Building One PA signals start of movement

On a hot Friday a couple of weeks ago, at a college campus named for a man who won a legislative victory to protect educational opportunity for all Pennsylvanians, a movement began.

More than 650 people from all corners of Pennsylvania convened July 16 in Lancaster, at Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology, for the first Building One Pennsylvania Conference. It was a diverse group: white, black, Latino, business, labor, the faith community, members of school boards and municipal boards. They came from the southwest corner of the state and from the northeast, from Pottstown to Penn Hills.

They heard speakers and panel discussions make the argument that some have been making for years: that older communities in Pennsylvania - our urban centers, first-ring suburbs and boroughs - have been hollowed out by decades of state and federal policies that have favored new development and subsidized sprawl at the expense of these established core communities.

What was new at this event was that the discussion was happening within the context of a new organizing structure, one linked to various civic and business groups in regions across the state that have come together to advocate on common issues. The convening partners for the event included Good Schools Pennsylvania, 10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania, the Southeastern Pennsylvania First Suburbs Project, the Pennsylvania Council of Churches and YorkCounts.

These groups and the hundreds of other organizations that sent representatives agree on a couple of basic ideas. Crumbling infrastructure isn’t just a problem in one older city, borough or first-ring suburb; it’s happening in older communities and now even many suburban townships across the state. Struggling school districts, overwhelmed by the twin challenges of poverty and a declining tax base, aren’t just a problem in Norristown, York or Wilkinsburg; they exist in scores of communities across the state.

The people in attendance realized they have strength in numbers. In Allegheny County, for example, one speaker noted the significance of the shared problems faced by Pittsburgh and its 35 inner-ring neighbors. A lot of people live there and have jobs there. A number of legislators represent that area. Multiply that for various regions across the state, and there is one clear conclusion: These linked groups represent a growing political force.

And it appears that political leadership from both parties is paying attention. State Sen. Ted Erickson (R-Delaware and Chester counties), chairman of the Senate Majority Policy Committee, expressed his support for the coalition’s efforts to address these important issues. Mike Sturla (D-Lancaster County), indicated he, too, was willing to help advance a policy agenda that would reverse the decline experienced by so many municipalities and school districts across Pennsylvania over the past half century.

The work that has been done to date to build this statewide coalition is energizing, and the initial reaction from some of our key legislative leaders is encouraging. In the end, though, success will be measured by the coalition’s ability to bring about policy changes in Harrisburg that will benefit all communities within our great Commonwealth. I hope that more people will join together in this effort to bring a better day in Pennsylvania.

- Dan Fink

Column makes case for Building One PA

There's about two weeks left before Building One Pennsylvania, and the media mentions are starting to build. The lastest is a spot-on column from Lancaster Online. Jeff Hawkes does a good job of capturing the thinking behind the diverse mix of organizations from across the state coming together around a couple of key issues.

He starts out trying to explain why Lancaster - and, by extension, York and Harrisburg and cities across the state - are struggling.

"The issue has nothing to do with whether Republicans or Democrats are in charge and everything to do with long-standing, deep-rooted state and federal policies that favor new roads and development outside cities and towns and discourage annexation and regional approaches that give older communities a fighting chance.

With cities and towns in every corner of Pennsylvania hurting because of policies beyond their control, they and their advocates are seeing the need to come together and explore a common agenda of solutions."

So how do groups like YorkCounts and Good Schools Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Council of Churches find common ground?

"The conveners of the summit include 10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania, Southeastern Pennsylvania First Suburbs Project and YorkCounts — organizations that focus on rational land-use policies and effective municipal governance.

But the scope of regional equity also encompasses the missions of organizations such as Pennsylvania Council of Churches and Good Schools Pennsylvania, both of which are also conveners of the summit.

'How Pennsylvania funded education has not only failed students but contributed to the blighting of communities and sprawl,' said Good Schools' Janis Risch in explaining her organization's interest in the summit.

If the summit is successful, said Marilyn Wood of 10,000 Friends, then advocates of various causes — public education, affordable housing, transit, the environment — will see how they all win if they join forces to reverse the decline of urban Pennsylvania."

That's really the bottom line here: Giving people a place to come together and exert some influence over public policy that has too long shoved older communities to the side.

Do you want to see municipal budgets continue to be strained and school taxes continue to go up? Or do you want to add your voice to the call for changing a broken system? Building One Pennsylvania is July 16 at Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology in Lancaster. Go here to register. Do it today.

