Bob Cranmer
Robert Wesley "Bob" Cranmer is a veteran, businessman, author, and politician, best known as a former Republican County Commissioner of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, from 1996 to 2000. He is the author of the horror novel The Demon of Brownsville Road.
Career
The son of a retired military officer, Cranmer graduated from Brentwood High School in 1974 and received a Bachelor of Science degree in secondary education and history from Duquesne University in 1978. After service as a United States Army officer where one of his assignments was as a company commander with the 101st Airborne Division, he returned home and was elected to Brentwood Council in 1991.Brentwood Towne Square
In 1991 Cranmer ran for a seat on Brentwood council stating that he would bring a new grocery store to the community. But after his election Cranmer found his campaign promise was easier said than done when grocery chains he contacted disparaged the condition of the current shopping center and the topography of the land where it sat. Understanding that the Brentwood-Whitehall Shopping Center was in an advanced state of deterioration, he initiated a plan to create an economic development corporation to work with developers in addressing the commercial needs of Brentwood and later expanded to serve other communities in the South Hills of Allegheny County.Working with Allegheny County, Kappa Properties, and Giant Eagle this corporation undertook a development plan to demolish and rebuild this primary business district, eventually creating a $32 million development which became known as "Brentwood Towne Square or Center".
Brentwood vs. TCI Cable
He gained the attention of the national media in 1993 when he challenged the operating practices of the media giant TCI Cable. The firm, which had contracted with Brentwood to provide cable television services, added without notice or approval two explicitly adult channels, Playboy TV and Spice Networks, and was done to test market the service. When a subscriber television was turned on it would automatically "default" to one of the adult channels, each being lightly scrambled but still providing full uncensored audio. These "mechanical" features made contact with the channels unavoidable, making children vulnerable to programming designed explicitly for adult viewers.Cranmer claimed that this was done as a ploy to entice viewers to subscribe while subjecting all viewers to the adult content, including children. He also based his objections on an existing borough ordnance that prohibited the sale of sexually explicit magazines, videos, or performances. In signing a contract with the borough, TCI had agreed to abide by all borough laws and regulations and that they were now violating the ordnance by providing "home delivery service" of pornographic material. Brentwood borough and TCI eventually came to an out-of-court agreement in which the channels would be further scrambled and blocked entirely upon request of the subscriber.
Teresa Heinz – Rick Santorum controversy
In 1994, he was elected chairman of the Republican Party of Allegheny County. In October of that year Cranmer again gained the national spotlight when Teresa Heinz, the wife of the late Senator John Heinz, a Republican, and later wife of presidential candidate John Kerry, publicly endorsed Democratic incumbent Senator Harris Wofford, who had been appointed to the seat by Governor Bob Casey following her husband's death. She called the Republican candidate, Congressman Rick Santorum, "Forrest Gump with an attitude" and labeled him much too conservative for Pennsylvania.The same day that her endorsement made the Pennsylvania newspapers Cranmer issued a press release which included a letter from him to Mrs. Heinz, asking her to change her voter registration to the Democratic Party; he also included a voter registration form. Cranmer's letter helped him gain notoriety, as it was seen as emblematic of the betrayal felt by State Republicans.
Jonny Gammage incident
In 1995 during his campaign for county commissioner, two Brentwood Police officers were involved in an incident during which a young black man named Jonny Gammage of Syracuse, New York, was killed during a routine traffic stop. Gammage was the cousin of Ray Seals, a player for the Pittsburgh Steelers football team. The controversy surrounding the death made the national news and racial tension rose to a fever pitch in Pittsburgh.Cranmer, who had been at odds with the Brentwood police as a councilman, denounced the police conduct and when pressured leveled accusations that Brentwood had a history racist incidents. He and his family were castigated by members of the community and contemplated moving but eventually did not. After several trials and mistrials, all of the police officers were eventually acquitted in the case. Many in the community never forgave Cranmer for his statements.
Allegheny County Commissioner
Cranmer went on to be elected County Commissioner in November 1995 in a landmark election and was thought to be a firebrand conservative. Being a member of the first Republican majority in Allegheny County government since the Great Depression, Cranmer subsequently split with his Republican running mate Larry Dunn over major differences concerning the managing of the county government, and formed a close governing alliance with Democrat commissioner Mike Dawida.He was heralded as a "traitor" to Republicans by commissioner Dunn, who subsequently, switched parties and became a registered Democrat to run for county controller in 2003. In summary, the Post-Gazette stated "that despite the political suicide he brought upon himself, this was the turning point that helped the county recover from earlier mistakes".
