December 22, 2004: Headlines: COS - Paraguay: Politics: City Government: Pittsburgh Post Gazette: RPCV Tom Murphy, the second longest serving mayor in Pittsburgh history, announced yesterday that he would not seek a fourth term, saying he wants to spend more time with his family and end the political fighting that has come to symbolize his tenure
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December 22, 2004: Headlines: COS - Paraguay: Politics: City Government: Pittsburgh Post Gazette: RPCV Tom Murphy, the second longest serving mayor in Pittsburgh history, announced yesterday that he would not seek a fourth term, saying he wants to spend more time with his family and end the political fighting that has come to symbolize his tenure
RPCV Tom Murphy, the second longest serving mayor in Pittsburgh history, announced yesterday that he would not seek a fourth term, saying he wants to spend more time with his family and end the political fighting that has come to symbolize his tenure
RPCV Tom Murphy, the second longest serving mayor in Pittsburgh history, announced yesterday that he would not seek a fourth term, saying he wants to spend more time with his family and end the political fighting that has come to symbolize his tenure
Murphy won't seek 4th term
Battle-scarred mayor says it's time to leave
Wednesday, December 22, 2004
By Timothy McNulty, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Tom Murphy, the second longest serving mayor in Pittsburgh history, announced yesterday that he would not seek a fourth term, saying he wants to spend more time with his family and end the political fighting that has come to symbolize his tenure.
"I love this job but there are parts of it that are very difficult. It is not an easy job being the mayor of Pittsburgh and being an agent of change in this city. I think after 12 years it is time to move forward into something else," Murphy said at a news conference yesterday morning, with his wife, Mona, at his side.
"It was really a personal decision on my part. I'm 60 years old and there's lots of things I want to do with my life."
Murphy began his first term in 1994, as a deal that had kept the Pirates in business was falling apart. That issue grew into debates on publicly financed stadiums, which remain a political fault line in Pittsburgh today.
He pushed economic development projects that triumphed, particularly industrial reclamation projects like the South Side Works, and others that failed miserably, like a new, taxpayer-financed Lazarus department store that now sits empty Downtown.
Through it all, Murphy's city flirted with bankruptcy, as he put off full-scale changes to the city's finances for his first two terms and made fiscal moves that would wreak havoc later, including a generous contract agreement with the city firefighters union on the eve of the 2001 Democratic primary, and the union's subsequent endorsement of him.
County and federal authorities are continuing to explore whether Murphy traded the contract -- which contained a no-layoff clause -- in return for the union's endorsement and whether such a quid pro quo would have violated state or federal statutes. Prosecutors in the joint investigation interviewed fire union chief Joseph King in May, according to King's lawyer, Patrick Nightingale.
King in April drew renewed attention to the contract and endorsement when he railed against Murphy after the mayor announced that the city was financially unable to honor the terms of the deal.
Murphy finally decided to confront Pittsburgh's ailing finances head-on in his third term, which started in 2002. Again, it caused conflicts, as he laid off hundreds of city workers in 2003 and watched the city's credit rating slip to junk status later that year.
Finally, with the help of fiscal task forces, the mayor last month won state approval for new payroll taxes and the first increase in the occupation privilege tax in 40 years. They were matched with huge city spending cuts, mostly to personnel -- difficult for a labor-friendly city to swallow.
The battles took their toll, Murphy said yesterday. After talking the matter over with family and close friends in recent days, he said he doubted whether he could be an effective leader if he tried for another four-year term.
"I've not been afraid to get into that conflict and that, for better or for worse, is part of my legacy. I enjoy conflict. I enjoy the necessity of getting things done and what that means. I tried to do the very best job in any case. If I've offended people I apologize, but they need to know it was with the best of intentions," he said.
"There's no better job in America than being the mayor of Pittsburgh. I love the job. It's a question of whether you can still be effective in a job after so much controversy for so long."
Fittingly, Murphy made his announcement yesterday after signing into law Pittsburgh's new $417 million 2005 budget, which relies on the new 0.55 percent payroll tax and $52 occupation privilege tax to stay in balance.
