Friday, June 26, 2009

Boy Mayor Reworks Zoning, Stadium Boards

Mayor Ravenstahl has replaced several members of the Stadium Authority and Zoning boards.

The departed include Alice Mitinger, who voted against the boy mayor's BFFs Lamar Advertising concerning the electronic billboard for the Greyhound station; David Toal, who recused himself with respect to the Lamar application; and Debbie Lestitian, who objected to the Rooneys' (also the mayor's BFFs) pillaging of the publicly owned land near Heinz Field. Wrenna Watson (left), whose nearly incoherent writing favored Lamar, has been reappointed to the Zoning board.

Newly appointed are S. Manoj Jegasothy (right), a Rooney law firm partner who has represented UPMC and consequently is familiar with all relevant constituencies that might come before the Zoning board, and Kirk Burkley (far right), whose wife, Penny Zaccharias, is a Rooney firm lawyer whose appointment to the Ethics Board produced a memorably surreal episode recounted by Bob Mayo.

Mayoral mouthpiece Joanna Doven praised the new Zoning board members for their "diversity": "I think you'll find that compared to past administrations this is a more diverse group of appointees," she said, apparently referring to the fact that one member is a Rooney lawyer and the other is the spouse of a Rooney lawyer.

(Can anyone confirm whether Ms. Zacharias is related to Sam Zacharias, who is associated with longtime city political and financial hub Gateway Financial, Dave Malone's firm?)

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