SPENDING PRACTICES Report targets Pittsburgh council

The purchases came from a miscellaneous fund for council members.
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- City council members spent thousands of dollars on items such as books -- including President Clinton's "My Life" memoir -- framed pictures and Christmas cards in the months leading up to the city's Act 47 declaration as a distressed city, a newspaper reported Sunday.
Councilwoman Twanda Carlisle bought Clinton's book and five others June 22 using a miscellaneous fund each of the city's nine council members gets for expenses that aren't debated or approved by a public vote, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.
That same day, more than 250 workers lobbied against spending cuts that could cost some of them their jobs under the city's proposed Act 47 plan. A week later, Carlisle was among those who voted against the Act 47 recovery plan that was approved 5-4 by council.
Carlisle spent about $2,400 on books in the last 20 months, as the city's finances have become dire, including romance novels, self-help tomes and cookbooks.
City's rating
Last week, Moody's Investors Service downgraded the city's bond rating to speculative, its lowest ever and the worst of any major city in the country, analysts said. By December, the city could be out of money and must currently answer to both an Act 47 oversight board and a separate five-person body appointed by the Legislature to oversee its finances.
Carlisle, who is black, said she gave away many of the books to support black authors and promote reading among her constituents. "I May Be Wrong But I Doubt It" by former NBA star Charles Barkley was among the books she bought during that time.
"I'm an avid literacy proponent. I go to the schools, I read to the students, I talk to many people. I figured I would make books available, and I'm an avid reader myself. You can't talk on something if you don't know it firsthand," Carlisle said. "I don't apologize for buying the books."
Council president Gene Ricciardi has spent more than $1,300 on framing pictures, election certificates and other items -- even though he has more items than he has room to hang them, the newspaper found. Ricciardi has many framed items piled up in an office filing cabinet.
"I realize I have framing issues. I would just hope it's looked at as a package," said Ricciardi, noting that he's never taken the $150 monthly mileage reimbursement to which he's entitled. That amounts to about $25,000 since Ricciardi took office in 1990.
Ricciardi noted he's taken two 2-percent pay cuts in the last two years.
Other findings
The newspaper found various other expenditures, including more than $1,400 for Christmas cards by Carlisle and Councilman Sala Udin.
Udin said he last bought the cards in December 2002, just before the city's worst financial problems.
"We had not laid off any workers and had not filed for Act 47," Udin said. "Would I make such expenditures now, in light of Act 47 and layoffs? I don't think so."
Miscellaneous spending by city council and other departments is a small fraction of the city's $389 million budget -- coming in at $265,000 this year. Each council member had about $10,500 to spend, an amount that is to be cut to $7,000.
Ricciardi said council members will still be free to spend that money however they wish.
"I'm not going to go into their office and do an inventory," Ricciardi said. "As the president, I'm not going to be a baby sitter."