Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl will go before the city's Ethics Hearing Board to explain his participation in a celebrity golf outing, likely making him the first official ever brought before that panel.

"I am happy to participate in the ethics board's request," Mr. Ravenstahl said yesterday, in his first comments since the panel voted Friday to inquire into his taking part in the outing. "I think it's appropriate, and am more than willing to participate myself, in person, which I plan on doing."

Mr. Ravenstahl participated in the June 27-28 Mario Lemieux Celebrity Invitational, at which the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center spent $27,000 to sponsor him and two other golfers. He has argued that the arrangement was appropriate, because the city code's ban on gifts to officials contains an exception for charitable events.

"I think at the end of the day, the ethics board will agree with that assessment, and find that there was no violation," he said. "The truth is there, and that is what, at the end of the day, we're going to reveal."

Board Chairwoman Sister Patrice Hughes plans to send a letter to Mr. Ravenstahl asking for his side of the golf outing story.

The board was created in 1991, and wrote the city's ethics rules, but has never heard a complaint. It fell dormant for years before the late Mayor Bob O'Connor revived it. It has met monthly since May, with the next meeting set for Aug. 10.

"If I were on the board today, I would have no problem with the mayor going to a charitable outing," said Frank Sklar, one of the board's original members who helped author the ethics rules. He called the controversy "strictly infighting and politics."

Criticized by Republican candidate Mark DeSantis for taking part in the golf outing, the mayor shot back: "I've heard a lot of rhetoric, I've heard a lot of things that have been said, but I have yet to hear one solution, or one suggestion, on how my opponent would make this city a better place to live."

Mr. DeSantis has promised a package of suggestions on the city's finances in coming months, including a plan to avoid municipal bankruptcy by Oct. 1.

Mr. Ravenstahl said he would debate Mr. DeSantis more than two times, but didn't commit to the eight engagements the challenger wants. He said his campaign was trying to schedule debates, but Mr. DeSantis wasn't cooperating.

"How can we schedule them with him if we don't know how many there will be?" asked Meghan E. Jones, press secretary for the DeSantis campaign. She added that her team was in contact with news media outlets, trying to schedule debates.

Just back from a trip to Louisville, Ky., with Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato and members of a city-county committee on efficiency, Mr. Ravenstahl wouldn't cite any measures taken by that region that he would like to implement here.

"There's no quick fix, or no blueprint" in Louisville that would apply to Pittsburgh, he said.

He said he was hesitant to comment on specifics until the committee, headed by University of Pittsburgh Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg, issues a report.

"Merger and cooperation hasn't always been the answer in some communities," Mr. Ravenstahl said, suggesting that the committee studied failed efforts, too.