Two state legislators and a group of black and women activists yesterday called on Gov. Ed Rendell to beef up the stimulus oversight commission with more minorities and women from Western Pennsylvania.

Of the 14 members of the commission, appointed to track how the $9.8 billion in stimulus money is spent, one is black, one is a woman and none are from Allegheny County. Only two are from this half of the state.

The rest are white men and mostly from the southeastern region.

"How could he forget Allegheny County?" asked Tim Stevens, of the Black Political Empowerment Project. "He's here often. It's not like he doesn't know where we are."

Rep. Chelsa Wagner, D-Beechview, and Rep. Jake Wheatley, D-Hill District, joined Mr. Stevens and others in asking that the commission be bumped up to 20, with the six new members coming from Western Pennsylvania.

All said they believe the lack of representation was not deliberate but wished Mr. Rendell's executive order creating the commission had been careful to mandate a more diverse group of representatives.

As it is, they said, Western Pennsylvania will end up shortchanged. They also said the lack of representation by blacks and women will end up hurting both at the expense of "pockets of wealth" dominated by white men.

"As a black woman from Pittsburgh, I don't feel represented," said Celeste Taylor, of the Regional Equity Monitoring Project.

Mr. Rendell's office said he personally chose only three of the members; the others were selected by the state legislative caucuses, members of Congress, the United Way and the AFL-CIO.

Barry Ciccocioppo, the governor's deputy director of communications, also said Mr. Rendell doesn't want the allocation process to be bogged down by added layers of bureaucracy. The idea, he said, is to get the money quickly into the state's economy.

The community leaders, however, said the governor must recognize the Pittsburgh region, the second-most populous part of the state. They said he ultimately has the power to amend his executive order to add the new members. The commission also may have that ability, they said.

The vast majority of the money in the stimulus package is allocated based on formulas determined by federal and state laws. Mr. Ciccocioppo said the commission's job is to make sure the money is spent "in a transparent way and that it gets results."