Oct 4, 2007 8:50 pm US/Eastern
Sources: Officials Knew Mayor Shouldn't Use SUV
by Jon Delano
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ―
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Mayor Luke Ravenstahl (File)
KDKA
Sources tell KDKA that senior public safety officials knew Mayor Luke Ravenstahl should not be allowed to drive a police vehicle for personal use but let him do it anyway.
Pittsburgh Police obtained four SUV's purchased with federal Homeland Security dollars late last winter, and along with the vehicles came a specific prohibition against the use of these SUV's for personal recreational use.
"Now that I know that it was a vehicle that was purchased with homeland security dollars, we haven't used it since," Ravenstahl said on Wednesday.
But when exactly did the mayor or members of his senior staff first learn that the SUV wasn't allowed for personal travel?
Sources tell KDKA that on the very first day the four intelligence vehicles arrived last March, Chief Nate Harper wanted to let the mayor use these vehicles, but Sgt. Mona Wallace, who had got federal funding for these SUV's, warned Harper that such use would violate federal rules.
KDKA's Jon Delano has learned that after the mayor started to use the SUV, Wallace tried repeatedly to alert the mayor through her chain of command, including Public Safety Director Micahel Huss, that such use was wrong and should be stopped.
Wallace was ignored by the mayor's senior officials.
After Ravenstahl used the SUV in August to take friends to the Toby Keith concert at Star Lake and the vehicle came back with barbecue sauce stains, charcoal remnants and plastic trash bags, plus 300 miles on the odometer, Wallace was so disturbed that she sent an email directly to Huss.
Instead of getting thanks, she got a disciplinary action report (DAR), recommending that she be counseled for not going through a chain of command that was not working.
But if Harper and Huss knew months ago that the mayor's use of the SUV was improper, why didn't they stop it sooner?
Bryan Campbell, attorney for the Fraternal Order of Police, says the question is who told the mayor and what did he do.
"In the chain of command, the mayor is first, the public safety director would be second, and the chief of police would be third," Campbell tells KDKA.
Delano: "So if the mayor wanted to use a vehicle and those beneath him said no, he's the final word on that?"
Campbell: "That's correct. That's correct."
"I think then the question is at what point in time did the mayor find out, and if the mayor did find out at that point did he say we won't use that vehicle again," Campbell said.
KDKA tried to reach Director Huss, the most senior public safety official outside the mayor, to find out exactly when he or the police chief alerted the mayor to Sgt. Wallace's repeated messages.
Huss was unavailable.
Huss did rescind the disciplinary action against Wallace.
KDKA's Jon Delano reports there's no direct evidence the mayor himself knew of the restrictions earlier this year, but it appears that some of those around him did.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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