Ravenstahl combined (04-29-14-06-04-09)

Transcription

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Post-Gazette
Feb 22 2013 12:13:20:196AM
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SOUTHSIDE WORKS
LEADER HAS EXITED
MAG & MOVIES, B-1
VOL. 86, NO. 206 2/22/13  final
Justice Orie Melvin,
sister found guilty
Jury finds that pair
used state workers
to run campaigns
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
By Andrew McGill
Allegheny County Council
approved a $500 million natural
gas drilling deal despite concerns raised by a senior staff
member that weren’t shared
before the vote.
Three of council’s 15 members, including the president,
received a memo over the
weekend from director of legislative services Jared Barker
that posed serious questions
about the contract with Consol
Energy to drill at Pittsburgh
International Airport.
In a version of the memo forwarded among council members the day after the vote, Mr.
Barker listed 27 questions he’d
want answered before giving
further advice. Among other
concerns, he questioned the
length of the lease, who would
control the contract and how
the land would be taxed.
None of those questions had
been addressed publicly, he
wrote.
“The draft lease agreement
raises a number and variety of
questions relating to the wisdom of proceeding,” he wrote.
“To my knowledge, Council
has received little or no infor-
SEE drill, PAGE A-11
Ex-bodyguard:
Mayor knew
of credit union
debit cards
Ravenstahl
denies any
wrongdoing
By Paula Reed Ward
Council
staffer listed
concerns
in gas deal
A-1
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FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2013
No one spoke to the media.
No one said whether there
would be appeals.
Instead, all of the members of
the Orie Melvin camp — including suspended state Supreme
Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin
and three defense attorneys —
left the courthouse under escort
from deputies with the Allegheny County sheriff’s office.
Justice Orie Melvin and Janine Orie, her sister and former
administrative aide, were found
guilty Thursday of corruption
for misusing state-paid staffers
to help run the justice’s Supreme
Court campaigns in 2003 and
2009.
The sisters were found guilty
of theft of services, conspiracy,
and misapplication of government funds. Janine Orie was
also convicted of tampering with
evidence and solicitation.
One count — official oppression against the justice for terminating her chief law clerk for failing to do political work — could
not be decided by the jury, which
heard defense witnesses testify
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By Jonathan D. Silver
and Rich Lord
Darrell Sapp/Post-Gazette
Suspended state Supreme Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin, pictured, and her former
administrative aide, Janine Orie, are the second and third siblings to be convicted of corruption.
that the clerk left voluntarily.
Allegheny County Common
Pleas Judge Lester G. Nauhaus
declared the jurors hung on that
count.
He did not set a date for sentencing but did order a pre-sentence report for both women.
In the meantime, Justice
Orie Melvin, 56, will remain
suspended without pay from the
Inside
court pending further action by
the Court of Judicial Discipline.
“This jury, having sat in a
court of law, heard the truth
about the defendant’s conduct
and has made it absolutely clear
that no one is above the law
irrespective of title or status,”
said Allegheny County District
n State officials say Joan
Orie Melvin should never
again sit on the state’s
highest court. Page A-2
On the Web
Visit post-gazette.com for
video of the jury foreman’s
remarks.
SEE melvin, PAGE A-2
Groups urge Pa. to join
Medicaid expansion
By Tracie Mauriello
A day after Florida Republican Gov. Rick Scott reversed
course and agreed to participate in a federal Medicaid
expansion, two consumer
groups pressed Pennsylvania
Gov. Tom Corbett to do the
same.
Mr. Corbett has been wary
of participating in the expansion because he wants more
flexibility than the federal program would allow.
Families USA and the Pennsylvania Health Access Network put out a report Thursday estimating that participa-
tion would bring 41,200 jobs
and $5.1 billion in increased
economic activity to the state.
The figures represent additional health care workers and
money providers will spend to
expand their facilities as well
as the impact on other industries where those workers and
companies may spend their
wages and profits.
The expansion also would
reduce the state’s uncompensated care costs by $878 million over the next nine years
by providing coverage to uninsured Pennsylvanians whose
emergency medical care is now
borne by taxpayers, according
to the study.
Goldman can’t ID owner
of account in Heinz probe
By Len Boselovic
A Goldman Sachs & Co. client in Switzerland owns the
bank account used to make
suspicious trades in H.J. Heinz
options in advance of the $28
billion bid for the global food
giant. But the investment bank
has told federal regulators it
does not know who the account
Weather
Freezing rain
expected.
High 36, low 33.
Page D-14
owner is.
The Securities and Exchange
Commission disclosed the
information in federal court
filings in New York.
The agency obtained a
court order Feb. 15 freezing
the account and prohibiting
its owner from destroying
evidence. Regulators said the
account was used to generate more than $1.7 million in
Bridge.........................B-4
Business .................... A-7
Classified ...................D-8
Comics .......................B-6
Crosswords.................B-4
Editorials ..................A-14
“The Medicaid
expansion is a winwin-win proposition
for the people of
Pennsylvania.”
— Ron Pollack, executive director
of Washington-based Families USA
State officials said they will
review the study’s data with
stakeholders, but their biggest
concern is reforming the exist-
Amid the ongoing controversy over the use of a police
credit union account under
federal scrutiny, a new voice
emerged Thursday.
One of Pittsburgh Mayor
Luke Ravenstahl’s former
bodyguards claimed this
week that the mayor and the
public safety director knew
that debit cards used by the
security detail were linked to
the non-governmental account
for the purpose of avoiding
media scrutiny about certain
expenditures. Both officials
strongly denied it.
“Luke knew firsthand that
these cards were given to us
and they were specifically
given to us because you guys
were doing the Right-to-Know
[requests],” said Fred Crawford Jr. “You would never see
the trail of the hotel bills and
stuff like that from us.”
In separate interviews, Mr.
Ravenstahl and Public Safety
Director Mike Huss Thursday night disputed all of Mr.
Crawford’s allegations.
The mayor speculated that
they might have stemmed
from ill will over the forced
resignation Wednesday of
former police Chief Nate
Harper and the fact that three
other police bureau employ-
SEE heinz, PAGE A-3
Horoscope .................B-4
Local News................. A-9
Lottery ........................ A-8
Mag&Movies ..............B-1
Movies .......................B-2
Tony Norman .............. A-2
On her first day as acting city police chief, Regina
McDonald placed three people on paid administrative
leave pending the end of an
FBI investigation that has
tarnished the police bureau’s
reputation.
Chief McDonald, in a statement that would later be
echoed by the police union,
said she will focus now on
restoring the public’s faith in
the police bureau.
“I guess you depend on the
integrity of the people you
put in various positions,” she
said, adding that people could
expect changes in the bureau
within a week.
The appointment of Chief
McDonald, who served as an
Obituaries ................A-11
Perspectives .............A-15
Scoreboard ................D-7
Sports ........................D-1
Television....................B-5
Varsity Xtra .................C-1
STANDARD MUSEUM ADMISSION RATES APPLY | ZOMBIE COSTUME CONTEST WITH PRIZES | CASH BAR & REFRESHMENTS
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Acting police Chief
Regina McDonald
assistant chief since 2004, to
serve as an interim replacement for police Chief Nate
Harper stunned the rank-andfile, with the union president
initially pointing out that
she oversaw one of the offices
from which the FBI removed
documents last week. His comments on Thursday were less
critical.
SEE mcdonald, PAGE A-5
This story was written by Liz
Navratil based on her reporting and that of Jonathan D. Silver, Moriah Balingit and Molly
Born.
Use this square barcode to access
on-the-go news with your smart phone.
Learn how at www.post-gazette.com/
technology/
5 – 7 P.M. 1968 EXHIBIT TOURS | 7 P.M. MOVIE SCREENING
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SEE MAYOR, PAGE A-5
Restoring public
faith in bureau
her main focus
THE SENATOR JOHN HEINZ HISTORY CENTER
PRESENTS THE 1968 CULT CLASSIC
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2013
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ees whom he said were Mr.
Crawford’s close friends were
placed Thursday on paid
administrative leave.
“That’s patently false, plain
and simple,” Mr. Ravenstahl
said of the allegations, during
nearly an hourlong interview
with the Pittsburgh PostGazette in his office attended
by his chief of staff, Yarone
Zober, solicitor Daniel Regan
and one of his bodyguards,
Sgt. Matthew J. Gauntner.
“I’ve got a guy that doesn’t
have any credibility that takes
Acting police chief
faces challenges
SEE medicaid, PAGE A-3
profits by trading the Heinz
options in advance of the Feb.
14 announcement that Warren
Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway
and 3G Capital, a New York
private equity firm, intend to
acquire Heinz.
The SEC called the trades
“highly suspicious.” The FBI
also is investigating.
The SEC does not know who
the traders are, but believes
them to be foreigners or traders investing through foreign
accounts. The agency’s filing
seeking to freeze the account
stated the account name
Lake Fong/Post-Gazette
Mayor Luke Ravenstahl
arrives at Pittsburgh police
headquarters Thursday on
the North Side to meet with
new acting Chief Regina
McDonald.
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Feb 22 2013 12:14:54:316AM
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PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE  FridaY, FebruarY 22, 2013  WWW.POST-GAZETTE.COM
Michael Henninger/Post-Gazette
Mayor Luke Ravenstahl speaks about police Chief Nate Harper’s resignation during a news conference on Wednesday.
Ex-bodyguard: Mayor knew of credit union debit cards
MAYOR, FROM PAGE A-1
a shot at me,” Mr. Huss said during a telephone interview. “It’s all
false. That will be proven in the
end.”
Mr. Crawford, 48, was a Pittsburgh police officer for 24 years
and retired in 2011. He served as
a bodyguard for six years both
to Mr. Ravenstahl and his predecessor, Bob O’Connor.
Mr. Crawford said he was “100
percent positive” that the mayor
and Mr. Huss knew that the card
was linked to a non-governmental account, “and I am willing to
take a polygraph test to verify
that.”
“You can say the cards were
given to us specifically because
they wanted to avoid the media
tracking what we did and where
we went through the Right-toKnow [law],” Mr. Crawford said.
“We used cards for official
business but it was used for
unofficial business as well,” Mr.
Crawford said.
Those expenditures, he
alleged, included purchases of
alcohol.
“I don’t know that any of the
expenditures were even restaurants, first of all,” the mayor
said. “Were not used for alcohol.
Very, very diligent about that
first of all.”
Mr. Ravenstahl went on to say
of the allegations: “Just patently
false, and when I have these
documents in my possession I’m
happy to turn them over to you
and really look forward to doing
so. There was never a discussion
about avoiding any sort of Rightto-Know request,” the mayor
said.
“I’m not sure what his agenda
or motive is,” Mr. Ravenstahl
said, “but it’s just wrong, and
he’s wrong, he’s lying. You better be careful because nothing
that he said is accurate.”
Mr. Crawford said Mr. Huss
told him the debit card should be
used only at the mayor’s discretion and that he should not speak
with anyone about the card.
Mr. Huss also vehemently
denied being involved in any
way with the use of the debit
cards.
“I had no involvements, didn’t
have a card and honestly never
had that conversation or any
conversations like that with
Freddie Crawford,” Mr. Huss
said. “Freddie Crawford did not
get orders from me on anything
related to the detail. He would
work through the chief’s office.”
“I would not have ever created an account or ordered one
to be created in this manner,”
Mr. Huss said. “I wouldn’t even
think about that. For him to say
that is a total 100 percent lie.
Why he’s lying I don’t know. I’m
confident that I had no knowledge. I’m confident I didn’t do
anything wrong.”
“If I’m accused of something,
then you know how it is,” Mr.
Huss said. “It’s very damaging
to me and my career.”
The mayor confirmed that
both Mr. Crawford and one of
his current bodyguards, Sgt.
Dominick C. Sciulli, had debit
cards associated with an account
at the Greater Pittsburgh Police
Federal Credit Union, which is
outside the normal municipal
channels.
City Controller Michael
Lamb, who is running for
mayor, has criticized the mayor
for his bodyguards’ use of the
accounts. He said there are only
15 authorized depositories for
city money, and the credit union
is not one of them.
“Why would your security
detail need access to a secret
bank account if they were conducting official city business?”
Mr. Lamb asked in a news
release. “Who else had access to
the account and what did they
use it for? How could the use of
the secret account to pay for city
business be acceptable?
“Have you ever benefited
from this account?” Mr. Lamb
continued in the release.
Mayoral
spokeswoman
Joanna Doven said it’s Mr.
Lamb, as the city’s “controller and chief accountant,” who
“has information that he is not
sharing with the public or the
authorities.
“The fact that these questions
are coming from his political
campaign makes his disgusting motivations clear,” she continued. “The public has a right
to know what information he is
hiding or holding onto for political purposes. We demand that
he turn this information over to
the public and to the authorities
as is his duty.”
Sgt. Gauntner also had a card,
but it was never used, the mayor
said.
The mayor said he was not
aware that the cards tapped
an account at the credit union,
a private, nonprofit financial
institution for active and retired
city police officers. He also said
he never saw the cards or discussed their use with the bodyguards.
Mr. Crawford, however,
claims that he showed the mayor
the card during a trip to Harrisburg. The mayor said that
“could’ve happened, but I don’t
remember it.”
Last week the FBI and IRS
removed documents from the
credit union in the West End as
part of a probe linked to a similar removal of documents from
two police bureau offices.
Deputy Chief Paul Donaldson
has said he believes the probe
is linked to internal allegations
that funds were misappropriated
from the special events office,
which handles moonlighting by
officers, and the personnel and
finance office, run by manager
Sandra Ganster.
“The cards were always kept
in the safe at Sandy Ganster’s
office. [The mayor] would give
us a heads up when he wanted
to do something off the records
and we would get the cards,” Mr.
Crawford said.
“We never had to worry about
receipts for that account there.
We didn’t turn ’em over,” Mr.
Crawford said. “In the beginning we gave them to Sandy but
after that Luke said that would
be a paper trail.”
Ms. Ganster, who is on a voluntary leave from the police
bureau, could not be reached for
comment.
Mr. Ravenstahl said he knew
nothing about such a safe or
where the debit cards were
stored.
Mr. Ravenstahl said that Sgt.
Sciulli became frustrated with
the reimbursement process for
expenses he incurred in the process of guarding the mayor. The
mayor told him to talk with the
chief. Sgt. Sciulli talked with the
chief, and was given a card.
“I said, ‘Dom, do what you
gotta do’ And that was the last
I heard of anything,” the mayor
said..
“I imagine that when these
officers were given a card by the
chief of police,” said Mr. Ravenstahl, “at that point you assume
that it’s set up appropriately.”
Mr. Ravenstahl said after
a South Side news conference
Thursday morning that his
bodyguards used the cards for
hotels on official trips they took
with the mayor.
“Anytime they used these
cards they were on trips with
me,” he said, stressing the expenditures were “legitimate.”
He said the men used the
cards when they traveled with
the mayor to Washington, D.C.,
and Harrisburg, among other
things. Mr. Ravenstahl said he
was told by federal authorities
with whom he met Wednesday
that he and the members of his
security “are not targets” of an
investigation.
Bodyguards didn’t have cards
during Mayor Tom Murphy’s
administration.
“The security detail never
traveled with me,” said Tom
Murphy, who was Pittsburgh’s
mayor from 1994 through 2005.
He said he had one security
person, Pat Morosetti.
“One, I don’t ever remember
anybody ever going anywhere
out of town with me. And two,
I don’t believe that Pat had a
debit or credit card at all,” Mr.
Murphy said. “If he did [have
expenses] like all of us we would
incur the expense and submit
it.”
Mr. Crawford said his card
was not used often during the
two-year period or so that he had
one around 2009 or 2010.
He also said Mr. Harper knew
of the cards.
“He was aware of it … Nate
got caught up in the middle of
some stuff. He’s just too nice. He
should have just said no to some
stuff. He’s never been that ‘no’
person and now they’ve thrown
him under the bus to carry all
the weight himself. Really, he
was doing what he was told to
do.”
Mr. Ravenstahl said he was
happy with how Mr. Crawford
performed his duties as a bodyguard although he acknowledged having somewhat of a falling out with him.
“Perhaps Fred was upset with
a decision I made recently and
his allegiance was with other
people and he saw the need to
say things about me that are
untrue,” the mayor said. Asked
what decision might have upset
Mr. Crawford, the mayor said it
may have been “the decision to
ask the chief to resign.”
Mr. Ravenstahl asked for Mr.
Harper’s resignation based on
information he learned while
meeting with the FBI and U.S.
attorney’s office. He said he
could not disclose the details.
