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Faxes Sent to Robert C. Donatucci

Letters

From:	MG
To:	Representative Donatucci, Senator Fumo, Councilman Goode, Councilman Green, Councilman Greenlee, Councilman Kelly, Councilman Kenney, Mayor Nutter, Governor Rendell, Councilwoman Reynolds Brown, Councilman Rizzo, Council President Verna
Date:	Tuesday, 02/05/08
Subject:	Our City Council is not a rubber stamp!

Dear Governor Rendell:
am writing as one of the 1.5 million constituents of our
courageous City Council led by Councilman Frank DiCicco and our
elected representatives in the General Assembly (Senator Fumo,
and Representatives O’Brien, Keller and Josephs) and of our
newly-elected Mayor Michael Nutter, who are united with PNA in
an effort to re-site the casinos.

Your intemperate and misplaced attack this week is not
appreciated by the residents of Philadelphia, who have worked
for over a year to relocate the two casinos in Philadelphia away
from neighborhoods.

You, and the casino operators, stand alone in the way of moving
these slots parlors to more appropriate locations. Please direct
your efforts, and the considerable goodwill you have as the most
popular politician in Pennsylvania in the last thirty years, to
finding a better location for the casinos and for creating a
waterfront which will be a valued legacy to good planning and
good government.

Respectfully,
Mary Galiano


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Dear Mayor Street:

I am concerned about the Commerce Dept.'s decision to hold a
public hearing Nov. 15 on SugarHouse Casino's application to
build its facility on state-owned riverfront lands. SugarHouse
has invoked an obscure state law in the hopes of obtaining from
the City that which it has thus been thus far been unable to
obtain from the Commonwealth.

I'd appreciate it if you could get back to me with answers to the
following questions before the hearing:

* Why not postpone the hearing until after Mayor Nutter takes
office in January since he is the one who will have to deal with
the casino issue for the next 4 years, at least?
* What are the terms under which members of the public may
address the hearing?
* Which officials will make the decision about whether to grant
SugarHouse permission to build on state riparian lands?
* When do you expect a decision on the license to be made?
* Is SugarHouse Casino expected to testify at the hearing?
* Does the Commerce Dept. consider impacted residents to be
interested parties for the purposes of this hearing?
* Will the hearing be videotaped and, if so, when will such
videotape be available to the public?
* Does the Sunshine Act apply to this hearing?
* Do the procedures found at 2 Pa.C.S.A. Section 551, et seq.,
apply to this hearing?

Thank you for considering this request that you clarify certain
aspects of your hearing. I look forward to hearing from you.

Dear Mayor Street:

The citizens of Philadelphia elected a new mayor earlier this
month. As a result, a new era is about to get underway for
Philadelphians. A significant part of that era must be a
decision by the new mayor and City Council to decide if the city
should add the gaming industry to its image. Overwhelmingly,
Philadelphians have said no to the gaming industry.

So there should be no rush to award gaming interests with
state-owned land to begin construction of any facility. There
are a great many factors that must be resolved before the gaming
industry should be permitted to attain a foothold in the city.
SugarHouse, at this date, must not be permitted to achieve a land
grab within the city.

Dear Governor Rendell:
Dear Governor Rendell:

Nowhere else in this country have casinos been permitted to
locate next to residential neighborhoods--only in Pennsylvania.

Please let me know what you are doing to right this wrong by
relocating the casinos away from my neighborhood. I know from
your letter of October 9 that you wrote the casinos and
suggested that they move. What else did you do?

According to this Inquirer story from August 3 you promised
neighborhood leaders that you would:


support resiting both casinos more than 1,500 feet away from
neighborhoods if viable sites were identified
urge the casinos developers to consider such sites
make state resources available to enable the process
Please provide me with specific answers about what you did to
keep each part of your promise to neighborhood leaders by
October 22, 2007.

