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Ferlo fishes for RAD votes Councilman wants city, county to give more data on Plan B Wednesday, May 06, 1998 By Timothy McNulty, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
City Councilman Jim Ferlo has a funny feeling in his stomach, and it's caused by the Murphy administration, he says.
Although it's not unusual for Ferlo, a frequent critic of the mayor, to feel sick over something the Murphy administration has done, this time it has to do with a matter the two sides agree on -- Plan B and the use of Regional Asset District money to help pay for it.
"I know how to count votes," Ferlo said. "I get the sense from the RAD board meeting and subsequent discussions with board members that there are not six votes there right now to support this. The administration is leaving a queasy feeling in my stomach about what kind of homework they're doing with these board members."
Six votes are needed from the seven-member RAD board to approve using $13.4 million annually in RAD money -- which comes from a countywide 1 percent sales tax -- to help pay for Plan B, the $803 million city-county proposal to build new stadiums for the Pirates and Steelers and expand the David L. Lawrence Convention Center. The RAD money would be used for 30 years, starting in 2000, to float construction bonds.
The board held a public hearing on the proposal April 28 and plans to meet and vote on it the week of May 18.
Ferlo said he supports Plan B because it "returns investment to the urban corridor." But he said he is worried about the political handling of the plan by Murphy and county Commissioners Bob Cranmer and Mike Dawida, especially their courtship of the RAD board.
Ferlo said at yesterday's council meeting that Murphy administration and county economic development officials did not give enough information to RAD board members at last week's hearing. And so he was worried that the board, which he compared to a bank loan committee, would be frustrated by its treatment and reject the proposal.
"It was almost as if they were chastising the RAD board for asking questions," Ferlo said.
City development policy director Stephen G. Leeper, who helped present Plan B to the RAD board, disagreed with Ferlo's representation.
"We gave the RAD board a significant amount of information about how we intend to structure the public financing and the estimates we have on the cost of the projects. We have not had subsequent requests for information from the board, but if they do have questions, we'll be happy to help them," Leeper said.
Ferlo sent a letter to the RAD board saying that its members should get the following from the mayor and commissioners before they vote on Plan B: access to team finances; a closer look at a proposal to tax players (which Ferlo said he would not support if it was levied on other performers, such as musicians); more oversight power over Plan B projects, including having a seat on the Public Auditorium Authority; a guarantee that RAD money won't be used for construction cost overruns; and more information about the effect of construction on the Carnegie Science Center, which also receives RAD money.
David Matter, chairman of the RAD board, said he had not received Ferlo's letter. But he said the board members will be trying to gather more information about Plan B before they meet to vote on it.
"One of the things we'll have to do in the next couple weeks is hear from board members what information they need and what we can do to obtain it," Matter said.
Neither Ferlo nor any other council member is a member of the RAD board, and council does not have oversight over its activities. But the councilman said he was getting involved in the matter to make sure Plan B succeeds and to let people in his district who rely on RAD money know they wouldn't be hurt by the plan.
"I want to tell the Friends of the Library in Lawrenceville that Plan B is not going to hurt their funding," Ferlo said.
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