A bond backed by Parking Authority revenue likely wouldn't generate enough money to bail out the pension fund, consultants told Pittsburgh City Council on Thursday.

Council President Darlene Harris, who proposed the bond as an alternative to Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's plan to lease parking garages and possibly meters to a private party, said she wasn't abandoning the idea.

She said an upcoming study by the Government Finance Officers Association would shed more light on the matter.

Mr. Ravenstahl's goal is to net $200 million from a long-term lease deal and pump that into the pension fund, which is now only about one-third funded. He says the infusion of cash would increase the funding level to about 50 percent.

Council members are leery of turning over public assets to a private party. Councilman Patrick Dowd and city Controller Michael Lamb proposed transferring ownership of certain garages to the pension fund, a plan the mayor's office said Monday had been rejected as illegal and unworkable by lawyers for the fund and the Parking Authority.

On Thursday, at one of a series of meetings Councilman William Peduto is holding on the pension crisis, consultants for the pension fund also panned Mrs. Harris' proposal.

Tom Morsch of Scott Balice Strategies, a Chicago-based firm that's advising city officials on Mr. Ravenstahl's proposal, said he doubted the bond could raise the amount needed to get the pension fund 50 percent funded.

"Under any scenario, we couldn't get to $200 million," he said.

In part, bond proceeds would be affected by the taxable nature of the bonds and the authority's need to retain some money to make capital improvements to garages, said Scott Kunka, city finance director, pension fund executive director and Parking Authority chairman.

Mr. Morsch said the bond would require a significant increase in parking rates, so that money could be transferred to the city to pay debt service.

Even then, he said, in the early years of the issue, the city would have to borrow money to pay the debt service. Overall, he estimated debt service at $650 million over 30 years.

"It's a costly solution (to the pension crisis), in our opinion," he said.

Mrs. Harris said Mr. Morsch's calculations were based on "assumptions" about her proposal.

She said the study by the Government Finance Officers Association, which council approved Tuesday at her request, will provide an independent analysis of all options for leveraging Parking Authority assets for the pension fund.

"Until we have all the facts on the table, we do not know what's best for the city of Pittsburgh," she said.

The meeting included heated exchanges between Mr. Dowd and Mr. Kunka.

Mr. Kunka said he objected to the "gotcha" nature of Mr. Dowd's questions. Mr. Dowd said he objected to Mr. Kunka's "smarty-pants" attitude and his "bantering and bickering."

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