close

Tears shed, but from laughter

2 min read

Few tears were shed in January when the stumbling tenure of Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl came to a merciful end.

However, there might have been moistened eyes the other day when Ravenstahl came back into the headlines. But they were most likely tears from laughter.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported Wednesday that, on the eve of his departure from city hall, the Washington & Jefferson College graduate apparently took a city-owned desktop computer home with him, a fact discovered Jan. 10, four days after Ravenstahl’s successor, Bill Peduto, took office. Once it was returned, officials turned it over to the FBI.

What was Ravenstahl’s explanation for hauling public property home? His lawyer, Charles Porter, told the newspaper that – wait for it – Ravenstahl took it home because he believed that Peduto staffers would grab it, hide it, and then trump up a story that it was missing.

“He didn’t trust the administration,” Porter said, so he absconded with the computer “so that people couldn’t claim any derogatory things about him.”

Excuse us if you just spit out your coffee.

And, believe it or not, there’s more. Peduto says a chandelier and a painting in the mayor’s office were damaged, and an antique clock, a vase from China and a trophy commemorating the Steelers’ 2006 Super Bowl triumph are all gone.

The combined cost of the damage and the value of the missing items is somewhere around $200,000. In this case also, the FBI has been enlisted to investigate.

As we have noted before, when Ravenstahl became Pittsburgh mayor at age 26 following the death of Bob O’Connor, many wondered if he would have the maturity and wisdom for the job. The answer, in retrospect, turned out to be no. If there’s a historical figure to whom Ravenstahl could be compared, perhaps it was a hapless English monarch who sat on the throne about 1,000 years ago. His name? Ethelred the Unready.

CUSTOMER LOGIN

If you have an account and are registered for online access, sign in with your email address and password below.

NEW CUSTOMERS/UNREGISTERED ACCOUNTS

Never been a subscriber and want to subscribe, click the Subscribe button below.

Starting at $3.75/week.

Subscribe Today