PITTSBURGH -- Earlier this year, Team 4 investigative reporter Jim Parsons exposed bonuses and big salaries for executives at the Allegheny County Airport Authority.

Now, he has a look at some of the perks that go with working at the government agency that oversees Pittsburgh International Airport -- and you paid for it.

We're not talking about overseas trips that airport authority executives and board members have taken recently with public funds to places like Hawaii, Sweden, Switzerland, China and the Netherlands. This is a story about what airport authority executives spent here in Pittsburgh.

How's this for starters? The authority took hundreds of people to a Pirates game -- and not just any game.

In the seven-year history of PNC Park, no Pirates ticket has been more difficult to get than the series-opening game against the New York Yankees on June 24. It was the Yankees' first visit to Pittsburgh since Bill Mazeroski won the 1960 World Series with a walk-off homer at Forbes Field.

Though you may not have been able to get a ticket to last month's game, executives from the airport authority did. In fact, they bought 522 tickets to that game with public funds.

"We took 500 people to a Pirate game," said airport authority CEO Brad Penrod.

Penrod hosted an association of airport executives in Pittsburgh the day the Yanks came to town. He said he wanted those visitors to see the best of Pittsburgh.

"Part of what we do is market the region. We market the airport," he said.

The cost for that marketing excursion to PNC Park was $34,000 for tickets and catering for 522 people. Guests also received a visor as a gift of the airport authority. That was another $1,200.

The authority claims sponsors helped defray the total cost by $20,000, leaving the final tab for the public at $15,700.

Team 4 has also learned the airport authority spent over $4,000 throwing a party at the exclusive, private Duquesne Club last September. It was a farewell dinner for outgoing CEO Kent George.

"He had done a lot for the organization, and so we hosted a farewell dinner for him," Penrod said.

George resigned his $215,000-a-year position in Pittsburgh to earn an even higher salary as chief of Fort Lauderdale's airport. Before he left, Allegheny County Airport Authority gave George a $20,000 bonus and more than $40,000 in accrued vacation and sick time -- and on top of that, a going-away party.

"Is it proper for a public agency to be paying for send-off parties?" Parsons asked.

"We think it was the right thing to do for a person of his stature both within the community and the industry," Penrod said.

When we informed county Chief Executive Dan Onorato about the party, he wasn't so sure it was the right thing to do.

"When I hear going away parties, I frown on that. I don't like spending money on those types of things," Onorato said.

The airport authority also got George a going-away plaque at a trophy shop. Cost to the public? $175.

Other expenses by the authority?

• Lunch meetings at local restaurants like Quaker Steak and Lube, where only authority employees attended.
• A $93 round of golf at Valley Brook Country Club.
• More than $8,000 for 11 employees to stay several nights at the Sheraton Station Square, where the authority hosted a trade conference.
• $2,200 for tickets to the U.S. Open at Oakmont.

"There are airline individuals who are huge golf fans. We know that, just because we know them. And so, we took them to the U.S. Open as part of relationship building," Penrod said.

Penrod says the airline execs worked for US Airways and Southwest.

"That's total nonsense, as far as I'm concerned," said Chuck McCullough, a county councilman and a frequent critic of the airport authority.

"This kind of behavior that you're telling me about does not go on as a practice within Allegheny County. This is out of the norm, and frankly, I'm very concerned about it. And it's more reason again why we need to break this authority up and change how we do business out there," McCullough said.

McCullough has two pending bills before county council that would do just that. One would turn the airport authority back over to the direct control of county government and the other would privatize it. Both bills are stalled in committee.

Also, McCullough disputes the airport authority's claim that no public funds are involved, since its operating revenue comes largely from fees on airlines.

McCullough says the airport gets millions in government grants, not to mention parking revenue and a special passenger fee on every ticket.