ERIE, PA. Council wants probe of mayor's ties to land

The mayor may have ties to a company buying land near a proposed complex
ERIE, Pa. (AP) -- City council will ask the State Ethics Commission to investigate the mayor's ties to a private company that bought land near a former paper mill.
Aiko Acquisition LLC acquired four properties over the last nine months on the southern border of the 213-acre International Paper Co. site as Mayor Rick Filippi was negotiating the purchase of the paper company land. No agreement has been reached.
Filippi is seeking $15 million in state funds to buoy plans to build an $80 million horse racing and entertainment complex on the property.
Aiko is run by Erie lawyer Eric Purchase, who ran Filippi's successful campaign for mayor three years ago, and Rolf Patberg, the mayor's law partner in Pittsburgh.
Council voted 6-1 for the investigation.
Council's reasoning
"It's a necessary act in response to our constituents," said Councilman Jim Casey. "That's who I'm listening to. Let's get this out in the open. Let's clear this up. We've got a responsibility as council members to do that."
Councilman Ian Murray said the need for an investigation arose from "political ineptitude." Filippi took office in January 2002.
"Anyone could have seen this coming," Murray said. "What the mayor has to do is come clean, take the hit, and admit a lapse of judgment, if that's all it was, and move forward. The silence is deafening from the mayor's office, and that invites speculation about what's going on under cover."
Mayor's response
The mayor said he never provided inside information to Purchase or Patberg.
"I remain confident that if they decide to have an investigation, they'll find no wrongdoing," Filippi said.
Council members began pressing for the formal state probe after the mayor offered conflicting accounts of his knowledge of who is involved in the company.
Filippi said Jan. 15 that he knew Aiko included Patberg, a longtime friend and law partner. It wasn't until Patberg publicly identified Purchase as an Aiko partner that Filippi acknowledged in a follow-up interview he had known about Purchase's involvement for at least a year.
Under state law, a public officials cannot use a public office or confidential information obtained through holding the office to profit the official, a member of the official's family, or a business with which the official or an immediate family member is associated.