Five months after Pittsburgh City Council approved a new ethics code that imposes stringent guidelines on how officials report gifts, a city department still hasn't created the forms for them to use.
The guidelines approved by City Council in May require public officials to report gifts they receive valued at more than $100 on forms developed by the City Information Systems Department. Completed forms are to be posted online and available for public viewing.
As of Tuesday, the forms weren't available to officials.
"I believe it is essential that these changes to the ethics code be immediately enforced," said Councilman Bill Peduto, who sent a letter about the guidelines to Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's office last week. "This has been on the books since May, and to date we have nothing."
Ethics Hearing Board members looked to revise the code after the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and the Pittsburgh Penguins paid for Ravenstahl to attend the $9,000-a-head Mario Lemieux Celebrity Invitational golf outing in June 2007, according to a summary of how the guidelines were developed. Members of the Ethics Hearing Board could not be reached for comment.
"If they're serious about reporting gifts, they should have (the forms). There's no reason they shouldn't have all the mechanics done," said Morton Coleman, director emeritus of the University of Pittsburgh Institute of Politics. "It's really silly. If this was done in May and they still haven't put the forms together in the middle of October, somebody's not really serious about this."
Ravenstahl spokeswoman Joanna Doven referred questions to Kate DeSimone, senior counsel for City Information Systems.
DeSimone said the department plans to roll out electronic forms by the end of the month. The delay came from dealing with last month's Group of 20 economic summit and Right to Know requests, said DeSimone, who also is city's Right to Know officer.
"That's our last remaining hurdle. They're waiting for me to give them a list of people" who will need to fill out the forms, she said.
Public officials file a disclosure of interest form with the city controller's office once a year, but the form doesn't require a listing of gifts, said City Controller Michael Lamb. Officials also fill out a statement of financial interests for the State Ethics Commission, which requires them to report gifts received that are valued at more than $250.
"The (city) form doesn't have a place for (gifts), and if the ethics law says we should be doing it, we should be doing it," Lamb said. "I can see if they were having problems getting the online version up, but there's no excuse (not) to at least have a paper form."
