THE JUDGE O’DELL SENECA SUBPOENA SHOULD BE QUASHED

I must respectfully disagree with this newspaper, many of my fellow legal brethren and others that the recent action of the Washington County President Judge was obstructionist.  In my view, her decision to file a Motion to Quash the Subpoena, attempting to compel her testimony at the Pozonsky Suppression Hearing, was appropriate.

The O-R certainly has a vested interest in uncovering as much background as possible on the events leading up to the seizure of evidence from former Judge Pozonsky’s courtroom.  That is its job.  The rest of us would love disclosure of additional facts to fill in an ongoing story that is more interesting than a Grisham or Turow novel.  Nonetheless, having President Judge O’Dell Seneca testify on her own volition or compelling her to do so would be a mistake.

American jurisprudence has developed well accepted guidelines for judicial review which do not include the ability to subpoena judges in order to look behind their orders. To permit an exception in this case, simply because the order is administrative rather than a matter of substantive law would open up a dangerous can of worms that, in my opinion, goes to the heart of our separation of powers.

No one believes that the President Judge did not have the authority to enter her order, which is clear and concise on its face.  The important issue is not why she did it, but whether Pozonsky’s rights have been violated by not obtaining a search warrant.  This issue can be resolved without her testimony.  If the subpoena is quashed and Defendant, Pozonsky, files an appeal, so be it.  It is important to get this one right before creating a dangerous precedent.

Before we label the President Judge “imperial” and “obstructionist”, it is important to remember that ethical considerations prohibit her from leaping to her defense as other elected officials are permitted to do.  It is safe to assume that she conferred with other judges that have faced the same or similar circumstances.  Moreover, the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts (AOPC) must serve as her legal representative in considering, drafting and presenting the Motion to Quash the Subpoena.  The AOPC is obviously in agreement with the Judge and reports directly to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court which, no doubt, is keeping a close eye on these proceedings.

THE HOMELESS IN WASHINGTON AND GREENE COUNTIES

The O-R is to be congratulated on the recent awards bestowed on its yearlong series about homelessness in Washington and Greene Counties.  These deep dive articles attracted the interest of the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC).  This organization gives annual recognition to “a print journalist who has made a dedicated effort to inform the public about the inequities in housing and to aid in the understanding of the disparities between the well housed and the poorly or un-housed in a community.”

While other awards for these articles were given to the O-R for journalism excellence, it is the NLIHC annual media award which drew my attention. The NLIHC works to help acquire capital for the National Housing Trust Fund which was established as a provision of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008.  The stated purpose of the trust fund is to provide communities with funds to build, preserve, and rehabilitate rental homes that are affordable for extremely and very low income households.  According to NLIHC “But for the 7.1 million American households for whom even a modest rental home is unaffordable and unavailable, life is a daily struggle for survival. Families in this situation find themselves making impossible choices between food and rent. When illness, job loss or other tragedy strikes, they often become homeless.”

The homeless problem in Washington and Greene Counties is epidemic for several well known reasons.  In the discussion below, my points are derived from my knowledge of Washington County.  In some cases they may be appropriate for Greene as well.

First, at a time when the local economy is booming, rental properties are scarce at any price, because of oil and gas workers who have absorbed all available resources.  Landlords are able to command top dollar, freezing out the working poor and low income families.

Second, the recession, state and federal budget battles and deficit freezes have left minimal resources to fund or expand low cost housing, including the above mentioned National Housing Trust Fund.  Those individuals who cannot afford Obama Care even with its generous subsidies are simply below the safety net for any type of traditional housing.

Third, the infrastructure of the mental health system has collapsed, leaving no long term institutional care or treatment in place for the chronically mentally ill.  These individuals with their unique set of problems are forced into the larger pool of homeless people to compete for limited resources.  In many cases the County Jail has become the institution of last resort for the mentally sick and addicted individuals of our area.

Fourth, compared to the rest of Appalachia, Washington County is a virtual social service paradise.  We have become a magnate for the down trodden from less fortunate areas.  Two square meals a day at the City Mission is better than starving.  Leaving an out of town alcoholic uncle at the Salvation Army is a common occurrence.

Fifth, whatever resources are available are confined to designated “dumping grounds” within the City of Washington where the social service agencies are located.  This creates a situation where one small area of the County is expected to absorb all of the homeless, addicted and mentally ill in group homes and faith based programs like the City Mission.  The City tax base continues to shrink, special needs children are disproportionately centralized in a small City school system and a large percentage of the area’s crime and drug use is concentrated in the City.  When much of the County has no skin in the game, it is difficult to get excited about the homeless.