The mayor said he did not
believe that Mr. Crawford was
especially close to Mr. Harper.
Mr. Crawford, though, was a
good friend of three women
who worked in the chief’s office
— Officer Tonya MontgomeryFord, her mother, account clerk
Kim Montgomery, and police
payroll clerk Tamara Davis —
the mayor said.
“Fred may feel that he’s
diverting attention from his
other friends” by making accusations about the mayor, said
Mr. Ravenstahl.
He acknowledged that Mr.
Crawford was upset about his
treatment at a 2009 election
night victory party, at which his
performance came under criticism from then-Commander
George Trosky, who is now an
assistant chief and a close friend
of Mr. Harper’s.
“That was isolated to that
night,” Mr. Ravenstahl said.
“Fred was never punished,
never demoted.”
Mr. Crawford’s credibility has
been challenged before.
In 1997, Mr. Crawford fatally
shot a man while working an
off-duty detail. Though a deputy
coroner found the shooting to be
justifiable, he found “no credibility in the testimony of Mr.
Crawford.”
Former Pittsburgh police
Chief Robert W. McNeilly Jr.
said he never gave Mr. Crawford
permission to moonlight as a
security guard at the bar. Chief
McNeilly, head of the Elizabeth
Township police, said Mr. Crawford already had been orally reprimanded for working a security detail at the Small World
Bar in Homewood without going
through proper procedures.
Records available online with
the Allegheny County Court of
Common Pleas indicate that Mr.
Crawford was sued for child support by different women in 1985,
1986, 1988, 1998 and 2003. Records
available online indicate that he
was ordered to pay support in at
least four of the cases.
One city employee identified
by the mayor’s office said Mr.
Crawford lied to her.
“I met Detective Crawford in
2010, probably spring 2010,” said
Sauntee Turner, who worked in
the office of the mayor’s operations director. She said they
started dating in January 2011.
“I would consider him the man
that I was dating.”
She said she asked him, “If
he was able to date. If he was
married or if he was living with
someone. ... He told me no. He
was not married, nor was he living with anyone.”
She discovered in the fall
of 2011 that he was married,
through conversations with
people who knew his wife. She
stopped seeing him.
“He’s just a disturbed individual, extremely deceitful and not
to be trusted,” she said.
Jonathan D. Silver: jsilver@
post-gazette.com or 412-263-1962.
Rich Lord: rlord@post-gazette.
com, 412-263-1542. Liz Navratil
and Moriah Balingit contributed.
City’s new acting police chief is facing challenges
mcdonald, FROM PAGE A-1
When Mayor Luke Ravenstahl — shortly after a two-hour
meeting with the FBI — asked
on Wednesday for Chief Harper’s immediate resignation, he
was left with few choices that
weren’t surrounded in controversy.
Both Deputy Chief Paul Donaldson and Assistant Chief of
Operations Maurita Bryant had
credit cards listed in their name
in connection with accounts at
the Greater Pittsburgh Police
Federal Credit Union, which is
not an authorized depository for
city funds. Chief Donaldson has
said he did not know about the
card until FBI agents told him
about it, and Chief Bryant, who
is out of town attending a conference, could not be reached for
comment.
Assistant Chief of Investigations George Trosky has a history that includes allegations
of domestic violence that were
dropped when the accuser did
not appear in court, but his promotion nevertheless angered
women’s groups.
Mr. Ravenstahl said he plans
to look outside the bureau
for someone to replace Chief
Harper, although he would also
consider elevating someone
from within.
“I think given the situation if
we were able to find somebody
from the outside to come and
put a new vision or standpoint
on the bureau, that would be my
preference,” he said.
Still, he stood by Chief
McDonald.
“I have no reason to believe
— in fact I’m confident — that
in no way was she conflicted or
that she did anything wrong,”
the mayor said.
During her times as assistant
chief of administration, Chief
McDonald oversaw the special
events office and, until Chief
Harper took control of it in 2010
for undisclosed reasons, the personnel and finance office.
FBI agents removed documents from both locations in
what Deputy Chief Donaldson
said he thinks is a probe into
allegations that funds have been
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misappropriated within the
bureau.
The Post-Gazette has learned
that at least one check for
$5,675.52 from the University of
Pittsburgh to the police bureau
was deposited in September
2009 into an “I.P.F.” account at
the credit union. The account’s
address matched that of the
North Side police headquarters.
Another account at the credit
union was listed as “Special
Events c/o Sandy Ganster.”
Ms. Ganster is manager of the
bureau’s personnel and finance
department. Special events is
the police office that handles
scheduling for off-duty work.
Chief McDonald said she met
with the FBI on Thursday morning. “I am not a target,” she said.
“The target is personnel and
finance.”
The acting chief declined to
specify which people were the
targets.
Also Thursday, she placed
Officer Tonya MontgomeryFord, who works in Chief
Bryant’s office, and civilians
Tammy Davis and Kim Mont-
gomery, who work in personnel
and finance, on paid administrative leave pending the end of the
FBI investigation. Ms. Ganster
went on leave of her own volition, and administrators have
not yet decided whether to place
her on a similar leave, the mayor
said.
Warner Macklin III, who is
handling media inquiries for Officer Montgomery-Ford, said, “The
only thing I know is she’s saddened but will follow the direction
of the memo that was given to her
by the acting chief’s office.”
He said Officer MontgomeryFord is deciding whether to hire
an attorney and has not been
contacted by the FBI or the U.S.
attorney’s office.
Ms. Montgomery, Officer
Montgomery-Ford’s mother and
a high school classmate of Mr.
Harper, could not be reached for
comment, nor could Ms. Davis.
Officer Montgomery-Ford and
Ms. Davis are listed as organizers, along with Mr. Harper, Sgt.
Barry Budd and Zone 2 Commander Eric Holmes, on incorporation papers for Diverse Pub-
lic Safety Consultants, a company that Mr. Harper said has
not yet brought in any revenue.
Mr. Ravensthal has hired
an outside consultant, former
Washington County District
Attorney Steven M. Toprani,
to review the city’s policies on
secondary employment in light
of that business and revelations that Commander Holmes
worked a second job as interim
police chief at Slippery Rock
University while he was a sergeant.
Chief McDonald said the
number of accounts and who
had access to them is part of the
FBI investigation, which she
did not want to jeopardize. She
said she was not sure how much
money flowed through them
but her understanding is that
the accounts have since been
closed.
She declined to say when she
learned about the accounts or
how she found out about them.
Chief McDonald, city public
safety director Mike Huss and
Mr. Ravenstahl have said they
expect more changes to be made
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at the bureau.
“I don’t expect any radical and/
or massive changes,” the mayor
said. “There are some things that
we are going to take a look at and
clearly tighten up so there may be
some minor changes, but I would
characterize them as minor
in nature rather than major
in nature, and some of those
changes were made today.”
Detective Michael Benner,
vice president of the Fraternal
Order of Police Lodge No. 1, the
union representing officers,
said the rank-and-file is trying
to reserve judgment.
“What we know is from you
guys,” he told reporters. “We’re
still on the outside looking in.”
About 75 officers attended
a meeting of the police union
Thursday night.
After the meeting, union president Sgt. Michael LaPorte said,
“At this point, we’re placing our
faith in the public safety director. People are saying stuff to our
officers out in the streets. We just
want to, as quickly as possible,
restore integrity to the department.”
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Post-Gazette
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Feds unable to meet
health care deadline
By Robert Pear
The New York Times
WASHINGTON — Unable
to meet tight deadlines in the
new health care law, the Obama
administration is delaying parts
of a program intended to provide
affordable health insurance
to small businesses and their
employees — a major selling
point for the health care legislation.
The law calls for a new insurance marketplace specifically
for small businesses, starting
next year. But in most states,
employers will not be able to get
what Congress intended: the
option to provide workers with a
choice of health plans. They will
instead be limited to a single
plan.
This choice option, already
available to many big businesses, was supposed to become
available to small employers in
January 2014. But administration officials said they would
delay it to 2015 in the 33 states
where the federal government
will be running insurance markets known as exchanges. And
they will delay the requirement
for other states as well.
The promise of affordable
health insurance for small businesses was portrayed as a major
advantage of the new health care
law, mentioned often by White
House officials and Democratic
leaders in Congress as they
fought opponents of the legislation.
Supporters of the health care
A-1
VOL. 86, NO. 245 4/2/13  final .
Jack Wagner and Bill Peduto emerging as front-runners;
city controller throws support behind former auditor general
Lamb out of mayor race
By James O’Toole
City Controller Michael
Lamb’s decision to exit the mayor’s race and instead back Jack
Wagner on Monday lent a formidable boost to the former auditor
general’s bid for the Democratic
nomination for mayor.
“I am doing this because I love
Pittsburgh — and a race with
many candidates is blurry and
difficult — and the fact of the
matter is, there is a real choice
for mayor,” Mr. Lamb said in a
brief statement in his Greenfield
campaign office.
“I believe the best candidate
is Jack Wagner,” he continued.
“Jack Wagner is both a friend
of organized labor and of Pittsburgh’s business community.
And as someone who grew up
in the same community as me,
he understands that we need
to focus on our communities as
growth in all our neighborhoods
helps us all.”
Mr. Lamb’s reference to their
shared political roots hinted
at how his candidacy and that
of Mr. Wagner had seemed destined to cannibalize one another’s support in the city’s southern neighborhoods. For now, at
least, the former state official is
SEE lamb, PAGE A-6
Larry Roberts/Post-Gazette
City Controller Michael Lamb is applauded by supporters
Monday at his Greenfield Avenue campaign headquarters
after announcing he is dropping out of the race for mayor.
n Visit post-gazette.com for video from the announcement.
Questions
arise over
mayor’s
travel
expenses
OPENING DAY 2013
By Moriah Balingit
and Rich Lord
Michael Henninger/Post-Gazette
Fans cheers as pitcher A.J. Burnett strikes out the first batter during the Pirates’ home opener against the Chicago
Cubs Monday at PNC Park. The Cubs won, 3-1.
Casey says
he supports
gay marriage
Cold can’t keep Pirates fans away
By Dan Majors
By Tracie Mauriello
into the 30s.
Bob Kepics, 78, and his wife,
Mary, wouldn’t miss it.
“I’ve seen good and I’ve seen
bad, but we’ve endured it all,”
said Mr. Kepics, who drove
from Leechburg in Armstrong
County to be among the 39,000plus braving the chill to witness a disappointing 3-1 loss to
the Chicago Cubs.
Mr. Kepics has been to 61 of
the past 65 opening day games,
Post-Gazette Washington Bureau
SEE casey, PAGE A-6
K
BUSINESS, A-9
SEE plans, PAGE A-6
WASHINGTON — And then
there were eight.
U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa.,
took his support
for gay relationships a step
further Monday when he
announced he
now backs the
right to samesex marriage.
Bob Casey
“If
two
people of the
same sex fall in love and want
to marry, why would our government stand in their way? At
a time when many Americans
lament a lack of commitment
in our society between married
men and women, why would we
want less commitment and fewer
strong marriages?” Mr. Casey
asked in a written statement.
That leaves just eight Democrats in the U.S. Senate who
either oppose same-sex mar-
M
G
YOUR 401K: ONE
NEST IS BEST
TUESDAY, APRIL 2, 2013
Small
business
options
delayed
P
Say what you want about
them, those who packed PNC
Park on Monday afternoon
were anything but fair-weather
fans.
It’s one thing to face a losing
streak reaching 20 consecutive
seasons. But it’s quite another
thing to do it in biting wind
and temperatures reaching
on the web
including all 13 at PNC Park. A
former sandlot player and mill
worker, he started attending as
a youth, skipping school and
hitchhiking to old Forbes Field
in Oakland. (One year, it was
his principal who pulled over
to pick him up. They continued
on to the ballpark.)
Not all the kids had to skip
school Monday. Luke Mary and
Visit post-gazette.
com for video
reports, a slideshow
and an interactive
panoramic photo of
PNC park.
n For full coverage,
including Ron
Cook’s take on
the game, turn to
Sports, Page C-1.
SEE fans, PAGE A-8
When Pittsburgh Mayor
Luke Ravenstahl traveled
to Chicago last December to
speak at a forum at the University of Illinois, he took
along government affairs
manager Paul McKrell for a
trip that would also include
another, purely political leg.
When it came time to book
flights and hotel rooms, the
question arose: How should
this be paid?
Mr. McKrell’s airfare to
Chicago and then to New
York City and room at a Hilton were paid for with the
mayor’s city credit card — to
the tune of nearly $835. But
since the flight ultimately
brought Mr. McKrell to the
Pennsylvania Society — a
highfalutin gathering held
annually in the Big Apple
— part of it will be repaid
with campaign dollars, the
mayor’s chief of staff said
Monday. Mr. Ravenstahl’s
room and flight were paid for
entirely by his campaign.
When city officials travel,
deciding which credit card
or account to use isn’t always
simple, as the Chicago and
New York trips show. A lack
of clear rules with regard to
the use of city and campaign
funds complicates that. And
while city council approves
other city officials’ travel
requests, only the controller
sees the mayor’s expenses.
SEE travel, PAGE A-3
With titanium plates, Crosby’s jaw expected to heal quickly
By Sean D. Hamill
The type of jaw surgery that
Sidney Crosby endured last
weekend after being hit in the
face with a puck should, at the
latest, allow him to return to
game action by the time the
playoffs begin in a month,
Weather
Breezy and cold
with morning flurries.
High 39, low 26.
Page B-8
n Sidney Crosby remained
optimistic in an email to PostGazette writer Dave Molinari.
Sports, Page C-1.
experts say.
“As long as he keeps his
nourishment up — and he
should since he’s not wired
shut — he should be good to go
Bridge......................... A-8
Business .................... A-9
Classified .................C-10
Comics .......................D-6
Crosswords................. A-8
Editorials ....................B-6
in three to four weeks,” said
David Dattilo, director of oral
and maxillofacial surgery for
West Penn Allegheny Health
System.
The timing and the jaw
injury itself appear to be
similar to what Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger
experienced in 2006 when his
Horoscope ................. A-8
Local News.................B-1
Lottery ........................B-2
Magazine....................D-1
My Generation ...........D-7
Movies .......................D-3
motorcycle collided with a car
whose driver failed to yield
and turned left in front of him.
The accident occurred a month
before preseason camp was to
begin.
Mr. Roethlisberger, who was
not wearing a helmet, also did
not have his jaw wired shut
and was in camp on time that
Tony Norman .............. A-2
Obituaries ..................B-3
Perspectives ...............B-7
Scoreboard ................C-9
Sports ........................C-1
Television....................D-5
Online today
AJ BURNETT APRIL 12
Y
P
M
G
K
SEE crosby, PAGE A-2
Check out video reports, a slideshow and a 360-degree
interactive photo from Monday’s Pirates opener.
FIRST UP:
C
year.
If all goes well in three to
four weeks, Dr. Dattilo said,
Mr. Crosby won’t even necessarily need special headgear
to protect his jaw “because his
jaw will be just as strong as
before, and probably stronger
C
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Apr 01 2013 10:58:34:676PM
K
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Post-Gazette
P
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PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE  TuesdaY, aPril 2, 2013  WWW.POST-GAZETTE.COM
Questions
arise over
mayor’s
travel
expenses
travel, FROM PAGE A-1
A review of travel outlined
in campaign and credit and
debit card records from 2010
through 2012 indicates that
the mayor traveled 18 times
on the dime of the city or his
campaign, including two cases
in which a bodyguard paid for
expenses using an unauthorized city account that has since
become a subject of a federal
investigation. Other official
trips were underwritten with
private sources — like one to
China in 2010 paid for by the
Allegheny Conference.
“There are three buckets
which I think someone in public office can pull money from,”
said Barry Kauffman, executive
director of the watchdog group
Pennsylvania Common Cause.
“If it’s a legitimate public business related to the office they
represent, the public should
be paying for it. If it’s political
activity, then it’s legitimate
to take it out of our campaign
fund. Otherwise, if you’re just
traveling, every once in awhile
you have to crack open your
own checkbook.”
Alleged misuse of public
funds is at the center of the
indictment last month of former Pittsburgh police Chief
Nate Harper, who is accused of
shunting payments by private
businesses for off-duty police
work into a Greater Pittsburgh
Police Federal Credit Union
account. He then drew on that
account for $31,986 in personal
expenses, according to the
indictment.
Debit cards connected to the
illicit accounts also ended up in
the hands of the mayor’s police
bodyguard, Sgt. Dominick
Sciulli, who said he didn’t know
the source of the funds. He used
the debit card exclusively when
he traveled with the mayor on
city business, according to the
mayor’s chief of staff, Yarone
Zober.
