERSITY*CITOYEN
[aka laserbeam®]
[aka ray]
SERIAL LIAR. CALL FOR RATES.
"It is very clear on this listserve who
these people are. Ray has admitted being
connected to this forger." -- Tony West
"Ray's falsehoods are more sophisticated,
more believable" -- Tony West
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