So Democratic candidate Michael Nutter was havin' some fun over the weekend, signing up volunteers at Lucky Strike Lanes, cleaning up in Port Richmond and getting down on the Parkway at the Campus Philly kickoff.
Enjoy it, Mike!
We've said it before, and I know that Nutter knows it, but this really IS his honeymoon. If you accept what seems inevitable -- that Nutter will win in a landslide in November -- and look ahead even to the months between the election and the inauguration, you see that things are going to get tough quickly.
Take the upcoming renegotiation of city union contracts.
Patrick Kerkstra of the Inquirer had a story Sunday that seems to indicate just how darn hard it's going to be. It was a profile of Cathy Scott, the tough 62-year-old woman who just took over leadership of the city's white-collar municpal union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees District Council 47.
Scott has 6,500 members, backbone and something she wants out of the city by the time the current deal expires in June, 2008:
Scott said yesterday that she'd be looking for a deal that would 1) maintain current health benefits, 2) grant an across-the-board wage increase so her members' income could keep pace with the rising price of city living, and 3) grant still-larger wage hikes for workers in some departments that DC 47 considers underpaid, such as recreation, health and the library.
Oh, okay!
Now, it's too early to say just how Nutter's going to handle the union negotiations. He's a savvy pol who knows he will have to give to get. But, as city budget watchdogs PICA have said over and over and over again, the city's current fiscal trends cannot continue. That means the unions, including DC 47, may have to sacrifice. And I am not sure they are are ready for that.
Should be an interesting spring for Nutt... I mean, for whichever of these two deserving candidates wins the mayoralty.