- Dan Fink

Last call for film - and a reminder about Building One PA

The screening for "The New Metropolis" is 7 p.m. tomorrow (June 22) at HACC's York Campus. It's free, and there should be plenty of seats in the Glatfelter Community Room. And don't forget to register for Building One Pennsylvania, the statewide summit on economic opportunity happening July 16 at Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology in Lancaster.

Here's a blog post by Bill Dodge at citiwire.net that gets to the heart of several issues that will be examined in the film and at the summit. Dodge writes about the regional future of local governments, making a couple of key points along the way.

First, he says now is the time for innovation, as local governments face the most challenging fiscal environment in decades.

"Local governments have hit financial ceilings, limiting their responses to any tough challenge. They have reached the limit of their capacity to sustain their services, maintain their facilities, and finance employee health care and retirement. Even if individual local governments want to continue to be independent of their neighbors, they can no longer deny the need to work cooperatively to address their toughest challenges."

Then he points out that local governments have started working together in a variety of ways, but it all remains "piecemeal."

"Local governments have been reluctant to invest in creating sufficient ongoing capacity to take advantage of crosscutting opportunities and brunt common threats. Witness, for example, the response to the American Recovery and Revitalization Act. Some regions had already invested in cooperative plans and programs for transportation, emergency preparedness, weatherization, or broadband communications, and were prepared to take advantage of the largest infusion of federal funds in this and probably many decades to come. Yet many others had to play catch up and will probably not be as successful in securing adequate funds to address common challenges."

His advice: Orient local government around regional charters.

"... regional charter councils (would need) adequate staff and resources to address the tough challenges. (They) would also have access to predictable funding streams for implementing critical actions, including the ability to submit funding options to the public in regional referenda. They would engage regional stakeholders, from all sectors and the general public, but be controlled, or heavily influenced, by local governments. Most importantly, they would be held accountable by the public, such as through annual reports on their activities and periodic citizen reviews of their charters."

How does that approach sound? Anybody see any problems with it? Could there be a more effective and efficient way to operate local government in York County?

- Dan Fink

Child abuse next steps

Here's a quick update on the child abuse town hall from last week. We had more than 250 people come to the York Jewish Community Center to explore the challenges we face in confronting child abuse and to explore possible solutions. It was by all accounts a productive conversation.

YorkCounts emphasized going in that we didn't want the discussion to end at the meeting; we asked for a commitment from the stakeholder group to meet again to flesh out plans for next steps and goals.

That's happening.

YorkCounts is working with Bev Mackereth, director of York County Human Services Department, to bring the stakeholders back together for a meeting in late July or early August. The purpose of that meeting will be to identify one or two next steps that can be undertaken right now and to discuss who else should be at the table for any kind of broad community conversation about child abuse. The group will also explore which organization might be best suited to serve as the clearly identified "face" of child abuse prevention and education for the county. And finally, and maybe most importantly, folks will also be asked to participate in a planning retreat that will be used to develop a structured, coordinated plan for reducing child abuse in York County.

We were pleased at the response to the town hall; it seemed like a community conversation that had been waiting to happen. And now we're energized by the stakeholders and their willingness to take the next steps.

We'll help them in whatever ways we can. And we wish them luck. There's a lot of important work happening in York County, but I'm not sure anything could be more important than protecting our most vulnerable citizens.

- Dan Fink

A film screening and a call to act

Our child abuse town hall is tonight, but we've already been thinking about the next event.

In the past 10 years, YorkCounts has worked to address, among other things, declining urban centers and struggling schools. We have advocated for fairer tax policies and more regional collaboration. We’re teaming up with organizations across the state to convene a statewide summit on issues such as declining urban centers, struggling schools, fairer tax policies and regional collaboration. The Building One Pennsylvania summit will be July 16 at Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology in Lancaster.

To raise awareness of the event, YorkCounts and the York Campus of Harrisburg Area Community College will host a screening of "The New Metropolis." You might remember we showed portions of this film at our community summit in March and invited Lynn Cummings, whose work was featured in part of the film, to be our keynote speaker. On June 22, we'll show both parts of the documentary - "Cracks in the Pavement" and "The New Neighbors" - and have a Q&A session afterward. The film will start at 7 p.m. in HACC'S Glatfelter Community Room in the Cytec Building, 2161 Pennsylvania Ave., York. Admission is free.

