Martha Rial, Post-Gazette Mayor Bob O'Connor's doctors -- from left, Stanley Marks, Frank Lieberman and Amin Kassan -- provide an update yesterday on the mayor's condition following Sunday's operation that drained fluid from his brain. Click photo for larger image.

If there's any good news to be found in Pittsburgh Mayor Bob O'Connor's decision to cede authority to a deputy mayor this week, it is this: Yarone Zober's appointment comes during a slow period for city government.

Mr. Zober, the 31-year-old who recently became the city's general services director against the backdrop of city hall infighting, takes the reins as deputy mayor as City Council begins its summer vacation. That means no major policy issues or legislation coming through the pipeline, said Councilman Bill Peduto.

The dearth of pressing tasks frees Mr. Zober to meet with other department heads during his first days as the city's de facto mayor.

"If I were him, that's what I'd be doing," Mr. Peduto said.

Council's summer vacation also allows Mr. Zober to concentrate on what would have been his primary charge if he had never been named deputy mayor -- dismantling the city's General Services Department over the coming weeks and months.

Mr. O'Connor, who has been hospitalized since July 10 with a form of brain cancer, wants the department's many responsibilities to be divided between the city's public works and finance units by the end of this year.

In an interview with the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette yesterday, Mr. Zober said phasing out the General Services Department would indeed remain one of his primary tasks.

As for his first day on the job as deputy mayor, Mr. Zober signed a few contracts on Mr. O'Connor's behalf, and handled interviews with TV and print reporters. He watched the televised update on Mr. O'Connor's health and met briefly with Mr. Peduto about a development in his district.

Mr. Zober, the city's policy director before his general services appointment, has also played a key role in pushing the consolidation of city and Allegheny County purchasing and payroll departments. That, too, can be pursued by the new deputy mayor, though as of last month, no consolidation announcements were imminent.

What else can he do? Everything that the elected mayor can do, except for hiring and firing, appointing and dismissing, said Council President Luke Ravenstahl.

Because Pittsburgh's is a strong-mayor system, the 1974 city home rule charter grants the mayor a lot of leeway. Essentially, the mayor's role is left to his imagination, and he is free to pursue any powers not already claimed by City Council or forbidden by the state's Legislature.

Aside from a few specific directives -- the mayor must give a "state of the city" address, and is allowed to submit legislation for consideration -- the mayoral duties laid out in the charter are largely conceptual. He must "provide leadership" for the city, "execute the provisions" of city law, "promote intergovernmental relations" and so on.

Outside of those specific duties, Pittsburgh's mayor has historically been free to negotiate, for example, with labor unions or commercial developers. Even those responsibilities aren't mentioned in the charter.

The mayor may also involve himself in the finer details of the budget process, even though that role isn't mentioned in the city charter, either.

And looming near is a late-September deadline, by which the city is supposed to complete a five-year budget plan and submit it to the Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority, a creation of the state Legislature that monitors the city's finances. The city missed its original July 1 deadline for submitting the budget plan.

But Mr. Zober's role in devising that plan will likely be minor, and the major details will be left to the Act 47 oversight team and to Scott Kunka, the city's management and budget director.

As important as Mr. Zober's legal responsibilities is an unwritten one -- a responsibility to be transparent with the people of Pittsburgh, said both those who work in and out of city hall.

State Sen. Jim Ferlo, D-Highland Park, said there's a need for "transparency" from the mayor's office, especially in this time of political uncertainty.

And Mr. Peduto took the call for transparency a step further.

"I gave him some unsolicited advice," he said. "To be very public, and to allow people to know who he is. There will be a great sense of comfort from the public once they get to hear him speak."