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Description
On this episode of CityTalk, John interviews Rita Porterfield from the Commission on Human Relations and Zoe Burns from the Department of Innovation & Performance.
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Short
answer
is
we
enforce
the
city's
anti-discrimination
law
and
we
do
that
in
the
realms
of
housing,
employment
and
public
accommodations.
So
when
you're
going
down
the
giant
eagle
or
something
like
that,
the
chopping
stores-
that's
something
I-
think
people
think
very
very
little
about,
but
it's
very
common
in
their
everyday
life,
also
city
services,
all.
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Pittsburgh
is
unique,
it's
actually
fairly
progressive
and
what
it
protects
and
it
protects
more
than
federal
and
state
laws.
It
protects
particularly
housing
rights
on
survivorship
of
domestic
violence,
so,
if
you've
survived
being
in
a
domestic
partnership
or
relationship,
there's
age,
that
we
discuss
a
forty
plus
there's
exceptions
for
like
senior
care
homes
or
senior
homes,
so.
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Sort
of
back
in
the
hopper
because
of
court
cases
going
different
ways
that
that
Superior
Court
is
going
to
have
to
resolve,
but
back
to
your
question,
if
you
believe
you've
been
discriminated
against,
you
come
to
our
office.
You
work
with
our
intake
officer
and
you
file
a
complaint.
The
complaint
comes
to
me.
The
investigator
and
I.
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A
complaint
there's
an
answer
filed
right,
so
what
the
complainant
said
and
then
what
the
respondent
said
and
usually
we
find
the
truth
somewhere
to
be
in
the
middle.
So
it's
never
it's
never.
You
know
a
very
black
or
white
issue,
and,
and
there
is
a
lot
of
gray
or
what
we
have
is
there's
a
lot
of
hidden
motive.
Sometimes
so
we
have
to
suss
through
that
now
what
I
do
I
can
subpoena
documents?
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A
seizure
or
something
like
that,
so
we
see
a
lot
of
this
like
I,
have
a
no
pet
policy
and
I
apply
that
to
everyone.
Well,
if
you
denied
this
person,
because
they
came
to
you
and
said,
I
have
the
support
animal.
This
is
I,
have
a
disability,
you
don't
have
to
disclose
your
disability,
and
this
is
why
a
support
animal
helps
me
or
relieves
these
symptoms,
but.
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Do
they
can't
tell
what
they
can't
tell
the
commissioners
what
to
do,
but
the
commissioners
are
appointed
by
the
mayor
and
approved
by
council.
So
there
is
some
politics
or
political
action,
but
not
not
directed
fluence,
and
some
of
our
commissioners
are
very
independent
and
independent
minded,
and
fortunately,
we've
had
like
a
very
wide
swath
of
Commissioners
from
all
different
kinds
of
walks
of
life
that
really
come
together
and
and
work
as
a
whole
team.
So.
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We're
going
some
age
and
I
tell
you
what
usually
we
we
don't
see,
people
that
admit
outright,
but
I
have
had
one
case
where
you
know
person
outright
says
that
you
know
I,
don't
want
to
I,
don't
want
to
work
with
these
people.
So
that's
that's,
usually
a
good
indicator
of
what
what
the
real
intent
is,
which
goes
back
to
your
question
of
evidence.
How
do
you
prove
these
things?
Well,
not
only
do
I
ask
for
data
I
conduct
interviews,
it's
a
lot
of
back-and-forth
like
that
and
but
again
seeing
how
others
are
treated
so.
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For
comparators
a
lot
of
the
time,
so
if
you
think
you've
been
treated
differently
because
they
your
race,
I,
look
for
other
tenants
or
other
workers
depending
on
the
realm
and
then
I
ask
them
like
how
do
you
identify
and
see
what
the
policy
is?
Have
you
experienced
this
treatment?
Have
you
been
treated
the
same
a
lot
of
times
we'll
see
people
who
are
maybe
evicted
from
their
home
after
filing
or
asking
for
reasonable
accommodations,
but
then
another
tenant
in
the
building?
Who
didn't
ask
for
accommodation?
So
isn't
disabled
wasn't
evicted,
okay,.
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So
I
should
clarify
that
that
there's
generations
of
teachers
there,
although
the
teachers
are
there
for
generations
too,
but
I
was
in
Justice
wex
class
on
the
philosophy
of
law
and
he
and
I
were
discussing
how
you
start
with
something
basic
like
the
Constitution.
Then
you
branch
out
to
statutes,
then
you
branch
out
to
regulations
and
case
law
and
how
those
are
like
the
leaves
on
the
tree
when
it
comes
to
the
spread
of
law
and
I
actually
made
a
reference
to
the
Tanakh,
which
is
a
collection
of
Jewish,
Scripture
and
I.
