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Interim Director Takes Command Of Embattled ICA

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An interim leader started work Monday at Pittsburgh’s state financial oversight board, taking over for an outgoing director who’s currently under investigation for the loss or destruction of fiscal records.

G. Reynolds “Renny” Clark, a former executive at Westinghouse Electric and the University of Pittsburgh, will serve as the Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority’s new Interim Executive Director after Henry Sciortino was dismissed over accusations of mismanagement of years' worth of financial data and possible violations of state ethics laws.

"Renny shares the board’s commitment to openness, transparency and good government principles," said B.J. Leber, the ICA's new Board Chair, in a statement Monday. "The entire board looks forward to working with him to right the ship and do the work that the ICA is charged with doing.”

Sciortino will be paid $12,000 for the month of May, after which point his contract will expire. His replacement will be paid $9,000 per month until a long-term replacement can be found.

City Controller Michael Lamb, who released his annual financial report Monday, said he’s hopeful that Clark and a largely-new ICA board will release long-withheld gaming tax revenues to the city.

“My guess is with the new members of the ICA, at least in the conversations I’ve heard at their meetings, if the city were to ask for release, there would be an additional release of funds to the city at this point,” Lamb said.

Lamb said he’s hopeful that city leaders will also drop their lawsuit against the ICA, which was meant to force the board to release roughly $17 million in gaming tax revenues to the city’s coffers. Aside from a $2.9 million release of 2014 gaming funds in January, the ICA has been sitting on all tax revenue from Rivers Casino gambling for the past two years.