Pat Ford Ethics Review & Paid Leave Update 2

Pat Ford & Lawrence Fisher

Here's an update on the Pennsylvania Ethics Commission's review of URA Executive Director Pat Ford. Since April 9th, Ford has on paid leave pending the commission's look into gifts that he and his wife, former mayor's Press Secretary Alecia Sirk, received from Lamar Advertising executive Jim Vlasach.

Ford's attorney Lawrence Fisher tells me:

"It remains Pat Ford's fervent intention to return to his responsibilities as URA director as soon as his good name is restored by the State Ethics Commission."

Fisher says he was advised via phone by the Ethics Commission's Executive Director John Contino that the preliminary inquiry of Ford began around May 19th. That would be about 40 days after Ford himself and the city's Urban Redevelopment Authority requested the review.

As I reported on May 2nd, before any formal investigations, by law the state ethics commission first opens a preliminary inquiry, which can take up to sixty days. I'm told that it normally does take that long. At that point, the ethics commission's executive director makes a determination whether to move forward with a full investigation.

The Post-Gazette reported (in the body of an unrelated June 9th article) that "Mr. Fisher said the commission is expected to dismiss the matter or launch a full investigation by July 18".

That would be sixty days after may 19th, and is consistent with the timeline I've reported.

Attorney Fisher told me last week that he and Ford had gotten no request from the ethics commission for any interview, "nor any written questions requiring any response".

.

Read More...

Summary only...

SLAPP?

Bill Peduto claims that the lawsuit Lamar Advertising filed against him and his fellow Councilmen Shields, Burgess, Kraus, and Dowd was a SLAPP. He seems to suggest the city law department opinion about their legal expenses has the sting of a SLAPP, too.

What's a SLAPP?

I didn't recall the term, but apparently SLAPPs have a long and contentious history.

SLAPP stands for "Strategic lawsuit against public participation".


Wikipedia defines it as:

"a form of litigation frequently filed by organizations or individuals to intimidate and silence critics or opponents by burdening them with the cost of a legal defense so that they abandon their criticism or opposition."

California passed a law to protect against SLAPPs. So have more than two dozen other states. That includes Pennsylvania, though our state's has been described as a "significantly weakened version passed into law in 2000." It was designed to deal only with environmental law cases, and reportedly was passed "after a coal baron sued an elderly constituent for filing a complaint with the state’s Department of Environmental Protection when her home suffered acid mine-water damage."

That's from this article in Philly area newspaper that quotes a critic complaining that a court ruling created "an unduly narrow interpretation that destroys any value or purpose of the statute."

It seems that SLAPPs are an international phenomenon. Here' s a YouTube video report by CUTV. Concordia University Television is Canada's oldest student-run television station. I'm linking to it here for some interesting background. As they say on the DVD extras, this is for entertainment purposes only, and does not necessarily reflect the views, etc.




Here are some PG articles in which the term "SLAPP" appears.

Developers sue Franklin Park, residents for losses
Suit cites neighbors' 'frivolous objections' to townhouse plan


The dash to SLAPP is chilling


Judge drops neighbors from townhouse lawsuit

Meanwhile, I ran into Lamar Advertising's attorney Sam Kamin as I was leaving the City County Building after Tuesday's council meeting. He told me he had just finished dictating the court filing to withdraw Lamar's lawsuit against the city council members, as agreed to in the arrangement signed before the zoning board.

A check of the county court's website shows that the lawsuit has now been "Discontinued without Prejudice".

What the significance there is (if any) of the lawsuit being discontinued "without prejudice" in this case, I do not know.

.

Read More...

Summary only...

Chessboards & Mushroom Clouds At City Hall

It's hard to choose which of the two pictures above is the best to foreshadow the ongoing escalation in exchanges between the Ravenstahl administration and City Council.

Is this story about something more than a simple snit over paying a legal bill? Four Council members are being told that what began with their challenging that controversial electronic billboard could end with their forced removal from office.

One gets the sense that there are powerful and volatile combinations in play beyond the view of the news of the day.

Check out this blog post about where this legal clash involving Lamar Advertising, City Council, and the Ravenstahl administration was heading. That showdown was asking for depositions and subpoenas of the Mayor, Chief of Staff Yarone Zober, and URA Executive Director Pat Ford on one side, and of five City Council members and their staffers on the other.



