Dogging The | Bills Aim To Change Staffing Of Pittsburgh’s Police Board
July 26, 2010 – 1:03 am
“We need to find out the truth of what happened,” said Pete Shell of the Thomas Merton Center’s anti-war panel.As the board was in court seeking access to G-20 police records June 18 , Mayor Luke Ravenstahl proposed replacing five board members and reappointing the other two.Critics, including board executive director Elizabeth Pittinger, accused the mayor of trying to sabotage the G-20 investigation. Mr. Ravenstahl — noting the terms of all seven members had expired, some as far back as 2007 — said he was acting on a 60-day timetable council set in motion when it forwarded its own list of possible nominees for available board seats.Ever since, some council members and advocacy groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, have assailed the nomination process. Questions have focused on who’s responsible for initiating the process, what the steps are and what the timetable for filling available seats should be.The bills introduced Tuesday would fine-tune the process for handling four of the seven seats that traditionally have been filled with people recommended The bill Mr. Shields’ bill is broader. Among other changes, it would establish separate procedures for filling vacancies and addressing board members’ expiring terms. It would put council and the mayor on strict timetables for handling their roles in the nomination process.Council voted Tuesday to delay acting on five mayoral nominees until the nomination process is improved. The other two nominees haven’t been interviewed The vote to delay action on the five nominees came after council President Darlene Harris said she was holding the nominations “until things are settled, questions are answered, processes are looked at and everything appears to be in order.”Mr. Shields and Councilmen Bruce Kraus and Bill Peduto objected to Mrs. Harris’ unilateral approach.Mr. Shields,
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