The almost-finished electronic billboard at the north end of Grant Street won't be plugged in without a public process, according to the terms of a court-sanctioned deal hammered out in negotiations between lawyers for Pittsburgh City Council members and Lamar Advertising yesterday.

Attorneys for both sides in the dispute huddled up for 2¹/₂ hours in the offices of Common Pleas President Judge Joseph James before coming out with a multi-part agreement that gives the City Planning Commission an eventual vote on the billboard.

"It was a victory for the rule of law," said attorney Hugh McGough, of Ward McGough, representing Council President Doug Shields and members William Peduto, Bruce Kraus and Ricky Burgess.

"I would view it as an acknowledgement that [Lamar and the city] may have skipped a process," said Patricia McGrail, attorney for Councilman Patrick Dowd, who filed an appeal of the Lamar permit as a private citizen.

Lamar lawyers had no comment. City Solicitor George Specter, who has told administrators to cease granting billboard approvals based on informal negotiations, participated in the negotiations.

The agreement does not end procedural wrangling over the 1,200-square-foot billboard slated for the front of the Grant Street Transportation Center, which has spawned a zoning appeal, a civil suit and a State Ethics Commission investigation. It does, however, set a course that includes a public airing and vote.

Judge James said Lamar will give the Planning Commission a project development plan -- required under the zoning code for any Downtown construction costing more than $50,000 -- that it can review and vote on. Urban Redevelopment Authority Executive Director Pat Ford, now on paid leave pending an ethics investigation, had argued that neither commission review, nor any other public hearing, vote or bid, was necessary.

There was no deadline placed on Lamar to submit the plan.

Meanwhile, the appeals of the billboard permit filed by council members will continue to move through the Zoning Board of Adjustment's process. Judge James suggested that the board first deal with whether the appeal is timely and the members have a right to file it, and then resolve the underlying issues of whether the permit was legal and whether Lamar acted in good faith by building most of the sign with the contested approval.

A civil suit Lamar filed against the five council members will be put on ice.

Lamar attorney Jonathan Kamin of the firm Goldberg Kamin & Garvin argued to Judge James that council members had engaged in "a pervasive and consistent modus operandi" of using their offices for "inappropriate gain and inappropriate information gathering." Lamar has alleged that council members may have violated open meetings laws and inappropriately filed their appeals after the city zoning counter was closed for the day on the final day for a legal appeal.

In its four-day life, that lawsuit has been moved to federal court, shifted back to state court and now put in abeyance.

Lamar agreed to abide by an order issued by Mayor Luke Ravenstahl on Thursday to stop work on the sign, except for some securing and weatherizing needed to prevent damage.

Mr. Ford shepherded the billboard proposal through the city system and took gifts from a Lamar executive. The state Ethics Commission will review whether he acted appropriately.