Jim Motznik's path to the district judge's job into which he'll be sworn today started 27 years ago when his father, Ed, pulled his car across Brookline Park's driveway, stopped a protest against Mayor Richard Caliguiri, and promptly cashed the resulting I.O.U.

The son has never forgotten that day, and repeatedly drew from its lessons during his climb from the sewers -- literally -- through nine years on City Council, to the bench. Like dad, he got in the way when appropriate, made nice when needed and traded in the chits that came his way.

Council's longest-serving member before his send-off at yesterday's year-ending meeting, he's also been one of its fighters, vigorously taking on Mayor Tom Murphy and then just as strongly defending Mayor Luke Ravenstahl against critics.

"We've had some arguments on council," Mr. Motznik said during the meeting, "and I'm sure I've been in many of them."

"Or all of them," quipped Councilwoman Tonya Payne, also leaving the body and running for state House.

Ed Motznik was the president of Brookline's kids' baseball league way back when Jim Motznik was a recent Seton-LaSalle High School graduate in a dead end job.

The league had been promised new ballfields for opening day, but the city hadn't finished them. And unbeknownst to the Motzniks, some of the coaches had assembled their teams at the Brookline Recreation Center and were preparing to march up Brookline Boulevard to protest at one of Mr. Caliguiri's events.

Mr. Caliguiri made a dinnertime call to Ed Motznik, with whom he was not previously acquainted, and asked if he could do something to avoid a spectacle. The league president rushed to the center, blocked the driveway, and talked down the protesters.

"The next night at dinner, the phone rang once again, and it was Dick Caliguiri," Jim Motznik said yesterday, as he sat in his newly bare-walled council office. Mr. Caliguiri then said what politicians always say, but usually don't mean: "If you ever need anything, let me know."

"And I remember my dad saying, 'I have a kid out of high school washing dishes part time, and he needs a job.' And Dick Caliguiri said, 'You send him down, he starts Monday.' "

As a guy without political connections, Jim Motznik started in the worst job in the Department of Public Works -- cleaning sewers in Homewood. When he couldn't even get his bosses to salt or pave streets in his neighborhood, he not only ran for an Allegheny County Democratic Committee seat, but convinced his mother, other relatives, and friends to do so. He gained influence over first a dozen, and eventually several score committee members.

His willingness to use that influence to benefit insurgent Democrat Michael Diven in a failed state House bid, and then a successful run for council, led to his becoming a council aide. After Mr. Diven moved to the state House, Mr. Motznik won his council seat in a special election, even without the Democratic Committee or Allegheny County Labor Council's backing.

That unconventional path foreshadowed an unusual tenure. The images that linger: Mr. Motznik putting sewer-booted feet on the council table, and running from an investigative reporter.

He wore the sewer boots because he thought Mr. Murphy's 2004 budget "was full of crap" because it relied on speculative revenue that would force a mid-year tax hike. He led the charge for New Year's Eve passage of a budget that instead hiked the parking tax to 50 percent.

The dash from WTAE-TV's Jim Parsons occurred after Mr. Motznik took mileage reimbursement during a month in which he also used a city car. He paid the reimbursement back, but didn't want to give Mr. Parsons the streetside interview the reporter sought, and instead took off.

The moral: "It's very difficult to outrun a zoom lens," Mr. Motznik said.

Yesterday, even council members who were usually on the other side of issues praised his temperament. They fought hard in Council Chamber, said Councilman William Peduto, but, "the moment we went back through that door [to council's suite of offices], we were back to talking as people."

After winning a Democratic primary for district judge against Mr. Diven, he took the required test in June -- days after his mother died -- but had to retake it in December. He passed, and figures studying twice made him more ready than most.

Now he plans to bring some of the fire he showed on council to the Brookline bench long held by Charles McLaughlin.

"I'm not afraid," Mr. Motznik said. "If I have to battle a slum landlord or a repeat violator of the laws, I'm going to attack that the hardest way I can."

Mr. Motznik and other district judges will be sworn in at 10 a.m. today at the Allegheny County Bar Association conference room on the ninth floor of the City-County Building, Downtown. The ceremony is open to the public.

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