Of course, the big story (is that term copyrighted?) today is about an appeals court decision to uphold the convictions of former city treasurer Corey Kemp and four other businessmen who were found guilty on various corruption charges a couple years ago.
(Daily News, WHYY, Inquirer versions of the story)
Defense lawyers are pledging to keep fighting this all the way to the top, meaning that this will continue to be a story for quite some time.
Since these convictions came down, we've seen the passage of various city laws designed to regulate campaign finance and choke off the opportunities for "pay to play" that were the basis for this investigation. An independent ethics board was approved by the voters and put into place in time to exercise some enforcement power over this past mayoral primary. A new Inspector General was named and he has since gone on the rampage against all manner of lower level corruption. And, of course, a candidate who ran on his record of putting many of those anti-corruption pieces in place emerged as the winner of the Democratic primary.
Now we have a general election in which both candidates are about as free and clear of their respective party machines as we can hope for. What do you want to hear from them, collectively and individually? If you're a Republican or someone who is so fed up with the Democratic power structure in Philly, what are you looking for from Al Taubenberger? Can Michael Nutter ever fully earn your trust?
I ask you the readers... what's the next step in the process of removing the dreaded "corrupt and contented" epithet from this city? (And no, you can't just say "remove the current mayor.") Is there anything left to do or are we, as one councilwoman once said, "ethic'd out?"
Comments (1)
Blow up city services. Start from scratch. People are so entrenched in the status quo, that it only take a massive change to wake everyone up.
A redraft of the Charter would be an interesting start, rewriting the way the City delivers services. I know this was a non starter under Rendell, but maybe people are so fed up with stagnation in this City that we could finally get it through.
Posted by aw | August 28, 2007 3:27 PM