Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's pension bailout proposal is facing a dogfight in Pittsburgh City Council.

Council tentatively approved a financial study of the city's parking garages and meters Wednesday, over objections from investment advisers working on the mayor's plan to privately lease the assets for 50 years and generate $200 million for the city's ailing pension plan.

Investment firm Morgan Stanley -- which is overseeing the lease plan for the Pittsburgh Parking Authority -- is set to issue requests for proposals next month from private firms interested in leasing the parking assets. Two members of the firm flew from New York City early Wednesday to urge the study not be approved, but instead got a nearly four-hour grilling from suspicious council members.

Councilman Bruce Kraus read the pair long passages from the Chicago Sun-Times criticizing Morgan Stanley's handling of a similar parking lease deal in Chicago. Finance Chair William Peduto did the same from a critical June 2009 Chicago Inspector General report. Council President Darlene Harris quizzed the Morgan Stanley execs on how -- just hours after she introduced the parking study bill on Tuesday -- they obtained her private cell phone number. (They got it from Mr. Ravenstahl's office.)

Her measure calls on the Government Finance Officers Association to independently study the worth of the city's parking garages and meters and other options for bailing out the pension fund, including giving the city's pension board control of the garages or floating a bond issue with the proceeds of increased parking fees.

Morgan Stanley managing director Perry Offutt -- joined by Bill Daley Jr., the nephew of Chicago's mayor -- warned council against approving the study, saying it would possibly scare off investors and cost the city money.

"We want to make sure within the marketplace there isn't confusion," Mr. Offutt said. An outside study "could definitely impact the value we're trying to achieve on behalf of the city."

"We would be remiss as a council and a city if we didn't look at all the facts on the table," answered Councilwoman Natalia Rudiak, a parking authority board member.

"If the market is fearful of having a dialogue on options, covering the public's money, there's something really wrong with that," said Mr. Peduto.

Council preliminarily voted 8-1 to approve the study, with Councilman Ricky Burgess' negative vote. A public study of the parking assets will have "a chilling effect on this process. ... It will possibly reduce the amount of money we'll be able to monetize [the assets] for."

If the city does not get the full $200 million from the lease -- or the entire proposal is scuttled -- that will lead to huge tax increases on city residents, he warned.

A final vote on the study measure is set for Tuesday. The General Assembly has given Pittsburgh until November to save its pension plan, which has nearly $1 billion in long-term obligations but only $296 million on hand.

Council's study would not make a recommendation on what action the city should take, but rather just study the financial impacts of different bailout options, Ms. Rudiak said. The city's Intergovernmental Cooperation Authority oversight board may pick up the study's $50,000 tab.

Mrs. Harris insisted the independent data was needed, saying the proposed 50-year parking lease is one of the most important matters council will ever vote on. In her 33 years in community service, Mrs. Harris said, she has learned to "always get your own figures -- because figures lie and liars figure."

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