While nearly 400 cities have gone public with ambitious wish lists they'll submit in hopes of getting some of the hundreds of billions of dollars in anticipated federal aid, Pittsburgh is playing catch-up, keeping what officials say is a $500 million list and another $1 billion in follow-up projects under wraps.

Mayor Luke Ravenstahl yesterday convened a meeting of a committee tasked with tapping the stimulus package promised by President-elect Barack Obama and congressional leaders, telling department and authority heads to do the planning work needed to get projects ready to go.

"You're going to be looking at a [dollar] figure that's going to allow you to do more infrastructure work than you've done in years," said city Policy Director Gabe Mazefsky. "We're identifying close to $1.5 billion worth of needs for infrastructure citywide."

The needs should have been identified and made public by now, said Council President Doug Shields. "There's been a lack of attention from the mayor's office on this critical piece of the recovery program," he said, promising to introduce council legislation forcing the administration to "get some consensus on what projects we are prepared to do" when council meets again on Dec. 30.

Shortly after his election, Mr. Obama proposed stimulating the economy by funding public improvements and infrastructure repairs, among other measures. He emphasized that projects that are ready to go and designed to create jobs would get priority.

Various governments have been making their hopes public. Yesterday, for instance, the Port of Pittsburgh Commission outlined $580 million in lock and dam projects it could promptly start with some federal funds.

About a month ago, the U.S. Conference of Mayors asked cities to send in lists of their ready-to-go projects, so the organization could make the case that a big part of the package should go directly to cities. A contingent of mayors is meeting with Obama transition team members today to press their case.

The Conference put the cities' wish lists on its Web site, which includes the wants and needs of nearly 400 cities.

As of yesterday, Pittsburgh was absent from the list. Mr. Mazefsky said the administration sent the Conference a list late Tuesday, but he refused to release it.

Mr. Mazefsky said the city has identified 115 projects, around half of which could be promptly started.

Michael Kenney, executive director of the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority, said his list alone is $680 million. He said it's "very important" that the authority take advantage of the stimulus program, because it has to fix aging pipes and comply with a consent decree requiring reductions in the flow of sewage into the rivers. "It'll be infrastructure needs I won't have to pass on to ratepayers."

Mr. Mazefsky said engineering firms are offering to do free planning and design work to help get projects ready enough to win funding. He said the city will submit a wish list through the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, too.

Other cities' wish lists vary widely in their ambition.

Philadelphia has a $2.6 billion list on the Conference Web site. Cincinnati's is $250 million.

Pittsburgh isn't the only city that doesn't have a list on the Conference Web site. Neither do Cleveland nor Columbus.

Council Finance Chair William Peduto, though, thinks the city's absence sends the unfortunate message that "we don't need any help, while cities like ... Cincinnati are already queued up for hundreds of millions of dollars in assistance."

Councilman Patrick Dowd wrote to Mr. Ravenstahl in a Monday letter asking him to "share with Council your strategic objectives and proposed projects in anticipation of this program." He got no response.

"This is an opportunity for us to take advantage of some money from the federal government to help alleviate one of our three biggest legacy issues" with the others being debt and pension problems, Mr. Dowd said. "We need to jump on that.

"What's most important to me is that we present a unified face on this."

Mr. Mazefsky didn't anticipate that council would get to vote on the list. "We need to make sure that we're not looking at pet projects, anything of that nature, simply [considering], what are the critical needs."

Does political unity matter? And does being first to the trough mean getting more?

That depends on the still-unknown rules of the game, said Harold Miller, president of the consulting firm Future Strategies LLC and a former top official with the Allegheny Conference on Community Development.

If the federal government sets a formula that allocates money by congressional district or some other criteria, "then unity's nice, but it may not affect the final result."

On the other hand, if there's "a discretionary process" then a show of unanimity may help, and "then I think it always helps to be in first."