Can the Reading Eagle dig up detention center compliance reports?

by Steve Reinbrecht

Here’s some investigative journalism for the Reading Eagle to do.

Berks County owns a detention center near Leesport that federal officials are using to lock up immigrants – including mothers and young children – waiting for legal decisions on their status.

A “bi-annual” report from February 2009 prepared for federal officials says the center was “non-compliant.” It has pages describing deficiencies and recommendations. Were any followed up?

A lot of the report was redacted. Did the blacked-out sections describe conditions too horrible for the public to know about?

The Reading Eagle should track down the reports from 2011, 2013 and 2015. I could find no stories about any reports in the Eagle archives.

I did find an editorial in the Reading Eagle on Aug. 31, 2009, urging the Berks County commissioners to keep the center open, to retain 50 jobs. No comment on the ethics or the morals of keeping innocent people locked up.

The newspaper had a wire-service story in February 2007 about reports of abuse in the place.

The detention center and associated protests and legal procedures make up a major story at the center of a national issue, right here in Berks County.

It reflects on the national debates about whether we welcome people fleeing horrible conditions, and whether locking people up for victimless crimes is the best way to solve problems.

Why won’t the Berks County commissioners comment on why they continue to abet the detention of innocent people?

The Reading Eagle has dropped the ball covering this place, failing to find sources and press local officials about their stands on keeping the detention center open.

Compliance report from February 2009

Report from 2007

Wire story in the Reading Eagle from February 2007

Reading Eagle editorial Aug. 1, 2009

Most Berks state reps scold Obama over transgender bathroom letter

by Steve Reinbrecht

Five of the nine state representatives who represent Berks County signed a letter directly to President Obama opposing his administration’s directive to public schools to accommodate transgender students. 

Why do conservative lawmakers get so wigged out about anything to do with sex?

The letter, signed by 96 of the 203 Pennsylvania state representatives, plays to fear in a way that reminds me of the Republican push to require identification cards to vote. Just as voter fraud is practically non-existent, attacks by creeps posing as transgender people in public bathrooms are unlikely.

The lawmakers are pandering to fear of sexual deviancy to target a tiny, vulnerable population, perhaps 3 people out of 1,000, or maybe 1,200 Berks County residents – but certainly some students in every school district.

The White House can be accused of overreach for its letter, because most school districts are quietly and appropriately accommodating transgender students, defined in Obama’s letter as individuals whose gender identity is different from the sex they were assigned at birth.

In a Reading Eagle article, local school officials appear to be working on the issue with the best interests of the students in mind.

"This is a real concern about real people," Reading School Board President Robin Costenbader-Jacobson said. "We have more than 17,000 students, and we want what's best for every single one of them. We want to be sensitive to every person and not sitting in a seat of judgment."

As she notes, the issue is truly one of compassion. Any parent can imagine the struggles of a young person who realizes ze is gay or feels like ze is in the wrong body.

But the tone of the lawmakers’ letter is one of persecution, linking transgender people to perverts.

“We are writing to express our extreme outrage at the legally spurious ‘Dear Colleague’ letter issued jointly by the Department of Education and the Department of Justice on Friday, May 13, 2016 regarding the use of bathrooms by transgender students in public schools,” says the lawmakers' letter.

“Plainly, this directive will allow men to go into legally sex-separated bathrooms with young girls. The parents of these young girls are rightly concerned about your policy and its implications for their daughters’ safety.”

I don’t see that happening in any properly run public school.

And believe me, America is the most uptight country I’ve ever visited about bathroom purity. These letter signers probably wouldn't be able to go in some of the public restrooms I've used in Japan, Brazil, Paris, the Bahamas.... 

Is the Berks historical society planning to move out of Reading? No one will say no

by Steve Reinbrecht

I wonder if the Historical Society of Berks County is planning to move from its longtime home in Reading to join with the Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center at Kutztown University.

I heard that someone has offered a $1 million donation if the merger takes placed.

When I asked the leaders of those organizations if the organizations will merge, my wonder increased.

Sime Bertolet, executive director of the historical society, said talk of such a move is “rumors at this point.”

When I asked him what he meant by “at this point,” he refused to comment further.

I left a message for Patrick Donmoyer, who runs the cultural center, but he didn’t contact me. When I called again, a woman who answered the phone said the center has no comment on my question.

She said others have called to ask the same thing. 

So that’s it.

Because the Reading Eagle has trained local leaders that if they don’t like a story, they can call the newsroom and get it censored, many Berks organizations have never had to learn how to answer tough questions from the public.

“No comment” is never a good answer.

With social media filling in the cracks around the county newspaper’s crumble into journalistic irrelevance, organizations will need to stay on their toes with unexpected public relations.

Reading Mayor Wally Scott has little to show

by Steve Reinbrecht

So Wally Scott has been mayor of Reading for almost five months. The biggest part of the job is finding good people to fill key jobs in the city government.

The poor city needs the best help and leadership it can get to survive a world that is very unkind to small cities, which well-paying employers have fled but poor people fleeing worse places have flocked to.

Wally drove off two apparently very competent if not excellent administrators – the police chief, William Heim, and the city manager, Carole Snyder, and hasn’t been able to hire permanent replacements.

On Tuesday, Cumru Township hired Reading’s acting police chief, Madison Winchester.

Although he never impressed me, Lenin Agudo, the city community development director, left his important job early in the year. Alejandro Palacios is the acting director, but I can find no information about him.

On Friday, Wally fired David Ruyak, ‎operations division manager. In July, Ruyak was given a $6,000 raise because he had taken over the curbside waste program. Wally has proposed a complicated trash hauling program, an old theme of his.

The parking authority appears to be in disarray, with a floundering Wally-appointed executive director and the loss of its longtime finance director Christina Gilfert, who quit after 15 years.

In April, Wally fired Ron Natale, a 13-year City Hall veteran who had run the codes department since 2010.

Several different people have told me Wally seems to be developing Alzheimer’s disease or some sort of dementia.

He certainly didn’t impress this letter writer:

“We hear stories that clearly show that he [Scott] lacks a grasp of fundamental concepts of economic development and city management, which was evident in his comments in last week's Berks Community Foundation program at Albright College. Quoting lines from Cheech and Chong movies, declaring that Mexico should be a U.S. territory and touting his railroad theme and Monopoly board plan as a way to incentivize new business left the audience dumbfounded.”

Scott could shake up the Reading Redevelopment Authority, where apparently two men have worked full time for years, trying to sell a 50-acre plot.

People have also told me about the friendly relationship between Scott and the new City Hall reporter, Dan Kelly. I hope it’s friendly AND professional. Reading needs better journalism.