AM Candidate round-up: Who's doing what, where and to whom (The Next Mayor)

It's time to take a quick glance at today's headlines and the press release archive.

Bob Brady picks up the Law and Order endorsement, getting the District Attorney on Monday and the FOP last night. I couldn't be there but I imagine that it went something like this:

Narrator: In the criminal justice system, the people are represented by two separate yet equally important groups: the police, who investigate crime and endorse Bob Brady; and the district attorneys, who prosecute the offenders and endorse Bob Brady. These are their stories. Boom Boom.

Word on the street is that Fattah, who is all about futuristic crime-fighting technology, and Evans, championing the return of Miami-Dade chief John Timoney, are going to split the CSI and CSI: Miami endorsements. Nutter, likely the smartest but least-watched candidate, will get the nod from NOVA.

Speaking of Nutter, for those of you who want to avoid a certain rally tomorrow, you can go instead to Welcome Plaza to hear Nutter talk about zoning reform. I'm sure they'll mention something about the city plan laid out by William Penn, a plan which you'll be standing on. Attendees will be offered a complimentary wake-up call at the end of the event. But seriously, this is important stuff.

Philadelphia Weekly has a Fattah lovefest for its cover story today. I guess we have this week's trivia question. Which candidate was formerly known as "Arthur Davenport?" The Congressman has also sent out a letter to his opponents calling for four debates.

The Daily News got some reaction from the candidates to a bill that would provide cost of living increases to pensioners in the city worker pension system. If you're keeping score, all of the campaigns answered this question except for Congressman Fattah, who apparently doesn't have access to a phone when he's in DC. Three of the candidates tread lightly since it seems that about 90% of the city's population is either a city worker or a retired city worker. Evans and Nutter are apparently looking out for the other 10% whose taxes pay for these pensions. (editor's note: these percentages can't be verified) This is not the last time this issue will be brought up.

Finally, an op-ed writer for the Inquirer exhorts the candidates to consider the only R-word that invokes more vitriol around here than "Republican" - "Regionalism."

Regionalism was a big topic at the "State of the City" event conducted by the Center City Proprietor's Association and co-sponsored by the Economy League of Greater Philadelphia (formerly the Pennsylvania Economy League). I have video of the event which I'll get up in the next few days. We can use that video to keep "regionalism," the very first topic we talked about on the Next Mayor, fresh in our minds.

Comments (8)

Dave

If I remember correctly, the city employs about 22,000 people. The school district, which is considered a separate entity, employes slightly less. The city's 22k employees make it the third largest employer in the state, behind Wal-Mart and the United State Postal Service.

Having said that, I believe there are many more people on the city's (I.e. taxpayers') payroll than are included in the official count. One example is the plethora of non-profits and CDCs all over the city that receive city funding. Some of these organizations are extremely small and have very unclear goals, along with little or no accountability. Many of them secured their funding through a district council member, often with the help of their ward leader or committee person.

I think 90% is probably an exageration, but it wouldn't surprise me if the actual percentage is much higher than most people would expect.

Posted by Dave | February 28, 2007 2:34 PM

P.S. employees of city contractors also get paid by the city, albeit indirectly. I believe many of them are also enrolled in a city pension program.

Posted by Dave | February 28, 2007 2:40 PM

sj:

private citizens, contractors and people working for non profits are not getting Pensions from the city. You need to actually work for the City of Phila to get the benefits offered to city workers. The 22,000 figure can be verified but it might be a lot harder to determine how many retirees are collecting pensions right now.

Posted by sj | February 28, 2007 3:12 PM

To clarify, I wasn't trying to say that all those people I mentioned are on the city's pension system, except where I said so explicitly (I have heard that some contractors get put on the pension system, though I haven't confirmed it, and don't know what type of contractor that would be). My comments were mostly in response to the comment about the disproportionate percentage of people in Philadelphia who work for the city.

Posted by Dave | February 28, 2007 5:02 PM

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