The region's two top elected leaders walked a fine line yesterday as they announced the creation of a 13-member committee to find ways to make their governments run better.

Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl and Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato weren't saying their governments are wasteful and sluggish. Nonetheless, they empaneled the Advisory Committee to Enhance Efficiency and Effectiveness of County and City Government, implying there is room for improvement.

They weren't saying politicians can't make hard choices by themselves. But Mr. Ravenstahl noted there is "no elected official on this [committee], which I think is important."

And no, this wasn't driven by the fact that both face voters next year, though the mayor quipped that he hopes he'll still be in office when the committee's work is done, and the chief executive said such initiatives are "what political action is all about."

They put few limits on the committee, saying it could recommend anything from small cooperative efforts to a full merger.

"No one comes in with a preordained answer. We want this to be wide open," Mr. Onorato said.

They also provided no deadline, though both officials and committee Chairman Mark A. Nordenberg, chancellor of the University of Pittsburgh, said they hoped for fairly quick action.

"A year from now, when you ask the question, 'Should the city merge with the county?' we'll have the answer," the mayor said.

Mr. Nordenberg said the committee's first order of business would be to gather studies already done on consolidation and cooperation.

Don't expect to see committee members skulking around the Allegheny County Courthouse or City-County Building looking for duplication of effort.

"I doubt we will be roaming the halls, though we probably will be retaining professional staff," using foundation funds, he said.

The committee will start meeting soon, and will seek public input but deliberate in private.

In the meantime, the city and county are close to announcing the merger of their purchasing operations, which would end a negotiation that started last year. Purchasing would join the 911 dispatching, fingerprinting operations and municipal courts, which are cited as examples of successful city-county consolidation.

"Let's not wait for some final, major report on everything," said county Prothonotary Michael Lamb, who ran for mayor last year. He said the mayor and chief executive should merge services even while the committee works.

Acting City Controller Tony Pokora said there were areas in which the two governments could team up, like training firefighters and police.

But there aren't many things that both the city and county do, he said.

"They are two unique, autonomous entities," he said. "Merging them would create a huge entity that wouldn't know what it was doing."

The committee vice chairmen are Kathleen McKenzie, the deputy county manager, and Yarone Zober, the city chief of staff.

Other members are Eva Tansky Blum, senior vice president of the PNC Foundation; JoAnne E. Burley, executive director of the Pittsburgh Council on Higher Education; Lalit Chordia, president of Thar Technologies; the Rev. William H. Curtis, pastor of Mount Ararat Baptist Church; Aradhna M. Dhanda, president and chief executive officer of Leadership Pittsburgh; M. Richard Dunlap, executive officer of the Allegheny League of Municipalities; Jesse W. Fife Jr., executive vice president of Manchester Bidwell Corp.; Maxwell King, president of The Heinz Endowments; Jack Shea, president of the Allegheny County Labor Council; and Frederick W. Thieman, a partner at Thieman & Ward.