The issues raised in the film are critical to all of York County. And the statewide summit has two goals: to give visibility during this critical election year to the common challenges faced by our communities and to launch an organizing structure for advancing the state and federal policy agenda that will revitalize and strengthen Pennsylvania.

BOPA has a modest registration fee of $15, which includes lunch, and the day will feature national experts on regional equity, land use, and municipal and school governance. Our partner organizations for this event include 10,000 Friends of Pennsylvania, Good Schools Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania Council of Churches and the Southeastern Pennsylvania First Suburbs Project. Advance registration is requested; here’s how to do it:

1. Go to http://tinyurl.com/BuildingOnePA and use the secure server to pay online by credit card;
2. Or download the PDF of the registration form at http://www.yorkcounts.org/ and follow the instructions to register by mail.

More information is available on Facebook by searching for the Building One Pennsylvania event. For any other questions, call 866-720-4086 or e-mail buildingonepa@gmail.com.

Remember: June 22 is the screening at HACC in York; July 16 is Building One Pennsylvania in Lancaster.

- Dan Fink

Child abuse town hall set for June 10

After presenting three town halls to highlight the reserach and recommendations in the United Way's Stay in School Report, YorkCounts moves to a new subject for a community conversation.

Child abuse.

On the evening of June 10, we'll bring together a wide swath of local professionals, advocates and government officials to start the work of developing a coordinated plan for reducing child abuse in York County. We're doing this now because of two things that happened around the same time in April.

First, the York Daily Record/Sunday News produced a documentary to mark the first anniversary of the death of Darisabel Baez, a 2-year-old girl who was killed in a horrific case of child abuse. That documentary, "Carrying Darisabel," by YDR photographer Jason Plotkin, presents the stories of the first responders who were involved in Darisabel's case - the police officers, EMTs and hospital workers. It's a powerful film.

Shortly after that, the state released its latest child abuse numbers. And once again, the number of cases in York County is tragically high. The number of confirmed cases has remained around 150 for the past four years, and the rate of cases per 100,000 has has hovered close to 35 for the past four years. That happened while the state numbers have come down.

The combination prompted us to move. Our approach is to use the data to spotlight an issue of community concern, bring people together to talk about the issue, then find a community partner willing to take the lead on working toward solutions. We hope to begin that process with this town hall meeting.

What programs do we have in York County right now that work? Which ones would be more efffective with more resources? Can we give more help to new parents? How do we catch the signs of abuse earlier? How do we let friends and neighbors know it's OK for them to report something that looks suspicious?

These are some of the questions we want people to talk about. And we hope that people can bring the highest levels of honesty and respect to the conversation. We don't want finger pointing or blaming.

This is truly about finding ways to protect those among us who are least able to protect themselves. So mark you calendar: 6 p.m. June 10, at the York Jewish Community Center. We hope you'll be there and be part of the conversation.

- Dan Fink

More thoughts on municipal consolidation

Bruce Katz, writing on the Brookings Institution's Up Front blog, explores how state and local governments can better serve constituents. The whole post speaks to many of the issues YorkCounts raises for York County's system of government, but this part in particular makes the economic advantages clear:

"Metropolitan fragmentation exerts a negative impact on competitiveness and weakens long-term regional performance. Municipalities routinely expend scarce resources on tax incentives to lure firms from nearby jurisdictions, adding not one job or tax dollar to the overall economy in the process. Fragmented regions often fail to recognize their distinctive clusters of strength in the global marketplace and take the actions, large and small, to leverage their competitive advantages. They compete for growth and jobs at a deficit."

(Emphasis mine)

Katz says the responsibilities for correcting the fragmentation falls to the states, who allowed this to happen in the first place. He says states should do three things:

"First, they need to move to consolidate units of local governments, starting with school districts and economic development authorities.


Second, states should move to delegate traditional state functions to entities that govern at the metropolitan scale. California, for example, allocates 75 percent of its federal transportation funding directly to metropolitan planning organizations, enabling these organizations (usually governed by city and suburban elected leaders) to make transportation investments in the service of metro housing, land use and economic development priorities.

Finally, states should promote a new generation of inter-jurisdictional collaboration to gain efficiencies, such as tax base sharing and shared services arrangements like consolidation of 911 call centers."

Some folks in York County who would read the first suggestion here and probably stop reading. "Big government nonsense," they might think. "Socialism!" "I like my little (fill in name of local government entity here)." "Things work just fine the way they are."

So if you're an elected official in York County, how do you respond to the points Katz raises?

- Dan Fink