Twanda Carlisle's Resignation Letter

Here's Twanda Carlisle's letter of resignation from Pittsburgh City Council filed with the City Clerk's office Tuesday afternoon. You can click on the image above to enlarge the view.

The letter makes no mention of her no-contest plea or the criminal charges in the kickbacks case against her, except for a reference to her salary having been frozen through "court proceedings".

In the letter, she thanks council members, staff, and residents of her council district and asks for prayers and support.

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Ethics Board: Closer, But No Quorum

This post is based on my Channel 4 Action News report.
I hope to add a podcast this weekend.
The Trib's story is at this link. The PG's coverage is here.

The allegations against Councilwoman Twanda Carlisle prompted city council and the late Mayor Bob O'Connor to revive Pittsburgh's ethics board, but the panel still hasn't managed to start its job since it was confirmed last summer. Today, some members gathered to try to get things in gear.



Those criminal charges against Councilwoman Carlisle don't appear to be on the radar of the ethics board members, at least not yet. They did, however, answer some reporter questions about the job facing them when they finally do get a quorum and start dealing with the business of city ethics.

It was the kickback conspiracy charges against Twanda Carlisle filed by District Attorney Stephen Zappala that prompted the mayor to ask the city ethics board to try again to hold it's first meeting. Today, they still couldn't muster a quorum, but the two members and one nominee who did make it don't seem inclined to take up the Carlisle case.

Sister Patrice Hughes said "that sort of has been turned over to Steve Zappala's office. Would we be beating a dead horse if we picked this up?"

Her fellow ethics board member Kathy Beuchel said "I think you look to what's important for this commission to do going forward."

Sister Hughes did answer that they could look at spending by city officials: "that's a critical issue, and I think we've seen examples, terrible examples of expenses that really are not promoting good government, that are self-serving. And that would be something that should be looked at".

But Hughes, Beuchel, and ethics nominee Penny Zacharias, are all more focused on teaching city officials and workers about ethics than launching investigations. Bbeuchel spoke of "charting a course that has a strong education and prevention component to it, so that all of the city employees and those that are considered public interested can really have the right context."

Zacharias said "we have a great opportunity to open up all aspects of the authorities of the board. Education is obviously a very important one of those, though."

Two ethics board members are out of the country, preventing the panel from having a quorum--at least until Mayor Ravenstahl's nominee is confirmed by pittsburgh city council next week. Rev. John Welch is in Canada and Rabbi Dr. Daniel Schiff is in Israel, according to an aide to the mayor.

Here's a link tracking back my previous posts on the ethics board. So far, the Pittsburgh Channel version of my story does not include the video.

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Carlisle, Quotes, and Notes

Pittsburgh Councilwoman Twanda Carlisle on her first City Council meeting since her arrest on kickback conspiracy charges:

"As an elected official, where else would I be? I'm representing council district 9 and the city of Pittsburgh. I was elected to this job. I'm going to do this job to the best of my ability, and keep moving forward. And I thank you all today. I'm not resigning. I'm moving forward, and keep on running. Thank you."



Council President Doug Shields on the councilwoman's return:

"As president of city council and as a citizen of this country, I'm well aware of the fact that everybody has the presumption of innocence, and that presumption is afforded to Ms. Carlisle as well. We're not going to lose our focus on our job here in city council, and I'm sure Ms. Carlisle is going to perform the duties of her office to serve her district. That's her job."



Mayor Luke Ravenstahl:

*On Carlisle's return:

"That's a decision for Councilwoman Carlisle to make, and ultimately for city council as the legislative branch in government. And I would rather let them handle their issues internally. The councilwoman obviously made her appearance today and feels that she's capable of doing the job. She has her right to appear in court and she's innocent until proven guilty, and therefore decided to continue on. and so i'll let council deal with that issue internally if they feel the need to."


*On the City Ethics Hearing Board:

"I think that we need to make sure that they get together. And in fact I believe our goal is to have a meeting this Friday. To bring the ethics board together, determine what their role is. To look at perhaps the Councilwoman Carlisle issue, as well as other issues that are important for the ethics board to consider. And really find ways for us to be more transparent in government, make recommendations to myself and my administration on ways we can show the public that we are respecting their tax dollars and spending them in a good way. So it's our hope that they will make recommendations to us towards that end as well. And meet as regularly as they need to, to ensure that we can build the trust in the public."

(Note: City Council will question the mayor's ethics board nominee at the beginning of its Wednesday meeting.)

*On Commander Catherine McNeilly's open letter, which appeared in today's Post-Gazette:

"I haven't seen it, nor do I intend to read it. As far as I'm concerned, that situation is over, and i'm ready to move on."

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The Carlisle Case and the Ethics Board

First meeting now ordered

In the wake of the criminal charges filed against Councilwoman Twanda Carlisle, Mayor Luke Ravenstahl now says he wants the Pittsburgh Ethics Hearing Board to meet:

"It raises our awareness in my administration. I've directed my administration to have the ethics board meet as soon as next week to ensure that they deal with this issue and other issues that are important, very serious matters. And we want to ensure that these types of activities do not occur in city hall."

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The Carlisle Case: Read The Detective's Affidavit

Click the images below to view details of what the district attorney's investigations unit says it found, in a detective's own words.

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