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Council meeting turns into battle
Wednesday, March 07, 2001 By Timothy McNulty, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Election-year infighting continued on City Council yesterday as two players in the mayoral race battled over promises for a North Side recreation center.
Council President Bob O'Connor and North Side Councilwoman Barbara Burns continued their political skirmishes over the facility, as O'Connor called Burns a "mouthpiece" for Mayor Tom Murphy and Burns said O'Connor should be investigated for ethics violations.
Meanwhile, no legislation was introduced by O'Connor regarding the proposed facility or by Burns regarding her allegations, despite promises by both to do so.
O'Connor said in letters to Brighton Heights residents last week that he wanted to study placing a recreation center in a city-owned building in their neighborhood. O'Connor, Murphy's main challenger for mayor in the May Democratic primary, wrote that the center was needed because the community has been "consistently underserved" by the city.
When Burns, a Murphy supporter, heard last week of O'Connor's letter she went through the roof, since she had been quietly working on similar plans since the fall. In response to O'Connor's mailing, she said Monday night that she would propose restrictions on council members' abilities to send mail outside the districts they represent.
Publicly, both O'Connor and Burns backed off their proposals yesterday and did not introduce them. But when the gavel slammed and their City Council session was over, the pair tore into each other in interviews with the press.
Burns said she was filing a formal complaint with the state elections bureau, alleging O'Connor's letter to Brighton Heights residents, on city stationery, was politically motivated and an inappropriate use of city funds. She remained angry that O'Connor would send mail to her constituents.
Burns said she would "not look like a doormat and won't let people wipe their political feet on me."
O'Connor said he sent letters to Brighton Heights residents to get their feedback on the idea and to keep Murphy from taking the recreation center idea for himself.
The mayor had stolen his ideas before, O'Connor said, recalling a 1999 news conference at which Murphy unveiled paramedic motorcycles that O'Connor had proposed.
O'Connor said he welcomed an investigation of mailing privileges and other political perks, especially if it focused on Murphy, as well as on him.
"If you're going to be a mouthpiece for the mayor, you've got to point more than one finger," O'Connor said of Burns' ethics complaint. "She's carrying water for the mayor."
Murphy proposed the Brighton Heights recreation center at the November ribbon-cutting for the city senior center in the building's basement, and since then, the city Engineering and Construction Department has ordered asbestos studies of the facility.
Burns has discussed it with community leaders, including Brighton Heights Citizen Federation President Dan Klobucar, who yesterday defended Burns and denounced O'Connor's proposal.
The proposal is part of a "disinformation campaign" against Burns and Murphy, Klobucar said in comments before council.
But O'Connor said he doubted whether Burns was really pushing the recreation center project, noting it was not part of a districtwide letter Burns sent to constituents early last week. In it, she listed new street lighting and landscaping in the neighborhood, but mentioned nothing of the recreation center plans.
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