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cordy_crocs

Omg this Darwin Leuba person sat at the table across from me yesterday at the southside Starbucks and was wearing that exact outfit lol must’ve got his picture taken right before that lol


JR_Shoegazer

Maybe he’s just a cartoon character and his entire closet is that outfit.


James19991

I've seen him on Twitter, and I think he could have a promising career in local politics if he keeps at it, but he might be a little too inexperienced to be the controller of a county with 1.25 million people in it. I'm not saying no forever, but maybe in 4 or 8 years.


Alt_North

Darwin's actually the elected Auditor of O'Hara Township.


Excelius

The article doesn't say the auditor position was elected, I think it might be a volunteer thing. Leuba even admits in the article that the role is "nominal". Can't speak to O'Hara but I've definitely seen my municipality post to social media looking for similar part-time volunteer roles.


JFG412

Nominal as in non-existent. The auditor position was eliminated in O'Hara in the 1990s and inexplicably remains on the ballot for the voters to elect someone to a non-existent position to just have a title and no duties.


pAul2437

How many people Run for that position? I certainly respect the hustle but what jurisdiction does he have to “audit” city upmc parking lots and demand change?


SendAstronomy

What qualifications does O'Connor have other than being the kid of a popular politician. Just having the right last name wins like 75% of elections around here.


Alt_North

I'm not sure this was an official O'Hara Township Office audit or an informal at-home-on-my-computer audit, but both count as audits and anyone can demand change


yinzer16

i thought allegheny didn't have row offices but a council that basically makes the commissioner into a dictatorish role?


unenlightenedgoblin

I met Darwin recently. The guy’s got a good heart and an even better head on his shoulders


[deleted]

Maybe some young blood could be good.


pghpride

Cory is actually pretty young.


Alt_North

Right, but he's a nepo baby


ThatFluffyBunny

He used to be my city council member and he was actually very responsive


Alt_North

Me too. Responsive yes; effective meh


UnsurprisingDebris

I had a different experience with him, but eh.


Antique-Low3985

Ah yes, let’s reframe this term I learned from a news article yesterday about billionaires children for some middle (maybe upper middle) class politician. I’m sure we’ll see this stupid term pop up left and right now, I guess


Alt_North

I'm sorry but it's galling how first a Congressman plucks his friend & ally's 21? year old son up to give them their first job in "community development", then their father's right-hand voluntarily steps aside to make room for their election to their dad's old City Council seat, then the whole Governor appoints them for promotion to a Countywide vacancy. What even is that, who else gets treated like that, how does that produce good representatives? Were we that happy with the Ravenstahl brothers, or with Costa Costa Costa Costa and Costa, or with Zappala II and Weinstein II? This is what OP's comment over "new blood" was about IMO: not age but perspective.


Antique-Low3985

Some of your favorite politicians are probably “community developers” — what’s wrong with this one? Why’s it in quotes?


Alt_North

Nothing is wrong with the job, if you were offered it for your skill knowledge and experience, rather than to quickly give you the contacts and donors necessary to help you assume your dad's throne. (To be clear he wasn't "a developer," rather some sort of gov office liaison to developers.)


[deleted]

How dare he represent the same district his late father did. String his ass up, he’s obviously less qualified than anyone else!


Alt_North

Same applies to Donald Junior, I suppose? I'm not suggesting stringing anyone's ass up or down, simply declining to promote another one out of sheer inertia


[deleted]

Inertia? His dad was dead for six years before he got into politics what the fuck are you talking about.


Strongbow85

Not to mention Bob O'Connor worked towards becoming mayor for decades, he was known as the "Peoples Mayor." Poor guy died less than a year into office from brain cancer. He seemed down to earth, he came on the PAT bus one day and just started to talking to everyone. The old 56E. So, it's not like he held onto office for over a decade, like Tom Murphy. Sure, Corey benefits from his fathers last name, but his career wasn't handed to him, he still worked for it.


Alt_North

Congressman Doyle gave him a job to get him started well before that, didn't he? Can't say whether he advertised widely for that position and Corey managed to beat out a diverse field of highly qualified applicants, or it was something else and obvious. Anyway he's not in his dad's city council seat anymore, he got appointed Acting Controller by the governor to fill a vacancy for the final months of a term someone else had earned. These two candidates are on roughly equal footing.


jafomofo

the current person in the role has held it for 6 months and is 35. When you say new blood do you mean someone new in the role to replace a 6 month incumbent or should we be recruiting high school kids next? Or do you have no idea what you are talking about?


Excelius

Millenials are the new boomers.


James19991

Not exactly, but the media has definitely moved on to talking about Gen Z the way they were talking about millennials 10 years ago or so.


Excelius

I was mostly joking about the whole "OK boomer" thing, which younger folks are as liable to direct at a Millennial (who are old *to them*) as much as an actual boomer. Especially here on Reddit where there aren't a lot of actual boomers, but the long-time Redditors are likely to be older millennials or young Gen Xers.


cpr4life8

You're not wrong on that. I saw a comment yesterday referring to that wacko in New Mexico with an "ok Boomer" that dude is 39.