When the mayor travels on
city business with city funds, he
uses his city credit card.
The mayor’s imprest fund
— an account that pays his city
credit card bill — was created
by a resolution of council in 1995
under Mayor Tom Murphy. The
legislation that established the
fund doesn’t speak to what it’s
to be used for. And while officials have repeatedly said it’s
for “city business,” they could
point to no city policy or legal
opinion that defined its use.
City officials said state law
spoke to that issue. State ethics laws bar any public official
from using public funds or
powers for the personal, pecuniary gain of the official or
their immediate family, or for
any business with which they
are associated.
But the lack of rules can be
problematic, as a case in Leetsdale demonstrated.
In January, the state Ethics
Commission wrote an opinion
on Leetsdale Borough Councilman Roger A. Nanni’s use of a
borough credit card, including for evening meetings at
“various restaurants, bars,
and other eateries/food service
entities.” Mr. Nanni, according
to the opinion, provided “no
documentation or explanation”
of charges totaling $2,182 to the
card over more than four years.
But the commission found
“insufficient evidence … that
said purchases were not related
to Borough expenditures,” and
imposed no penalty for that.
Besides lacking clear rules,
the mayor’s imprest fund also
has less oversight than expen-
Traveling man
Records of Mayor Luke Ravenstahl’s campaign spending, of expenses
covered by city government, and of transactions from an unauthorized
account at the Greater Pittsburgh Police Federal Credit Union, indicate
that expenses related to mayoral travel were paid for in a variety of ways.
The mayor’s imprest fund, created by legislation in 1995, paid for travel
on city business. The mayor’s campaign account covered any expenses
viewed as benefiting his electoral prospects. Twice expenses incurred by a
bodyguard on trips to Harrisburg were covered by an account at the
Greater Pittsburgh Police Federal Credit Union, which was not an
authorized city account. Federal prosecutors have said the credit union
account was funded under former Chief Nate Harper’s direction using
checks from private businesses for police services, which should have
been deposited with the city.
MONTH, YEAR
March 2010
March 2010
June 2010
DESTINATION, PURPOSE,
IF OTHER THAN GENERAL
GOVERNMENT BUSINESS
Washington, D.C., infrastructure
development discussions
Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, waterfront development conference
Harrisburg
June 2010
New York City
September 2010 Laguna Beach and Newport,
Calif., pension summit
September 2010 Washington, D.C.
October 2010
Harrisburg
November 2010 Philadelphia
December 2010 New York City, Pennsylvania
Society meeting
February 2011 Fort Worth, Texas, Super Bowl
March 2011
Harrisburg
June 2011
Erie
November 2011 Boston, receives Harvard’s New
Frontier Award for public service
December 2011 New York City, Pennsylvania
Society meeting
February 2012 Bradenton, Fla., Promise to
Pittsburgh conference
May 2012
METHOD OF PAYMENT
Mayor’s imprest fund
Bodyguard’s expenses
paid with credit
union account
Campaign
Campaign
Bodyguard’s expenses
paid with credit union
account
Campaign
Campaign
Campaign
Campaign
Campaign
Mayor’s imprest fund,
except for $50 payment
to Delta Air, covered
by campaign
Campaign
Las Vegas, for shopping
center conference
August 2012
Charlotte, N.C., for Democratic
Campaign
National Convention
December 2012 Chicago for University of Illinois Mayor’s imprest fund
panel discussion, New York City and campaign
for Pennsylvania Society meeting
Sources: City controller’s office records, campaign
expense reports on file with Allegheny County, interviews.
ditures by other city employees,
who often must foot the bill for
city-related travel and then seek
reimbursement that’s subject to
approval by council.
But the mayor’s travel and
expenditures are not reviewed
by city council. Instead, they’re
audited by city Controller
Michael Lamb. According to
Mr. Zober, the controller has
never objected to any imprest
fund expenditures.
“If the funds were being used
for things that were not related
to city business, it would be
very apparent to the controller’s office and the public,” city
solicitor Dan Regan said.
Still, records from the
imprest fund demonstrates
there is a lack of clarity about
whether the fund should cover
expenses of city employees
other than the mayor, and if so,
how it should be reimbursed.
For example, Mr. Zober, on
more than one occasion, wrote
a personal check to reimburse
the imprest fund for travelrelated expenses. He then
sought reimbursement from the
city so he could be made whole.
It’s a cumbersome process that
can take time.
But when the mayor’s credit
card covered hotel rooms for
Sgt. Sciulli, his police bodyguard, the sergeant did not
repay the imprest fund, according to records from the controller’s office. He did, however,
seek approval for the travel
through council on at least two
occasions. Mr. Regan could not
say why procedures for some
city employees differed from
others.
“I don’t know if there’s anything that would prohibit the
mayor from incurring those
expenditures,” he said. “In a
organization the size of the city,
there can be inconsistent practices that are not inconsistent
with the rules.”
The mayor and his staff were
scrupulous in documenting
the expenditures. In April of
last year, records show his secretary contacted the Hyatt in
Crystal City, Va., to get a copy
Post-Gazette
of a restaurant receipt — for
$6.03.
“I haven’t abused tax dollars
to travel at all,” Mr. Ravenstahl
said in a news conference last
month.
Neither the state Ethics Commission nor the Department of
State — which runs elections
— has any mandate to enforce
the rule for spending campaign
money, according to officials for
those agencies.
State law allows candidates to
use the money donors give their
campaigns for “the payment, distribution, loan or advancement of
money or any valuable thing by a
candidate, political committee
or other person for the purpose
of influencing the outcome of an
election.”
Mr. Ravenstahl’s campaign
records reveal that he regularly
taps funds provided by donors
for travel and meals. Mr. Ravenstahl planned to run for re-election until February, when he
dropped out of the race.
In September 2010, for
instance, the campaign paid $65
for a meal at Javier’s in Newport Beach, Calif., and $254.39
for one at Montage, an oceanfront hotel in Laguna Beach.
Mr. Zober said he believed
the mayor was in California
then for a summit on municipal pensions. He said any trip
on which the mayor might
meet influential people or
gain knowledge that might
help him to solve city problems
would also boost his electoral
chances.
“This mayor more often than
not errs on the side of caution
and uses campaign funds to
save taxpayer money where
appropriate,” Mr. Zober said.
The mayor billed expenses
related to his February 2011 trip
to the Super Bowl in Texas —
including $5,970 for an Embassy
Suites room and $43 for a meal at
Shula’s Grill — to his campaign.
Rich Lord: [email protected], 412-263-1542 or Twitter
@richelord. Moriah Balingit:
[email protected],
412-263-2533.
City memo supports fee
for using off-duty police
By Jonathan D. Silver
and Liz Navratil
A memorandum released Monday by Pittsburgh’s Law Department counters criticism that a
city fee charged to employers for
the private use of off-duty police
was not properly implemented,
but observers say problems
remain despite the legal analysis.
A separate opinion concerning a fund that is supposed to be
tapped by the Pittsburgh Bureau
of Police only for narcotics investigations — but was used for a
variety of questionable expenses
including Gatorade, a car wash
and personal debt reduction
training — recommends relaxing the rules governing its use.
Both memos went to Public
Safety Director Michael Huss
and addressed issues raised last
month by the Pittsburgh PostGazette.
In the case of the cost recovery
fee, some questioned whether the
add-on — which brought almost
$800,000 into city coffers last
year — was properly legislated.
The $3.85-per-officer-per-hour
fee charged to various businesses that hire moonlighting
officers was enacted in 2007 to
ensure that taxpayers weren’t
footing the indirect costs of officers’ off-duty work. It was written into police policy, but never
formally into the city code.
The one-page memo, written
by assistant city solicitor Brendan Delaney, cites a section of
the city code that authorizes
directors of city departments to
create a fee schedule “for any
other services furnished by any
department for the benefit of any
private individual or entity.”
Mr. Huss said that while he
understands the Law Department has provided him with the
legal underpinnings to impose
the fee, he believes city council
still must formally approve it.
“Council needs to act on this
one way or the other. They need
to set up a trust fund, and they
need to legislate a fee,” Mr. Huss
said.
Legislation to codify the fee
and set up a trust fund to collect
it is on hold.
Ira Weiss, a longtime municipal attorney who has served as
solicitor for Allegheny County,
among other entities, said he
believes council approval is a
necessary step regardless of
whether Mr. Huss has the legal
right to implement the fee.
“It seems to me that city council has to, at minimum, adopt an
ordinance at least explaining
how the fee is calculated, referencing this section saying the
public safety director can assess
and collect it,” Mr. Weiss said.
Councilman Patrick Dowd
was dismissive of the memo and
questioned more generally the
ability of officers to moonlight.
“What we are doing in putting
those officers out there on secondary duty is, in effect, we’re privatizing or leasing their services,”
Mr. Dowd said. “We’re taking a
little bit of money for their work.
Council actually has to say, ‘We
authorize that action.’ Council
has not authorized that action.”
Mr. Dowd said he recently told
Mr. Huss that the city should
cease all police moonlighting
until council and the administration come to an agreement.
“The reality is there’s no
supervision, and if there’s no
supervision, then we have problems,” Mr. Dowd said.
Mr. Huss said putting an
immediate stop to secondary
employment would be the easy
way to handle a complicated
issue but not a prudent one.
“I don’t think we can wholesale cancel secondary employment without jeopardizing the
safety of our residents,” Mr.
Huss said, citing as an example
a utility company that might
need an officer to direct traffic
at a construction site.
The second memo concerns
the Confiscated Narcotics Proceeds Imprest Fund, which was
created by council in 1987 for
police use and maintains a balance of $30,000. It is meant to
receive money the city gets when
the police bureau participates
with federal law enforcement in
drug investigations that lead to
asset forfeitures.
Although federal rules say
the money must be spent on law
enforcement, the original city
resolution is narrower and limits the fund’s use to “any and all
expenses associated with investigations of narcotics violations.”
The police bureau has not
followed the rules. A March 13
Post-Gazette story detailed questionable expenditures, including
nearly $10,000 spent on Gatorade
to hydrate officers working the
G-20 Summit in 2009.
The Law Department’s Mr. Delaney reiterated in his memo that
the fund was locally restricted to
use for narcotics investigations,
although such use is not mandated by federal law.
Mr. Delaney recommended
that the city amend its ordinance to make it consistent with
federal law and allow for broader
law enforcement expenses.
“People in the police bureau
actually believed they had the
ability to utilize it for any type of
police work. I’m not going to criticize every purchase they made
or what they did,” Mr. Huss said.
“I’m just saying that thing needs
tightened up.”
Jonathan D. Silver: jsilver@
post-gazette.com or 412-263-1962.
Liz Navratil: [email protected], 412-263-1438 or on
Twitter @liznavratil.
LIPITOR
ALERT
®
Using the anti-cholesterol drug Lipitor® has
been linked to serious side effects including:
Diabetes
Hyperglycemia
Ketoacidosis
Pancreatitis
Death
Medical studies have revealed that women
who used Lipitor were at a much greater risk
of developing diabetes. If you or a loved one
were diagnosed with diabetes, hyperglycemia,
ketoacidosis, pancreatitis, or died after taking
the anti-cholesterol drug Lipitor®,
YOU MAY BE ENTITLED TO
MONEY DAMAGES
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
Call attorney Daniel N. Gallucci toll free at 1-888-272-6955 to protect your
rights. Time restrictions may apply, so call now.
OUR CALL CENTER IS OPEN 24/7
CALL NOW
Monday, April 15th
at 6:30 p.m.
Daniel N. Gallucci is licensed in Pennsylvania.
DANIEL N. GALLUCCI
1101 Market St., Suite 2801
Philadelphia, PA 19107
CALL 1-888-272-6955
C
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Apr 06 2013 12:32:47:363AM
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Post-Gazette
P
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A-1
A WILDFLOWER WALK:
SEARCHING JOKINEN LEADS
SHOOTOUT WIN
FOR
SPRING
HOME & GARDEN, D-1
SPORTS, C-1
$1.00
VOL. 86, NO. 249 4/6/13  final
SATURDAY, APRIL 6, 2013
Hiring
rate
slows in
March
Inside the
admissions
process
at Lehigh
University
south koreA on Alert
Still, unemployment
dips to 7.6 percent
By Susan Snyder
The Philadelphia Inquirer
By Ann Belser
A weak employment report
Friday knocked the stock market down a peg or two, but even
with the dip, market indices
remained higher than they had
ever been before last month.
Matthew Yanni, of Yanni and
Associates Investment Advisors of Franklin Park, said he
was taking advantage of the
decline to pick up some equities
in a market that he believes was
overreacting to the news.
Admittedly, the monthly jobs
report from the U.S. Bureau
of Labor Statistics did not contain good news, even though
the headline number sounded
encouraging: The unemployment rate fell in March to 7.6
percent from 7.7 percent in February, the lowest the unemployment rate has been since 2008.
But the statistics underlying
the report disappointed investors. The private sector created
just 95,000 jobs, and that net gain
was whittled down to 88,000 jobs
by losses in the government sector. The jobs added in March
were a far cry from the results
for the two previous months,
which were revised upward by
a combined 61,000 jobs to 148,000
new jobs for January and 268,000
for February.
The employment report was
issued at 8:30 a.m., and the
Dow Jones industrial average
dropped by 168 points from the
previous close within two minutes of the opening bell an hour
later.
SEE jobs, PAGE A-5
Jung Yeon-Je/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
South Korean soldiers patrol along a military fence Friday near the demilitarized zone dividing the two Koreas in the border
city of Paju. The United States said it was taking “all necessary precautions” after North Korea rang fresh alarms in an
escalating crisis by moving a medium-range missile to its east coast. Story in International, A-4.
Plan includes tax hikes, changes to Social Security and Medicare
Obama budget would cut entitlements
By Jim Kuhnhenn
and Andrew Taylor
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Seeking
an elusive middle ground, President Barack Obama is proposing a 2014 budget that embraces
tax increases abhorred by
Republicans as well as reduc-
tions, loathed by liberals, in the
growth of Social Security and
other benefit programs.
The plan, if ever enacted,
could touch almost all Americans. The rich would see tax
increases, the poor and the
elderly would get smaller
annual increases in their benefits, and middle-income taxpay-
By Rich Lord
and Moriah Balingit
By Amy McConnell
Schaarsmith
Pittsburgh Mayor Luke
Ravenstahl’s city hall secretary
was involved in arranging travel
that was paid for by his political
committee, according to receipts
his campaign provided to the
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
The receipts show that airline
SEE shooting, PAGE A-3
Mr. Obama in December proposed much the same, without
success, to House Speaker John
Boehner, R-Ohio. The response
Friday was dismissive from
Republicans and hostile from
liberals, labor and advocates
for the elderly.
SEE budget, PAGE A-5
Mayor’s city hall staff
arranged political travel
Gunfight
erupts on
Downtown
street
A gunfight that erupted amid
busy streets and sidewalks
Downtown temporarily created
chaos on Friday as panicked
people ran for cover and police
cruisers swarmed the scene.
Pittsburgh police say Hassan
Howze, 22, of Overbrook has
been charged with aggravated
assault and criminal conspiracy
and Antonio Peterson, 24, also
of Overbrook, has been charged
with aggravated assault, criminal conspiracy and carrying
a concealed firearm without a
license in connection with the
shooting of a 22-year-old Bellevue man just before 4 p.m.
Mr. Howze and Mr. Peterson
encountered the victim, whom
ers would slip into higher tax
brackets despite Mr. Obama’s
repeated vows not to add to the
tax burden of the middle class.
His proposed changes, once
phased in, would mean a cut
in Social Security benefits of
nearly $1,000 a year for an average 85-year-old, smaller cuts for
younger retirees.
and hotel reservations for events
including the annual Pennsylvania Society gathering in New
York City and the 2012 Democratic National Convention in
Charlotte, N.C., were handled
using a city email account. Mr.
Ravenstahl’s campaign attorney
said Friday that the practice was
normal for governmental execu-
SEE staff, PAGE A-3
BETHLEHEM, Pa. — The
case before the admissions
panel holed up in a small
room at Lehigh University
was complex.
The applicant had scored
1300 on the verbal and math
portions of the SAT, on
the low end for the highly
selective, private research
university in Bethlehem. He
had taken only one of the 14
advanced placement courses
offered at his high school in
New England — not as rigorous of a schedule as Lehigh
likes to see. And though he
had a strong grade-point
average, he received a couple
of Cs.
