Final vote on the Lamar 4's legal bill today?

The final vote should be taken today "on the $10,706 bill from attorney Hugh McGough, hired by council President Doug Shields and members Ricky Burgess, Bruce Kraus and William Peduto to contest the now-revoked permit given to Lamar Advertising for a Downtown sign."

Since I missed all the fireworks last week, I'm very grateful that Char did an excellent job of covering it at The Burgh Report -- almost like you're there. [shudder]

(Did I mention that I couldn't be more pleased with the job that my own City Councilman, Bruce Kraus, is doing thus far? Guess I just did.)
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Mayor & City Council Clash Again

Following on the heels of five Pittsburgh City Council members appeal against a permit for a Downtown electronic billboard, today the Ravenstahl Administration and Council clashed over take-home cars. From the Post-Gazette:

City of Pittsburgh officials and managers showed up at City Council Chamber today to defend their take-home cars, and Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's administration argued that the city's nine legislators have no right to enact policy limiting the assignment of such vehicles.

That special meeting on Councilman Ricky Burgess's legislation to restrict the number of take-home cars sparked another in a series of debates between some council members and the administration.

"It is our very strong opinion that this bill violates the separation of powers doctrine between council and the mayor," said city Solicitor George Specter. He called it "an unlawful imposition on the mayor's executive powers."

Council President Doug Shields and others responded that the legislation largely mirrors the city's Act 47 recovery plan, passed into law in 2004.

"This administration is trying to pick and choose what parts of the law to comply with," he said. "The mayor is going beyond the powers vested in him."

At one point Mr. Burgess asked Mr. Specter to define "serial noncompliance," suggesting the city may be repeatedly ignoring city code.

[snip]

Mr. Specter said council's right to legislate policy doesn't mean it can manage departments. "It's kind of like obscenity -- where you call it like you see it -- when you cross the line into micromanagement of operations," he said.

I suspect that Specter means "pornography," not "obscenity" as in Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart's well known remark that "hard-core pornography" was hard to define, but that "I know it when I see it."

See, the deal is that you can define what is "obscene" by law.

Kind of funny that the City's lawyer would get it mixed up.

Thursday Morning Massacre: The Movie

With discussion of the Thursday Morning Massacre taking on a cinematic bent -- and because we like flogging a dead horse -- we're certain that it won't be long until the Pittsburgh Film Office starts lobbying for the inevitable movie to be made here in the Burgh.

Wanting to keep in tune with Pittsburgh's new hi-tech rep, we've turned to myheritage.com's face recognition technology to cast the film.

Just keep in mind: My Heritage is the same website that claimed that Wendy Bell looks like Pamela Lee Anderson and that I look like Keira Knightley with my glasses off and Samuel L. Jackson with my glasses on.

(I'm only the messenger! Do not try this at home! Your results may vary!)

Thursday Morning Massacre: The Movie (as cast by myheritage.com)

Starring:

Josh Hartnett as
Mayor Bob O'Connor
And:

Meatloaf as Dennis Regan	John Cage as George Specter	Harold Ramis as Scott Kunka
Julia Roberts as B.J. Leber	Patricia Arquette as Susan Malie	Albert Finney as Paul Leger

With:

Dick Skrinjar as
himself

Jean-Paul Belmondo as Jim Ferlo	Colin Farrell as Yarone Zober
Sharon Stone as Marlene Cassidy	Adam Carolla as Fr. Terry O'Connor	David Letterman as Jon Delano
Tom Hanks as Doug Shields	David Hasselhoff as Jim Motznik	Dean Cain as Luke Ravenstahl

And:

Zach Braff as Bill Peduto	Missy Elliott as Tonya Payne	Beyonce Knowles as Twanda Carlisle
Jim Carrey as Len Bodak	Gael Garcia Bernal as Dan Deasy	Brad Pitt as Jeff Koch