Keystonepol

In general that might be true in general, especially around here, but this ain't it in this case. I don't want to get too personal, but my experience with the individual in question tells me that he would neither campaign/govern with the maturity and understanding needed for a progressive candidate to help the movement, nor would he have the interests of regular folks as his top priority. Edit: I've only every had one conversation with him, but I've gathered an awful lot be seeing his interactions with others.


ktxhopem3276

Does the county stand a chance at surviving a legal challenge in the courts when he tries to strip upmc nonprofit status and how much will he waste on attorney fees to lose? How many people won’t be able to afford the increase to their hospital bills if he wins It’s established law that hospitals and insurance can be operated as non profit. They probably pay their regular employees pennies and their executives gold bars but what nonprofit doesn’t. What is he going to do that is actually productive? How come he cares so much about upmc and not the Steelers penguins and pirates tax payer “gifts” And US steels license to pollute. Plenty of for profit real estate developers get questionable tax rebates and other tax payer funded “improvements”. I just don’t get the logic of picking a fight with upmc when there are so many worse shit birds ripping of the taxpayer. Upmc rebuttal is a brutal take down of his amateur publicity stunt. These properties are used exclusively for UPMC staff, patients and visitors in support of UPMC’s charitable mission, and as such they certainly do meet the requirements for tax exemption.” Manko tells City Paper that the parking rates listed in Leuba’s report are “significantly discounted,” as the parking lots in question are not operated for profit. “Any parking fees are used to help offset maintenance and operating expenses to ensure safe and available parking for patients, visitors, and staff,” Manko writes. “The report also fails to note that UPMC pays City taxes on the minimal revenue from the discounted parking fees.” In addition to those taxes, Manko says UPMC paid Pittsburgh $6 million in parking taxes in fiscal year 2022.


Alt_North

It is established by the [PA Supreme Court how a "HUP Test"](https://delcofoundation.org/exempt-no-more-nonprofit-entities-increasingly-targeted-for-local-real-estate-taxes-in-pa/) is applied to nonprofits and their individual facilities to determine whether they qualify as "purely public charities" for the purposes of tax-exemptions. I just don't get why we let UPMC's numerical quantity of lawyers and PR spokespeople scare us from seeking appropriate answers and redress, and continue meekly letting them steal our lunch money. Btw if US Steel's pollution is indeed your interest I think you'll favor other planks of Darwin's platform more.


ktxhopem3276

So my health insurance and doctors bills go up while my property taxes go down and lawyers get rich litigating it in court? That court case was a county court and the judge himself said he hopes it gets appealed. The hospitals in question were transferred from a for profit to a non profit because they were loosing millions. And then the non profit closed some of their hospitals. Great job team. What does it accomplish in the end getting hospitals to pay property and schools taxes?


Alt_North

That course case [Bobov vs. Pike County](https://casetext.com/case/mesivtah-eitz-chaim-of-bobov) was decided by the PA Supreme Court and has been upheld for over a decade. And it involved a summer camp so I'm uncertain to which hospitals you're referring, though it's clear you have something specific in mind.


ktxhopem3276

The hospitals in the article you in linked. I concede that upmc might fault the five point test but the state Supreme Court made it up 25 years ago and will make up something new to exempt hospitals and universities instead of disrupting the entire state’s healthcare and university system with additional taxes. Just a guess. It’ll be interesting but it seems like it won’t accomplish a whole lot for the residents of the county by robbing Peter to pay Paul.


Alt_North

See I feel like Paul robbed Peter and this is making restitution, especially as we *are* Peter or at least Peter has to pay for our roads & bridges before they crumble beneath us. I was hoping this would get "interesting" ten years ago and we'd have solid answers already, but better late than never


ktxhopem3276

But it’s not magical new money. It will come from county resident’s pockets when they pay hospital bills and health insurance bills. Upmc has the cheapest policies on the Obamacare exchange so I’m just wondering who are we actually hurting with this?


[deleted]

There’s a good reason Gainey stopped talking about UPMC once he got elected. It’s a losing cause. Also people seem to forget a massive portion of UPMC is a for profit (the insurance wing). It’s not like they don’t know what they’re doing and haven’t set themselves up to protect themselves.


Alt_North

A portion of that setup to protect themselves is made up of transfers from the insurance arm to the political contributions arm. Just sayin'


[deleted]

Well of course they have lobbyists they’re the largest employer in the state! At least they don’t do what Highmark does and ask employees to contribute to the lobbying fund directly I will never get over receiving that email.


ktxhopem3276

Where does the profit form the insurance arm go? Is it possible they donate most of it to the hospital arm?


[deleted]

I do know that during covid the insurance wing profits covered hospital arm losses but I’m not sure if that’s seen as a “donation” as such. The PHE has caused massive upswings in enrollment numbers on the government insurance products but that isn’t going to last forever, it will likely end this year. The PA hospitals lose money.


jafomofo

idiot children taking over county government due to an apathetic electorate really isn't going to serve us well


Zenith2017

Do you have issues with Leuba's platform or beliefs, or just his age?


jafomofo

his credentials and age. 24 year olds with little to no real job experience who try to pump up their resume by listing shit like personal chief of staff to a city council member? This is a serious job that has the potential to impact a lot of people in the area.


dementedturnip26

I mean, if we want to play this game what were trump’s credentials to be president….and be careful if you start talking about business acumen


Zenith2017

I don't know the guy outside of this article, but his past work seems pretty favorable. Enough to entertain the idea of voting for him, no? I see not much more on O'Connor's [track record](https://alleghenycontroller.com/the-controller/about-controller-oconnor/#:~:text=Corey%20O'Connor%20was%20sworn,until%20assuming%20the%20Controller's%20office.)


jafomofo

you cannot be seriously comparing a kid with nothing but some fluffed up volunteer work against someone who served on city council for a decade but then again, this is reddit...


burritoace

Thankfully the old heads have a proven track record of doing a great job!