“This is where it gets
rough,” admissions staffer
Neil F. Gogno told his 16 colleagues, while a summary of
the applicant projected on a
screen.
The teen, Mr. Gogno said,
was a victim of a hazing
incident, the details of which
drew gasps from those in the
room.
“Oh my God,” one of the
staffers said. The room
momentarily fell silent.
The teen’s application
was one of about 100 the
committee considered that
late February day — crunch
time in college admissions.
Lehigh received more than
12,560 applications, and staff
agreed on the fate of the
vast majority on first read.
It’s the cases in dispute that
come before the team where
they are reviewed and voted
on. Simple majority rules.
Deciding cases on the bubble is an age-old part of the
process, one playing out on
campuses across the nation
as colleges craft their incoming freshman classes for fall
2013. Most colleges will have
announced admission deci-
SEE lehigh, PAGE A-3
J. leon Washington,
dean of admissions
and financial aid at
Lehigh University
Age restrictions lifted for morning-after pill
By Lauran Neergaard
and Larry Neumeister
Associated Press
Rebecca Droke/Post-Gazette
Homicide detectives investigate a shooting on Wood Street
at Fifth Avenue Downtown Friday.
Weather
Mostly sunny
and mild.
High 55, low 46.
Page B-8
Bridge.......................C-14
Business .................... A-7
Classified ......... C-13, E-1
Comics .......................D-6
Crosswords...............C-14
Earthweek .................. A-2
WASHINGTON — The morning-after pill might become as
easy to buy as aspirin.
In a scathing rebuke accusing
the Obama administration of letting election-year politics trump
Editorials ....................B-6
Home&Garden...........D-1
Horoscope ...............C-14
Local News.................B-1
Lottery ........................B-2
Movies .......................D-2
science, a federal judge ruled
Friday that there should be no
age restrictions on the sale of
emergency contraception without a doctor’s prescription.
Today, buyers must prove
at the pharmacy that they’re
17 or older; everyone else must
see a doctor first. U.S. District
Judge Edward Korman of New
Obituaries ..................B-3
Portfolio...................... A-2
Scoreboard ..............C-11
Sports ........................C-1
Television....................D-5
York blasted the government’s
decision on age limits as “arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable,” and ordered an end to the
restrictions within 30 days.
The Justice Department was
evaluating whether to appeal,
and spokeswoman Allison Price
SEE pill, PAGE A-2
Online today
Tekkoshocon is in town this weekend. Check out a video
of some of the participants, in full anime costumes.
It was the year that everything changed. And the year that changed everything.
Now experience a one-of-a-kind exhibition that explores all of the political, social, and
cultural changes that made 1968 so unforgettable. Even if you can’t remember it all.
To learn more, please call 412-454-6000 or visit www.heinzhistorycenter.org.
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Inside Lehigh’s admissions process
Lehigh, FROM PAGE A-1
sions by Monday.
With so much competition,
students must distinguish
themselves, whether it’s in the
essay, in the interview with a
staffer, or through an entrepreneurial activity.
At Lehigh, the 15-member
admissions team is a vibrant
bunch: About half are age 30
or under, and that’s by design,
according to J. Leon Washington, dean of admissions and
financial aid, because they
relate exceptionally well with
high school students. But the
staff also includes several seasoned members, including Mr.
Washington, who has more
than 40 years in the business,
and Bruce Bunnick, director
of admissions, a veteran of
more than 20 years. Admission
officers spent last fall fanning
out across their geographic
area, meeting with prospective
applicants and their families.
Since November, they have
been reviewing the just over
1,000 applications that came in
for early decision, a process in
which a student applies only to
Lehigh and promises to attend
if admitted. More than half of
early-decision applicants were
accepted for the incoming freshman class, targeted at 1,200.
That left about 680 open spots
for regular-decision applicants.
Lehigh accepts 25 to 29 percent
of applicants, making it much
more selective than the national
average of about 64 percent at
four-year, nonprofit colleges.
The table was filled with
water and soda bottles and an
array of snacks, as the team
prepared to tackle some of the
toughest decisions of the season.
Wait-list the valedictorian?
The Montgomery County
teen had won over the staff. He
was strong by all measures,
including a 1540 out of a possible 1600 on his math and reading SAT. But on a recent report
card, he got two Cs and a D with
no real explanation.
“Oh boy, cats and dogs!” Mr.
Washington said.
That applicant wasn’t the
only one to see his preliminary offer turn to a rejection.
Another fell off after getting an
F on a midyear calculus exam.
High school performance
is one of the most important
factors in the eyes of the admissions staff because it has proven
a clear indicator of potential
success at Lehigh.
“We tell students out on the
road, ‘You cannot coast in your
senior year,’” Mr. Washington
said.
A question of balance
The applicant from Colorado
scored a decent 640 on his math
SAT, but 460 on reading. Collectively, he got an 1100, well below
Lehigh’s profile. Typical scores
for Lehigh range between the
low 1300s to mid-1400s on reading and math. (Lehigh doesn’t
consider the writing SAT.)
But there are exceptions on
He happens to be the only applicant from this Southern state.
“So no pressure,” Ms.
Knechel told the group.
Another staffer questioned
his interest.
“OK, but he also literally has
no support whatsoever,” Ms.
Knechel said.
The vote was unanimous.
Accepted.
Interest
Ed Hille/The Philadelphia Inquirer
The Lehigh University admissions committee gathers in a
small room in the basement of the Fairchild Martindale Library
to discuss and then vote on the applications to fill the class
of 2017. Here, Bruce Bunnick, center, director of admissions,
counts votes at the Feb. 28 meeting.
both ends.
“A kid who is doing everything he or she can in the high
school, but just doesn’t test well,
we’d take the kid,” Mr. Washington said.
In contrast, very high SAT
scores are no guarantee of
admission.
An applicant from Schuylkill
County with a 1600 and otherwise stellar record had one
flaw — he never visited Lehigh.
Students who visit often end
up enrolling. Those who don’t,
rarely do, Mr. Washington said.
The staff offered admission
to the 1600 student, but some
others with similar scores were
cut.
Jessica DeSantis, associate
director, advocated for the student with the 460.
“He does fine in his English
courses and his writing is
good,” she said.
The teen had a 3.95 GPA.
He’s a legacy; his grandfather
attended. And he started his
own business. He purchases
sweatshirts, cuts them up, and
sews differently colored pieces
together. He sells 10 to 20 of the
sweatshirts per month, cutting
and sewing on his own.
“The question is,” Ms. DeSantis said, “do we let the critical
reading decide this or do we let
the other aspects counterbalance it?”
Staff voted 10-2 to admit, with
three to wait-list.
High school rigor
The applicant was from a
Connecticut high school the
committee knew well. The student struggled grade-wise even
though she took hardly any
rigorous courses. Yet, she had
more than 1500 on her SAT.
“She could have a 1600 for all
I care,” said Majed Dergham,
director of diversity recruitment. “That rigor … I can’t
believe we’re even considering
it.”
In addition to the high school
transcript, rigor is the other
strong predictor of a student’s
success at Lehigh, Mr. Washington said.
A school with a rigorous curriculum can prove a “doubleedged sword” if students fail to
take the advanced coursework.
“It leaves an admissions
office, particularly a selective
admissions office, wondering
why did they not get involved in
that more intense curriculum,”
Bunnick said.
The student from Connecticut? Denied, 7-2, with others voting to wait-list.
Legacy
As soon as the case flashed
on the screen, Mr. Bunnick
sighed. “This is a tough one.”
The applicant’s mother is a
Lehigh graduate and she really
wants the same for her son. She
was unhappy he was wait-listed
for early decision.
The teen scored under 1200
on the SAT and did not rank in
the top third of his class.
The committee debated, waitlisting him again.
“The more we put this off,
the more phone calls we have
to make,” cautioned Sarah
Knechel, associate director.
“What’s worse — ripping off a
Band-Aid once or ripping it off
three times?”
Legacies make up 17 percent
of a typical class. Lehigh hosts
a program for legacy applicants
in September. There, Mr. Washington lays it on the line: “Legacy is a real hook. However, it
will not replace low rigor, low
grades, low testing, laziness and
a sloppy application.”
The student with the persistent mom? Denied, unanimously.
Other times, legacy was the
charm. The team took a California student with a 1220 SAT and
strong interest, mindful she has
a sibling at Lehigh.
Geography
A student with a 1340 SAT
but a C-plus in math — the subject he wants to study — got a
second look by the committee.
The teen’s mother died when he
was 6 and he had been a ward of
the state, largely thriving.
One more thing about him:
Two men shoot each other Downtown
shooting, FROM PAGE A-1
they knew, at the corner of Fifth
Avenue and Smithfield Street, and
the three began arguing, investigators said. One or two other
men and two women joined the
argument, and the Bellevue man
broke away from the argument
and walked away down Fifth Avenue toward Market Square.
Mr. Howze and Mr. Peterson
caught up with the man in front
of the Capital Grille, at the corner of Fifth and Wood Street, and
the three men began punching
each other in the street, according to police. Just before 4 p.m.
— as many Downtown workers
were leaving their offices and
lining up for buses in one of the
city’s main transportation corridors — Mr. Howze pulled out
a .40-caliber pistol and shot the
victim in the shoulder, investigators said.
The victim then wrestled
the gun away from Mr. Howze
and shot him in the back of his
upper thigh, according to investigators. Just then, police said,
Allegheny County Sheriff’s Deputy Sgt. Kevin Faulds was driving down Smithfield Street on
patrol, heard the shots and drove
to the scene, where he found Mr.
Howze and the victim lying in
the street and on the sidewalk,
and Mr. Peterson nearby.
“He rolled up into a gunfight,
got out of his car and was able
to take all three actors into custody,” said Pittsburgh police
major crimes unit Lt. Kevin
Kraus, who was investigating
the scene on Friday. “He should
be commended for his efforts.”
Sgt. Faulds was assisted by an
off-duty Pittsburgh police detective, who had been eating inside
the Capital Grille, until additional officers arrived. Police
cruisers quickly converged on
the area, closing Fifth Avenue to
traffic between Smithfield and
Market Square for more than an
hour.
Police recovered Mr. Howze’s
.40-caliber pistol from the scene,
as well as a .32-caliber pistol left
on the ground near the scene.
They also recovered three .40-caliber shell casings from the area.
Police said the victim was
taken to UPMC Mercy, where he
was treated and later released to
his family members. Mr. Howze
was taken to Allegheny General
Hospital, where he remained in
serious condition with a groin
wound. Mr. Peterson was first
taken to police headquarters for
questioning, then was taken to
AGH for treatment of injuries he
suffered during the fight. He was
later taken back to headquarters
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for additional questioning.
Police have conducted numerous witness interviews and are
reviewing videotape from the
area. Investigators say they are
trying to identify and question
the other people who appeared
to have been involved in the initial fight on Smithfield Street.
Investigators said the motive
for the shooting was not clear, but
David Cook, 51, Ingram, said he
saw a commotion and heard some
people yelling about money and
possibly referencing a girlfriend
moments before the shooting.
Another bystander, Paul
Rodriguez Sirmons, said he saw
several men chasing another
man — nearly getting hit by a
car in the process — then push
him up against the Jersey barrier and chainlink fence surrounding the construction site
for the new PNC skyscraper and
start punching him. Then he
saw one of them pull out a gun
and shoot the victim.
“It caught me by surprise,” he
said. “I had to step back because
I didn’t want to get hit.”
Terry Barton said she was
listening to music while waiting
at her bus stop on Fifth Avenue
when she noticed people running up the street, away from
Wood Street.
“I was like, ‘Why is everyone
The New Jersey high school
student was on the fence by a
lot of measures, and as a result
drew one of the longest conversations of that day.
But one thing that really got
the team: He never opened his
portal. The portal is the online
site where students check on the
status of their application and
receive updates. The staff sees it
as a major indicator of how serious a student is about Lehigh.
The teen also never visited.
The case drew one of the
closest votes of the day, 9-7, to
wait-list.
Character and community
The applicant was an academic standout, but rather
rude — that’s according to his
high school guidance counselor.
The counselor had given the
student below-average marks in
the area of character, prompting the Lehigh staffer, Mr.
Dergham, to call.
“She told me he was basically
rude to her for four years. She
did say she has never before
in her career given a student
below average on anything.”
The student already had been
admitted to other highly selective schools.
Other factors, such as character, can influence decisions.
What students write on the
essay — and how they write —
can have impact, too, as can
service to the community.
Sometimes, life experience
plays a role.
The committee voted to
admit an applicant who had
been serving in the Israeli army
for three years. Some were
concerned the gap in education
may hinder performance, but
the majority believed engineering training offered by the
army and life experience outweighed that.
And the rude student? Waitlisted.
When the team finished preliminary decisions, members
analyzed the admitted group,
paying attention to gender and
racial balance, academic quality and enrollment in majors.
On Friday, Lehigh posted
decisions online and mailed fat
envelopes, including offers of
financial aid, to 3,284 students.
One of those who will receive
a fat envelope is the hazing
victim, whose case stirred the
committee.
“Those Cs … probably disqualified him from taking AP
courses his senior year,” Mr.
Gogno said. “I don’t think we
can hold that against him.”
The vote? Admitted, unanimously.
running toward me?’ ” before
pulling off her headphones to
see what was going on, and hearing a gunshot.
At about the same time, Mr.
Cook and several other witnesses said they saw at least
two men run from the shooting
scene before the sheriff’s sergeant arrived and minutes later,
police cruisers and ambulances
descended on the area and closed
it to traffic. Crowds quickly
formed behind the yellow crime
scene tape stretched across Fifth
Avenue and the sidewalk, with
some people rolling their eyes in
frustration at the blocked sidewalk and others staying to find
out what happened.
Among them, 21-year-old bus
driver Darryl Richardson of the
North Side said he wasn’t surprised by the shooting. Police,
he said, don’t do enough to patrol
known trouble spots Downtown,
including the McDonald’s restaurant on Smithfield Avenue
where he said drug dealers
can often be seen selling drugs
openly and where fights over
drugs and money frequently
break out.
As in Friday’s shooting, such
trouble spots can put bystanders
at risk, Mr. Richardson said.
“An innocent person could
have been walking past there
and got shot,” he said.
Mayor’s city hall staff
arranged political travel
staff, FROM PAGE A-1
tives, although other elected
officials described different
practices.
“Any time I have any political travel, that is not handled
by anyone on the state staff,”
said state Sen. Jay Costa,
D-Forest Hills. He added that
his schedule is probably not as
crowded as the mayor’s, and
that “sometimes it is difficult
to separate” political from governmental matters.
The Post-Gazette requested,
through the Allegheny County
Elections Division, receipts
documenting 59 travel-related
expenditures listed on Mr.
Ravenstahl’s
campaign
finance reports from 2009
through 2012. The campaign
provided records, including
emails from travel websites
and hotel companies, with
some of the email addresses of
senders or recipients blacked
out.
The Post-Gazette asked for
unredacted copies, and the
campaign allowed the newspaper to view the originals.
The most recent was a Nov.
27 email, from Delta, confirming a $216.80 flight from New
York to Pittsburgh on Dec. 9.
The email was time stamped
10:42 p.m., and went to the private email account of Melissa
Demme, the mayor’s senior
administrator.
The mayor’s campaign paid
for the flight. It corresponds
to the end of the Pennsylvania
Society, an annual powwow of
Pennsylvania power brokers
in the Big Apple.
The involvement of city staff
is normal, said Lazar Palnick,
general counsel for Mr. Ravenstahl’s campaign.
“The personal and confidential secretary for the governmental official always makes
the travel arrangements,”
Mr. Palnick said. “The White
House does the same thing.
… Governors do that, mayors
do that, county executives do
that.”
It’s standard, he said, “that
an elected public official has
their administrative staff
book their travel so they have
control over their schedule.”
Amie Downs, a spokeswoman for county Executive Rich Fitzgerald, said the
county executive “has folks
on the political side who do
things for his political calendar,” and then communicate
the plans to the governmental
staff so Mr. Fitzgerald isn’t
overbooked.
Mr. Palnick agreed with
Mr. Costa that sometimes a
political function also includes
governmental
business.
“We’ve overpaid for things if
there was any question about
whether it was political or
governmental,” he said of the
mayor’s campaign.
This week city Controller
Michael Lamb questioned a
December expenditure on
the mayor’s city credit card.
