Good morning. I am Glenn A. Walsh, and I reside at 633 Royce Avenue in Mount Lebanon. I am Project Director of Friends of the Zeiss.

On December 10, I received a letter from the Department of General Services, in response to my renewed request for public information, authorized by the Pennsylvania Right-to-Know Law.

This letter gives us great concerns about three things:

1) The letter describes the three Memoranda of Understanding, for the Zeiss II Planetarium Projector, 10-Inch Siderostat-type Telescope, and Mercator's Projection Map of the World, legally, as Lease Agreements. However, neither do the Memoranda of Understanding mention the word lease at all, nor do they include legal consideration or an enforcement clause, as required by Lease Agreements.

2) The possibility that the City of Pittsburgh would consider leasing artifacts to an organization that clearly did not meet the specifications of the City's own Request for Proposals [RFP] document. The Carnegie Science Center did NOT comply with ANY section of the paragraph in the City RFP document, regarding Funding Sources !!!

3) That, apparently, the City of Pittsburgh Department of General Services accepted an addendum, to the RFP Proposal issued by The Carnegie Science Center, after the City's designated RFP deadline of May 23, 2002; an addendum which we were not aware of and have not seen. We are now requesting a copy of this "addendum."

Legally, this is all very troublesome. It is the position of Friends of the Zeiss that there is no legal basis whereby the City can enter into a Lease Contract with The Carnegie Science Center for "the display and/or operation" of the Zeiss II Planetarium Projector, 10-inch Siderostat-type Refractor Telescope, and Mercator's Projection Map of the World.

As always, later this week I will provide each City Councilman a copy of our reply to the Department of General Services.

Thank you.

gaw