When are calls to resign a statement, and when are they an obligation?<\/p>\n
The questions swirling around Pittsburgh\u2019s finances under Ed Gainey\u2019s mayoral administration are not going away. It\u2019s an issue that began while Gainey was still in office. They have only grown as Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr.\u2019s sealed subpoenas of financial information have been revealed as an investigation into possible bid rigging. The DA insists people will be charged in the probe.<\/p>\n
It seemed all but inevitable that calls would surface for Gainey to step down from his position on the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board.<\/p>\n
Gainey, who was a state representative before being elected to one term as mayor, was appointed to the gaming board in February, a month after leaving office. The position comes with a $145,000 salary, just like that of the Pittsburgh mayor.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs the regulator of a multibillion-dollar industry in which the Commonwealth is a major stakeholder, the Gaming Control Board needs to stay above the fray in any type of political scandal,\u201d said Rep. Russ Diamond, R-Lebanon, chairman of the House Gaming Oversight Committee.<\/p>\n
Gambling in Pennsylvania is a $7 billion industry. It\u2019s growing annually and requires consistent, careful oversight. Diamond is not wrong in saying the board must appear above impropriety.<\/p>\n
That doesn\u2019t mean Gainey should be pushed out against his will. Zappala says charges will be filed, but he doesn\u2019t say against whom, and those charges have yet to be pressed. Statements into a microphone aren\u2019t the same as an affidavit of probable cause supporting criminal charges.<\/p>\n
However, that doesn\u2019t mean Gainey shouldn\u2019t take the call seriously.<\/p>\n
The former mayor is not currently an elected official. He cannot claim a right to the seat on the Gaming Control Board based on the will of the people. He owes his position to the appointment of Pennsylvania Speaker of the House Joanna McClinton, D-Philadelphia.<\/p>\n
We do not echo Diamond\u2019s call for resignation. That doesn\u2019t mean it should be ignored.<\/p>\n
Gainey still is receiving a government paycheck while his governance of the state\u2019s second-largest city is being questioned on both a simple administrative level as well as a potentially criminal one. Of course there would be people suggesting he step down.<\/p>\n
Should he? That\u2019s for him to decide. But thus far, Gainey remains silent on both the probe and the call to resign.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When are calls to resign a statement, and when are they an obligation? The questions swirling around Pittsburgh\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299451,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73,75,74],"class_list":["post-299450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}