The city's fiscal oversight board also met to ratify that budget. Under state law, that final ratification means the city and its agencies can now borrow money, including the $40 million line of credit the city will need to pay its bills next year.
Murphy said he plans to serve out the year left in his term, which will give him 12 years in office. That will pass the 11 years the late Mayor Richard S. Caliguiri served before his death in 1988. David L. Lawrence served for 13 years before he became governor in 1959.
Murphy said he wants to remain in public service and is thinking of returning to the Peace Corps; he and his wife served in Paraguay in the early 1970s.
Murphy's unpopularity swelled over the past year -- especially among city workers and old-guard Democratic Party officials -- after the layoffs in August 2003, the state's appointment of the fiscal oversight board (which took away much of the city's budgeting power) and the subsequent approval of the Act 47 fiscal recovery plan.
Because of that unpopularity, those mulling a run for the mayor's office next year knew they probably would not have to run against Murphy.
Possible candidates include former council President Bob O'Connor, who lost to Murphy in the 1997 and 2001 mayoral primaries; City Councilman William Peduto; Allegheny County Prothonotary Michael Lamb; City Controller and county Democratic Party chairman Tom Flaherty and maybe others.
None was ready to formally announce yesterday.
O'Connor, 60, of Squirrel Hill, said, "This is a very serious time, and I think myself or any other possible candidate has to be totally prepared to bring some change to this city."
Peduto, 40, of Shadyside, said he may run for mayor while also running for re-election to his City Council seat. "I have a record that shows where I stand -- on what I've done, not what I say I will do," he said.
Lamb, 42, of Mount Washington, said he will make an announcement early next month.
Murphy's announcement "makes the mayor's race a wide-open affair, which is great," Lamb said. "It lets people look at the race as a new race. It's not about [Murphy] being re-elected or not."
Flaherty, 54, of Shadyside, said he would be the sole candidate who warned that the city was heading into a fiscal nightmare. He has been controller since 1984.
"I'm on one side of the street and all the other candidates are on the other, and that's a good place to be," he said. "If I run that's how I'm going to run it. They're all the same. They're either supportive of Murphy or have been quiet and I've been neither."
The race is usually decided by the Democratic primary, because the party has a 5-to-1 registration edge over Republicans in the city. Republican Committee of Pittsburgh chairman Bob Hillen said yesterday the party is still lining up candidates.
The primary is May 17.
(Tim McNulty can be reached at tmcnulty@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1542.)
When this story was posted in December 2004, this was on the front page of PCOL:
| Our debt to Bill Moyers Former Peace Corps Deputy Director Bill Moyers leaves PBS next week to begin writing his memoir of Lyndon Baines Johnson. Read what Moyers says about journalism under fire, the value of a free press, and the yearning for democracy. "We have got to nurture the spirit of independent journalism in this country," he warns, "or we'll not save capitalism from its own excesses, and we'll not save democracy from its own inertia." |
| Is Gaddi Leaving? Rumors are swirling that Peace Corps Director Vasquez may be leaving the administration. We think Director Vasquez has been doing a good job and if he decides to stay to the end of the administration, he could possibly have the same sort of impact as a Loret Ruppe Miller. If Vasquez has decided to leave, then Bob Taft, Peter McPherson, Chris Shays, or Jody Olsen would be good candidates to run the agency. Latest: For the record, Peace Corps has no comment on the rumors. |
| The Birth of the Peace Corps UMBC's Shriver Center and the Maryland Returned Volunteers hosted Scott Stossel, biographer of Sargent Shriver, who spoke on the Birth of the Peace Corps. This is the second annual Peace Corps History series - last year's speaker was Peace Corps Director Jack Vaughn. |
| Charges possible in 1976 PCV slaying Congressman Norm Dicks has asked the U.S. attorney in Seattle to consider pursuing charges against Dennis Priven, the man accused of killing Peace Corps Volunteer Deborah Gardner on the South Pacific island of Tonga 28 years ago. Background on this story here and here. |
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Story Source: Pittsburgh Post Gazette
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