Cloonan, Patrick. “Vacancies remain as RAD board reorganizes
directors.” The Daily News,
The Daily News,
Tuesday Afternoon, March 28, 2006
Vacancies remain as RAD board
reorganizes directors
By PATRICK CLOONAN
Daily News Staff Writer
pcloonan@dailynewsemail.com
©The
Daily News 2006
Allegheny Regional Asset District’s board of directors has reorganized,
even with one vacancy remaining and another seat up for grabs.
At Monday’s meeting in
Pittsburgh, Rick Pierchalski, acting RAD board
chairman since the resignation of Charles Zappala, was elected to
continue in that role for the rest of 2006.
Zappala’s replacement must be named by Allegheny County Executive Dan
Onorato.
Onorato’s nomination to a new term of Regional Business Alliance
Executive Director Constance L. Yarris of Jefferson Hills was confirmed
by county council last month. Yarris will serve through the end of
2007.
Pierchalski and one-time RAD board Chairman Daniel J. Griffin also are
Onorato nominees.
Monday night.
Pittsburgh Mayor Bob O’Connor chooses two of the six members of the RAD
board. His choices of Robert D. Jones and Stanley J. Parker replaced
two charter members of the RAD board, Joyce Baskins and Gerald Voros.
Griffin of O’Hara Twp. and Yarris are the only RAD members who are not
At Pierchalski’s motion,
Jones was chosen vice chairman. Yarris
nominated Parker for secretary-treasurer.
A seventh member must be
chosen by a consensus of the other six. That
seat, now held by Dr. Herman A. Jones Jr., has to be reopened and Jones
or a replacement chosen for a new term in June.
A list of regional economic
and community development organizations
will get requests for nominations. Nominations will be accepted until
April 28.
More details on the
nomination process are available at
www.radworkshere.org.
RAD Executive Director David
L. Donahoe was chosen as assistant
secretary-treasurer.
“It’s a fairly common
practice in a lot of government agencies,” RAD
Chief Counsel Jim Norris said.
Pierchalski named Yarris,
committee; Yarris, Parker and Onorato’s next RAD appointee to RAD’s
library committee; and
RAD’s audit committee.
Herman Jones was retained as
liaison to RAD’s Community Advisory Board.
The RAD directors also filled four vacancies on that board, with one
seat going to Clairton insurance broker F. Charles Spence.
RAD officials noted Spence
has been active in a number of civic and
charitable efforts, including Regional Business Alliance,
Initiative, Mon Valley Education Consortium and Community Economic
Development Corp. of Clairton.
Also named to fill advisory
board vacancies were Marilyn Coleman of
Edgewood, Ralph M. Hale III of Franklin Park and former state Insurance
Commissioner Cynthia M. Maleski of
The RAD board is expected to
schedule a special meeting next month with
the advisory board to discuss policy issues. Normally, that meeting
would have been this month but was delayed to give the RAD board time
to reorganize.
Pierchalski also named
himself,
committee that would evaluate the procedures used to evaluate assets
for RAD funding.
The RAD board also approved
long-term plans for three contractual
regional assets, Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium; Phipps Conservatory &
Botanical Gardens; and the Carnegie Museums.
It also heard a protest from
Glenn A. Walsh of Friends of the Zeiss. He
said
Zeiss projector once displayed in old Buhl Planetarium, despite
promises to do so by the end of last year.
Walsh has been fighting for restoration of the projector and other
artifacts once displayed at Buhl, now part of Pittsburgh Children’s
Museum.