City, URA Payout to Settle with Ford, Sirk

VIDEO of my Channel 4 Action News report is at this link.

Pat Ford has been on leave with pay from his job as URA Executive Director since April. His deal approved the the URA board continues to pay him not only through the end of his contract at the end of this year, but for an additional six months through the end of June. There's a provision he won't 'disparage' anyone as a condition of getting this money. His lawyer, Lawrence Fisher, says that doesn't mean he can't cooperate with authorities if he's subpoenaed.

After his own state ethics review, Ford made allegations of corruption in Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's administration and claimed he was being made a scapegoat for others.


Ford's attorney, Lawrence Fisher, says Ford will no longer will repeat the allegations, "unless and until" he is compelled to do so by a subpoena.

Fisher says "nothing about this settlement inhibits my client from continuing to actively cooperate with authorities on matters of mutual interest, nor could any such settlement so inhibit him."



The bottom line: by the end of next June, the URA will have paid Pat Ford an amount that equals 15 months' pay without his working -- more than 146-thousand dollars -- because the city believes that's cheaper than any lawsuit.






URA board member Jim Ferlo says the URA will "not to spend precious and very limited public dollars on baseless lawsuits and misdirected energies".







Urban Redevelopment Authority Solicitor Don Kortlandt says the agency will avoid "the costs that might be occasioned by prolonged discussion, litigation back and forth between the URA and Patrick Ford."







Ford's wife Alecia Sirk --the mayor's ex-press secretary --- gets $2,500 in a separate settlement from the city for what her lawyer says was a forced resignation.









City Solicitor George Specter says the city is paying "frankly, in order to resolve the whole thing and get it done quickly and really put an end to the whole matter involving both of them."

Fisher, who is also Sirk's attorney says that "all she was seeking from the city was a letter of recommendation".





Mayor Ravenstahl released a statement saying that a settlement of potential claims by Ford and Sirk -- rather than protracted, costly litigation -- is "the most cost effective and prudent way to protect city taxpayers".

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Notes & Quotes: Casino Deal Approved

Gaming Control Board

We're on the Pennsylvania Turnpike again, just heading back from Harrisburg and the Gaming Control Board vote approving transfer of control of the Pittsburgh casino license.

In the end, the vote was unanimous. Board members took great pains to emphasize that "this was not a rush to judgement" and that politics did not drive their choice. One member suggested that politics were behind some of the criticisms they faced leading up to the vote.

Here are some quotes from Billionaire casino investor Neil Bluhm, following the vote:

"If this didn't go ahead, this would be in bankruptcy, tied up for a long period of time. Instead you're going to have a wonderful casino, a great project on the river, and I'm sure the citizens of Pittsburgh will enjoy it and at the same time (it will) create a lot of jobs...."

"Tomorrow, we should be wiring funds and hopefully close on the transaction and on Monday the contractors will be back at work and we'll be on our way."

Representatives of contractors and unions had testified that some local companies could have been driven out of business by losses due to bills unpaid by Barden's PITG Gaming if it had gone bankrupt.

Ken McCabe, Gaming Board Member:

"I think if we revoke it or rebid it will only help a small group of people and would be disastrous for thousands of families, for Pittsburgh, and for the commonwealth."

Sanford Rivers, Gaming Board Member:

"Mr. Bluhm, thank you for removing the doom and gloom that hovers over the Pittsburgh casino and it's amenities."

James Ginty, Gaming Board Member:

"To deny this application would do a tremendous disservice to the people of Pittsburgh, to the citizens of Allegheny County and to the citizens of Pennsylvania.."

State Senators Jane Orie and Jim Ferlo -- who had urged the board to revoke the license -- did not come to testify. They submitted their statements in writing. Ferlo had a staffer at the hearing who provided copies to reporters. In it, he says:

"....it seems the board's actions are not intended to provide an open, fair. And objective public process, but instead to speedily cover its tracks."

...and...

"...the process leading up to this hearing has been shrouded in secrecy. Repeated letters requesting documentation of the buyout were either ignored or met with indifference."

"It was only last week that my office began receiving this information, which is very complicated, and it has been filled with redactions. Important names and financial numbers have been removed making discerning information from the documents difficult"

Senator Orie's office e-mailed a statement to the media, but the pdf format isn't legible on the small screen of the BlackBerry I'm using to write this post.