Casinos and neighborhoods do not mix. Councilman Frank DiCicco
provided you on August 9 with other locations that would allow
the casinos to make money, but also protect neighborhoods.

As a responsible and respected public official, I expect you to
protect me and my family by requiring casinos to locate at least
1500 ft from all neighborhoods. Rep. Babette Joseph's House Bill
1477 would turn this common sense requirement into law. Since
you say you have no power to force the casinos to move, I
respectfully suggest that you take steps to obtain this power by
making the passage of House Bill 1477 your number one goal in
the legislature.


Thank you for your past support of Philadelphia's neighborhoods
and for people--especially children--who live in them.

Dear Governor Rendell:


Please done let south phila turn into what I see has happened
to atlantic city.

Dear Gaming Oversight Committee Member:


Dear Gaming Oversight Committee Member:

I urge you to vote House Bill 1477 out of committee at the next
scheduled meeting of the Committee.

House Bill 1477 would protect neighborhoods by requiring
casinos to locate at least 1500 feet away from any residence,
church or school.

I expect my elected officials to look out for the best
interests of me and my family. Most especially, the General
Assembly must take steps to protect the children of
Pennsylvania and the neighborhoods in which they live from
casinos.

HB 1477 is common sense legislation that deserves your
wholehearted support. I urge you to vote House Bill 1477 out of
committee at your next committee meeting

Dear Senator Fumo:

Because Philadelphia property owners were excluded from the
decision to permit casino operations in the city, they must now
be respected and protected from being overcome by casinos where
they live. Philadelphia has far too much to offer its residents
and tourists as both a highly livable place and a significant
destination to allow casinos to be a pervasive factor of the
city's image. The negative image casinos convey are not worth
the economic return they might bring to the tax base, especially
when their existence is really designed to profit significantly
a small group of insider investors, not the residents who will
have to endure the harsh blowback resulting from casino
operations

Because you have been a major factor in imposing casinos on the
city, you now have both a moral and civic obligation to all
Philadelphians to, at the very least, introduce legislation that
would impose a 1,500 foot buffer between residential areas and
any proposed casino property. In addition, Sugarlands should
not be given favorable consideration in any aspect of the
planning and site location, construction or operations of its
casino. Thorough planning must be initiated to assure that all
gaming industry operations within the city are located at sites
significantly distant from viable neighborhoods as well as
commercial and historical landmarks. Most certainly, the
Delaware River waterfront in South Philadelphia and sites north
of Penns Landing must be excluded. The waterfront in these
areas would be a terrible thing to waste on gaming facilities.

Location South Philadelphia

Dear Parents and/or Guardians, Elected Oficials
You are invited to a special event.

The South Philadelphia EPIC Stakeholders in collaboration with
the South Philadelphia School District are greatly concerned
about the violence in your child's school. We are presently in
crisis mode and need your help and support.
Please come out to voice your concerns about the violence in
your child's school. We are here to assist you with finding
working solutions and the resources to implement them.

Date: December 8, 2005
Time 6:00PM
Place: South Philadelphia High School (Broad Street and Snyder
Avenue)

If you have questions about this upcoming meeting please call
Angela Johnson of SEAMAAC - (South East Asian Mutual Assistance
Association Coalition) 215- 476-9640
Mr David Seng of UCSP - (United Communities of South
Philadelphia) 215-467-5136

--
Robert Shipman Jr.
Community Outreach Specialist /SPOC Program Coordinator
Institute for the Study of Civic Values
1218 Chestnut Street , Suite 702
Philadelphia, PA 19107
(O) 215-238-1434 (F) 215-238-0530
http://phillyneighborhoods.org/

please join our effort to change diamond street by taking a few
moments and sign the online petition at
http://www.fatherpaulwashington.com when you get to the site,
click on join the campaign...click on
sign the petition...add name...contact
information...comments...when done click on the add my
comments button. Thank You.

