Mayor Luke Ravenstahl Grilled Over Stanley Cup Travel Expense

Detroit Trip Cost Taxpayers For Pittsburgh Mayor's Security

POSTED: 11:02 pm EDT May 27, 2008
UPDATED: 11:18 pm EDT May 28, 2008

PITTSBURGH -- Mayor Luke Ravenstahl traveled to Detroit with his brothers and a bodyguard to watch the Penguins play Games 1 and 2 of the Stanley Cup final.

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Before he left the city last week, Ravenstahl said, “I won't use any city dollars whatsoever to make any trips to Detroit, but I want to make a determination of what's appropriate and what's not before I make a decision or not on whether to go.”

On Wednesday, Ravenstahl said he and his family paid for their game tickets, meals and lodging in Detroit, but they were driven by his police bodyguard in a city vehicle, on the recommendation of Public Safety Director Michael Huss.

The bodyguard got into the game free. The city picked up the tab for gas, for the bodyguard's food and lodging and for his overtime, WTAE Channel 4's Jon Greiner reported.

During an impromptu media session on Wednesday morning, Ravenstahl was asked if he would reimburse the city for the expense of bringing a bodyguard to Detroit. In response, he repeatedly told reporters to talk to Huss, who was not present.

"I didn't necessarily want to take one, but he made me take one, due to the fact that you all had me on TV cutting a Red Wing (at a fan rally), you all had me on TV that I was going to Detroit, and it was on TV in Detroit," Ravenstahl said. "They advised that, because of the fact that 95 percent of that arena was going to be Red Wings fans, it would be appropriate to have security with me."

After about three minutes of Ravenstahl referring questions to Huss, WTAE Channel 4 Action News reporter Bob Mayo said, "Respectfully, mayor, my question isn't about the judgment call to send security. My question is about the costs of travel."

Ravenstahl responded, "Respectfully, I'd like to answer some other questions."

According to multiple sources, the late Mayor Bob O'Connor paid for all of his family's expenses and did not travel with a bodyguard when he went to Detroit for Super Bowl XL in 2006.

When Ravenstahl was asked about that, he again directed reporters to Huss.

On Tuesday, Huss said, “We felt that it was necessary to provide that security. Obviously, with the 20,000 fans that are out there, we felt it was important that he had an officer with him.

"Whether he's on official city business or is downtown, we still need to provide security for him. If it's something private, if it's not something where he's out in a crowd, then we wouldn't provide it at those times, but for the most part we provide him security any time we feel it's necessary.”

Huss said if Ravenstahl goes back to Detroit for Game 5 of the series, he'll have a bodyguard.

"I think it's ridiculous to ask him to reimburse for the city fuel because this trip happened to be in city of Detroit at a hockey game and not some other local trip that he was taking," said Huss.

Huss doesn't have a figure for what the first trip cost the city. He estimated $500 plus whatever overtime the detective put in.

The mayor's spending ethics have been called into question before.

Ravenstahl has used a city police SUV to take friends to a Post-Gazette Pavilion concert in Burgettstown, Washington County; flown with the Penguins' owners to dinner in New York while negotiations over a new arena were ongoing; and played in the Mario Lemieux Celebrity Invitational charity golf tournament, paid for by UPMC, when the company's large new sign atop the U.S. Steel building was being discussed.

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