The gaming board staff says:

"A PowerPoint presentation made today to the Board has been posted on the PGCB web site. A link to the presentation can be found under the 'What's New' section of the PGCB's home page, www.pgcb.state.pa.us .

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Ferlo's Billboard Back Story: The Past Informs The Present

A search of Google News Archives for "Ferlo" and "billboards" serves up an interesting history. I remember covering these stories in my radio days, back when State Senator Jim Ferlo was a City Councilman.

Here's an excerpt from a 2002 profile of Ferlo by Rich Lord, who was then with Pittsburgh City Paper:

...Ferlo has put government’s clamps, though, on one major industry: outdoor advertising.

In 1993, Ferlo surprise-attacked the billboard industry with an ordinance that essentially barred companies from putting up new billboards. Even boards removed for road projects or as a result of building demolitions couldn’t be replaced, and the industry fought hard against the bill, says Don Brown, public affairs director for Lamar Outdoor Advertising. “We were trying to fight to keep what we had,” says Brown, noting that some of his company’s highest-revenue signs are within city limits. “He organized the usual suspects, like the Sierra Club and other groups,” and got them to testify at public hearings, Brown says. “He was constantly lobbying council, going up and down the hall, like I was. … We lost by one vote.”

Since then, the industry has occasionally gone to court and won the right to replace some billboards. But Ferlo’s legislation has hurt. “It reduces the number we have, which in turn reduces the revenue we have,” Brown says. “Because I don’t think [Ferlo] has ever had a business responsibility, [there are times] when I don’t think he understands the realities of business.”...

Here are some select Google News headlines from the 90s.

Apr 5, 1992 - That's what happened with Councilman Jim Ferlo. Last week, he proposed freezing the number of billboards in the city. ... But Ferlo is on the right track. Along Becks Run Road, the local complaint has to do with clutter. A new set of 13 billboards obliterates what used to be a woodsy view. ...

From CITY TAKES A STEP TO RIGHT THE WRONG OF BILLBOARD... - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ($$)

Aug 25, 1992 - City Councilman Jim Ferlo of District 9'proposed zoning amendments that would also keep billboards off the riverfronts and only in ... Ferlo said that there are billboards in the which he thinks is too many. One of the pieces of legislation submitted by Ferlo calls for fees charged to ..

From News Record (Newspaper) - August 25, 1992, North... - North Hills News Record ($$)

Jan 26, 1993 - City Councilman Jim Ferlo introduced the proposed billboard ordinances last summer. He charged yesterday that the city Planning Commission has been ''stalling" on his bills. One would reduce the maximum size of billboards to 450 square feet from the existing limit of 1200 square feet. ...

From BILLBOARD LIMITS SOUGHT - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ($$)

Feb 28, 1993 - City Councilman Jim Ferlo said yesterday that the 1561 letters he mailed at city expense during February covered three subjects -- billboards, ... Ferlo is leading an effort for greater city controls over the size and location of billboards and is helping merchants deal with the problem of ...

From FERLO DEFENDS LETTER WRITING AT CITY'S COST - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ($$)

Mar 31, 1993 - "I resent the (sign) industry calling my bill a radical abolition of billboards," Ferlo said. "That isn't the case. This is reasonable regulation." A second bill by Ferlo, which would have capped the number of billboards in Pittsburgh at the present number of 1400, was defeated by the ...

From CITY PANEL RESTRICTS NEW BILLBOARDS - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ($$)

Mar 17, 1993 - Councilman Jim Ferlo, who last year drafted his own billboard-control rules, complained that Zottola's proposals merely "rubber-stamp what the industry wants. ... Ferlo wants a 378-square-foot limit. The billboard study committee recommended 1000 feet between signs on major roads, the distance ...

From RIFT STALLS BILLBOARD CONTROLS - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ($$)



Now, mixing in headlines from a PG archive search with the Google archive:

The city Planning Commission approved tough restrictions on new billboards yesterday, leading one advertising official to accuse the panel of trying to ''wipe out" the sign industry.
The commission voted 4-1 in favor of the tighter regulations on the size, height and location of billboards, which were proposed by Councilman Jim Ferlo, a longtime billboard critic. Outdoor advertising officials vowed to carry the fight to City Council, which has the final...

