Silly filing requirement for city council race

The city’s Ethics Hearing Board recently sandbagged politicalnewcomers by selectively informing candidates in Council District 8 of a largely meaningless campaign-filing requirement that seems to exist for no purpose other than its own enforcement.

I am a supporter of Rennick Remley’s campaign for the seat. Contrary to director Linda King’s statement, Mr. Remley has no record of her reaching out to the campaign to inform himof this filing requirement.

Her assertion that a courtesy letter was sent to all candidates on Thursday — the filing deadline — is laughable. If you are sending a courtesy letter to advise people of a deadline, it should be sent in advance of that deadline.

It is understandable that political insiders such as Erika Staaf Strassburger and Sonja Finn met the deadline. Ms. Finn is the official nominee of the Democratic Party machine. Ms. Strassburger, who was chief of staff for Dan Gilman when he held the seat, helped write this largely irrelevant regulation.

When Mr. Remley’s representative arrived on Friday to file the paper, the person at the desk sent her to another office, before we realized we knew more about where to file this document than EHB staff.

The enthusiasm with which city bureaucrats fixate on regulations that are already on the books at the state level, while streets go unplowed and potholes work their way down to China, is the very reason Mr. Remley is attempting to break the 81-year single-party hammerlock on Pittsburgh. STEVE WEBSTER

Shadyside analysis is unfair and gives little credence to any information provided to the public.

Our representatives have become “wall-eyed.” That means we can not see anything together with both eyes since each eye is looking to either the left or the right. Unfortunately that provides the public with incomplete and biased information. Even more unfortunately, it further divides and destabilizes our trust in them. So, our vision, which is now “walleyed,” is guiding and leading the nation. Heaven help us. CAROLE SLOAN

Hermitage

Thank you for publishing the entire Nunes memo in the Saturday paper (Feb. 3, “Trump, Critics Clash Over Memo Significance”). You gave the people the right to make up their own minds and confirmed what I already knew. SUE KUNZMANN

Ohio Township

America has grown to be the richest, most powerful, nation. For this, we can thank millions of women, drudging away at low-paying jobs, making our multitrillion-dollar economy possible. We exploit women and profits flow in, management gets obscene bonuses, and stockholdersget dividends.

And nobody wanted to rock theboat — until now. America is suddenly seething over sexual harassment, busily establishing new standards for male behavior. That’s wasted effort.

There used to be a song,

We welcome your opinion

“Your lips tell me ‘no, no,’ but there’s ‘yes, yes’ in your eyes.” That’s the way the game was played. The girl was expected to tell you “no,” even as she helped you undo her bra. When a woman said “Don’t! Stop!” it was taken to mean “Don’t stop!” Men and women played their established roles.

Themale/female relationship based on dishonesty can be traced back throughout recorded history. It’s in the plays of Shakespeare. It’s in the stories of Balzac. It’s in “The Canterbury Tales.” It’s in the Bible. To stop sexual harassment, we must permit men and women to be more honest with each other. Until we stop training men and women to stick to their assigned roles,there will be harassment.

I used to have a sign in my office: “When All Else Fails, Try Tellingthe Truth.” That needs to be the basis of any and all antiharassmentendeavors. PAUL ALTER

Wilkinsburg