Blogger’s note: The opinions expressed here are my own and do not represent any group, organization, or board with which I may be affiliated.

Sue Kerr wrote a must read blog post about Pittsburgh City Council and the efforts of Ricky Burgess to become the next City Council President. Bram at The Pittsburgh Comet has written about it too. I’d encourage you to read their posts. Sue offers her opinion, and highlights a number of very important points.

Many of us are hoping to see Pittsburgh City Government take a turn and move forward in ways that are progressive and inclusive of the whole of Pittsburgh including the LGBTQ community I think we will see that with Bill Peduto becoming Mayor, however, how City Council is led and functions is equally important. We need to let our own council members know our feelings to help guide their election of the next Council President. YOU, the LGBTQ and ally residents of the City have an ability to help propel the City of Pittsburgh forward. Be engaged and do your part.

Burgess may have constituents who see him as a positive force for his district, but Council needs to act for the whole of the city and that means there can be no efforts to ignore or disenfranchise any constituency within the city.

I have never been a fan even though Burgess cares about public safety which is an issue I care about. Burgess lacks the two skills or attitudes that I believe are critical for a council member:
The ability to listen,
The ability to see the whole picture and recognize the interconnected ness of the pieces.

A few months ago, I wrote about a post-agenda meeting Burgess sponsored. The goal of the meeting was a period for public comment about what residents wanted to see in the next police chief. It was clear, that Burgess saw this as his meeting, as he had a power point presentation that he was handing out. I knew right then, that this was a man seeking more power than his current position allowed.i left the meeting after about 90 minutes when they still had not even begun the public comments. The council members themselves were