Alecia Sirk, the mayor's former press secretary, didn't do her husband, Pat Ford, any favors last week when she sent an e-mail soliciting donations for his legal defense fund.

Mr. Ford is on paid leave from his post as director of the Urban Redevelopment Authority because of gifts he accepted from an executive of a company that got a no-bid deal and a questionable permit for a digital billboard Downtown. Mr. Ford and Jim Vlasach, real estate manager for Lamar Advertising, are longtime friends, but the question of whether Mr. Ford should have been accepting gifts while a city official went to the State Ethics Commission.

Mr. Ford's lawyer contends the commission has cleared him, but the mayor and a URA lawyer have asked for clarification of his status and he has not been reinstated. In April, at the same time Mr. Ford was placed on leave, Mayor Luke Ravenstahl accepted Ms. Sirk's resignation. She herself had accepted a gift from Mr. Vlasach, although the mayor said that was not the sole reason for her departure.

Mr. Ford's lawyer, Lawrence Fisher, pointed out in an e-mail that the ethics code doesn't apply to gifts from relatives or friends "when the circumstances make it clear that the motivation for the action was a personal or family relationship." Further, he said the value of the items did not exceed the $250 threshold that triggers the reporting requirement.

While Ms. Sirk told Post-Gazette reporter Tim McNulty last week that the requests for financial help went only to friends, her e-mail said, "I am contacting you because I know that you have worked with Pat in the past and appreciate how much he has given to our City." Even Mr. Ford's attorney said the defense fund was "just the good will of a lot of good people in the development community who really feel for Pat and what he's going through."

It doesn't matter that the solicitation came from Ms. Sirk, rather than Mr. Ford himself. It doesn't matter if the gifts are under $250 each. If Pat Ford still doesn't realize he shouldn't be accepting anything of value from his professional contacts -- not just developers but anyone with business before the city -- he has proved again that he doesn't belong at the helm of an important public agency.