Mayor may fill finance vacancy - PittsburghLIVE.com Under O'Connor's administrative reorganization, Kunka could become director of the mayor's Management and Budget Office, which might replace the position of finance director. City Council would need to approve a change.This is a great appointment. If I was elected a member of city council, I would, after an extensive interview, in the open, in public, move to approve the changes necessary to allow for a new directorship for Bob O'Connor's Administration.
Scott Kunka gets a great deal of respect from me for the job he has done in the past years. He does not get a new job without sitting on the hot seat for a few minutes. But, he's a good person for these duties. He could offer a lot of insight to the new mayor in an area that is pressing, like few others.
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Mayor may fill finance vacancy
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By Jeremy Boren
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Nearly two months after his inauguration, Mayor Bob O'Connor could name a finance director today to help unknot Pittsburgh's tangled finances, one of the city's most strategic jobs.
City Council Budget Director Scott Kunka appears to have the job, which would boost his annual salary from $71,234 to $92,286. But Kunka's duties and title could differ from those of his predecessor.
Under O'Connor's administrative reorganization, Kunka could become director of the mayor's Management and Budget Office, which might replace the position of finance director. City Council would need to approve a change, Councilman Bill Peduto said.
Kunka, 49, of Point Breeze, started working in the City Controller's Office in April 1984. After working in former Mayor Tom Murphy's budget office and as the city's vehicle fleet manager, he became council's chief budget analyst seven years ago. He has been involved in planning revisions to the city's 2006 $418 million budget since O'Connor took office.
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Acting Finance Director Rich Fees, named to that position last February, earns $92,286 a year. Fees has spent 38 years in the Finance Department and has been city treasurer since 1993.
"I wish we had a finance director. We're working on the budget, for goodness sake," said Jim Roberts, co-director of the city's Act 47 recovery team, a state-run group of analysts charged with guiding the city to financial health. "It would help us in getting together a budget and a five-year plan."
Roberts recommended a few candidates to O'Connor in December, but wouldn't reveal their names or say whether Kunka was among them.
Fees' time as an acting director under O'Connor is set to run out at the end of March. The City Code says Fees should have been replaced or confirmed as a full director within 90 days of becoming acting director under former Mayor Tom Murphy. The provision was put in place to stop mayors from appointing directors without council's approval.
"Out of courtesy, council has decided to restart the clock for Mayor O'Connor. Otherwise, Rich Fees could not be acting director," Peduto said.
O'Connor is still negotiating budget changes with another state-appointed oversight board, the Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority, which rejected two versions of the city budget last year and must approve changes.
Last week, O'Connor and the overseers tentatively agreed to increase the Fire Bureau's budget to nearly $48 million, up from $43.03 million, to cover anticipated overtime costs. The new budget also could increase the Police Bureau's $64.6 million budget for the same reason.
Jeremy Boren can be reached at jboren@tribweb.com or (412) 765-2312.
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