Pat Ford, the city development czar who has been on paid leave since April during an ethics investigation, and his wife are reaching out to friends -- including developers who have worked with Mr. Ford -- for help with his legal bills.

Alecia Sirk, Mr. Ford's wife and Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's former spokeswoman, sent an e-mail Thursday seeking monetary support for her husband, whose attorney is trying to have him reinstated at the Urban Redevelopment Authority. The URA placed Mr. Ford on paid leave -- and Ms. Sirk resigned from the mayor's office -- after it was revealed that the couple received gifts from a billboard company executive who had contract talks with the city.

Ms. Sirk's e-mail says Mr. Ford is in the "fight of his life" and "he is committed to restoring his good name, his career, and the cooperative and productive relationships that he enjoyed with Pittsburgh's development community."

After saying that a confidential defense fund has been set up with Mr. Ford's attorney, she wrote, "I am contacting you because I know that you have worked with Pat in the past and appreciate how much he has given to our City. Pat wants what each of us wants, which is to move forward and get back to work."

Mr. Ford's attorney, Lawrence Fisher, said the fund was launched in June and has received "an outpouring of support." Neither he nor Ms. Sirk would identify who has given to the fund or how much is in it.

Asked if she was asking developers who work with the city for money, Ms. Sirk said via e-mail that the appeal "was a personal e-mail to friends. I never intended for the media to obtain a copy. I was just doing what any wife would do to help her husband."

Mr. Ford was instrumental late last year in granting Lamar Advertising a no-bid lease, without public hearings, for a 1,200-square-foot billboard on the front of the new Grant Street Transportation Center. Around the same time, Lamar executive Jim Vlasach gave Mr. Ford cigars and neckties for Christmas, and previously gave Ms. Sirk a surround-sound system.

The URA placed Mr. Ford on leave in April pending an investigation of the gifts by the State Ethics Commission, while still paying his $117,875 salary. Mr. Fisher lately has pressured the URA to reinstate Mr. Ford -- saying the legal deadline for investigating his client has lapsed -- but the agency has said it is waiting for formal word from the commission.

Mr. Ford has claimed from the outset that the gifts were just friendly and had nothing to do with the billboard contract -- he has known Mr. Vlasach since 2001 -- and his attorney repeated yesterday that Mr. Ford and his wife were getting a "raw deal" from the city.

The legal fight also is draining their bank account. "While Pat may be on paid leave, his wife has lost her job. They have suffered a loss of income in their family and at the same time an unexpected expense of legal fees for clearing his good name from a political attack against him," Mr. Fisher said.

The defense fund, he continued, is "just the goodwill of a lot of good people in the development community who really feel for Pat and what he's going through."

Asked if an official being investigated for taking gifts from developers should be asking them for money to battle that investigation, Barry Kauffman, executive director of Common Cause Pennsylvania, called the appeal "inappropriate."

"Had he not been a public official with some authority, would they be giving him money? If his name was Joe Schmo and he set up a legal defense fund, would the same people be giving him money? The answer probably is no," Mr. Kauffman said.

"Then why are they giving the money? The reason is these donors probably think the donation will be influential in achieving their goals with city government," he said.

Mr. Fisher said the fund -- which is set up at the offices of his Downtown law firm, Cohen and Willwerth -- is legal. He was not involved in Ms. Sirk's e-mail appeal, he added.