PWSA drops investigation of former exec director
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The Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority dropped an investigation into possible conflicts of interest by Michael Kenney after he resigned the executive director's job in December.
The authority told the law firm working on the inquiry to focus instead on developing new ethics guidelines.
Those recommendations were contained in an eight-page report released at a PWSA board meeting Friday. The report was produced by the Downtown law firm Farrell and Reisinger.
The report said PWSA should provide ethics training to employees, develop an ethics manual, fine-tune contract procedures, and impose unspecified checks and balances on the next executive director.
Last summer, the board voted to pay Farrell and Reisinger up to $50,000, plus expenses, to examine Mr. Kenney's ties to Utility Line Security LLC, a company that received a contract to provide line warranties to customers.
At the time, state Rep. Dan Deasy, D-Westwood, board chairman, said the study was needed to safeguard PWSA's integrity. On Friday, however, Mr. Deasy said the board decided after Mr. Kenney's resignation not to "dwell on the past" and to focus on developing ethics rules for the future instead.
The board never voted publicly to change the scope of the law firm's work.
"I think the main thing is to learn from what might have happened" with Mr. Kenney's situation, Scott Kunka, an authority board member and the city finance director, said.
Mr. Kenney could not be reached, and Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's office did not respond to a request for comment.
The change in direction angered, but did not surprise, city Councilman Doug Shields, a sometime PWSA critic.
"It was my impression this was going to be a whitewash," Mr. Shields said. "If the fix is this," he added, referring to the law firm's ethics recommendations, "what did you see behind the curtain that caused you to recommend the fix?"
In line with the recommendations, the authority board voted Friday to develop new procedures for awarding contracts and to develop an ethics training plan. Mr. Deasy said some of that work will be completed in about a month.
The board also voted to create a committee of water experts, customers, developers and others to help with the search for Mr. Kenney's replacement. City Councilman Patrick Dowd, a PWSA board member, said the committee will establish the authority's key objectives for coming years and develop a job description based on those objectives.
First Published February 12, 2011 12:00 am
