My biggest story yet ran in the paper today!

I wrote this story about how the Bureau of Building Inspection — which was in charge of issuing permits and monitoring the demolition of property in the city of Pittsburgh — purchased software in 2009 and never installed it, but still pays licensing and maintenance fees on the software and Notepads they purchased. 

It's like a mini-scandal because the PR person for Public Safety didn't want to talk to me, and didn't want the story to run. By PR people don't decide when an article is going to run, the editors do. So she refused and refused and refused multiple opportunities to comment on the story. Then the day that it runs, she says that they are ready to talk now. She also tried to get me to correct the amount of money that I claimed the city spent, but we wouldn't issue the correction because I had the invoices from the city controller's office. 

She said I should have"exercised a little patience" because had I waited, I could have written a story about how BBI got their software up and fully operational in the coming weeks. But that's just not how journalism works. 

Many lessons learned about how to work with government to get them to talk to you, how to write a story when they won't, and the timing of getting a story out — not to mention standing your ground when people get mad about what you wrote. 

Read it here:

http://www.post-gazette.com/local/city/2014/07/21/Bureau-of-Building-Inspection/stories/201407180026