ShareThisCalling the impending summit of world leaders an opportunity to learn and a potential wellspring of legislation, a councilman is floating a resolution to create a G-20 Fact-Finding Committee, he said Tuesday.
"I really think it's an opportunity for us to learn," Patrick Dowd, a former history teacher, said of the Sept. 24-25 summit that is expected to draw demonstrators, and has taken up much of the energies of city, Allegheny County and corporate leaders for months. "How did this decision get made? What are the cost-benefit analyses that should be performed, both for government and its citizens?"
Draft legislation he has distributed to council members, and which he plans to introduce next week, raises the possibility of the council compelling the production of documents and demanding officials' attendance at hearings -- powers it has under the city's Home Rule Charter. Dowd, though, said he isn't aiming for a confrontational process.
"It's not a gotcha, point-fingers type of thing," he said of the proposed committee. "It's about what we can learn from this experience.
"I'm not casting any doubts," he added. "I think this G-20 stuff recently is a moment when you've seen the mayor and council work together."
He called for officials to "look at preliminary budgets and let's look at final budgets." Dowd said it was "great" that the administration has set a $16 million cap on city public safety spending -- part of an overall $19.5 million summit budget that also includes some county costs.
He added that it is reasonable to question whether the city, county and federal government should have entered into a formal agreement early in the planning process outlining each one's role, and that the city might want to develop a special procurement process for situations like the summit.
"What we are trying to do is set policy for the future," he said. An online G-20 documents archive might be a resource for other cities, too, he said.
(Rich Lord can be reached at rlord(at)post-gazette.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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