Former Mayor Casts Blame on Current One for Penguins Mess

KDKA's Jon Delano sat down with former Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy to talk about the city's crisis du jour. And Mr. Murphy -- never one to hold back, even when he probably should -- had quite a bit to say about Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato, and current Interim Mayor Luke "Flip Flop" Ravenstahl. The former mayor made it clear that the current political leadership in the city and county have dropped the ball on this one, and -- what a suprise -- their mistakes are likely end up costing us a bit more tax money.

To begin with, Mr. Murphy makes a point that I have often made myself. If the taxpayers are going to be asked to fund a sporting venue, we are better off doing so with an arena than with a football or baseball stadium:

"Of the three facilities, the baseball park, the football stadium, and the arena, the arena is the no-brainer because it can be used 250 times a year," said Murphy. "We've all gone to the arena for things other than the hockey."

To this, I would add that an arena also takes up less space, requires fewer parking spaces, and causes fewer traffic problems than these larger outdoor venues.

The former mayor then goes on to describe the key mistake that Mr. Onorato and Master Ravenstahl have made in these negotiations, why things have moved so slowly, why tonight represents the first face-to-face meeting between the principals since mid-January, and why personality problems are so prominent at this sensitive time:

Former Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy says there is no doubt, mistakes have been made.

"The key to it all is to have somebody who is every day focused on mediating the numbers and the disagreements and the issues of personality that will inevitably be in this," said Murphy.

He believes the lack of that point person is hurting Pittsburgh.

"Seems to me, really in more recent days even more so, seems to be missing in these conversations that there's no one person that all the parties respect that is able to pull them back together and keep them moving forward and mediating their disagreements," Murphy added.

Murphy says the Penguins are different from the teams he negotiated with.

"I have to say when we were negotiating with the Pirates and the Steelers, there were tense moments, but I think all recognized that we were partners in this together and we were trying to get to a common solution," said Murphy. "I don't see that camaraderie in these discussions."

Perhaps Dan Onorato and Luke Ravenstahl failed to appoint a dedicated mediator because they were so willing to acquiesce leadership on this issue to the Governor. If so, then Mr. Murphy points out that this was yet another mistake on their part:

So was it a mistake for Dan Onorato and Luke Ravenstahl to let Governor Rendell take the lead?

"I think it is," said Murphy. "Fundamentally, this is a local issue. I do believe that the local officials ought to be driving this. In some ways, they have a lot more at stake here."

Perhaps the funniest part of the story comes when Tom Murphy tries to restrain himself, and then finds that he just can't help but be anyone but Tom Murphy. For example, he hedges a bit and makes the appropriate linguistic gestures by saying:

"I don't want to second-guess Mayor Luke or Dan on this," [Murphy] said.

But then he plows right on and does it anyway:

"I'd be working at it night and day. It's certainly not something that I would let linger, and this seems... It seems like every few weeks they're meeting. If you remember what we were doing, we were pretty much meeting every day. This is a deal that is very, very doable if someone would pay attention to it more than every couple weeks."

Whether you like Tom Murphy or not -- and I don't -- you've got to admit that our current situation supports his argument. The arena talks with the Penguins have gone on and on and on, and have lasted far longer than any of us ever thought they would when they began at the start of the year. Meetings have been held on only an irregular and infrequent basis, which has seemed more and more strange as time has gone on. This delay has done nothing except allow the Penguins to build into a bit of an understandable rage, and to carry on their discussions with other cities. Now that Kansas City officials have sweetened their offer to the team, it seems likely that this delay will require our state and local leaders to either offer even more to the Penguins, or run the risk of allowing the team to relocate.

Maybe we'll know more about where things stand later on tonight. But things never should have been allowed to reach this point, and the negotiations should never have been allowed to drag on so long. It puts our city in a very weak negotiating position, and has put the Penguins in the driver's seat. The only question at this point is whether they will end up behind the wheel of a Zamboni or a U-Haul. Either way, it's going to be a costly outcome for Pittsburgh.