U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum has cleared up another issue that arose after the Penn Hills School District began investigating whether he is a Penn Hills resident.

The municipality yesterday inspected the home he and his wife, Karen, own on Stephens Lane and granted them an occupancy permit.

Bob Hunter, director of code enforcement for Penn Hills, earlier had said the house, purchased in 1997 for $87,800, lacked the permit. But the publicity from that triggered a phone call from a retired employee who recalled an inspection.

It turned out the property was inspected when the house was purchased, but two code violations were found. The owners were given 30 days to correct them, but no one called for a re-inspection, Hunter said. He blamed the lack of municipal followup on a change in personnel and office renovations.

Code officer Mary Lou Flinn yesterday conducted the re-inspection, looking only at the two code items: a frayed electrical service cable and an opening in the garage that needed to be sealed. She said that both had obviously been corrected some time ago.

Flinn said the residents are listed as Alyssa DeLuca, Rick Santorum's niece; her husband, Bart, who is not related to Penn Hills Mayor Anthony DeLuca Jr.; and a child.

While a new occupancy permit would have been required for unrelated occupants, Penn Hills permits relatives to move into an owner's home without a new occupancy permit.

Flinn said she was shown the interior of the home and it has three bedrooms. The Allegheny County real estate Web site lists only two bedrooms, but on Monday, more than 10 days after published reports began, Christine Shott, spokeswoman for the senator, said she wanted to clarify that it was three, not two, bedrooms.

The home is located next door to Rick Santorum's in-laws.

In the county for jury duty yesterday, Santorum, who has six children, said, "We have a nice arrangement there. It works out well. Candidly, we just sort of work it out.

"Sometimes, a couple of my kids stay over there [with the niece and her husband]. We get to stay at grandma's house, and a couple of kids go over and stay with their cousin. To me, that's a family situation.

"I don't know what people's business that is, to be very honest with you. The fact is, I own a home, pay taxes, reside here, go to jury duty. To me, this is much ado about nothing.

"We usually stay at the in-laws. They raised 10 kids there, so they have plenty of room for us. They [niece and her husband] house sit for us; they watch the house."

The Santorums also own a home in Leesburg, Va., assessed at $757,000. In previous interviews, Santorum has said he spends the "vast majority" of his time in the Washington, D.C., area.

Questions over Santorum's residency were raised by Penn Hills school board member Erin Vecchio, who maintains that Santorum is not a resident.

The answer is important because Penn Hills School District had been paying the fee for five of Santorum's children to attend the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School, a public school open to all state residents. Under state law, the home district must pay a fee for each resident who uses the school. Students attend by logging onto their computers anywhere.

The bill this school year would have run about $37,754, but the Santorums withdrew their children from the school last week after Penn Hills officials began investigating whether they were residents. For prior years, the bill totaled $67,013.

Vecchio plans to ask the school board on Dec. 7 to demand the Santorums reimburse the district.

Santorum reiterated yesterday that he thinks the law is on his side, but he has chosen to forgo going to court.