“(but unfortunately, since the PCPC hearing minutes do not include the text of what the witnesses said, that's not readily apparant to those who were not in attendance).”
Karen, You brought up a very important matter for all Philadelphians. Yesterday, I was so livid to read the suggestion that SHCA and UCHS leaders were being "smart" and "moral." But their pathetic scheming seems petty compared to this issue you raise! This Campus Inn struggle has serendipitously uncovered the foundation of the pay to play system of Phila. corruption. I have attended 2 PHC hearings and 2 PCPC hearings which bared the system. It is truly mind boggling that the commissioners of these commissions can week after week approve false records of their official proceedings. These commissions have tremendous power to affect the lives and communities of all Philadelphians. The commissions do not allow citizens to independently make recordings of official public hearings. They claim interchangeably to produce either “minutes” or “transcripts” as the reason citizen journalists may not make independent recordings of hearings. They mask the false records to look like transcripts so that the appearance is that the hearing was a routine 2-3 minute session. These false records are produced by the lower level secretaries for these commissioners. These secretaries work under these bosses 5 days a week so editing out everything that does not support the commission staff goals is a natural phenomena when accountability and truth have no importance. But why do the commissioners approve this system? When the PHC overturned the rejection of its architects and approved the obviously predetermined commitment to approve the Campus Inn, it was obvious to anyone in attendance as it would be to anyone reading accurate transcripts! After witnessing these shenanigans, I read the “minutes/transcripts” from the architectural committee. (Remarkably they weren’t available to the public prior to the November meeting at which the prearranged approval was granted.) Every single bit of important information, both testimony from the development team and testimony from the public, was missing! Every single bit! As you point out, the hour of testimony from the public at the PCPC was completely removed too. The picture anyone would draw from reading the “minutes” from that meeting would be completely wrong. This system, falsifying records, cries out to developers to cut back room deals. It completely shields any agency staff from appearing to be involved with backroom deals as their co-workers do the editing. The people assembled at the November PHC meeting could not know the details of the backroom deals but could feel the tremendous feeling of helplessness under the yoke of a corrupt government. If the public and journalists had access to accurate and honest transcripts, the fact that backroom dealing had obviously occurred would be reflected in those transcripts too. All Philadelphians could see what their government is up to and not just those in attendance! It seems ridiculous to have any hope for an honest responsible government if the people don’t stand up to this system. The Deputy mayor, Altman, and PCPC Director, Greenberger and the PHC commissioners have been approving these false records. This gang style protectionism of their part of a corrupt system needs to be addressed by the people or it is going to continue! Thanks for bringing this up, Glenn ---- You are receiving this because you are subscribed to the list named "UnivCity." To unsubscribe or for archive information, see <http://www.purple.com/list.html>.
