Pittsburgh City Council and Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's office appear ready to resolve a month-long dispute over the makeup of the Citizen Police Review Board, but it won't make everyone happy.

In the end, officials said, all or most of the people Mr. Ravenstahl nominated for the seven-member board in June will be confirmed by council.

The compromise will reinforce council's role in the nomination process, and council will tighten the rules for future nominations.

Ousted would be review board Chairwoman Marsha Hinton and board member Mary Ann Guercio. Elizabeth Pittinger, the board's executive director, hoped that both would be reappointed to new terms.

In all, Mr. Ravenstahl on June 18 said he wanted to replace five board members and reappoint two others to new terms. His office announced the proposal as board officials were in court seeking access to police records for a report on the G-20 summit.

The proposed shakeup strained the administration's already-rocky relationship with the review board and angered some council members, who feared the mayor was trying to sabotage the board's investigation of police conduct during the summit.

Fanning the flames was vague language in the City Code over how seats are filled.

Mr. Ravenstahl denied that he was trying to thwart the G-20 investigation. Noting that the terms of all board members had expired and that some had moved out of the city, he said it was high time to act. Since June, council has delayed a confirmation vote on Mr. Ravenstahl's nominees while considering legislation to clarify the nomination process. Mr. Ravenstahl, for his part, has refused to modify his list of nominees.

On Tuesday, council took an unlikely step toward ending the stalemate by nominating nine residents for board seats, again postponing action on Mr. Ravenstahl's list and delaying for one week a vote on the clarifying legislation.

The mayor and council both have a role in shaping board membership. The mayor nominates three people of his choosing and selects four others from a list of names provided by council. Council then votes to confirm all seven.

The key to resolving the current dispute is in the list of nominees council approved Tuesday.

It includes three of the people Mr. Ravenstahl already nominated for the four seats that must be filled with council input. The three are Larimer pastor Eugene Downing Jr., Brighton Heights activist Donna Kramer and Sheraden civic leader Deborah Whitfield.

That list also included two of Mr. Ravenstahl's personal nominees from June -- Beltzhoover crime activist Richard Carrington and former University of Pittsburgh police officer Deborah Walker. Both are board veterans, and Mr. Ravenstahl proposed reappointing them.

To keep his June list of seven nominees intact, Mr. Ravenstahl need only move either Mr. Carrington or Ms. Walker to his side of the ledger and tap Community College of Allegheny County student Leshonda Roberts and former city police detective Diana O'Brien Martini with his other two picks. Ms. Roberts originally was a council nominee. Ms. O'Brien Martini was a mayoral pick in June.

Councilman R. Daniel Lavelle stopped short of saying council will confirm the June list intact but said the end result would be similar. The mayor's office agreed.

Ms. Hinton and Dr. Guercio would be ousted under any plan to stick with the June nominees. They were on the council's list of nominees but aren't likely to be reappointed. Also on council's list were Squirrel Hill resident John Detwiler and University of Pittsburgh graduate student Brett Caloia. The compromise would leave them without seats, too.

In June, some council members said they didn't know the nomination process was under way and had no opportunity to recommend names to Mr. Ravenstahl. Council President Darlene Harris said she asked each member to submit a name for council list.

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