Join us here, http://tribes.tribe.net/pmw
A place to post your thoughts, Ideas, comments and see pass
information relevant to the cause.

Dear Hon. Mssr. Donatucci


Members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives will
reconvene on Monday, Dec. 5, and Rep. Mario Scavello's plan to
expand sales the tax will likely be addressed on that day. If
passed, it would impose a sales tax on accounting services.

A sales tax on services brings with it tremendous enforcement
and compliance issues, significant costs of compliance, and
numerous administrative burdens.

In addition, since taxes and economic development are
inextricably linked, Pennsylvania may suffer many unintended and
unwanted consequences after imposition of a sales tax on
services.

I whole-heartedly take the stance, for the reasons outlined
here, by the PICPA, and by others that a sales tax on services
could have dire economic development implications for
Pennsylvania's business community.

Therefore, as a member of your constituency and your party, I
ask that you oppose the Scavello plan.

With Kindest Regards.

Thank you for supporting the repeal of House Bill 1954.

Dear. Rep. Donatucci,

Hello. My name is Tara Conrad. I am writing with my son
Georgie Conrad. Georgie is 9 (will be 10 on Friday) and he is
home schooled in Scranton, Pa. Last year we did a project
studying the 50 states. When we got to Pennsylvania Georgie
wanted to learn about the process of a bill becoming a law. We
researched this together and Georgie wanted to see it in
action. He thought of a bill designating the Oatmeal Chocolate
Chip Cookie as Pennsylvania's State Cookie. Georgie wrote a
letter to Rep. Gaynor Cawley asking for his help with this.
Rep. Cawley was more than willing to help. As you know, last
year nothing happened with this bill. Georgie asked once again
this year for the bill to be reintroduced, this year it is
HB1405-"The Cookie Bill." We know that this cookie is not well
known, but Georgie chose it because it is has favorite cookie
from his Grammie's secret recipe file!! (Georgie says that
maybe he should try marketing it and selling it to make it more
widely known!)

Since it's reintroduction this year, Rep. Cawley has come
under some fire with a newpaper saying that he is "wasting
valuable time." I personally feel that was written without the
reported knowing the details of why Rep. Cawley was introducing
this bill. I realize as an adult that there are very serious
issues facing my state's government at this time. I also
realize that to my son, this is a very serious issue. Our hope
if that our state government will recognize the importance of
this issue to a child, and act on it. I understand that as of
now he is not of a legal voting age, but he can still
participate in his government and that is what he is trying to
do. We are asking that our House of Representatives would come
together and agree on this issue, show my child, and the other
children of our great state that their voices will be heard.
Please make sure that HB1405 is able to come to a vote and move
one step closer to becoming a law! Our state's children are
important, just as important as every issue that is before you
today. Make a stand for our children, let their voice be
heard! Please see that HB1405 stays alive and travels the road
to becoming a new law in our state of Pennsylvania!

Thank you so much for your time and attention to this!
Sincerely,
Tara Conrad and Georgie Conrad
1420 N Lincoln Ave
Scranton, Pa 18508
570-963-0562

Dear Mr. Donatucci:
Please cosponsor Mr. Cohens bill to repeal House Bill 1954.
House Bill 1954 works against the interests of your
constituents. Every citizen should have the right to weigh in on
zoning decisions.
Sincerely,
Bob Reichenbach.

Dear Rep. Donatucci,

Please support and co-sponsor Rep. Cohen's proposal to repeal
HB 1954 this legislative session. All Philadelphians should
have the right to give input on zoning changes that effect the
character and quality of life in our city. Don't let the
builders and billboard pushers knock down the democratic
process!

Thank you for your time and attention. I would appreciate the
courtesy of a reply to this missive. Regards,

Nicholas R. D'Arecca

Dear Mr. Donatucci:
Please stand up for full and open debate on the question of new
house rules. It is important that new rules be passed that
guarantee that legislators know what they are voting on.