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B
My
grandfather
was
a
firefighter
at
station
number.
Four,
it's
still
station
number
four
and
uptown
it's
one
of
the
ones
that
hasn't
changed
a
whole
lot.
He
was
really
big
in
the
firemen's
Union
and
he
actually
worked
his
way
up
to
captain
and
as
far
as
we
know,
he's
actually
one
of
the
first
italian-american
Oh
captain's
to
get
the
job
awesome
yeah
it
was
pretty
cool
and
then
he
retired
I
believe
in
the
late
70s
and
then
my
dad
worked
for
the
city
government
in
all
I
think,
maybe
about
2002
about
2012,
okay,.
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B
He
worked
part
of
the
time
in
the
controllers
office
and
part
of
the
time
in
Department
of
Finance
the
big
thing
that
he
really
liked
to
do
as
far
as
projects,
when
was
the
assessment
appeals
and
all
the
research
that
went
into
that,
how
assessments
could
be
valued
whether
seniors
were
getting
pushed
out
of
their
homes.
The
controller's
office
did
a
lot
of
work
at
that
time
when,
in
the
late
90s
we
sort
of
had
the
reassessment
come
in.
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B
Sure,
yeah
and
I
mean
I've
also
had
to
handle
assessments
and
outside
of
the
city,
but
in
in
front
of
the
same
Board
of
Appeals
and
the
difference
in
some
of
the
buildings.
If
you
were
classified
as
one
side
of
the
highway,
even
if
your
property
value
didn't
actually
go
up,
you
were
assessed
a
triple
or
quadruple
the
range.
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Oh
absolutely
I
love
I'm
a
convert
to
hockey
I'm,
actually
originally
a
huge
football
fee
and
they
still
love
the
Steelers.
But
my
husband
is
a
big
hockey
fan
and
up
until
maybe
about
two
years
ago,
I
think
they
finally
gave
up
their
seasons.
Tickets
put
my
husband
and
one
of
his
brothers
had
season
tickets
for
about
40
years.
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I,
like
what
I
do
we're
really
fortunate
that
we
have
a
good
staff
I,
really
like
the
guidance
my
director
gives
and
and
it's
more
of
a
team
atmosphere
again,
because
we
are
so
small
and
we
could
easily
get
overwhelmed
with
our
caseload.
We
never
know.
What's
gonna
come
in
the
door,
we
never
know
how
many,
how
fast
it
could
be.
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You
know
three
that
coming
in
one
time
it
could
be
50
and
there's
all
we
can
do
was
work
together
to
plan
for
it,
but
I
really
feel
like
I
get
to
make
decisions
not
only
for
my
own
caseload,
but
how
we
better
the
office
as
a
whole
or
if
there's
legislative
issues
that
come
up.
Our
director
is
very
receptive
to
that,
because
it's
one
of
the
other
things
the
Commission
does
outside
of
individual
casework.
It
looks
at
improving
policies
and
improving
the
code
and
city
code
and
regulations
itself.
Rheda.
C
I'm
Pittsburgh's
3-1-1
manager,
Wendy
Urbanek.
We
are
happy
to
help
with
any
city
of
Pittsburgh
non-emergency
questions
or
concerns.
Request
can
be
sent
anonymously.
If
you
do
not
require
a
response,
please
keep
in
mind
that
the
more
detailed
information
you
can
provide,
the
better
we
will
be
able
to
assist
all
service
requests
sent
with
a
valid
email
address
will
be
sent
an
email
response,
providing
your
ticket
number
for
tracking
purposes.
Should
a
service
request
be
generated
by
your
submission.
One
of
our
3-1-1
representatives
will
provide
a
service
request.
C
Id
number
all
weekday
calls
from
8
a.m.
to
6
p.m.
are
answered
by
a
live
operator
inside
the
city.
Call
3-1-1
outside
the
city
call
four
one.
Two,
two
five,
five,
two
six
two
one
get
the
my
burg
app
for
Android
and
iOS.
It
is
Pittsburgh's
24/7
resource
to
notify
us
about
non-emergency
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You
can
also
submit
request
by
tweeting
us
at
PGH
three
one
one.
Thank
you.
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Coming
from
private,
which
was
my
previous
experience,
I
thought
it
might
be
like
that,
but
it's
not
like
that
at
all,
most
people
actually
really
care
about
what
goes
on
in
the
city.
Everyone
wants
to
make
a
difference
and
they
come
to
work
wanting
to
do
something.
So
no
there's
not
really
a
lot
of
people
just
sitting
around
doing
nothing.
That's.