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Opponent of stadium funds quits RAD board
Tuesday, June 02, 1998 By Mark Belko, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
A Regional Asset District board member who said he planned to vote against funding new stadiums for the Pirates and Steelers resigned yesterday, saying Allegheny County Commissioner Bob Cranmer asked him to do so.
Cranmer, who appointed Frederick Baker to the board in 1996, announced Baker's resignation, effective immediately, in a three-paragraph statement issued yesterday afternoon.
Baker said last night that Cranmer -- one of the three principal architects of the Plan B funding proposal for the stadiums and expansion of the David L. Lawrence Convention Center -- asked him to resign after Baker made it known he could not support the use of RAD funds to help build the stadiums.
"It was clear that he didn't want me on that board, given the way I was going to vote," Baker said of Cranmer last night.
"I left before being forced to leave. I didn't think it was appropriate to put Bob in the position of having to force me to leave," said Baker, owner of Baker Installations, a telecommunications firm, and a friend of Cranmer's.
Cranmer refused to say last night if he would have removed Baker from the seven-member panel, saying Baker's resignation was the result of a "gentlemen's agreement."
He said he will name a replacement "shortly." RAD board members serve at the will of the person who made the appointment and can be removed at any time.
Mayor Murphy and the chairman of the county commissioners each appoint two members, the other two commissioners appoint one each and those six members chose the seventh panelist.
"I'm disappointed to be off the RAD board," Baker said. "I think this is probably the most significant vote the regional asset board has ever had before it. I would have liked to have played a part in it. I still would like to see it killed. I still hope it will be."
Commissioner Larry Dunn, a vocal opponent of the $803 million plan to use RAD funds to help build the two stadiums and expand the convention center, called the resignation "power politics at its worst."
He maintained the resignation shows that Cranmer, Commissioner Mike Dawida and Murphy, who with Cranmer developed Plan B, will stop at nothing to win RAD board approval of the spending. He said they have "totally corrupted" the integrity of the board.
"I think this means that Plan B is well on its way to becoming a slam dunk. (The resignation) shows they will use raw political power to get their way," he said.
If Baker had remained on the RAD board and voted against the funding, it might have killed Plan B, which was patched together after voters last November overwhelmingly defeated a proposed half-cent increase in the sales tax to fund stadiums and other projects.
Cranmer, Dawida and Murphy want to use $13.4 million a year in RAD funds for up to 30 years to help pay off bonds to build the stadiums and expand the convention center.
Six of the seven RAD board members must approve the expenditure. Speculation has been that at least one other board member, Ralph DeStefano, will vote against the allocation.
That's because DeStefano was the only member to vote against using sales tax revenues last year to pay for $10.5 million in improvements to the Civic Arena and because he was appointed to the board by Dunn. However, DeStefano has not said how he will vote on Plan B, and Dunn said he has not tried to influence his vote.
In his statement, Cranmer praised Baker and said, "I had asked him to keep an open mind regarding Plan B, and he resigned understanding that he could not look past his personal opinion of for-profit sports teams to the larger picture of stadiums being a regional asset and catalyst for development."
"I not only appreciate Mr. Baker's service, but I respect his standing on principle."
Baker said Cranmer was "within his right" to remove him. He said his resignation culminated "three weeks of very frank conversations" with Cranmer and RAD board chairman David Matter over Plan B.
He said he could not bring himself to vote in favor of the funding given the lopsided defeat of the proposed sales tax increase last fall and informal polls showing a solid majority against the use of RAD money for stadiums.
The RAD board is expected to meet in early July to consider the funding for the stadiums.
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