Meanwhile, Lamar Advertising's lawsuit against the four City Council members still has not been formally withdrawn...(as of this blog post early Tuesday morning). Doing so was part of the settlement negotiated between attorneys for Lamar, City Solicitor George Specter, and Councilman Patrick Dowd's privately hired attorneys.

When I asked Lamar Advertising's attorney Sam Kamin about this last week, he told me initially that the lawsuit was moot. When I asked him how long it could sit there -- dormant but not officially withdrawn -- before it expired, he answered in terms of years. He assured me there was "nothing nefarious " involved, then closed by saying that in response to my inquiry he intended to formally withdraw the lawsuit as Lamar Advertising had agreed to do in its signed settlement before the Zoning Board.

Note, by the way: the lawsuit by Lamar advertising against Shields, Peduto, Kraus, and Burgess says clearly that those four were (are?) each being sued as members of City Council. Only Patrick Dowd was also being sued as an individual. Among other things, the suit alleges that they violated the Sunshine Act. That's something that a public official can be accused of doing, but not a private citizen.

.

Read More...

Summary only...

The Dueling Billboard Subpoenas That Might Have Been

Dueling subpoenas and depositions could have marked the start of a long and messy legal battle involving City Council members, Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, and Lamar Advertising. It appears that won't happen, thanks to a resolution of the conflict over the original permit for a large electronic billboard downtown. Here's a closer look at excerpts from the legal documents I covered in my Channel 4 Action News report. They show what that peacekeeping apparently averted.

In this post you'll find images of now-voided:

• Subpoena requests targeting Mayor Luke Ravensthal, Chief of Staff Yarone Zober, and URA Executive Director Patrick Ford, and

• Subpoena requests targeting communications with news organizations and with bloggers on the part of five City Council members.

These are the public records:

• subpoena and discovery motions from attorneys for City Council members Shields, Peduto, Kraus, and Burgess and subpoena and

• subpoena and discovery motions from attorneys for Lamar Advertising.

They were filed with the city Zoning Board this past week, before City Solicitor George Specter, attorneys for Lamar and attorneys for Councilman Dowd reached their agreement on how to resolve the dispute over the billboard permit.

Again, the subpoena requests and discovery motions are all now considered moot, but they would have covered a wide range of records:

• "including, but not limited to, correspondence, notes, letters, documents, emails, text messages, voice mails, cell phone records, calendars, receipts, check registers, calendars, log books message slips or other statements of correspondence) of communications", including many with "news organizations", "members of the press or blogs".

Note that the section dealing with communication with reporters and bloggers appears to have been much broader than the one that would have targeted only billboard related matters. It appears to have sought all "non-privileged records" of communications with reporters and bloggers.

First, click "Read More..." to expand the post and reveal the documents.

Then you can start clicking on each of the images to enlarge them to readable size.

(You can also click this permalink to see the entire post, images and all, in a separate window.)

.

From the filing by the attorney for Council members Shields, Peduto, Kraus, and Burgess:







From the filing by attorneys for Lamar Advertising:

Read More...

Summary only...

Billboard Back Story: Brewing Controversies

[Looking for my "Media Debate Blowback" post? Click here.]

There's an intriguing back-story that led up to the peacemaking between Lamar Advertising and Pittsburgh Council members who challenged the legality of their permit to erect an electronic billboard downtown. My Channel 4 Action News report lays out details. I obtained copies of legal filings that reveal a battle of subpoenas and discovery motions, averted just in time.

Here's the text of my TV story.

If this agreement on the Lamar electronic billboard going back through channels hadn't been reached, legal documents show council members were pressing for testimony under subpoena by:

• city URA Executive Director Pat Ford, who struck the deal,
• his Lamar executive best friend Jim Vlasach, with whom he negotiated.
• and Mayor Ravenstahl's Executive Secretary Yarone Zober.

That won't happen now. But the State Ethics Commission is still reviewing gifts received by Ford and Ford's wife -- Mayor Ravenstahl's former press secretary Alecia Sirk -- from Vlasach. Mayor Luke Ravenstahl: "This process in the infancy stages and we'll see where it goes. I'm not concerned about that at this point, and welcome the investigation at the state ethics commission and look forward to their findings."
Legal documents show council members were asking the zoning board to subpoena all records -- quote--

"pertaining to gifts, remuneration, or 'in kind' services provided by Lamar to any official or employee of the City of Pittsburgh..."

The basis?

• The documents say -- quote-- "Mayor Ravenstahl, Mr. Ford, and Mr. Vlasach are all believed to be personal friends."
• The discovery was targeted to -- quote -- "consider whether Lamar applied improper influence to these public officials with respect to the led application approval".

