A split Pittsburgh City Council failed to vote yesterday on whether a planned Downtown billboard should go through the public approval process that it has so far eluded.

Council President Doug Shields, Councilman William Peduto and newcomers Bruce Kraus and Ricky Burgess asked Lamar Advertising to withdraw its permit to put a digital billboard on the new Grant Street Transportation Center. Several suggested they might legally challenge the permit.

Councilwoman Tonya Payne and colleague Jim Motznik argued for the billboard and for Lamar, whose executives the councilman called "good neighbors."

Mr. Kraus introduced a resolution asking Mayor Luke Ravenstahl to rescind Lamar's permit to post the billboard and submit the matter for hearings and votes of the planning commission and council. Without enough support to pass it, he postponed a vote.

Patrick Dowd, apparently the swing vote, would not take a position without a legal opinion.

"I'm not going to say anything on my views on the process at this particular point," he said, adding that he "had heated words with some of my colleagues, including Councilman Peduto, on this."

The Pittsburgh Parking Authority and Urban Redevelopment Authority Executive Director Pat Ford engineered approval of the 1,200-square-foot billboard on the new building at 11th Street and Liberty Avenue.

Some council members have said that the city code and state rules governing authorities require public hearings, votes and bidding. Mr. Ford has said the rules don't apply, so he arranged a deal in which Lamar removes six old billboards for one new digital one. The city has made such deals in other zoning districts.

Lamar was the only firm approached about the opportunity. Yesterday, for the second time, a competitor said it would pay more than the $3,000 a month Lamar pledged to the parking authority.

"As a billboard company operator in the area, I can assure you that we would love to get in on the bidding for this location," said Jim McLaughlin, president and chief executive officer of Olympus Media, a Georgia-based outdoor advertising firm with operations in Pennsylvania. "[M]y company would pay 20 percent more for the lease."

And last week, Craig Heard, president of Huntingdon-based Gateway Outdoor Advertising, said his firm would like an opportunity to bid on the site.

Mr. Shields said a private citizen may be considering a legal challenge to the billboard's permit, and didn't rule out council taking that step.

Mr. Kraus said it would be better for Lamar to back off and let a public process occur.

"If this is litigated, it is the taxpayers who will write the check," he said.

Ms. Payne, whose district includes the site, said that the group Neighbors in the Strip backs the sign, so she will, too.