2006: Year of the 3 mayors

March 16, 2012 11:58 pm

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By Rich Lord / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

When Luke Ravenstahl opened the doors to Pittsburgh City Council's offices and reached out to grab the letter that would make him mayor, his face was a cauldron of emotions.

That moment "is a blur, because of the mixture of emotions and the buildup for the inevitable at that point, once we knew Mayor [Bob] O'Connor was not going to make it," Mr. Ravenstahl said in an interview.

"It was a difficult night."

It was the most dramatic night in a year without precedent, when that 3,400-employee, $420 million operation called the city of Pittsburgh saw one mayor leave, another shine brightly and expire, and a third become the youngest leader of a major American city. The Year of the Three Mayors was one of constant transition, bright hopes, controversy and one true tragedy.

Now the new mayor faces the voters in what promises to be a contentious race. It's a race no one contemplated when the political year started with the Jan. 3 turnover of power from Tom Murphy to his decade-long rival, Mr. O'Connor.

The departing mayor was pensive at the inauguration, and when asked what he'd say to his successor, he offered only two words: "Good luck."

Mr. Murphy promptly rode off to join the Urban Land Institute, with whom he now has a Washington, D.C., office. His influence endured.

Often pilloried for his management of the budget, which led to a declaration of distress and state oversight, he left the city with a $25 million surplus for 2005 and $39.5 million in the bank.

He also left a corps of professionals who still run the city's emergency medical services, fire and building inspection bureaus, plus the public works and parks departments, and the city-related Parking Authority, Urban Redevelopment Authority, and Water and Sewer Authority.

The darkest cloud over Mr. Murphy's head was a U.S. attorney's investigation of an alleged sweetheart deal with the firefighters union. That ended in June, when U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan announced that she would not indict but had Mr. Murphy's agreement to help identify flaws in collective bargaining laws.

Has anything come of that?

Ms. Buchanan said in a written response to questions that her office met with Mr. Murphy once and plans to do so again. Mr. Murphy could not be reached for comment.

Mr. O'Connor brought to the mayor's office something that had been missing for years: a palpable bond between the leader and the led.

"When Bob came in, he was a personable guy, everybody loved him, and everybody's spirits were high," said former Mayor Sophie Masloff.

Mr. O'Connor only enhanced his popularity with what became the signature initiative of his tenure: the redd-up campaign, a push to clean up trash, demolish tumbledown homes, mow vacant lots and tow abandoned cars. He was often out in the streets, personally ordering cleanups, police enforcement actions, and the towing of cars.

Told by an officer that it took weeks of paperwork to tow a car from private property, he handed over his business card and said, "Here's your paperwork, get it towed."

The city responded. Disparate neighborhoods started collaborating on cleanups, homeowners and businesses tended their walks, and talks began on a pact under which the city will collect Wilkinsburg's trash.

"It's not the big stuff. It's not the visionary things. It's not big buildings," said City Council President Doug Shields. "Of all the things to bring us together, it's been garbage."

The mayor also started a Downtown revamp that led to this month's sale of underutilized properties to developer Millcraft Industries and the Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation, both of which intend to bring in new stores and housing.

Six months into his term, though, the mayor was hospitalized with what turned out to be primary central nervous system lymphoma. As the rare, aggressive cancer defied treatment, it put the city on edge and threw the new administration into turmoil.

"The city literally went into neutral on all levels during that two-month period," said Mr. Shields.

A power struggle between Chief of Staff B.J. Leber and Intergovernmental Affairs Director Dennis Regan ended with the former's firing, along with the dismissal of the solicitor and finance director. Mr. Regan appeared to hold the reins.

On Sept. 1, Mr. O'Connor died, plunging the city into grief and setting in motion the ascent of council President Ravenstahl to the office. The letter from a city lawyer that he reached for that night offered him the job through 2009. The Allegheny County Board of Elections later set the election for next year instead.

Being a 26-year-old mayor meant celebrity, including appearances on CNN and the Late Show with David Letterman. Inexperience may have also contributed to two early decisions that could haunt his election bid.

Two weeks into his tenure, the mayor wrote a letter to the Penguins reiterating his support for their bid for a casino-funded arena. In return, he asked them to commit to Plan B for a new igloo should their partner, Isle of Capri Casinos, fail to get the city's slots operator license.

The team declined, citing a contract with Isle of Capri that forbade talks on a backup arena plan. Some fans perceived the mayor's letter as a shift to lukewarm support of the team.

The mayor vigorously defended his support of the Isle of Capri bid against critics, whose numbers include mayoral rival Councilman William Peduto.