The result of this growing problem is to place an undue burden on the City and its residents, with inadequate assistance from County, State or Federal revenue sources.  There are only so many low cost housing and special needs group homes that the City can support.  The City Mission is bursting at its seams.

So what is to be done?  First, Washington County is in a unique position to attack the problem on its own, without waiting for federal/state assistance that may never materialize.  County leaders are right to crow about 10 billion in new capital expenditures, a byproduct of the expanding oil and gas industry.  They are not right to ignore the plight of its poor, homeless and mentally ill residents.  Funding must be earmarked for low income housing, rehabilitation services and long term facilities for the mentally ill.  Local government is not the sole province of gaming interests, real estate developers and large mining corporations.

Experience has taught us that simply providing housing to the homeless with addiction or other untreated socialization issues, without addressing the underlying problems, does not work. In this regard, the City Mission is a phenomenal resource for Washington County.  While its faith based approach is not everyone’s cup of tea, for thousands of homeless individuals, it has been the first step back to a productive life. Why not provide the resources for the Mission to build a modern campus in a rural area to expand its services and unlock its full potential?  Give them a piece of land with gas revenue and they could be self sufficient and a model for other jurisdictions.

Second, the City of Washington must be decoupled from the plight of the County’s homeless and mentally ill.  A place to start would be to open satellite social service offices in hard to reach areas of the County.  Municipal officials need to be open to changing zoning requirements to permit low cost housing, group homes and other resources to operate within their boundaries.  Of course this needs to follow a sea change in public opinion from “not in my back yard” to “we are all in this together.”

Third, and this point may create legal issues, Washington County must find a way to develop its plan without being overwhelmed by outsiders seeking to take advantage of the new programs.  A time based residency requirement, discouraging immigration to receive benefits, would be crucial to getting new programs established.

My proposals are elementary.  I am sure that the much wiser and battle hardened social service professionals of Washington and Greene Counties can come up with better ones. The point is that the next expose published by the O-R on the homeless will hopefully be able to focus on how one section of South Western Pennsylvania, using its new revenue and tax base, was able to attack the problem with resolution and vigor.

INFORMATION IS NOT KNOWLEDGE

An enigma of our modern world has never been more evident than over the past several months.  The more advanced our culture becomes, the less we seem to know.  The more tools we have to solve problems, the more unsolvable the problems appear to be.  Perhaps an answer to this paradox lies in the immortal words of Frank Zappa: “Information is not knowledge. Knowledge is not wisdom.”

This is the information age and we are drowning in it.  Before my next plane flight I will first check ticket prices from multiple sources within minutes. I will then be issued my ticket electronically, choose my own seat and be able to check on any delays, with a few key strokes. Once on the plane, I can use the internet from my seat and make calls on my cellular phone to any corner of the globe.

We track climbers as they ascend Mt. Everest and a woman rowing across the ocean.  Trucking companies know the exact location of each of their rigs, 24/7.  The minute a freedom fighter is killed in Syria, it is recorded on You Tube.  We can detect a small earthquake anywhere on earth and the explosion of a star a quintillion miles away.  But for several weeks and counting, we have no idea where or why a massive commercial airliner with its passengers and crew disappeared into a modern day  twilight zone.

What does this incident tell us about our use of information to solve problems?  Certainly, in hindsight, there was enough information available to locate this aircraft had a knowledgeable plan or technology been put in place. Either the problem was never imagined or the solution thought to be too expensive. (Does anyone think this scenario could happen to Air Force One?) In either case we have limited our ability to solve a problem by not properly using the information available to us.

There are other recent examples.  The roll out of HealthCare.gov was a disaster. This was not because of limited information, but because unknowledgeable actors who thought in terms of social concerns and not technology, were placed in charge.  Sort of the opposite of the team that came together to perfect the atomic bomb. 

Global warming events are another example.  The information supporting these phenomena has been available for many years and have translated into pockets of unassailable knowledge by the world’s leading scientists.  This knowledge explains the problem and proposes solutions.  Unfortunately many individuals and even global leaders have twisted or simply ignored the science for their own purposes.  If enough sources are willing to take this risk, the information becomes useless.

Sometimes there are tradeoffs between obtaining information to gain limited knowledge on the one hand and human rights, most notably privacy, on the other.  The more cameras that are installed, listening devices utilized and mail read, by well meaning investigators, the more crime that can be prevented.  But how much is too much and what is the cost to democratic principles?  Should the information be used, simply because it is available?

On a larger transcendental scale, one would think that the more information that is synthesized into knowledge about our shared evolutionary past and most recently, the disclosures on the beginning of the universe, the closer we would become as a world community in respecting each other.  Of course the opposite is the case.  Tribalism, kinship culture and fundamental religious beliefs rule the day, not the common cause for humanity.

