Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl said today that his Bureau of Building Inspection has ordered Lamar Advertising to stop work on a 1,200-square-foot electronic billboard going up on the Grant Street Transportation Center, Downtown.

He said Lamar has not agreed to cease work, and he anticipates a legal challenge to the order. City Solicitor George Specter said any effort on Lamar's part to continue assembling the contested sign could result in fines of $1,000 a day.

"If they continue to work, we'd have no choice but to seek an injunction," Mr. Specter said. One of the two legal proceedings related to the sign will be heard in Common Pleas Court tomorrow.

The announcement came hours after a Zoning Board of Adjustment hearing at which five city council members asked Lamar to stop building the sign during their appeal of its permit, and Lamar said it would not do so, despite a provision in the zoning code that would seem to order a stay of construction during the appeal.

"It's a process that we wish we weren't involved in," the mayor said. "We would like to be able to solve this in a mediation fashion." He said that may not now be possible, as council members and Lamar are in litigation.

Lamar's plan to erect a 1,200-square-foot electronic billboard has become controversial because it was approved administratively by city planners and Urban Redevelopment Authority Executive Director Pat Ford. Mr. Ford was placed on paid leave yesterday after he acknowledged he had received gifts from a top Lamar executive.

The zoning board began a hearing today on the appeal by Council President Doug Shields and members William Peduto, Bruce Kraus and Ricky Burgess, who appealed in their capacity as public officials, and colleague Patrick Dowd who appealed as a private citizen.

The board gave all parties until 5 p.m. Tuesday to file motions for postponements, requests for information, and motions to quash those requests. The board will then meet on Thursday to rule on those.

Patricia McGrail, attorney for Mr. Dowd, said that "as recently as this week, there has been work done on this sign location," in spite of the filing of appeals a month ago.

If the council members want it to stop, "they're going to have to go to the Court of Common Pleas and they're going to have to post bond," countered Jonathan Kamin, a lawyer for Lamar.

The only matter pending in Common Pleas Court is a lawsuit Lamar filed early this week alleging that council members engaged in a "plot" to nix the permit that may have included secret meetings and abuses of power. Samuel Kamin, another Lamar attorney, said that since the five members filed nearly identical appeals, that suggests that they all met privately, which he holds would violate open meetings laws.

A hearing on that matter is scheduled for tomorrow morning.