"Every chance I had to talk about Isle of Capri I did. I stand by that," the mayor said. "Sure enough, my willingness to talk about Plan B at an early stage now is playing out in reality. Those that didn't want to hear about Plan B, or didn't want to talk about Plan B, now all of a sudden are very excited about talking about Plan B, because it's the only plan now to hopefully keep the Penguins in Pittsburgh.

"Those who somehow say that in my three months in office I was negligent in trying to keep the Penguins here, or help the Isle of Capri, are less than genuine."

In the last week and a half, Canadian Jim Balsillie backed off of his bid to buy the Penguins, a state board rejected Isle of Capri's casino proposal in favor of PITG Gaming's application, and the team announced that it is considering leaving town.

Mr. Ravenstahl challenged fans "to use all of the support they did behind the Isle of Capri plan, to get excited about keeping the team here."

Mr. Murphy's tenure had been quickly hijacked by the Pirates' threats to leave, and his first two terms were dominated by stadium funding controversies. Now Mr. Ravenstahl has a team ready to pack up if it doesn't get a publicly funded arena.

Is his agenda threatened?

"I've had this baby dropped in my lap, so to speak," Mr. Ravenstahl said. "No sense dwelling on it or looking at it or analyzing how it might affect me politically or affect me personally."

"I see it as less of a morass than the Pirates," said Jim Turner, the city's finance director under Mayor Richard Caliguiri, who died in office, and his successor, Mrs. Masloff. The issue could mobilize both rabid Pens fans and rabid opponents of public support for millionaire athletes, but their numbers may not swing an election. "I don't see [the issue] as quicksand for Luke."

A month into his term, the mayor nominated Mr. Regan, a former home improvement contractor, to the post of public safety director, which oversees the police, firefighters and paramedics. Council members questioned Mr. Regan's qualifications.

Then police Cmdr. Catherine McNeilly e-mailed council, strongly suggesting that Mr. Regan quashed police discipline against an officer with whose sister Mr. Regan lives. The mayor withdrew the nomination and put Mr. Regan and Cmdr. McNeilly on paid leave during a 50-day probe.

The effort found no conclusive evidence of wrongdoing by Mr. Regan, the mayor said, while accepting his resignation.

The accusation against Mr. Regan was "a difficult situation that didn't have great results possible, from a political standpoint," said George Jacoby, top aide to Mr. Caliguiri and Mrs. Masloff. The mayor "got as good a result as could have been hoped for."

It was a learning experience, Mr. Shields said. "At that point he realizes this is for real, and if I don't make good, decisive choices, I won't be doing the city or myself any good."

The saga is not over. The Police Bureau demoted the accuser, apparently for disseminating the officer's disciplinary record. Now-Lt. McNeilly and the American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit demanding whistleblower protection. Depending on what the plaintiffs uncover, the lawsuit could hurt Mr. Ravenstahl's efforts.

"That's something that I will not concern myself with," the mayor said. "I issued the investigation, but had no part in it.

"I believe we have the professionals in place, that acted appropriately, and I believe that will play out in the end."

After a bumpy start, Mr. Ravenstahl seemed to hit his stride, some observers said.

At first, said Mrs. Masloff, "We were faced with a young, inexperienced man, which was very distressing to people I met on the street. Of course, that was misplaced. ... Luke Ravenstahl is a good guy and I have a lot of confidence in him."

His tax-cutting budget won the approval of state overseers and council. He negotiated a deal to buy back old tax debts the city had sold to a private company, easing the way for redevelopment of thousands of properties. The city and Wilkinsburg inked a trash collection pact. He and County Chief Executive Dan Onorato created a panel to study cooperation between their governments.

"I'll put those accomplishments and those first 100 days up against anything that any mayor has accomplished in the city," Mr. Ravenstahl said.

"In just a few months, Ravenstahl has gotten his grounding," said Heinz Endowments President Maxwell King. "He's obviously somebody who's learning really quickly on the job, and he's got people excited about what's happening."

Mr. Ravenstahl's biggest dice roll may be the Pittsburgh Promise, a pledge that graduates of city schools from 2008 on will get any college tuition help they need through a city and school district program backed by private funding.

In a sense, that Dec. 13 announcement closed the loop on the Year of the Three Mayors. The promise was Murphy-esque in its grand scope -- and in the fact that it was announced before any funding was in place. It was O'Connorian in its attention to human needs and its collaborative nature. And it showed the sensitivity to young families' concerns that might be expected from a married man approaching child-rearing age.

Did it represent an opening argument in the new mayor's case that he combines the best qualities of his predecessors? He's not saying so. But look for subtle variations on that theme next year.

"I'm a nuts-and-bolts guy," he said, "and I've got a vision, too."