Pittsburgh, PA – Launching his campaign in a bid for Pittsburgh’s City
Council District 1 seat, North Side Democratic candidate & 9-1-1 Dispatcher Dave Schuilenburg announces today the first in a series of commitments aimed at reducing the size & cost of local government, and raising much needed funds for neighborhood oriented initiatives. In contrast to a recent surge of sudden selective spending by Council Member Darlene Harris, Mr. Schuilenburg’s initiative is geared at assuring all neighborhood groups across the district, and the North Side as a whole, get a fair & equitable portion of non-profit funding available.

Specifically, Mr. Schuilenburg’s plan entails the planning & organizing of a North Side Socio-Economic Summit as soon as possible, bringing together all the partners who will ultimately impact the direction of the North Side’s future, those being elected officials from all levels of government, non-profit advocacy groups, neighborhood groups & leaders, and prominent community activists. The summit would provide a public forum for all participants to openly discuss the issues affecting the various neighborhoods, to elaborate on possible solutions to those problems, and to prioritize how any potential public assistance can be brought to help the grassroots organizations in improving the quality of life in their respective neighborhoods.

The key feature of this commitment is in the fact that once a list of
priorities has been established & agreed to by all parties, any municipal non-profit spending on the part of Schuilenburg would be allotted in conjunction & accordance with the said plan, with exception to any unforeseen emergencies. Schuilenburg equates such a plan to an Urban Master Plan many cities have implemented, with exception that, in this case, the emphasis would be in empowering the grassroots neighborhood groups.

“The benefits in an elaborated “planned public course of action”, which includes the input of all partners, is invaluable. Primarily, it takes the onus off of government, no matter what level, to perform the actual hard labor / physical action required in many of the solutions, and passes the responsibility of such on to the groups who have demonstrated that they are in a better position of delivering the type of results sought. Furthermore, in many cases, many of these groups already perform background leg work, including in many cases, locating specific & specialized sources of government funding for their projects. Often times, though, applications for such funding by neighborhood groups face many political hurdles, such as being ‘stalled’ in a legislative committee. With a public plan in place,
however, elected officials can no longer cry “plausible deniability” when it comes to knowledge of the sources & access to funding; and more importantly, by allocating funding to groups in accordance to such minimizes potential skepticism where as it regards political favoring.”

Whereas it concerns finding additional funds to help North Side neighborhood groups, as the sole challenger to Harris for Democratic Party’s Endorsement for the seat, Mr. Schuilenburg has offered to take a voluntary temporary salary cut to that of the national average of approximately $39,000 should he be elected. He has offered to do so until the city is out of State Oversight, and would redirect the difference to the neighborhood groups within his district during that time.

“It is unfathomable for our elected officials to state in one voice that
citizens must accept concessions in service, but in another accept pay raises while the city is, for all intents & purposes, in bankruptcy. More y while on one hand they are asking non-profits to give more, our elected officials on the other are not doing their share, often times imprudently spending money wastefully on items such as smoke eaters! The time has come for our leaders to put their wallets where their mouths are, and do their share in cutting their spending. It goes to the heart of their credibility, and to reestablishing trust the citizens should have in those they elect. As such, I challenge any other candidate in any other city council race, be it the incumbent or a challenger, to make the same temporary pay cut commitment.”

Whereas it concerns responding to Ms Harris’ recent personal attack on him, upon where she stated that “he lacks understanding on how City Council works”, Mr. Schuilenburg refuses to be drawn into her petty political bickering games she brought with her from her days on the school board, and would prefer to stick to discussing the issues. “I would remind her that I was a city council member for 8 years in the Montreal Youth Council, and that the Post-Gazette last fall quoted me as being “the most knowledgeable of the candidates”. Should she be genuinely concerned about any potential lack of knowledge, however, I would not only accept but challenge her to a head-to-head debate anytime!”.