Immediately prior to his trip
to the Pennsylvania Society,
the mayor traveled to University of Illinois in Chicago to
speak at a forum and brought
along government affairs
manager Paul McKrell. The
two had a flight booked to
Rich Lord: [email protected], 412-263-1542 and
on Twitter: @richelord. Moriah
Balingit: [email protected], 412-263-2533 or on
Twitter @MoriahBee.
corrections&clarifications
Page One. An article and map about emerald ash borer infestation in Pennsylvania trees that ran on March 30 incorrectly
listed Chester and Berks counties among those where the insects
have been found.
If you have a correction and cannot reach the responsible
reporter or editor, please call the office of David M. Shribman, executive editor, 412-263-1890.
™
Sun-Telegraph/The Pittsburgh Press
Copyright 2013, PG Publishing Co. Published daily and Sunday by PG
Publishing Co. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is a federally registered trademark and
service mark. Seven-day home delivery for $4.95 a week; Sunday home
delivery for $2.25 a week — Call 1-800-228-NEWS (6397) or go to post-gazette.com/pgdelivery
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North Huntingdon
Chicago and then a second
flight from Chicago to New
York City.
While Mr. Ravenstahl covered his expenses with campaign funds, Mr. McKrell’s
Chicago hotel room and flights
were covered by the mayor’s
credit card. At the instruction
of the finance department,
Mr. McKrell reimbursed the
entire amount of the flights
— $626.60 — with a personal
check. He was reimbursed for
half the amount by the mayor’s
campaign and is seeking the
other half of the reimbursement from the city because the
flight to Chicago is considered
city business.
But deputy controller Doug
Anderson said the mayor’s
office should never put campaign-related expenses on the
city credit card, even if they
will be reimbursed.
“When there are things that
the campaign pays for, there
has to be a means to tell the
campaign to pay for it,” Mr.
Palnick said. “The campaign
would issue a check.”
State Rep. Dan Frankel,
D-Squirrel Hill, said that in the
House, “people scheduling [for
representatives] are allowed
to handle non-governmental
things because it’s impossible
sometimes to otherwise coordinate.”
He said he typically
arranges travel on his own. “I
think I booked my own hotel
reservations for [2013’s] PA
Society a month ago,” he said.
“I did it myself.”
Mr. Costa said that for years
his campaign has maintained,
year-round, an office and a
part-time staffer. “On travel
that’s specifically related to
political activity, that is done
by the campaign office,” he
said. “My Senate staff does
absolutely no political work.”
The use of state staff to
arrange campaign travel was
an issue, although not one of
the biggest issues, in the February trial of state Supreme
Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin, who was found guilty
along with sister Janine Orie
on charges related to the use
of state resources for politics,
as was former state Sen. Jane
Orie, another sister for whom
Janine worked, in March
2012.
The Orie cases should serve
as a warning that officials
need to keep a sharp separation between political and governmental matters, said Barry
Kauffman, executive director
of the watchdog group Pennsylvania Common Cause.
The email confirmations
of the mayor’s flights and
hotels “should’ve been sent
to the campaign treasurer,”
Mr. Kauffman said. “All of
those billings should’ve never
entered city hall.
“If he wants to do campaign
business, he needs to walk out
of that building, and talk to
his treasurer,” Mr. Kauffman
said, “in a campaign-related
building.”
724-864-5100
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SATURDAY, MAY 11, 2013
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Decision at arts facility comes in the face of financial woes
August Wilson Center furloughs workers
By Sharon Eberson
The August Wilson Center
for African American Culture
laid off staff members Friday as
it scrambles to keep the $40 million Downtown facility afloat in
the face of a nonexistent revenue
stream, fundraising shortfalls
and loans to be paid.
Oliver Byrd, interim president and CEO, said fewer than a
dozen staffers were furloughed
as the process of retooling takes
shape for the center, which
includes exhibition spaces and
a performing arts auditorium
and houses the nationally recognized August Wilson Dance
Ensemble.
Mark Clayton Southers, who
coordinated theater programming for the center and heads
the Pittsburgh Playwrights
Theatre Company, said Friday,
“My last day was today at the
August Wilson Center and I
am hoping that one day things
will improve so that we can do
a really successful theater program there.” He said a July production of August Wilson’s “Joe
Turner’s Come and Gone” has
been canceled.
“The dance ensemble will
continue to thrive,” said Greer
Reed, the center’s artistic director of dance, who wouldn’t say
Friday if she had been let go and
referred questions to Mr. Byrd,
who would say only that not
all of the four artistic directors
SEE center, PAGE A-3
By Wes Venteicher
and Joseph Tanfani
Los Angeles Times
found Alive in bAnglAdeSh After 17 dAyS
WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service improperly
singled out conservative groups
for extra scrutiny of their applications for nonprofit status, a top
agency official said Friday, setting
off calls for investigations into an
organization already under fire
for its handling of secret political
spending by nonprofits.
Employees at the agency’s
Cincinnati nonprofits office,
while screening a flood of applications from so-called social welfare groups last year, set aside
about 75 containing the words
“Tea Party” and “patriot” for
more detailed review, said Lois
Lerner, IRS director of exempt
organizations. The groups also
were asked to supply additional
information that the IRS does
not usually ask for, such as
donor lists.
“That’s absolutely inappropriate and not the way we should
do things,” Ms. Lerner said in
a conference call with reporters. She described the actions
as improper shortcuts taken by
lower-level employees. A White
House spokesman said the
moves should be investigated
and “action taken” if Ms. Lerner’s report was confirmed.
Republicans in Congress
vowed aggressive investigations,
saying the admission confirmed
their suspicions that the IRS
under President Barack Obama
was unfairly targeting nonprofits aligned with conservatives.
“This kind of political thug-
SEE irs, PAGE A-6
Ravenstahl
PAC gives
$10,000
to Wheatley
By Timothy McNulty
Outgoing Mayor Luke Ravenstahl is keeping up his novel
attempts to keep political foe Bill
Peduto from replacing him, now
funding one of the councilman’s
rivals in the May 21 Democratic
primary.
Mr. Ravenstahl’s political
action committee was one of
the lead contributors to state
Rep. Jake Wheatley of the Hill
District, cutting his state PAC a
$10,000 check last week, financial records show. The mayor’s
political fund also transferred
$151,000 to another PAC he
chairs that is running television
attack ads against Mr. Peduto.
The Peduto campaign has
tried to link Mr. Ravenstahl to the
other main contender in the mayoral race, former state Auditor
General Jack Wagner, so it was
unexpected to see it proved that
he was aiding a different rival.
Even to the Wheatley campaign.
“We were just as surprised
as anybody” to get the mayor’s
check, Wheatley spokesman
Daren Berringer said.
Mr. Ravenstahl is likely trying
to help the Wheatley campaign
strip some of Mr. Peduto’s support among black voters. The
councilman won 33 percent of
an April 20 straw poll of AfricanAmerican voters, to 52 percent
for Mr. Wheatley and 13 percent
for Mr. Wagner.
Mr. Ravenstahl still had
$564,000 in his political account
as of the close of the fundrais-
SEE mayor, PAGE A-3
Associated Press
Reshma Begum, who survived 17 days trapped in the rubble of a Bangladeshi garment factory, lies on a stretcher after being pulled out Friday in Savar,
Bangladesh, near the capital of Dhaka. Ms. Begum was working on the second floor of Rana Plaza on April 24 when the building began collapsing around
her. She raced down a stairwell into the basement, where she became trapped near a Muslim prayer room in a wide pocket that allowed her to survive,
she told a television channel Somoy TV. Story on Page A-4
Mayor’s renovations questioned
State Department, CIA
clashed over data days
after Benghazi deaths
By Scott Wilson
and Karen DeYoung
Washington Post
WASHINGTON — New
details from Obama administration emails about last year’s
attack on the U.S. compound in
Benghazi, Libya, demonstrate
that an intense bureaucratic
clash took place between the
State Department and the CIA
over which agency would get
to tell the story of how the tragedy unfolded.
That clash played out in the
development of administration
talking points that have been
at the center of the controversy
over its handling of the incident, according to the emails
that came to light Friday.
Over the five days between
the assault and the now-infamous Sunday TV talk show
Work on Fineview home linked to city contractor
By Rich Lord
and Moriah Balingit
appearance by U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, senior officials from the Central Intelligence Agency and the State
Department argued over how
much information to disclose
about the assault in which four
Americans, including Libya
Ambassador J. Christopher
Stevens, were killed.
That internal debate and
the changes it produced in
the Obama administration’s
immediate account of the
attack have revived Benghazi
as a political issue in Washington six months after the
presidential election in which
it played a prominent role.
Friday’s revelations, as ABC
News published 12 versions of
the talking points, produced
the latest round of Benghazi
Pittsburgh Mayor Luke
Ravenstahl’s home last year
underwent renovations per-
formed by a company whose
president also runs a firm that
does extensive work for the city
Department of Public Works.
New Homestead entrepreneur
William J. Rogers is president of
R & B Contracting and Excava-
tion Inc. Of the $2.2 million the
city has paid the firm since 2010,
$1.8 million was issued in 2012,
according to Controller’s Office
records.
SEE mayor, PAGE A-6
a solemn royal
Britain’s Prince Harry
walks Friday among
markers in Section 60
of Virginia’s Arlington
National Cemetery,
where veterans of
the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan are buried.
He is on a weeklong U.S.
visit that includes parts
of New Jersey damaged
by Superstorm Sandy
and ends Wednesday in
Connecticut.
SEE benghazi, PAGE A-4
Nicholas Kamm/Associated Press
Clairton High School team needs funds to go to national robotics competition
By Mary Niederberger
The Clairton High School
robotics team put in countless
hours to design the fighting
robots that were crowned the
grand champions of the South-
Weather
Mostly cloudy
with thunderstorms.
High 62, low 44.
Page B-8
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western Pennsylvania BotsIQ
Regional Competition last
month at California University
of Pennsylvania.
Since then, the team has
been hard at work again, but
this time on two tasks: the
first, repairing and upgrading
Bridge.......................C-12
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Classified ......... C-14, E-1
Comics .......................D-6
Crosswords...............C-12
Earthweek .................. A-2
their robots; the second, raising enough money to attend the
national robotics competition
in Indianapolis next weekend.
While other schools districts
may be able to cover the cost of
sending their high school teams
to the competition, Clairton,
Editorials ....................B-6
Home&Garden...........D-1
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Local News.................B-1
Lottery ........................B-2
Movies .......................D-2
one of the region’s smallest districts with about 780 students,
and one of its poorest, cannot
afford to pay the $4,000 minimum cost for the five students,
the teacher sponsor and a chaperone to travel to Indianapolis
for the competition. Ideally, the
Obituaries ..................B-3
Portfolio...................... A-2
Scoreboard ..............C-11
Sports ........................C-1
Television....................D-5
Online today
students are hoping to raise an
additional $1,000 to purchase
spare parts for their fighting
robots, which like race cars,
require replacement parts to be
used during competitions.
SEE clairton, PAGE A-2
The Pens take on the Islanders in Game 6. Check out
the Empty Netters live game blog.
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PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE  SaturdaY, MaY 11, 2013  WWW.POST-GAZETTE.COM
national
Cleveland kidnapping victim
is discharged from hospital
Abduction suspect
father of child born
to a second captive
By Michael Muskal
Los Angeles Times
Michelle Knight, the longest
held of three women kidnapped
and imprisoned in a Cleveland
house for years, was discharged
Friday from the hospital where
she had been cared for after her
ordeal.
Reportedly in good spirits,
Ms. Knight left MetroHealth
Medical Center on the same day
state officials announced that
DNA testing had established
that Ariel Castro, being held on
kidnapping and rape charges,
was the father of the 6-yearold girl born to another of the
imprisoned women.
Like her fellow captives,
Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus, Ms. Knight asked for privacy. The other women returned
to joyous relatives and neighbors in televised celebrations
of their freedom Wednesday,
though neither spoke publicly.
But Ms. Knight’s whereabouts
were not immediately known,
and her relationship with relatives has been rocky in the past.
Her mother, Barbara Knight,
returned to Cleveland earlier
this week from her home in
Florida after it was reported
that her daughter had been
freed. The mother told reporters that she had problems with
her daughter before she disappeared, but that she hoped that
was in the past. “I started crying, and I was happy that they
found her because I’ve been
looking for her, and I just don’t
want her to think that I forgot
about her,” Barbara Knight told
NBC’s “Today” show Wednesday. “I just wish my daughter
would reach out and let me
know that she’s there.”
After their escape Monday
from the house at 2207 Seymour Ave. in the city’s near
west side where they had been
imprisoned, the three women
were taken for examination and
medical care at MetroHealth.
Officials said all were released
Tuesday morning, but Michelle
Knight was readmitted.
A hospital spokeswoman
refused to discuss when Ms.
Knight returned or what treatment she received. In a statement
emailed to reporters Friday,
MetroHealth said Ms. Knight
was grateful to the community
at large. “Michelle Knight is in
good spirits and would like the
community to know that she is
extremely grateful for the outpouring of flowers and gifts.
She is especially thankful for
the Cleveland Courage Fund.
She asks that everyone please
continue to respect her privacy
at this time,” the hospital said.
Ms. Knight, 32, disappeared
in 2002, the first of the women to
be taken. She stayed the longest
at the Seymour Avenue house,
characterized by Cuyahoga
County prosecutor Timothy
McGinty as “a torture chamber
and private prison in the heart
of our city.”
“The horrific brutality
and torture that the victims
endured for a decade is beyond
comprehension,” Mr. McGinty
told reporters Thursday.
Officials have not released
details of the incarceration, but
according to local and national
media reports, Ms. Knight told
police that during her captivity
she endured five miscarriages
caused by Mr. Castro beating
her. Prosecutors said that could
result in charges of aggravated
murder, which is a capital crime
under Ohio law.
The 6-year-old girl freed from
the house was known to be the
daughter of Ms. Berry. DNA test
results after Mr. Castro’s arrest
confirmed that he was the child’s
father, Ohio Attorney General
Mike DeWine said Friday.
Ms. Berry led an escape by
breaking through a screen door
Monday with the help of neighbors and then contacting police.
Ms. Berry, 27, was just shy of
her 17th birthday when she vanished in 2003. Ms. DeJesus was
about 14 when she disappeared
in 2004.
Mr. Castro, 52, a former
school bus driver, is being held
on $8 million bail on four kidnapping counts — charges that
include the child — and three
rape counts.
Mark Lennihan/Associated Press
one world trade center complete
The final piece of spire is hoisted in place on top of One World Trade
Center in New York on Friday. The addition of the piece raises the building’s height to 1,776 feet, which would make it the
tallest structure in the U.S. and third tallest in the world.
IRS chief: We regret
keeping closer tabs on
conservative groups
irs, FROM PAGE A-1
gery has absolutely no place in
our politics,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell,
R-Ky., who called for a governmentwide review to ensure that
such practices are not underway
elsewhere. “Make no mistake, an
apology won’t put this issue to
rest.”
Democrats similarly expressed
outrage. “It’s completely inappropriate for the IRS or any other
federal agency to single out certain organizations based upon
their politics,” Alaska Sen. Mark
Begich said.
Ms. Lerner first revealed
the improper screening Friday
morning in response to a question at an American Bar Association conference. Next week, the
Treasury inspector general for
tax administration plans to issue
a report that concludes that conservative groups were selectively
scrutinized, according to sources
familiar with the investigation.
The examination found that conservative groups whose applications contained such words as
“Tea Party” and “patriots” were
subjected to improper questionnaires and delays, said a GOP
aide who asked for anonymity to
discuss the unreleased report.
The report was requested by
the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. “The
fact that Americans were targeted by the IRS because of their
political beliefs is unconscionable,” Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif.,
the committee chairman, and
Rep. Jim Jordan R-Ohio, a subcommittee chairman, said in a
statement. “The committee will
aggressively follow up on the IG
report and hold responsible officials accountable for this political retaliation.”
The controversy has its roots
in the torrent of political spending that followed the Supreme
Court’s Citizens United decision
in 2010, which allowed corporations to spend unlimited sums
on elections. That also meant
that social welfare organizations
organized under section 501(c)4
of the tax code could raise enormous sums and spend it on politics. Unlike political committees,
such groups are not required to
disclose their donors.
These nonprofit advocacy
groups — including the conservative Crossroads GPS, the liberal Patriot Majority USA and
the pro-business U.S. Chamber
of Commerce — spent at least
$309 million on the November
election, not including millions
more spent on politically related
activities that do not have to be
reported. The political role played
by these groups is restrained
only by an IRS rule that they not
make politics their “primary
purpose.” But the agency has not
issued clear rules on where that
line should be drawn.
