Pittsburgh City Council voted yesterday to shift funds from an account reserved for maintenance of the Freedom Corner monument in the Hill District to a general account for improvements to a district that includes the Hill and parts of the North Side.

The issue pitted current Councilwoman Tonya Payne against her predecessor, Sala Udin, now president and chief executive officer of the Coro Center for Civic Leadership.

Mr. Udin put $56,500 in an account for maintenance of the civil rights monument in 2003, he said, but it hasn't been spent because a group kept the site clean for free. That arrangement will soon end, he said, declining to name the organization.

Now the money's needed, he told council.

"There are lights that need to be replaced. There are cracked pavers that need to be replaced. And someone has vandalized the touch screen on the computer," he said.

At Freedom Corner yesterday, there was evidence of vandalism. In a console opposite the main statue, a glass casing that housed a monitor had been shattered and the monitor shut off. One of the waist-high light posts ringing the memorial had also been removed, leaving a stub of wires exposed.

Ms. Payne said the funding is needed elsewhere.

"These funds went unexpended for more than four years. As a responsible representative, I'm moving these funds back into the community needs fund of District 6," she said. Mr. Udin "knows that I'm going to make sure that he doesn't get his grubby paws on it."

She called for an audit of the Freedom Corner project.

Council voted 7-2 to move the funding from the Freedom Corner maintenance fund to the general improvement pot, with council President Doug Shields and Councilman William Peduto voting "no."