Part of the problem may be that the information age is so new.  We like to have fun with it by getting immediate answers to all our questions, like a 24/7 Jeopardy game.  We do not like our old traditions and beliefs to be challenged.  We see the new information revolution as a means to instant gratification, not a path toward change or growth.

I believe that in the decades to come, the information age will give way to the knowledge age.  This will be a time when the view that more information is better will be replaced by the urge to sift through the existing data to find value.  The fun and games of social media will become passé.  The need to know everything about each other will be replaced by the desire to know more about ourselves, how things work, where we fit into the world and how we can improve it.  This will be a major step forward in our history.  Information will be crafted into knowledge on a global scale.

When this happens, commercial aircraft will not disappear without answers, the government will learn how to implement large computer projects and scientific evidence will be accepted and acted upon.  But this will be the least of it. As humankind begins to understand who we are, where we came from and where we are going, hostilities will diminish.  Perhaps this will be the beginning of the next major transition: from knowledge to wisdom.

 

         

SECOND POT OF COFFEE THOUGHTS

·       If all of us began the day reading and reflecting on the daily comics, the world would be a better place.

·       President Obama would have been well served by reading Dilbert before giving the green light to HealthCare.gov in October. He would have learned that when pointy haired bosses in suits are permitted to get in the way of geeky engineers in crooked ties, nothing good can happen.

·       If Vladimir Putin read Zits, Mutts and Baby Blues each morning he would conclude that Americans are a lot like Russians.

·       New Jersey Governor Chris Christie must be thrilled that the Ukraine and Crimea have replaced Hoboken and Fort Lee in the daily news cycle.

·       There should be a rule on the cable news channels that before one talking head can criticize another, something positive must be said about the opponent.

·       Now that a Field and Stream store is coming to Washington, outdoor enthusiasts will be able to buy guns and fishing tackle from an even wider assortment of vendors.  For the rest of us, is one book store and a small movie theater to show films like Philomena asking for too much?

·       A trip to South Florida, where poor immigrants and first generation workers make up a large percentage of the population, gives one a unique prospective on our country’s social issues.  These workers are employed in the hotels and restaurants, keep all the tropical plants and grass under control and pick the fruit and vegetables.  For them, a living wage, health care and immigration reform are all life changing events.

·       Now that the winter storms all have names and the polar vortex has invaded the north our weather is much more exciting to those who wake up to boring 80 degree weather in Miami and Naples.

·       Sometimes I wish that the comic strips Bizarro and The Argyle Sweater had an answer key at the bottom of the page.

WORKPLACE DIVERSITY IN WASHINGTON COUNTY

When I bring up employment diversity in Washington County I get blank stares from even my liberal friends.  Those who are willing to discuss the issue often accuse me of running out of problems that need attention and of inventing a new one.  I think they are wrong.  Workforce diversity is a social issue that Washington County has yet to acknowledge or address.  The time to do so is now.

Anyone who claims that Washington County should leave well enough alone when it comes to diversity is really saying we are a rural, white, monoculture community and not likely to change.  While we are certainly not Allegheny County, Washington is evolving in its demographic makeup every day.  The last census found 15% of our more urban neighbor to the north to be African American or Hispanic.  The same census found a 5% total for Washington County.  No one believes our Hispanic population has remained the same since the last census.  It should be obvious to all that we continue to evolve economically and culturally as a direct result of the gas industry and other factors.

But workforce diversity does not simply mean acknowledging an increase in minority citizens.  It involves much more: encouraging prospective minority employees, particularly in the sectors that service the community, to work and live in Washington County. It focuses on physicians, teachers, policemen, court staff, attorneys, social workers, county workers and many others.  It involves recruiting, training and retaining a diverse workforce because it is the right thing to do in our multicultural society.

It is important to point out that developing an environment for diversity has nothing to do with affirmative action or discrimination. Rather, it is recognition that people who look different and have different professional and personal experiences, values and priorities can bring valuable skills and perspectives to the employment table.  It is a recognition in my profession, for example, that by recruiting black attorneys to practice in Washington County, not only is the African American community better served but so is the broader community, the Courts and the Bar Association.

A commitment to diversity must start at the top.   Diversity training and programs should be initiated by the Commissioners, other municipal leaders, school officials, the Washington County Court System, the County Bar Association, Rotary and Chamber of Commerce.  Once a culture of diversity is established, qualified candidates in all fields will get the message, that Washington County values diversity.  These prospective employees will discover what we already know, our community is an ideal place to work and raise a family.  We will all benefit as a result.