Campaign overhaul advocates
have been calling upon the IRS’s
nonprofit division to be more
aggressive about enforcing that
requirement, even as conservatives have accused the agency of
harassment.
On Friday, Ms. Lerner struggled with questions about when
she learned about the actions and
would not say when she informed
higher-ups. She also wouldn’t
discuss whether employees had
been disciplined. “Sometimes
people do things because they
don’t understand the rules or
don’t think about it,” she said.
Ms. Lerner said the employees
had received 3,400 applications
for social welfare groups in 2012,
more than double the number
the agency received in 2010. In
trying to figure out which ones
might be engaging in political
activity — and thus deserving of
a closer look — Ms. Lerner said
employees started to review likesounding groups.
“What they should have done
is based it on their activities,”
said Marcus Owens, former
director of the IRS’s nonprofit
division. “The IRS has a longstanding policy of not characterizing taxpayers by their name.”
He said the workers also
made a mistake in asking for the
groups’ donor lists, which aren’t
relevant to whether they deserve
nonprofit status.
Mr. Owens said the IRS,
strapped for resources, has been
pushing more decision-making
authority to that field office.
“This is what happens when you
do that,” he said, dismissing that
it was a partisan attack.
In March 2012, then-IRS commissioner Douglas Shulman told
Congress that the IRS was not
targeting groups based on politics. “There’s absolutely no targeting. This is the kind of back
and forth that happens to people”
who apply for tax-exempt status,
he told a House Ways and Means
subcommittee. The IRS said
senior leaders were unaware at
the time of the hearing that specific groups were being targeted.
Mr. Shulman was appointed
by President George W. Bush.
His 6-year term ended in November. Mr. Obama has yet to nominate a successor. The agency is
now being run by acting commissioner Steven Miller.
Associated Press contributed.
Mayor’s home renovations linked to city contractor
mayor, FROM PAGE A-1
Mr. Rogers is also president
of Allstate Development, which
applied on Aug. 28 for a permit to
do exterior renovations at a Fineview home then owned by Jennifer L. Eisner.
On Aug. 31, Mr. Ravenstahl
bought the house.
Mr. Rogers would not say this
week whether he has been asked
by federal investigators to testify
or provide documents in relation
to an ongoing federal probe of
city dealings. Also mum were the
Allstate employee who signed the
permit and, as usual when asked
about ongoing investigations, the
FBI and U.S. attorney’s office.
So is it OK for a mayor to hire,
for renovations to his personal
home, someone who also has
business with the city? That
depends, said Ellen Kaplan, vice
president and policy director
for the Committee of Seventy, a
Philadelphia local government
watchdog group.
“Is the mayor getting any
different price than any other
person for whom the contractor
would do similar work?” Ms.
Kaplan asked.
The mayor’s use of his own
money to improve his home isn’t
a matter of public record, she
said.
“The mayor may decide to be
fully transparent, and it would
probably behoove him to do that,
if people are raising questions
about services that are happening at his house,” she said. “I
don’t know that the mayor’s obligated to answer you.”
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
asked mayoral spokeswoman
Marissa Doyle eight questions
about the way the mayor chose
Allstate, the ultimate cost of the
renovations, and whether either
the city or the mayor had been
approached by federal authorities
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in relation to the improvements.
Ms. Doyle referred the questions to Charles Porter Jr., the
mayor’s privately retained attorney. He could not be reached
by phone, but indicated by text
message that investigators “have
not to my knowledge” asked the
mayor for information about the
renovations.
Online city Bureau of Building
Inspection records indicate that
the anticipated cost of the work
was originally $8,500. A revision
submitted to the BBI on Sept. 25
indicates that the job grew to
include interior renovations and
a 3.5-foot-high retaining wall, at
an estimated total cost of $14,500.
Asked both Wednesday and
Thursday whether federal agents
had contacted him, Mr. Rogers
would not say.
“I have no comment,” he said
Thursday. “I don’t wish to go any
further with this conversation.”
Peter Hundiak, the Allstate
employee who signed the permit
application for work on the house,
also would not say whether
he knew if federal agents had
reached out to the company.
FBI spokeswoman Kelly
Kochamba offered only “a strict
no comment on that question.”
Created in 2004, R&B first was
engaged by the city in 2010, when
it was one of a slew of contractors
retained on an emergency basis
to move snow. The city paid R&B
nearly $300,000 for that work.
R&B’s subsequent work with
the city was approved under a
series of broadly worded contracts. In June 2010, the company
received a 31 ⁄ 2-year contract for
“general [rehabilitation], repairs
and renovations for various
sites” that runs to the end of this
year. Another contract, approved
in November 2010, was for “earth
excavation and snow removal.”
City officials said there were
good reasons for hiring the contractor.
Some of the work was in relation to a landslide that closed P.J.
McArdle Roadway in South Side
in early 2012. Originally estimated at no more than $300,000,
and granted through emergency
procedures that don’t require
competitive bidding, the cost of
the job eventually ballooned to
around $700,000.
The landslide closed the road
and created “a hazardous situation that needed to be remediated,” said public works director
Robert Kaczorowski.
“A grassy, muddy section that
was undermined that was about
to come down,” Mr. Kaczorowski
said. “There was probably only
one other contractor we had [on
the city’s preapproved contractor
list] to handle that.”
He added that “R&B bid on a
number of contracts with the city
and didn’t get everything they
bid on.”
The city’s largest payment
to R&B, for $357,900, was dated
Aug. 13, 2012, for work on Riverview Park athletic fields. City
operations director Duane Ashley said R&B was the least costly
of around eight bidders for the
work.
The mayor bought his house
for $110,000. The prior owner had
purchased it five years earlier for
$133,000. The prior owner could
Mayor Luke Ravenstahl’s Fineview home.
not be reached for comment.
Online assessment records
indicate that the house has three
bedrooms and two full baths in
roughly 1,400 square feet of living
space on a 17,424-square-foot lot.
A pallet piled with stone beside
the driveway Friday suggested
that work on the grounds continued.
Allstate Development has a
rocky history in its dealings with
the city.
The firm was at odds with
longtime residents of New Homestead — a neighborhood next to
Lincoln Place — in 2007 over its
work on a development called
Cassabill Estates. Residents complained about massive timbering and earth moving, including
truck traffic on local roads into
the evening, despite a city permit that allowed Allstate to clear
only 6 acres, change elevations
by a modest 8 feet, and run trucks
until 3:30 p.m.
A month after the Post-Gazette
wrote about the permit violations, BBI terminated Allstate’s
land operations permit and
began withholding occupation
permits, effectively suspending
house sales.
Allstate resolved the permitting issues and the development
continued to grow. Mr. Rogers
now lives in the development,
in a sprawling house with an
inground pool at the end of a
freshly laid street.
Federal agencies are in the
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midst of what appears to be a
wide-ranging investigation of
city dealings.
Last year, U.S. Attorney David
Hickton’s office indicted Robinson entrepreneur Art Bedway
and charged former city systems
analyst Christine Kebr, alleging
bribery and bid rigging in the
award of a contract to install and
maintain radios and computers
in city police cars. Ms. Kebr has
pleaded guilty, and Mr. Bedway
has pleaded not guilty.
In March, Mr. Hickton’s office
indicted former city police Chief
Nate Harper, alleging diversion of public funds for personal
use. Mr. Harper has pleaded not
guilty, but his attorneys have
said that he plans to plead guilty
and is cooperating with federal
investigators.
This month, the city complied with a grand jury subpoena for records of parking
variances granted by the
police bureau. And this week,
the grand jury heard testimony from mayoral senior
administrator Melissa Demme
and mayoral security officers
Sgt. Dominick Sciulli and Sgt.
Matthew Gauntner.
com, 412-263-1542 and on Twitter:
@richelord. Moriah Balingit:
[email protected], 412263-2533 or on Twitter @MoriahBee. Joe Smydo and Liz Navratil
contributed.
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Y
Four named to NL All-Star team
GREAT HOLIDAY
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***
SUNDAY
INSIDE
IN MOST AREAS
Vol. 86, No. 341
Secret
court
boosts
powers
of NSA
Final
JULY 7, 2013
$2.00
Top court
to decide
case on
harm
by porn
Former
Steelers star
has made
a mission
of defending
late Penn State
coach Joe Paterno
Tribunal expands
grounds for spying
on Americans
By Paula Reed Ward
It is self-evident that a child
is harmed during the creation
of child pornography.
But it is less clear if that person is harmed years later when
someone views those images of
sexual abuse on the Internet.
The decision on how harm is
calculated could mean the difference between a victim being
compensated — or made whole
— for the injuries suffered, or
receiving nothing at all.
While the issue has been
raised here in the Western District of Pennsylvania and in federal courts across the country
for five years, it is only now that
the U.S. Supreme Court will
weigh in.
The high court agreed late
last month to hear the case
involving “Amy,” who had
been sexually abused by her
uncle at the ages of 8 and 9. He
photographed that abuse and
distributed the images online
starting in 1998, as part of what
is known as the “Misty” series.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
does not name victims of sexual
abuse; Amy is the name used in
court documents for the victim.
According to the National
Center for Missing and
Exploited Children, more than
35,000 pornographic images of
Amy have been found in 3,200
separate criminal cases since
then.
Amy, with the help of an
attorney, began filing requests
for restitution in Sept. 2008
against defendants convicted of
possessing images of her. Now
Franco’s
By Eric Lichtblau
The New York Times
crusade
WASHINGTON — In more
than a dozen classified rulings,
the nation’s surveillance court
has created a secret body of law
giving the National Security
Agency the power to amass vast
collections of data on Americans
while pursuing not only terrorism suspects, but also people
possibly involved in nuclear proliferation, espionage and cyberattacks, officials say.
The rulings, some nearly
100 pages long, reveal that the
court has taken on a much more
expansive role by regularly
assessing broad constitutional
questions and establishing
important judicial precedents,
with almost no public scrutiny,
according to current and former officials familiar with the
court’s classified decisions.
The 11-member Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court,
known as the FISA court, was
once mostly focused on approving case-by-case wiretapping
orders. But since major changes
in legislation and greater judicial oversight of intelligence
operations were instituted six
years ago, it has quietly become
almost a parallel Supreme
Court, serving as the ultimate
arbiter on surveillance issues
and delivering opinions that will
most likely shape intelligence
practices for years to come, the
officials said.
Last month, a former NSA
By Mark Dent
T
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa.
he theme song
from “Skyfall” crackles
out of raised
speakers in a
hotel ballroom
festooned with chandeliers.
You’ve heard Adele’s lyrics.
She sings about standing
tall together when the sky
crumbles, “where worlds
collide and days are dark.”
As the song fades out,
Franco Harris takes the
stage alone, wearing a navy
sports coat. His hair is
thinning, but his beard is
thick. He has a microphone
in his hand, a captivated
audience at his feet and
another man’s legacy on his
mind rather than his own.
In the wild month of
November 2011, when Penn
Franco Harris is trying to protect the legacy of
Joe Paterno, whose reputation, he says, was
unfairly tarnished by the Jerry Sandusky sex
abuse case.
State University football
coach Joe Paterno was
fired, Mr. Harris visited
State College several times.
Driving back to Pittsburgh
from one of these jaunts,
he called Bob Capretto, his
friend and a former Penn
State football player. Mr.
Capretto remembers Mr.
Harris saying, “ ‘Look Bob,
I’m going to be very vocal
about this. You’d better
distance yourself from me
because there are going
to be people coming after
me.’ ”
The first time Mr. Harris spoke out in support
of Paterno in the wake of
the Jerry Sandusky child
sexual abuse scandal, the
Meadows Racetrack and
Casino halted a sponsorship
deal it had recently made
with him. Pittsburgh Mayor
Luke Ravenstahl then
asked him to step down as
the chairman of the Pittsburgh Promise charity.
Mr. Ravenstahl was criticized in the weeks following Mr. Harris’ dismissal
in 2011, and Mr. Harris was
quickly reinstated.
When Mr. Harris called
and emailed Penn State president Rodney Erickson that
month, proposing a summit
at Ye Olde College Diner
SEE amy, PAGE A-11
SEE franco, PAGE A-3
SEE NSA, PAGE A-6
Big names likely to be on Pitt’s chancellor list
Competition keen
for accomplished
university leaders
By Bill Schackner
and Mary Niederberger
to decide that the best choice
already was on campus, working as interim chancellor inside
Pitt’s Cathedral of Learning.
The ensuing prosperity Pitt
enjoyed under Mark Nordenberg, who plans to step down
in August 2014, no doubt will
be cited by those who say Pitt’s
In 1995, when the University of Pittsburgh last went
shopping for new leadership, a
search committee considered
158 candidates nationally only
next chancellor also should
come from within, someone
who would not need a crash
course in the institution’s
complexities or the Pittsburgh
region.
Others, though, likely will
argue that Pitt’s rise in stature
among national research uni-
versities presents an opportunity to bring in big-name talent
from afar.
No matter which way it
goes, one thing seems clear as
the university of nearly 33,000
students readies for its first
SEE pitt, PAGE A-5
By Terry Collins
Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO — An
Asiana Airlines flight crashed
while landing at San Francisco
International Airport on Saturday, killing at least two people,
injuring dozens of others and
forcing passengers to jump down
the emergency inflatable slides
to safety as flames tore through
the plane.
Airport spokesman Doug
Yakel said 181 people of the
307 aboard were taken to local
hospitals. There were 291 passengers and 16 crew members
SEE crash, PAGE A-8
PAGE B-8
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Marcio Jose Sanchez/Associated Press
This aerial photo shows the wreckage of Asiana Flight 214 after it crashed while attempting
to land Saturday at San Francisco International Airport in San Francisco. The twin-engine
Boeing 777-200 was carrying 307 passengers and crew on its flight from Seoul, South
Korea. Two people were killed. An airport official said 181 people were taken to local
hospitals. The cause of the crash is under investigation.
Automotive ............... G-8
Books.........................B-5
Bridge ........................B-6
Business ....................C-1
Crosswords ........A-2, B-6
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Entrepreneur figures
in federal investigation
of city administration
on the plane, and everyone has
been accounted for, he said.
San Francisco Fire Chief
Joanne Hayes-White said the
investigation has been turned
over to the FBI and terrorism
has been ruled out.
The Federal Aviation Administration said Flight 214 from
Seoul, South Korea, crashed
while landing before noon PDT.
A video clip posted to YouTube
showed smoke coming from a jet
on the tarmac. Passengers could
be seen jumping down the emergency slides.
The top of the fuselage was
burned away and the entire tail
was gone. One engine appeared
to have broken away. Pieces of
the tail were strewn about the
runway. Emergency responders
could be seen walking inside the
CLOUDY
WITH RAIN
Banksville
parking
operator’s
connections
scrutinized
By Rich Lord, Liz Navratil
and Moriah Balingit
Jetliner crash kills 2
in S.F. airport landing
Asiana flight coming
from South Korea
carried 307 people
A-1
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Forum ........................B-1
Horoscope ................ G-6
JobsNOW ...................G-1
Lottery .......................C-4
Mortgages ................. F-6
Movies .......................E-3
The Next Page............B-7
Obituaries ..................C-5
Brian O’Neill...............A-2
Online today
Real Estate ................ F-1
The Region.................A-9
Sports ........................D-1
Sunday Magazine ...... E-1
Travel .........................E-5
A Banksville-based parking
entrepreneur who is central to
the federal investigation of city
of Pittsburgh dealings began his
business career while working
as a laborer in the Department
of Public Works, then parlayed
connections — including with
Mayor Luke Ravenstahl — into
success.
Robert Joseph Gigliotti, 46,
built a client list that ran the
gamut from the Duquesne Club
to the Cheerleaders strip club,
while family, friends and professional allies rose to positions
including chief of police and
judge. Now his ties and deals
have attracted the attention of
federal agents.
Investigators have asked
questions or subpoenaed documents related to interactions
between Mr. Gigliotti’s businesses and Mr. Ravenstahl’s
administration. People with
firsthand knowledge of the
investigation have told the PostGazette that agents have been
SEE inquiry, PAGE A-7
Visit our website often for the latest coverage
of news in Pittsburgh and around the world.
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PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE  SundaY, JulY 7, 2013  WWW.POST-GAZETTE.COM
Riverview
Park
Highland
Park
Parking operator’s connections scrutinized
8
Washington’s
Landing
19
inquiry,
FROM PAGE A-1
Chartiers
Creek
Robert Gigliotti’s parking empire, 2011-2013
380
Al
le
gh
en
y
Ri
ve
r
Brunot
12
dogged in their inquiries
Island about
his relationship with Mr. Raven279
11
15
stahl. Mr. Gigliotti appears to
380
28
65
have retained a former federal
8
380
prosecutor to represent him.
