Urgent – Please Take Action!
Wednesday, March 05, 2008

As reported earlier on BoatPittsburgh.com, The City of Pittsburgh is moving forward with the proposed ordinance concerning dockage on City Wharfs, most notably the North Shore. As boaters that actually use this public area of the city, we need to make sure our voices are heard. The city seems to be willing to hear our concerns. Unfortunately we need to get e-mails sent out immediately as time is running out so that they know how we feel.

City residents that are also boaters need to follow the directions below to have their voices heard. Also, though it may be a technicality, if you lease a dock space in the City of Pittsburgh you also should write a letter voicing your concerns. Lastly, even if you don’t live or dock in the city, please send them your thoughts anyways. It can’t hurt to show city council that boaters from all over will be impacted by this ordinance.

Below is information provided by Sean Capperis, the Constituent Services Manager for City Councilman Patrick Dowd. Mr. Capperis is requesting all letters be sent by March 6th. Although this is short notice, please take the time to send a brief e-mail sharing your concerns asap. If you know of any other boaters in the City of Pittsburgh that would like to have a say in this legislation, please inform them on how they can make a difference. Lastly, if you do miss the deadline, still send in a letter, it can only reinforce our position.

Please follow these instructions provided Mr. Capperis on sending your letter to city council. Feel free to also post your letter in our Forum for all boaters to read (be sure to delete your address, etc.) by clicking here. Also, you can post your concerns and discuss this ordinance with other boaters in this thread.

• The message should be formal and with as much information as possible
• They should all include full names and addresses, and phone numbers may be helpful
• They can be sent either by email or by snail mail
• Letters you can send to our address below
• Emails should go to Patrick.Dowd@city.pittsburgh.pa.us and cc to me, Sean.Capperis@city.pittsburgh.pa.us
• All messages should be addressed to Patrick himself
• Anyone who lives in the City of Pittsburgh can send us comments, regardless of whether or not they live in council district 7

Please encourage anyone you know in the boating community who lives in the City of Pittsburgh to send their comments to us. The more we get, the more powerful your message will be.

We’ll forward all the messages we receive on to the Law Department and the Port Commission in one batch before they make a final draft, so we don’t overwhelm them with a ton of separate messages. My contact at Law says that the legislation will advance after a few weeks, so I ask that we receive all the messages by 5 p.m. on Thursday, March 6 so I can send them off the next day. I want to make sure they can read as much comment as possible before making a final draft.

I’ll let you know when the bill advances to Council, so people can come for public comment. The bill will be introduced on a Tuesday meeting, and then the Wednesday of the following week it will enter committee for discussion and a preliminary recommendation. As early as the Tuesday of that following week it could go up for final vote. All council meetings begin with public comment before they take up old business, and all City residents are encouraged to speak (I recommend prepared statements – it’s a 3 min. time limit for all speakers).

Also, I can pass along the last message you sent me, about your insurance coverages, as your own letter of protest. But before I pass it on, I must ask are you comfortable sharing that information with the Law Dept. and Port Commission?

It’s a lot of information - please call me if you have any questions, and let anyone else know who’s going to write a letter/email that they can talk to me anytime if they have any concerns.

Good luck!

Sean

Sean Capperis
Constituent Services Manager
Office of Patrick Dowd, City Council


510 City-County Building
414 Grant Street
Pittsburgh PA 15219
sean.capperis@city.pittsburgh.pa.us
o: 412 255 2140
f: 412 255 2419

Submitted by: BoatPittsburgh.com Staff

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