Higher parking rates wouldn't be the only revenue source available to the bidder that wins a 50-year lease of Pittsburgh parking garages and meters.

The controversial lease proposal, released June 30 and to be reissued with revisions this week, would allow the leaseholder to sell advertising space in garages and on meters. The lease also would allow ads to be printed on parking garage tickets or dispensed from the pay boxes likely to replace meters on some blocks.

In addition, the leaseholder could rent garage space to retail operations, such as eateries, newsstands, mini-convenience stores, vending machines, long-term car storage, self-storage and dry cleaners.

Some of those ventures would require approval of the city, the parking authority or both. And the leaseholder, also called a concessionaire, would have to divvy up the new advertising and retail revenue with the city and authority.

"They get their cut. We get our cut," said Scott Kunka, city finance director, parking authority chairman and pension fund executive director.

Mr. Ravenstahl has proposed leasing the garages and meters to boost a pension fund that's less than 30 percent funded and at risk of a state takeover unless it's 50 percent funded by year's end. He has said the deal, involving about 18,000 parking spaces citywide, at minimum would yield $100 million to cover parking authority debt and the $200 million necessary to get the pension fund to the 50 percent level.

The city's minimum annual pension payment now is about $45 million. Under a takeover, the city would have to increase that by $30 million, feasible only with draconian tax increases or service cuts, Mr. Ravenstahl has said.

Council has scheduled a series of public hearings on the plan, the first today in council chambers, Downtown. The others will be held Tuesday at Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers headquarters, South Side; Thursday at Pittsburgh Public Schools headquarters, Oakland; and next Monday at Pittsburgh King PreK-8, North Side. All begin at 6:30 p.m.

Mr. Ravenstahl already has hosted two public meetings and will hold a third at 6 p.m. Wednesday at the Greenfield Senior Center.

To make the deal attractive to bidders, Mr. Ravenstahl's proposal would allow sharply higher parking rates that have become a lightning rod for criticism. Little attention has been paid to the other revenue options available to the leaseholder.

With approval, Mr. Kunka said, the leaseholder could sell naming rights to Downtown garages or neighborhood lots.

Barred, according to the proposed lease, would be sexually explicit or otherwise offensive ads. To ensure an adequate number of parking spaces, the authority would limit the amount of space allowed for retail operations.

Because its mission is parking, not entrepreneurship, the authority has sold little advertising and rented only modest amounts of space to retail ventures, Mr. Kunka said.

"That's what we expect the private sector to be better at," he said.

Seven firms and partnerships have been pre-qualified to bid on the lease. Mr. Ravenstahl wants council to approve an agreement with the winning bidder by Sept. 15.

The winning bidder will get all proceeds from existing advertising and retail operations but would have to share the proceeds from new ventures with the city and authority, Mr. Kunka said. He said that money would be a continuing revenue stream, above and beyond the lump sum paid for the lease at the time of closing.

Revenue-sharing was mentioned in the initial draft of the lease released June 30, but Mr, Kunka said more expansive language on that issue and other changes, reflecting the demands of some city officials, will be included in the revised draft to be released this week.

Councilmen Bill Peduto and Patrick Dowd oppose the mayor's proposal, saying there's no reason to bring in the private sector when the authority and city themselves can get more money out of parking facilities, in part through more aggressive advertising and retailing.

"We're selling the house to make the mortgage payment, and that just isn't right," Mr. Dowd said.

Mr. Peduto called motorists a "captive audience" for advertisers and retailers.

"There's a lot of potential, and we're talking millions of dollars in additional revenue," he said, raising the possibility of electronic billboards on each floor of a parking garage.

The lease is designed to give both parties latitude for growth.

If the city needs lots or on-street parking spaces for development projects, Mr. Kunka said, it can take them and compensate the leaseholder for lost revenue. If the leaseholder wants to add additional on-street parking spaces -- perhaps by replacing meters with pay boxes, which dispense paper receipts and eliminate the need for defined metered spaces -- it can do so if it seeks city approval and shares the new revenue.

The leaseholder also would be permitted to issue tickets for expired meters, though fine money would continue to flow to the authority and city. Mr. Kunka said ticket-writing would be one way for the leaseholder to protect its investment.

All-day rates at Downtown garages, now ranging from $6 to $13.75, would increase by as much as $10.25 by 2015, with later increases tied to inflation. Noting the authority long has charged below-market rates, Mr. Ravenstahl said the increases would put prices in line with those at privately owned garages.

The cost of an hour's metered parking -- now 50 cents to $2, depending on location -- would range from $1 to $4.50 within five years, with later increases tied to inflation. On Thursday, Mr. Peduto, along with Councilmen Bruce Kraus and Doug Shields, said the increases would threaten the vitality of neighborhood business districts.

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