ACKLIN CALLS FOR INVESTIGATION INTO LAMAR BILLBOARD DEAL
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Monday, July 20, 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Monday, July 20, 2009
CONTACT: Andy Gastmeyer, Press Secretary
412.327.6951 (cell) | 412.481.3150 (office)
ACKLIN CALLS FOR INVESTIGATION INTO LAMAR BILLBOARD DEAL
Independent Mayoral candidate says cash-strapped taxpayers deserve to know the truth behind administration’s million-dollar mistake
PITTSBURGH - On the heels of Lamar Advertising's threat to sue the city for more than $1 Million in damages, Independent Mayoral Candidate Kevin Acklin today called for an investigation into the controversy still swirling around the Ravenstahl Administration’s approval of the company’s request to build an electronic billboard on the face of the Grant Street Transportation Center.
“At a time when the city is coping with a budget crisis, and the Mayor is talking about increasing taxes, this is one more, and terribly expensive, example of how the city has been played for the benefit of the few,” Acklin said. “The questions still unanswered about this deal and its aftermath show what happen when leadership, integrity, and transparency are taken for granted in city government. The citizens of Pittsburgh are paying for this problem; they deserve to see the bill.”
Early last year, after Pittsburgh City Council learned that proper legal procedure had been ignored in the approval of the sign, construction on it came to a halt. Pat Ford, the city’s development czar and Mayor Ravenstahl’s hand-picked head of the Urban Redevelopment Authority, subsequently resigned. Ford, who Lamar executives say authorized the go-ahead for the billboard, left his job with a severance and benefits package worth more than $100,000. Before he took the severance package, which some people have described as “hush money,” Ford accused the Ravenstahl Administration of creating a “culture of deception and corruption” that caused him to “serve as a scapegoat for the inappropriate affairs and activities of others.”
“Pittsburgh’s taxpayers still haven’t learned the truth about this process, about the Ravenstahl Administration’s role in it, or about Pat Ford’s alarming allegations,” Acklin said. “Now city taxpayers may have to pay a million dollar bill as a result of these problems.”
Ford's attorney has said publicly that there was nothing in the city's settlement with his client that prohibits him from cooperating with authorities "on matters of mutual interest.” Today, Kevin Acklin is publicly calling for a matter of everyone’s interest -- an investigation into the actions of the Ravenstahl administration surrounding the Lamar deal to be initiated by either the District Attorney or the U.S. Attorney.
“We’ve never gotten straight answers, or any answers, about how and why that billboard was approved,” Acklin said. “Apologists for the administration have told us not to worry about it, and that it’s ‘just a sign.’ Well, that ‘just a sign’ could now cost city taxpayers more than a million dollars, and we have a right to know why.”
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