No Room to Talk – New Pottsville Parking Authority Director Slams Outgoing Leadership

New Pottsville Parking Authority Executive Director Ian Lipton slammed the organization’s outgoing interim director in a poison pen letter.

Unfortunately for Lipton, he has zero room to talk.

Lipton Slams Outgoing Pottsville Parking Authority Leadership

According to a report from SkookNews.com, Lipton issued an “open letter” upon taking the helm of Pottsville Parking Authority. In the letter, he broadsides the authority’s previous leadership, presumably the interim director, John Levkulic.

This is something you rarely see among Pottsville officials. Their Mutual Admiration Society rarely openly criticizes itself like this, especially in public. Wonder what Levkulic did to warrant this attack …

In the letter, Lipton writes in part, “The Parking Authority made changes and decisions the past year and may not have communicated the reasons for those decisions or clarified their goals and objectives effectively. This has caused you to feel the Pottsville Parking Authority is not working in your best interest,” Lipton writes.

Let’s assume Lipton’s talking about the roll-out of the ParkMobile app and the elimination of using quarters to park at some meters downtown.

Ignore all the legitimate reasons people have offered for why this was a bad idea:

• Not everyone has a smartphone.
• It’s intrusive and potentially a cyber security risk.
• We’re putting faith in a mobile app when the quarter coin has been around for … ?

The biggest problem people have with the ParkMobile app is that it’s totally unnecessary. Seriously, who’s parking downtown and why? The idea that parking is the reason no one’s shopping downtown is absurd.

So, let’s give Levkulic a pass on this app roll-out plan.

And that leads us to the heart of the problem with Lipton’s unnecessarily toxic letter.

No Room to Talk

When you stack up Lipton’s decades of being witness to the slow decline of Pottsville vs. the sloppy transformation to a mobile parking app, that parking app doesn’t seem too bad now, does it?

In this same letter where Lipton rips into Levkulic (presumably), he also presents reasons why he thinks you should be confident in his leadership at the helm of Pottsville Parking Authority.

He writes, “I am the current chairman of the Greater Pottsville Sewer Authority as well as of the Pottsville Redevelopment Authority, a 35 year member of the latter. Additionally, I serve as an executive officer on the board of the Pottsville Area Development Corporation (PADCO). I am a proud founding member of Lasting Legacy for Pottsville. In 2016, I left the board of Schuylkill Economic Development Corporation (SEDCO) after 25 years of membership. Previously, I served as past chairman of the Pottsville Bicentennial. What this resume means to you is that my entire adult life I have strived to improve our City and its livability.”

What part of that CV gives you confidence? For decades, groups like SEDCO and PADCO say they’re working hard and trying to revitalize the County’s economy but there’s not  much evidence of that … especially in Pottsville. Outside of those, anyone remember one thing about the Pottsville Bicentennial? Or do you even know what Lasting Legacy is/was or does/did?

In the last 35 years, Pottsville has seen a steady decline in overall quality of life. Between then and now, it’s only gotten worse. Lately, it’s much worse. Look who’s been there every step of the way.

Every 7-10 years, the city — through one or more of the authorities or boards on which Lipton has served — Pottsville undergoes a “revitalization” effort and every time, it comes out worse for wear on the other side.

The more he strives, the worse things seem to get.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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