19
People close to him described
19
him as a hardworking family
2 7
13
man with strong ties to Banks-51
579
Oh
Area of
io
ville.
detail
R
8
10
9
14
i
v
“I can’t say anything but
er
16
great things about him,” said
P I T T S B U R G H
1
state Rep. Dan Deasy, D-West3
Schenley
wood, who grew up with Mr.
51
Park
376 22
4
5
17 18
Gigliotti and remains close to
Frick
19
30
a
l
e
h
a
him. “I have every confidence
g
n
Rive
279
Mono
Park
r
12
in the world that he did everything on the up-and-up.”
6
837
VALET LOCATIONS:
Many of Mr. Gigliotti’s
friends, colleagues and com1 LeMont, 1100 Grandview Ave.
9 McCormick & Schmick’s Seafood &
petitors would not talk about
Steaks, Wood Street
2 Morton’s Steakhouse of Chicago, 625
him for the record. Mr. Gigliotti
Liberty Ave.
10
Fairmont
Hotel, 510 Market St.
51
PARKING LOT
could not be reached for com3 Capital Grille, Fifth Avenue, Wood Street 11 Cheerleaders Night Club,
885
MANAGEMENT
OPERATIONS:
ment in recent weeks30 at his
3100 Liberty Ave.
4 Market Square
22
17
URA
Robin Building, 610
home, office or the Le Mont Res12 Whole Foods, 5880 Centre Ave.
5 Vallozzi’s Pittsburgh, 200 block, Fifth
Third Ave.
taurant, where 376
one of his comAvenue
13 The Pittsburgh Pirates, PNC Park
18 URA’s Parcel E, adjacent to
panies handles valet service.
19
6 Hofbrauhaus, 2705 South Water St.
14 The Lemieux Foundation, 816 Fifth Ave.
Consol Energy Center
Public documents and back7 The Duquesne Club, 325 Sixth Ave.
15 Shadyside Medical Center, 5200
ground conversations indicate
19 The Cardello Electric
Centre Ave.
Building, 701 North Point
that Mr. Gigliotti’s pursuit
8 Wyndham Hotel, Commonwealth Place,
Dr.
of connections and contracts
Liberty Ave.
16 Montefiore Hospital, 3459 Fifth Ave.
brought him a position in
Robert Gigliotti returns to his office on Greentree Road.
Source: Pittsburgh Bureau of Police records, marketing
Post-Gazette
Pittsburgh’s informal power
materials distributed by William Penn Parking in 2011
structure. Those same pursuits
may be among the reasons the
city’s formal political structure
through, Mr. Gigliotti sued Mr.
for city council. Ms. Kail-Smith
Democratic Committee, and
is feeling the heat of a federal
Lewis, alleging breach of conreplaced Mr. Deasy when he was
still serves on the 20th Ward
probe.
12
tract and fraud. He demanded
elected to the state House.
committee.
A lucrative lease
$4.8 million, which he characterIn mid-2011, Ms. Kail-Smith
He registered his first valet
When Mr. Gigliotti couldn’t
ized as three years worth of lost
proposed legislation that would
business in 1991, and launched
get a meeting with the city’s top
profits.
place stronger restrictions on
his second in 1998, when he was
redevelopment official in 2008,
Mr. Gigliotti lost the case, but
strip clubs, limiting where they
still on the city payroll. Attorhe went straight to the top.
reached terms with Mr. Lewis.
could be established and limitney Michael McCarthy, now a
At the time, the Urban RedeLast year Mr. Gigliotti leased
ing physical contact between
judge in the Allegheny County
velopment Authority was plananother URA lot, adjacent to
dancers and patrons. Soon after,
Court of Common Pleas, helped
ning to bid out the right to manConsol Energy Center, for $7,500
Ms. Kail-Smith said Mr. Gigliotti
him to incorporate William
age four publicly owned parking
a month — the best of three
contacted her office and asked
Penn Parking in 2003. A year
lots. Mr. Gigliotti, owner of Wiloffers made to the agency. He
that she meet with attorneys
later, Mr. Gigliotti created Triliam Penn Parking, couldn’t get
promised to keep rates at $7 for
from the adult entertainment
State Valet.
on URA executive director Pat
weekday parking — $20 for Penindustry. The councilwoman,
He also built relationships by
Ford’s calendar.
guins games. He has since lowwho met with a variety of stakecoaching Banksville baseball
So on Jan. 15, 2008, Melissa
ered daily rates to $6, and some
holders on the matter, agreed,
and basketball teams, and by
Demme, Mr. Ravenstahl’s senior
rival operators suggested that he
and Mr. Gigliotti sat in on one of
volunteering at St. Margaret of
administrator, wrote an email
probably isn’t making money on
those meetings. The legislation
Scotland in Green Tree.
to Mr. Ford, asking him when he
the lot.
did not pass.
“I think he’s a good guy,” said
was meeting with Mr. Gigliotti.
“Honestly, I have a lot of
She acknowledged that Mr.
Brian Matts, the vice president
“Ouch, I forgot,” Mr. Ford
respect for the guy,” said Mr.
Gigliotti was well known in the
of the Banksville Athletic Assoresponded, in one of numerBodziak. The hard-knuckled,
district and carried political
ciation and Mr. Gigliotti’s neighous emails the Post-Gazette
who-you-know aspect of his succlout because of his connections
bor. He said Mr. Gigliotti is “outobtained through a right-tocess “kind of comes with the terto the community and to the
going, friendly, easy to talk to.”
know request. “I will follow
ritory. … In my opinion, it’s how
LeMont. That Mount WashingMr. Gigliotti deepened his
up with Rob. Thanks for the
the business works.”
ton restaurant is the scene of
ties to the police bureau in 1997
reminder.”
frequent candidate fundraising
through his marriage to Linda
William Penn Parking went
Rich Lord: rlord@postevents.
Gallagher, now a detective in
on to get the lucrative lease for
gazette.com, 412-263-1542, or
Mr. Gigliotti rarely makes
the department’s auto squad.
the lot behind the URA’s offices,
Twitter @richelord. Liz Navrapolitical donations, according to
Detective Gigliotti worked
despite the fact that rival Kail’s
til: [email protected],
online records of contributions
as one of three employees in
Parking offered the agency more
412-263-1438 or on Twitter @
to state and city candidates.
the bureau’s special events
money. URA officials said they
LizNavratil. Moriah Balingit:
Mr. Gigliotti has served as
office, which coordinates offiawarded the lease to Mr. [email protected],
a host committee member for
cer moonlighting, as recently
ti’s company in part because he
412-263-2533 or on Twitter @Moat least one of Mr. Ravenstahl’s
as the summer of 2010. Records
offered to freeze rates for a year,
riahBee.
political fundraisers. Sources
obtained by the Post-Gazette
while Kail’s wanted to raise
said their acquaintance went
show that Mr. Gigliotti somerates.
beyond politics.
times hired members of the
Competitors have speculated
One former administration
bureau’s motorcycle unit to do
that Mr. Gigliotti’s connections
member wrote in a statement
traffic work for William Penn
to the city’s power brokers gave
provided to the FBI that Mr.
Parking and Tri-State Valet.
him an edge in his attempts to
Gigliotti often met the mayor in
His wife, as part of her job, hanland prized contracts.
the evening at the Le Mont.
dled invoicing for companies,
“Obviously, he got all the
Mr. Ravenstahl’s attorney,
including Tri-State Valet, that
good deals that were related to
Charles Porter Jr., could not be
hired officers to moonlight.
the city,” said Bill Bodziak, forreached. Mr. Ravenstahl declined
In 2005, after Bob O’Connor
mer director of operations for
comment on Mr. Gigliotti
was elected mayor but before he
Extravagante Valet, which comthrough his spokeswoman.
was inaugurated, Mr. Gigliotti
peted with Mr. Gigliotti’s TriThe investigation of the city
urged insiders to pick Nate
State Valet. “It could be either
that first seemed to focus on
Harper as chief, according to
the people he knows, or he does
police matters has inched closer
a former O’Connor aide. Mr.
provide a good service.”
to Mr. Ravenstahl. Ms. Demme
O’Connor instead appointed
He added that if a parking
and three current or former
Dom Costa, and Mr. Ravenstahl
operator is “well known like
mayoral bodyguards have testilater replaced him with Mr.
that and you have those connecfied before a grand jury. Agents
Harper. Mr. Gigliotti later suptions and that’s your circle …
have obtained documents related
ported the promotion of George
it kind of comes naturally that
to the mayor’s home remodeling
Trosky, now assistant chief,
you’re going to be the favorite.”
contract and have sought to interaccording to insiders.
William Penn Parking pays
view his ex-wife, who declined.
Mr. Harper is now under
the URA $12,950 per month for
Other attorneys who represent
indictment for diverting public
the right to run the lot behind
witnesses in the probe told the
money to private uses. Accordthe agency’s offices. That’s
Post-Gazette that Mr. Gigliotti
ing to his attorneys, the former
$2,050 per month less than the
has hired attorney Stephen Stallchief is cooperating with fedoffer made by Kail’s Parking,
ings, a former federal prosecutor.
eral investigators, and he has
meaning the URA has forgone
Mr. Stallings would neither conmet repeatedly with the FBI and
$120,000 in revenue.
firm nor deny his representaIRS.
Two participants in the lottion.
In May, a sergeant and a
bidding process have told the
detective working under Chief
Win some, lose some
Post-Gazette that the FBI has
Trosky brought to the U.S.
In a 2011 email to the URA, Mr.
asked them about it. One said
Courthouse at least six boxes
Arrigo indicated that the busithe agents last questioned him
of documents relating to parknesses he ran with Mr. Gigliotti
in January.
ing variances given out by the
“manage a total of 5,490 event,
Mr. Gigliotti’s company kept
bureau over the last five years.
garage, surface lot and valet
its promise not to raise rates
Variances give businesses
spaces each day.”
on the lot for one year — but
such as valet companies and
Based on parking variances
not much longer. In Septemrestaurants guaranteed onhe has obtained from the city and
ber 2009, his business partner,
street parking in places where
marketing materials he has subRobert S. Arrigo, wrote to the
it would normally be prohibmitted to the URA, Mr. Gigliotti
URA to advise them of rate
ited. Records show that until
serves medical facilities, resincreases that he characterized
this spring, Tri-State frequently
taurants, hotels and nightclubs
as “extreme” but “significantly
received more spaces at some
throughout the city.
lower than any of the competilocations than did competing
In 2007, demolition to make
tion in the area.”
companies.
way for Consol Energy Center
The rate freeze, he wrote, was
Until recently, the assistant
threatened a parking garage and
“hurting my financial position
chief of operations typically
lots managed by William Penn
and ability to make a profit.”
handled the approval process for
Parking. Mr. Gigliotti thought
Today the lot charges $10 for
parking variance applications,
he’d found a replacement lot for
one to two hours — up from $6
but former Assistant Chief Wilhis customers: a Hill District parin 2009. The URA denied a rightliam Bochter has said that Mr.
Known as the “Nobel Prize for volunteerism,”
cel controlled by Robert Lewis,
to-know request for information
Harper handled the granting of
the Jefferson Awards is a national program that honors individuals
the head of Orbital Engineering.
on William Penn Parking’s tax
some variances to Tri-State.
Mr. Gigliotti and Mr. McCapayments for the lot, so its exact
and groups for their contributions through public and community service.
Fine dining and influence
rthy, who became a judge later
revenue wasn’t available.
Councilwoman Theresa Kailthat year, thought that they
Mr. Arrigo could not be
Smith first met Mr. Gigliotti
had negotiated a lot lease deal
reached for comment.
This year, 50 Jefferson Award winners will be chosen from our region.
when she was working on state
with Mr. Lewis, according to
‘Outgoing, friendly’
Each will be highlighted in the Post-Gazette and honored at a
Rep. Dan Deasy’s 2005 campaign
court papers. When the deal fell
NomiNate aN
outstaNdiNg
iNdividual or
team of
voluNteers
and connected
Mr. Gigliotti’s early glimpses
of the city’s inner workings
came when he was a child and
his father, longtime city police
Officer Anthony Gigliotti,
brought him around the police
bureau’s motorcycle unit, whose
members at times included former police Chief Nate Harper
and current Assistant Chief of
Investigations George Trosky.
A member of Brashear High
School’s class of 1984, Mr.
Gigliotti wrote in his senior
yearbook that he was “Active
in Tennis. Plans to become a
police officer or electrician.”
Instead he signed on with
the city’s Department of Public
Works in 1987, at the age of 21.
Like many of that department’s
employees, he became a member of the Allegheny County
Lowest Buick
Prices. PERIOD.
reception where they will receive the bronze Jefferson Award medallion.
Local leaders then select our region’s Most Outstanding Volunteer to
represent Western Pennsylvania at the national Jefferson Awards
ceremonies in Washington, D.C.
Help us to recognize volunteers making a difference in the community
by nominating an individual or group of volunteers
for the 2013 Jefferson awards.
visit post-gazette.com/jefferson or call 412-263-3534.
North Huntingdon
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Post-Gazette
Sep 21 2013 10:21:10:711PM
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HOLD THAT LINE?
Steelers coach says O-line is on verge of jelling
SPORTS C1
ENTRY FORM, A-12
UP TO
$234
WORTH OF
SEPTEMBER 22, 2013
IN MOST AREAS
$2.00
***
Final
COUPONS INSIDE
Vol. 87, No. 53
Terrorists
kill 39 at
Kenya mall
The first of five parts
The closure of Mayview State Hospital nearly five years ago
means more people with severe mental illness are living
in the community. Additional budget cuts and other challenges
leave some wondering whether it has all gone too far
Squads of gunmen
go on rampage
through the mall, shooting
shoppers in the head.
The mall, called Westgate,
is a symbol of Kenya’s rising
prosperity, an impressive fivestory building where Kenyans
By Jeffrey Gettleman
can buy expensive cups of froand Nicholas Kulish
zen yogurt and plates of sushi.
The New York Times
On Saturdays, it is especially
NAIROBI, Kenya — Masked
crowded, with loose, somegunmen stormed into a fancy,
times lackadaisical security.
crowded mall in Nairobi on
U.S. officials have long warned
Saturday and shot dead at
that malls are ripe targets for
least 39 people in one
Islamist terrorists,
of the most chilling
especially Westgate,
terrorist attacks in Violence breaks because a cafe on
East Africa since althe ground floor is
out in Iraq, as
Qaida blew up two
owned by Israelis.
at least 96
U.S. embassies in
Fred
Ngoga
people are killed Gateretse, an offi1998.
in separate
Parents
threw
cial with the African
attacks.
their bodies over
Union, was having
Page A-4
their
children,
coffee at that cafe,
people climbed into
ArtCaffe, around
ventilation shafts to save themnoon when he heard two deafselves, and shoppers huddled
ening blasts. He cowered on
behind the plastic mannequins
the floor and watched eight
of designer clothing stores as
SEE KENYA, PAGE A-4
two squads of gunmen moved
Inside
Steve Mellon/Post-Gazette 2008
Luke Ravenstahl
Steelers
subpoena
shows long
reach of
grand jury
Mayview State Hospital — serving Allegheny, Beaver, Greene, Lawrence and Washington counties — closed in
December 2008.
Parking
authority
snaps 200K
motorists
a month
By Andrew McGill
There are few defenses
that can stop a federal grand
jury subpoena.
That’s why when the
Pittsburgh Steelers recently
received a request for
information on Mayor
Luke Ravenstahl’s payment
for tickets, their lawyers
scoured years of records
and turned over cancelled
checks from the mayor covering the costs of the coveted
seats.
The Steelers declined to
provide details this month.
“It’s an ongoing investigation, and we won’t be commenting on it,” said Steelers
spokesman Burt Lauten,
when asked for comment
on the federal document
demand and the team’s
response.
Experts said that if prosecutors and the grand jury
they run are interested in
Donna Sciulli is one of the
most photographed women
in Pittsburgh.
On Aug. 30, they snapped
shots of her picking up groceries at the Pennsylvania
Macaroni Co. in the Strip
District. Two days earlier,
shutters flew as she drove
past the U.S. Steel Tower.
And outside her Beechview home, she’s been pictured nearly a dozen times.
Ms. Sciulli is not a celebrity. She is, however, one of
the 80,000 Pittsburgh drivers whose license plates had
been scanned multiple times
in August by the Pittsburgh
Parking Authority, which is
using cameras mounted on
cruisers to record a massive
database of where and when
everyday people go about
their business.
