Heard in the Hall

It can't be easy being Michael Nutter (i.e., the Ethics Guy). He's about to become the first mayor to limit contributions to his inaugural party fund.
Legally, there are no restrictions concerning money raised for the swearing-in festivities.

The fund will be managed by an inaugural committee, which is being formed, Nutter said Friday. It will function as a nonprofit organization, and not a political action committee, which means it is not subject to the city's campaign-finance limits.

That means that legally, donations of any size - $50,000, $100,000, $1 million should he get really lucky - are acceptable.

But ethically . . . Nutter won't allow it.

"We are being consistent with what we did during the course of the mayor's race, even though the law does not apply," he said. He talked about how the spirit of the law was to reduce the overall impact of individual and business contributions.

The bottom line: If you want to support Nutter's inaugural fete, you can give up to $5,000 if you are an individual, or $20,000 if you are a political committee. Same old rules.

So where's the party going to be?

"I'm not on the site selection committee," Nutter said. "There are a whole group of people working on that. They will figure out a real good location, what food to have, which band to pick."