CITY PANEL RESTRICTS NEW BILLBOARDS
Date: March 31, 1993 Publication: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PA) Page Number: B-1 Word Count: 503

Apr 16, 1993 - (This is a test about billboards. Pick one of the following options.
Choice 1: Legislation proposed by city Councilman Jim Ferlo to limit the
size, height and location of outdoor advertising signs is an "extremist" measure that will have a "catastrophic impact" on local jobs, on small businesses that need a low-cost way to reach customers and on charitable groups that receive free space for their messages. Choice 2: Ferlo's) Ferlo said his bill was a compromise. Some hard-line billboard foes favor more drastic measures, such as ridding the city completely of signs or to prevent certain products, such as alcohol and tobacco, from being advertised. John Stephen of Friends of the Riverfront said the bill would make ...

From BOTH SIDES DISPLAY OPINIONS ON BILLBOARDS - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ($$)

Sep 30, 1993 - Billboard restrictions tentatively approved PITTSBURGH City Council has tentatively approv- ed a bill to restrict new billboards and even ban them in the city's Downtown section. Council members voted 5-3 Wednesday in favor of the which was sponsored by Councilman Jim Ferlo and faces a final ...

From The Valley Independent (Newspaper) - September... - Valley Independent, The ($$)

Oct 6, 1993 - The life or death of new billboard regulations in Pittsburgh may rest in the hands of City Councilwoman Michelle Madoff. ... Madoff's vote would be needed in the event that Mayor Masloff, as expected, vetoed new billboard regulations that were approved by City Council yesterday. ...

From BILLBOARD BILL VETO WOULD GET MADOFF TO RETURN - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ($$)

Jun 15, 1994 - Pittsburgh's skyline will become littered with visual pollution if Downtown businesses are not prohibited from putting up rooftop signs, say proponents of a bill before the city Planning Commission. Critics of the bill, proposed by council members Jim Ferlo and Christopher Smith, call it an unnecessary invasion of property rights. Although new billboards have been banned from Downtown, business identification signs are legal, and some city officials fear an outbreak of rooftop signs. ...

From PANEL HEARS PROS, CONS OF BILL ON ROOFTOP SIGNS - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ($$)

Jan 13, 1995 - [ For more than half a year, the city Planning Commission, the Department of Planning and City Council worked on a plan by Councilman Jim Ferlo to severely restrict corporate signs in the Golden Triangle.
Last month, business and labor came out in force at a public hearing to give their views on the legislation. The impact of their testimony was so devastating that, afterward, it appeared the only council member in favor of the bill was Jim Ferlo. This is not how good legislation is made.] Council President Ferlo has distinguished himself as someone who cares about the appearance of Pittsburgh. He is a defender of its vistas, a guardian of its skyline. He worked for years on legislation to regulate billboards and ultimately was successful in enacting a law that balanced the ...

From SIGNS TO COME PITTSBURGH NEEDS A CONSENSUS ON HOW... - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ($$)

Oct 15, 2000 - "No longer is taking a billboard on the parkway or an ad in the newspaper considered to be enough visibility. ... City Councilman Jim Ferlo, who considers Mellon's headquarters sign to be "a green, obnoxious blob," is pushing for legislation to ban all rooftop signs from going up in the Golden ...

From Pittsburgh Companies Rush to Put Their Names in... - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pittsburgh,... (Free with registration)

Jun 29, 2001 - 29--The large Heinz Field signs to be erected on the new football stadium are actually "billboards" used for advertising and aren't permitted on ... any kind can be erected on the North Shore because of a sign moratorium imposed in October by City Council, at the urging of Councilman Jim Ferlo. ...

From Pittsburgh Steelers, Civic Group Face Off over... - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pittsburgh,... (Free with registration)

Jan 5, 2003 - By his own count, Ferlo has had a "couple hundred" bills and resolutions passed in his 15 years on council. He sponsored legislation that tightened restrictions on billboards, defeating a powerful interest group in the process. He was instrumental in getting the Citizen Police Review Board ...

From Scorpion or warrior? Feisty Jim Ferlo leaves... - Pittsburgh Post Gazette

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