Now entering its eighth
year, the authority’s License
Plate Reader program has
photographed several million vehicles in the city.
Designed to pick out scofflaws from the countless
rows of cars parked on Pittsburgh’s public streets, the
cameras alert enforcement
officers when they drive
by a vehicle with too many
tickets. On goes the dreaded
boot.
But because of loose
SEE subpoena, PAGE A-7
SEE cameras, PAGE A-11
By Rich Lord
BREEZY,
COOL
61 | 44
PAGE B-8
We build where
you want to live
A SyStem
‘Under Siege’
Stories by Joe Smydo
T
he region’s mental
health services system
is struggling to meet
a demand for services that
was significant even before
the closure of Mayview State
Hospital nearly five years
ago.
The shutdown of the South
Fayette hospital — where
patients lived in locked buildings and needed permission
to walk the grounds —
reflected a longtime national
trend in deinstitutionalization.
But the hospital’s closure
has inflamed debates over
treatment philosophy and
|
Coming Up
On the Web
For video of Nathaniel
Lyles talking about
his brother Michael
and an overview
about Mayview State
Hospital, go to
post-gazette.com
placed additional demands on
the justice system, community hospitals and outpatient
treatment providers, who
said funding was tight even
before the state socked them
with a big cut last fiscal year.
Mayview treated residents
with serious mental illness
— some of whom also faced
charges for violent crimes
— from Allegheny, Beaver,
Greene, Lawrence and Washington counties. With the
hospital’s closure, outpatient
providers must serve not only
the 300 or so people moved
out of Mayview from 2005 to
2008 but all of those with such
conditions who might go to
Mayview today if it were still
open.
One in four American
adults experiences mental illness each year, and one in 17
Today: Overview and
portrait of former
Mayview State
Hospital patients.
Monday: Community
hospitals struggle
with mental health
caseloads.
Tuesday: Police,
courts improvise to
manage ill offenders.
Wednesday: Housing
a weak link in mental
health system.
Next Sunday: The
future of mental
health treatment.
SEE mayview, PAGE A-8
It’s been hard times for some ex-Mayview patients
M
arvin Brown
already had committed one sex crime by
the time he moved into the
37-bed Maplewood Personal
Care Home in Ambridge.
On May 23, 2012, police
said, he committed another,
raping a 71-year-old fellow
resident in a second-floor
bathroom as the woman’s
cries for help went unheard.
Automotive ................ F-1
Books.........................B-5
Bridge ........................B-6
Business ....................D-1
Crosswords ........A-2, B-6
Brown, now 52, was one
of 305 patients released from
Mayview State Hospital during a three-year downsizing
that preceded the hospital’s
closure in December 2008.
While state and local officials say they’re proud of
efforts to move people with
mental illness into the community, the process has
been tragic in a handful of
Editorials....................B-2
Forum ........................B-1
Horoscope .............. H-15
JobsNOW .................H-10
Lottery ...................... D-4
Mortgages ................ H-6
Movies ...................... G-3
The Next Page............B-7
Obituaries ..................D-5
Brian O’Neill...............A-2
cases, bumpy for about 40
who have been arrested and
ultimately short-lived for
dozens who already have
died, most from natural
causes.
These incidents have
kept alive the controversy
surrounding the hospital’s
closing and raised new
SEE PaTieNTS, PAGE A-9
Marvin Brown
Online today
Real Estate ................H-1
The Region...............A-13
Sports ........................C-1
Sunday Magazine ......G-1
Travel .........................G-7
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Post-Gazette
Sep 21 2013 10:20:46:875PM
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PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE  SundaY, SePteMber 22, 2013  WWW.POST-GAZETTE.COM
national
Steelers subpoena shows length
of grand jury’s reach over mayor
Shutdown, default loom
as crisis becomes the new
normal for nation’s capital
By Karen Tumulty
and Paul Kane
The Washington Post
WASHINGTON — With little
more than a week to go before a
potential government shutdown,
Washington feels like a car without a driver on a road without a
guardrail.
As it hurtles toward the edge,
no one — conservatives, GOP
leadership, congressional Democrats, the White House — seems
to have a way to stop it.
Lurching from near-calamity
to near-catastrophe has become
a way of life in the capital, which
has stood at the edge of a financial precipice at least four times
since the end of 2010.
What makes these crises all
the more exasperating is that
none of them seem to resolve
the political and ideological disputes that cause them. All they
do is put both sides on a course
toward the next disaster zone.
The one immediately ahead
arises from the fact that the
fiscal year will end on Sept. 30
without Congress having passed
any of the spending bills needed
to keep the government in operation going into 2014.
Without at least a stopgap
funding bill, most nonessential
federal operations will come to
a halt.
Benefits payments, such as
Social Security checks, would
still go out, and critical functions such as national security
would continue. But military
pay would probably be delayed,
hundreds of thousands of federal
employees would be furloughed
and attractions such as national
parks would close.
“After five years spent digging out of crisis, the last thing
we need is for Washington to
manufacture another,” President Barack Obama said in his
weekly address Saturday, noting the fragility of the economic
recovery. “But that’s what will
happen in the next few weeks if
Congress doesn’t meet two deadlines.”
The most immediate issue is a
demand by conservative groups
and Tea Party lawmakers that
any spending measure include a
provision that would strip funding for the health-care overhaul,
which is set to kick into gear on
Oct. 1.
The Republican-led House
has passed a bill that would
accomplish that, but it stands no
chance in the Senate, which is
virtually certain to sent it back
“clean,” meaning with full funding for the law known formally
as the Affordable Care Act and
derided by critics as Obamacare.
Even if they figure a way
around this stalemate and keep
the government open, a graver
crisis is coming up quickly on its
heels as the government hits the
limit of its borrowing authority
some time in mid- to late October. If Congress does not raise
the debt ceiling, it could force
the nation into default and the
global financial markets into
chaos.
Conservatives and Tea Party
activists insist that Republicans
will be rewarded for going to the
barricades to stop the healthcare law.
And indeed, just about every
poll shows that, three years
after its passage, Obamacare
remains unpopular with voters.
In the latest Washington PostABC News poll, 52 percent said
they disapprove of the law, while
only 42 percent support it.
But Americans are even
less enchanted with the idea of
bringing the government to a
halt as a means of blocking the
Affordable Care Act.
The Republicans’ own numbers show that. In a recent survey conducted by David Winston, a pollster who advises the
subpoena, FROM PAGE A-1
the mayor’s spending, there is
no way he, or any business he
has used, can stop them from
scouring available records.
“In terms of trying to fight
a subpoena, to quash it, you
are just so very rarely going to
see that granted,” said Bruce
Antkowiak, a former federal
prosecutor and now law professor at Saint Vincent College
in Latrobe. ”We have come
to accept the breadth of the
grand jury power and jurisdiction to have a wide range of
investigative authority.”
That power often frustrates
probe targets and their attorneys.
“Federal grand juries are
the most abused prosecutorial tool that there is because
there are no real restraints on
them,” said defense attorney
Jerry S. McDevitt, who successfully defended former
Allegheny County coroner
Cyril Wecht against a federal grand jury indictment.
”There is no judge present.
There is no limit on what they
can do. They are allowed to
drag any rumor and innuendo
they want in.”
House GOP, 71 percent said they
opposed “shutting down the
government as a way to defund
the President’s health care law.”
Only 23 percent approved.
In an interview, Mr. Winston
said that even the Republicans
who were surveyed said a shutdown is a bad idea, 53 percent to
37 percent.
“I know when you get led into
a box canyon what that means,”
said Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn.,
evoking imagery of an infamous
method by which buffalo were
slaughtered in the Old West.
“Box canyon, here we come.”
Democrats are convinced
they have the upper hand.
The president has maintained
that he will not negotiate with
Republicans on the funding bill
or the debt ceiling — a point he
repeated to House Speaker John
Boehner, R-Ohio, in a telephone
call Friday night. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.,
plans to ensure that no bill
defunding the health-care law
reaches Mr. Obama’s desk.
From time to time for decades,
the fiscal year has brought
partial, temporary shutdowns
— nine of them, for instance,
between fiscal 1981 and fiscal
1995. But they were over relatively narrow disputes, and none
lasted more than three days.
Then-Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., was the first to engineer one as a strategy to wage a
broader policy battle, with President Bill Clinton in 1995.
He began laying his plans for
a year-end government shutdown that spring at a time when
he was still at the height of his
influence, after having led the
House Republicans through an
election that produced their first
majority in four decades.
That year actually produced
two shutdowns — one in November lasting five days and a second from mid-December to early
January that went on for 21
days.
In the current telling of some
conservative groups, the Republicans won that showdown.
That is not a widely held view
among those who actually lived
through it. They note that the
1995-96 shutdown helped resurrect Mr. Clinton’s presidency
and put him on the way to a
landslide re-election over GOP
nominee Bob Dole.
Nor did it do much to change
the trajectory of federal spending, as the Republicans had
promised it would.
“We gained almost nothing.
It was a rounding error,” said
Steve Bell of the Bipartisan Policy Center, who was a longtime
top Republican staffer on the
Senate Budget Committee. “It
was subsumed by the next year’s
economic forecast.”
But fewer than one in five of
those now serving in the House
were around for that earlier
standoff.
One of them is Mr. Boehner,
Mr. Bell noted. “I know the
speaker, who went through that,
knows who has the bully pulpit
and who is going to get blamed,”
he said.
But newer GOP members
have come to power in a more
unbending political culture,
partly because of the rise of the
Tea Party movement and partly
because of the way their district
lines are drawn.
An analysis this past week
by the University of Virginia’s
Center for Politics found that 94
of the House’s 233 Republicans
come from districts in which
GOP presidential nominee Mitt
Romney got 60 percent or more
of the vote.
Practically speaking, that
means they come from areas
so conservative that they have
more to fear from a primary
challenger on the right than
they do from a Democrat in a
general election.
Personal probe
Usually, the grand jury’s
power is balanced, somewhat,
by the secrecy of the process.
Private materials seen by the
panel of up to 23 members
won’t be leaked or discussed
outside of its soundproof
suite. Federal prosecutors and
investigators are scrupulous
in their refusal to talk about
grand jury probes.
In the case of the probe of
city dealings, reporters have
watched as witnesses come
and go from the U.S. Courthouse, and have approached
people who they believe have
received subpoenas.
“We are curiously watching while they explore his
personal life, apparently,” said
Charles Porter Jr., who is the
mayor’s private attorney, earlier this month. He declined to
elaborate Friday.
State Sen. Jim Ferlo,
D-Highland Park, has questioned the probe’s focus.
“I still think it is a fishing expedition, but I don’t
know what their expedition
is about,” Mr. Ferlo said on
Thursday. He added that he
wanted to “respect the private
grand jury process.”
At least two female
acquaintances of the mayor
— Ashley Barna and Ashlee
Olivo — have testified before
the grand jury.
So have the three men
who ensured his personal
security. One of them, former
city Detective Fred Crawford
Jr., told the grand jury about
the mayor’s use of his nightly
bodyguard as “a designated
driver ... while he went out
to bars,” according to Mr.
Crawford’s attorney, Robert
Stewart.
The secretary who handled
Mr. Ravenstahl’s schedule has
also testified, as have Chief
of Staff Yarone Zober and former Stadium Authority board
chair Debbie Lestitian.
In May, prosecutors
obtained documents reflecting a contract and payments
for renovations to his Fineview home, Mr. Porter confirmed.
Federal agencies now have
cancelled checks for Steelers
tickets, the Post-Gazette has
learned.
The mayor has made no
secret of his Steelers mania.
In January 2009, he filed faux
paperwork to change his last
name to “Steelerstahl” in the
run-up to a playoff battle with
the Baltimore Ravens.
The Steelers went to the
Super Bowl that February,
and that May the mayor’s
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campaign committee paid
the team $5,732 to cover the
costs of the trip. Two years
later, the mayor’s campaign
paid the team $5,066 for Super
Bowl trip expenses, and footed
the $5,970 bill for an Embassy
Suites room.
The administration has
said that attending the Super
Bowl when the Steelers are in
the game is both a governmental and political function, and
that it is better for taxpayers
if the campaign foots the bill.
The mayor’s spokeswomen
have maintained that he has
abided by all rules restricting public officials’ receipt of
gifts, including tickets.
A city ethics code that was
meant to ensure public disclosure of gifts, including tickets,
worth more than $100, has
fallen into abeyance, the PostGazette will report in a story
Monday.
Asked if the Pirates had
been approached by the IRS,
the FBI or the federal prosecutors, team spokesman Brian
Warecki said, “To the best of
my knowledge, we have not
been approached by any of
those parties.”
Mr. Warecki said it’s the
organization’s policy that
“any and all public officials
need to pay for any benefits/
tickets they receive.”
He said that if approached,
the team “obviously would
cooperate as much as we possibly could.”
It is not certain that prosecutors have probable cause to
believe that the mayor’s acquisition of Steelers tickets was
connected to wrongdoing.
“A grand jury basically
can subpoena almost anyone,” said David Harris, a
University of Pittsburgh law
professor who has authored
books about evidentiary rules.
“They don’t need to feel that
this will give them probable
cause that there’s evidence
of a crime, or anything like
that.”
Few hurdles
If a police officer wants
to compel you to stop and
answer questions, they need
to have reasonable suspicion
that you’ve been involved in
a crime. A federal probe, by
contrast, can reach into your
finances and personal life
without reaching any such
threshold.
It typically starts with an
agent of the FBI or another
investigative agency receiving a tip. The agency can then
start asking questions and
using online or public records
com, 412-263-1542 or Twitter @
richelord. Moriah Balingit contributed.
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not providing details, said Mr.
Antkowiak.
Unless the subpoena targets
communications between an
attorney and client, or between
spouses, or is so broad that complying would be a crushing burden, a judge isn’t likely to quash
it, experts said.
This month the grand jury
subpoenaed the city’s Urban
Redevelopment Authority. As of
Friday, that agency had not finished compiling the requested
records, and would not disclose the nature of the records
sought.
Warrants to search a premises, seize a computer or tap
a phone must be backed by
agents’ affidavits, and signed
by a magistrate judge. At that
point, the judge has to agree
that there is probable cause that
a federal crime has been committed and that evidence can be
found through the search of the
location, seizure or tap.
Most judges will give investigators “a certain amount of
leeway,” said Mr. Antkowiak,
as long as they can show that
they’re not on “a complete fishing expedition.”
That leeway, combined
with the unfettered power to
subpoena, ask questions under
oath and even grant immunity,
makes the federal grand jury so
powerful that some have called
it a fourth branch of government.
“They are empowered to
investigate on suspicion, whim,
whatever,” said Mr. McDevitt,
the defense attorney.
“The reason for that is the
sophistication of certain types
of criminal activity,” said Mr.
Antkowiak, “and the degree
to which that type of criminal
activity would otherwise be
very, very difficult to investigate, without the authority
to gather records, without the
authority to gather testimony
from people.”
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to determine whether there’s
any evidence of a crime, according to former federal prosecutors.
If the agency concludes that
a crime may have been committed, it brings the matter to the
U.S. attorney — locally, David
Hickton.
In the case of a public corruption allegation, Department of
Justice rules require that the
U.S. attorney get input from
Washington before taking certain steps.
Before starting a grand jury
probe to look at alleged purchase or sale of public office,
the prosecutor needs to consult
with the department’s Public
Integrity Section, Criminal
Division. That division must
also be in the loop on all probes
of officials covered by the Ethics in Government Act — which
applies to high-level federal
officials — and on cases focused
on violations of federal or state
campaign finance laws, patronage or electoral corruption.
Once they’ve overleaped
those hurdles, federal prosecutors can provide the grand
jury with a broad outline of
their theory, and then start
issuing subpoenas. The jurors
don’t vote on subpoenas, and
typically find out about them
when the prosecutor reads off
a log of materials received in
response. No judicial approval
is required.
Subpoenas can demand
documents or compel presence
before the grand jury. They
are often directed to the target
of the probe, their associates,
potential witnesses and businesses with which they’ve had
dealings, including their bank.
There are complex limits on
subpoenas to phone companies.
A recipient can file a motion
to quash a subpoena, which
would likely be sealed and
decided by a judge without public disclosure. Then prosecutors
have to justify a challenged
subpoena with “a very simple
affidavit” saying that the information sought is pertinent to
the investigation, but typically
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Ravenstahl combined (04-29-14-06-04-09)

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