It's Back! "As The Burg Turns"

In the latest installment, grown men act like children while no one notices an entire city is collapsing......

Pittsburgh City Council yesterday unanimously approved a resolution backed by the Murphy administration to take all necessary steps, including legal action, to remove Jim Roddey from a board that oversees the city's finances.

Mayor Tom Murphy and council contend Roddey is not eligible to be a member of the Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority because he does not live in the city nor have his principal place of business there.

If successful, the resolution introduced by Councilman Jim Motznik would remove Roddey from the board and void any votes he took while he was ineligible and a member.

Roddey, former Allegheny County chief executive, yesterday called the resolution "pretty silly" and said it will be moot soon anyway because he plans to leave the board within the next month.

"You would hope that, given the financial situation of the city, they would concern themselves with something more important than that," Roddey said.

The law that established the board requires members to either live in the city or have their principal place of employment in the city. Council members at yesterday's meeting contended Roddey does not qualify on either count because his office is in Green Tree and he lives in Oakmont.

But Roddey said he meets the business requirement because his principal employment is as chairman of the board of Business Records Management on Bidwell Street in the North Side, not the office in Green Tree.

Last Monday, three members of the five-man board voted to file a lawsuit against the city over its approval of a five-year contract with firefighters the board claims violated the Act 47 recovery plan and the state's Municipal Financial Recovery Act.

Roddey, who voted to sue, said he suspects council's attempt to oust him and void his vote has more to do with the threatened lawsuit than with his eligibility requirements.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

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