A key piece of Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's fight on blight came under fire from landlords at a hearing on disruptive property legislation yesterday.

Landlords used the hearing in Council Chamber to object to being held responsible for their tenants' behavior, especially in light of the difficulty of evicting problem renters.

"You are putting the onus on landlords to evict tenants for disruptive behavior," said Ed Goldstone, a landlord living in Squirrel Hill, who compared eviction proceedings to "sticking your hands through peanut butter."

Mr. Ravenstahl's proposed ordinance would allow the city to designate as "disruptive" any address that was the scene of three arrests, citations or summonses over a month. That would start a process that could result in billing the landlord for future public safety calls, and to misdemeanor charges against that property owner. Those who were trying to evict problem tenants would get a pass.

"It gives us the teeth that we need to go after these individuals that are not good neighbors," said Mr. Ravenstahl, in an interview. "This will in no way affect the good landlord. It will only affect the bad landlord."

Some landlords who said they are responsible worried they could be tarred by a broad-brush ordinance.

"We provide a service, OK?" said Jean Yevick, of the Western Pennsylvania Real Estate Investing Association. "I don't feel that we should be responsible for other peoples' actions."

"Eviction proceedings will increase dramatically," warned Caroline West, general counsel for Franklin West Inc., a Shadyside landlord with 350 apartments.

Attorney Clifford Levine, representing the Apartment Association of Metropolitan Pittsburgh, questioned whether landlords could effectively evict tenants for bad behavior.

Neighborhood groups came to the legislation's defense. Mark Fatla, executive director of the North Side Leadership Conference, chided landlords who argued that they shouldn't have to oust disorderly renters.

"Where do you think that burden should be?" he asked, turning from council to the landlords and their representatives. "The city doesn't have that power. Only you have that power."

Council President Doug Shields suggested that the proposal should invoke civil penalties, rather than criminal action.

City Solicitor George Specter said he is meeting this week with lawyers for landlords, and hopes to work out a compromise this month. If the legislation doesn't pass this year, it would have to be reintroduced.

The legislation isn't the only front in the fight against blight.

Mr. Ravenstahl's administration has continued an enforcement push against Oakland landlords. The Bureau of Building Inspection reports that this year it has filed 1,245 citations against Oakland property owners -- five times what it filed in 2005.

"It's one thing to issue citations, and another to clean up a property," Mr. Ravenstahl said. "We need to get to the point where the issuance of a citation leads to a better property, and that isn't happening."

He said a coming shift in housing code enforcement should help. Those violations have been handled by District Judge Kevin Cooper, in a Downtown courtroom, for two years. Starting in January, they will be handled by district judges in the neighborhoods in which they occur.

"They have a better ability to do that, because they live in those communities, they drive through those communities, they are elected by those communities," Mr. Ravenstahl said.