Two Allegheny County employees failed to find U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum's application for a homestead tax rebate on his Penn Hills home despite spending a week searching for the document earlier this year, County Manager Jim Flynn said yesterday.

Flynn told County Council that his office initiated the search after receiving a public information request, but he said applications are not organized when they are stored, making searches difficult. Flynn did not have the name of the person who made the request.

Santorum, a Republican, was the subject of controversy last year when school officials in Penn Hills said they were paying to send the senator's children to a charter school even though he and his family spent most of their time at a home in Virginia.

Councilman Tom Shumaker, R-Pine, said he understood that Flynn's office had to address a request for information from the public, but he said such searches should be kept under control.

"I don't want to use county employees on a witch hunt," he said.

Joy Sabl of Point Breeze told council the group Democracy for Pittsburgh has collected 800 signatures on a petition that calls on Santorum to reimburse the county for any tax rebate he received from the homestead exemption. The exemption provides a tax break for property that serves as a taxpayer's main home.

"If we do have somebody who, in essence, has been accused of defrauding the county of tax money, shouldn't we use every means to try to recoup that money?" asked Council President Rich Fitzgerald, a Democrat. "If they do not live in their home but are taking the homestead exemption, that's fraud."

Sabl said her group is asking to meet with District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. next month to discuss the issue.

Earlier in the meeting, council approved, 8-6, a resolution urging all 43 school districts in the county to participate in Act 72, a state property tax relief program funded by future gambling revenue.