Work on the Lamar electronic billboard is stopped until it clears the normal planning and zoning public process. Meanwhile, published reports [by the PG's Rich Lord] say two different, out-of-town companies also got approval for billboards through Ford without the normal approval process. Mayor Ravenstahl confirms he stopped by Ford's dinner meeting with those execs.

Ravenstahl: "To say hello."
Q: "You just said 'hi' and left?"
A: "No, I mean we just communicated and Pat mentioned that they were in town and I went up to say hello, just like I talk with anybody that's interested in doing business with Pittsburgh. "

Two Oregon-based Liberty Pacific media execs at that dinner meeting later contributed a total of $25,000 to Ravenstahl's campaign.

Q: "Any campaign aspects discussed in the meeting?"
Mayor Ravenstahl: "No."
Q: "Did those donations in any way influence how the their billboards got approved?"
A: "No. I had nothing to do with the approval of the billboards."

.

Read More...

Summary only...

City Government Shakeup

Alecia Sirk and Pat Ford

UPDATE: Video.

The breaking news tonight is a shakeup in city government involving a power couple in Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's administration.

Here's the text of my live report on Channel 4 Action News at 5:30 PM. The Pittsburgh Channel now has the video online.

City URA Executive Director Pat Ford is part of Mayor Ravenstahl's inner circle and has held a variety of top posts. His wife Alicia Sirk is the mayor's press secretary. They say their friendship with the Lamar advertising executive goes back some time and has nothing to do with the billboard deal.

But the Mayor's chief of staff has just informed us that Alecia Sirk resigned today.
It's in relation to the issues in the story you are about to see..

The URA's Pat Ford has requested a temporary paid leave of absence -- granted, effective immediately -- to allow a review by the appropriate agencies into the gift matters in the report you're going to see now.

[Video]

This is city official Pat Ford -- who struck the deal that bypassed Pittsburgh's permit process to allow Lamar Advertising to put up an electronic billboard on the Grant Street Transportation Center now being built.

His wife Alecia Sirk -- Mayor Ravenstahl's press secretary -- blogged about the couple's friendship with Lamar executive Jim Vlasach a couple of years back.

She calls her husband 'our hero'.., and wrote JV -- that's the Lamar exec -- had gifted her with a sound system.

• "...The best part was that i got a christmas gift! jv brought me surround sound for my dvd player!"

"it is like knock you over one of the best things evah."

Local political blogs The Burgh Report and The Pittsburgh Comet got a tip about it, even though the original files are no longer on the net.

Blogger Bram Reichbaum: "we feel that the appearance of an impropriety is clear. There's certainly enough out there for a perception of impropriety. That's not for us to determine."

Ford is not available for comment, but told our news partner, the Tribune-Review:

• "The gifts ... are of nominal value."

• "I've been in public service long enough now to know what's appropriate and what's inappropriate behavior."

• ".. I also am professional enough and mature enough to know when to separate business with a friendship."

Sirk isn't available for comment today, but she told Blogger Bram Reichbaum that "she didn't regard anything that she had written about in her blog as inappropriate and there was nothing inappropriate about the relationship."


[Back on camera]

The mayor's chief of staff Yarone Zober says the State Ethics commission will review the controversy.

Published reports quote Ford as confirming repeated gifts from his friend,including cigars, ties, and other gifts, which he says are of nominal value.
The Lamar executive did not return our call for comment.
Lamar is suing city council members who are challenging the done deal.
Reporting live, Bob Mayo, Channel 4 Action News.


Later this evening, Joanna Doven of the mayor's office issued this news release:

MAYOR ANNOUNCES PERSONNEL CHANGES


(PITTSBURGH) April 9, 2008 Mayor Luke Ravenstahl announced today a series of personnel developments.

The Mayor has accepted the resignation of press secretary, Alecia Sirk, effective immediately.

Additionally, and in response to a series of media announcements today, Pat Ford, executive director of the Urban Redevelopment Authority, has asked for and been granted a leave of absence. Mr. Ford has further requested a full review of the issues raised relative to the exchange of gifts by the appropriate agencies.

Mr. Ford’s board seat on the Housing Authority will be filled by Fred Frank.

For additional information related to these personnel developments, please call Yarone Zober at [phone number]. All other media inquires are to be directed to Joanna Doven.

Read More...

Summary only...