As a commissioner he made significant changes to county government, reducing county taxes by 20 percent, reducing county personnel by 18%, merging twenty-eight county departments into six, creating the position of County Manager, an integrated county 9-1-1 system, and forming a joint city/county economic development organization. The economic development organization is most notable for the coordination and construction of The Waterfront business/commercial/residential development with Continental Real Estate-Development, on the former site of the United States Steel Homestead Works.
New county government and legacy
He led an effort to establish home rule in Allegheny County, which created the position of county executive and county council after coming to the conclusion that a new structure of government was needed. This initiative was based upon a study set into motion by former county commissioners Tom Foerster and Pete Flaherty in 1995. They had established a committee chaired by the then chancellor of Duquesne University, John E. Murray Jr. called "ComPAC 21",. Their report laid the plan for a completely new organizational structure of county government.He also initiated the creation of the Allegheny County Airport Authority to manage the Pittsburgh International Airport in a more effective, professional manner.
During their administration Mike Dawida and Bob Cranmer also oversaw the rehabilitation and restoration of the famed Henry Hobson Richardson Allegheny County Jail designed in the late 1800s. The vacant and deteriorating structure was converted to house the new combined home of the juvenile and adult family sections of Allegheny County Common Pleas Court. The $46 million spent on the renovation project was nearly 23 times the original cost of both of the Richardsonian Romanesque masterpieces, the jail and county courthouse.
Cranmer and Mike Dawida worked cooperatively to achieve their city-county goals, and as the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette put it: "The partnership held strong through decisions that got county government back on track."
The combined leadership of Cranmer, Dawida, and Mayor Tom Murphy led to a building boom in Pittsburgh dubbed "Renaissance III" that was a catalyst for how the city would be viewed a decade later when it was selected to host the 2009 G-20 summit, led by President Barack Obama. The Post-Gazette commented in 1998 that Allegheny County Commissioners Bob Cranmer and Mike Dawida understand the importance of a strong urban core and, through their partnership, have helped the mayor find ways to do what lesser leadership would considerable unthinkable. It is a meeting of such focused minds and willing spirits that stands to take Pittsburgh into a new era. Call it Renaissance III or call it just a better place to live, this is the blueprint of a renewable city that more people will be proud to call home."
Cranmer's tenure in office had an impact upon the size, structure, and cost of county government. The Post-Gazette would later sum up his time in office with the following when he announced that he would not seek reelection: "By thinning the field and working toward the day when Republicans have a single alternative to the policies of ill-conceived tax cuts, reactionary thinking and government-as-usual, Commissioner Cranmer has made the ultimate political sacrifice. If that is the mark of a citizen-lawmaker – to be honest, to spurn patronage, to reform the public sector and then get out – this commissioner has been one such leader. Allegheny County could use a few more Bob Cranmers."
He was followed in office by Jim Roddey, the first Allegheny County Executive. Papers and associated historical records concerning Cranmer's term in office are filed at the Heinz History Center, in Pittsburgh.
The following comments were made upon his departure from office:
found Cranmer to be "very forthright." "I was impressed with his integrity. I just saw him develop his knowledge. You always felt that you get an honest answer from him." Moe Coleman, Retired director of the Institute for Politics at the University of Pittsburgh
"A fascinating political figure who contravened earlier predictions. When he was first elected, people thought he would be a rabble-rousing, right-wing Christian Coalition partisan and he turned out to be anything but. He proved to be a very complicated – almost enigmatic – political figure. He's clearly someone who listened to his own drummer." Jon Delano, Democrat political analyst
Though Cranmer's decision to split from Dunn probably cost him his political future, Green said he should get credit for it. "It was a very difficult personal decision but he did it because it was right for the county." Bill Green, Republican political consultant
He worked for several firms after leaving office and in July 2009 he established "Cranmer Consultants", a government and legislative affairs company. In 2000, Cranmer was inducted into the Sons of the American Revolution after he traced his lineage back to Noadiah Cranmer who fought in the American Revolutionary War, and served as president of the Pittsburgh chapter for two years.