Pittsburgh Controller Michael Lamb outlined a schedule today for posting all city contracts and campaign contributions to city candidates, on the Internet in searchable form before the May 19 primary election.

His office already has prepared a template for posting contract awards online, and expects to begin posting that information in the first quarter of next year. He said he believes the city can create a separate system for posting campaign contributions online before the primary.

Mr. Lamb outlined the timetable and commented on the Post-Gazette's finding, published Sunday, that more than half of the top 100 contributors to city of Pittsburgh political campaigns are entities -- professional firms, corporation or union political committees, developers -- that interact economically with the city. [ Read story | see chart ]

"I'm not surprised by it," he said of the finding. "It's the kind of thing that we want to shed light on."

The overlap between campaign contributions and contracts is increasingly a subject of debate nationwide, as a handful of states and cities have passed laws meant to eliminate any possibility of so-called "pay-to-play" contracting.

"I don't think you can say that if Company A gave a contribution to the [mayor's campaign] and got a contract, it's necessarily evil," Mr. Lamb said. Nonetheless, easily accessible disclosure of both contributions and contracts is important, he said.

"If we can create those two searchable databases, that will do a lot for disclosure and transparency."

Currently, campaign contribution information is filed on paper with the Allegheny County Elections Division. Mr. Lamb said he would like to require city candidates to provide his office with electronic campaign contribution records, but if necessary, he will have staff type in the information.

Contracts are subject to state open records laws, but data is not easily available to the general public. Mr. Lamb said he will first post city contracts, and hopes to be able to add contracts by city authorities. His office hired Zeo Technologies, for $29,000, to set up the template for posting contracts, after the firm was the lowest of two bidders for the job. Two other firms were invited to submit proposals, but did not do so.

The Post-Gazette analyzed 3,300 campaign contributions since 2005 and data on more than 4,400 contracts, development deals and other actions by the city and its authorities since 2006.