Heard in the Hall

Budget hearings continue this week with a full day on the capital program Tuesday.

The 2009 plan calls for nearly $121 million in spending, more than double what was budgeted for this year and the most in seven years. Police and fire departments, whose facilities have been crumbling for years, get a needed boost. Street resurfacing is nearly triple was it was given this year.

Here are some of the big ticket items, which are used for facility improvements unless otherwise specified:

--New juvenile detention facility (separate from Youth Study Center): $21.4 million.
--Street resurfacing: $19.6 million.
--Police: $13.5 million -- $5 million SWAT/bomb squad training facility; $5 for general police buildings; and $3.5 million for Police Tactical Facility and Warehouse.
--Library: $10.4 million -- $9 million to upgrade Central Library, $1.4 million for branches.
--Recreation Department: $10.3 million.
--City Hall: $7.4 million renovations and safety improvements.
--Fire Department: $5.8 million.
--Fairmount Park: $4.5 million.
--Septa Market El project: $3.7 million.
--Penn’s Landing: $2.7 million.
--Schuylkill and Delaware riverfronts: $2.2 million.
--GreenPlan Philadelphia (open space): $2.0 million.
--Navy Yard: $1.7 million.
--Health Department: $1.2 million.

Testimony begins 10 a.m. in Council Chambers Tuesday.

State Sen. Vince Fumo suffered a heart attack last night. He's conscious and resting, but remains in critical condition.

NOTE: This entry has been corrected. Phil Kerwick is facing a recall as Ward Leader -- Councilman Jack Kelly is NOT facing a recall petition. Our apologies.

It was clear by the end of the November election that Phil Kerwick's hold on the 35th
Republican Ward was in danger. Kerwick, who ran for City Council at large, is an outspoken critic, often of his own party, and went against the GOP machine by throwing all his weight behind David Oh, who lost by a sliver to incumbent Jack Kelly. Party leaders even suggested that Kerwick was part of a last-minute smear campaign against Kelly for voting to evict the Boy Scouts of America from their city-owned property, based on the national party's exclusion of homosexuals. (Kerwick and the proud author of the anti-Kelly campaign both deny he was involved).
As punishment for the alleged smear attack, Kerwick was denied his all-important street money on election day, with party leaders saying they wanted to avoid any chance he would spend it on more fliers. Now he's facing a recall petition. A meeting to consider the petition against Kerwick is scheduled for Thursday, 7:30 p.m. at Loudenslager Post, 7976 Oxford Avenue.
Al Schmidt, executive director of the Republican City Committee, dismissed the notion that Kerwick was being punished for supporting Oh.
"The suggestion that this matter has anything to do with Phil Kerwick's support of David Oh last November is absurd," Schmidt said in an e-mail Thursday. "David was an endorsed candidate of Republican City Committee."

Want to have your photo on a Fairmount Park postcard? Check out the release below:

City Councilman W. Wilson Goode Jr. today will be busy tormenting city bureaucrats in a hearing on the city’s hiring of minority firms for city contracts.
Goode’s Committee on Commerce and Economic Development will sink its teeth into the city’s annual report on utilization of minority and female-owned firms. Goode has proposed a bill with a new twist — he wants the administration to rank departments so that he knows who is doing a better job than others.
Goode was the chief critic of building trades unions on their minority makeup in a recent political confrontation over construction of the $700 million Convention Center.
He has already shown in budget hearing that he is going to be no less forgiving of department heads. The hearing begins at 11 a.m.
Later, at 2 p.m., the administration will brief Council on proposed plans to close the Robin Hood Dell East for the 2008 summer concert series. While the Dell East is in bad need of repair, Council members have demanded that the administration find an alternate site for the concerts. Council members were particularly perturbed that they got word of the closure in a budget hearing, without any advance notice.
“It’s discouraging when you hear about something almost by accident,” Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell said yesterday.

The Democratic primary is coming to Pennsylvania. The view from City Hall will be fascinating. Mayor Nutter has of course already endorsed Sen. Clinton. Now, though, we'll get to see what that actually means. Will Nutter go to the mat for a candidate who may not be the choice of a majority of city residents? Will he spend his early political capital on a candidate who remains - despite her big wins last night - at least something of an underdog. It'll be fascinating to see.

In the 1990s, Rendell's relationship with President Clinton was one of the best things the city had going for it. Federal money poured into town. Nutter, obviously, would like to reprise that relationship and if Sen. Clinton wins in Pennsylvania she will owe him big time. Philadelphia and its suburbs are likely to be Obama territory, and Nutter is one of the best hopes Clinton has for limiting the Illinois senator's showing in the region. Of course, if the country ends up with a President Obama instead, Mayor Nutter might not be on the White House Christmas card list.

Nonetheless, the mayor is holding firm for Clinton so far. As he told the Daily News last week: "When I endorse someone, when I say I'm supporting someone, I maintain my support," Nutter said.

Oh, and Register of Wills (and uncommited superdelegate) Ron Donatucci? Get ready to be wooed.

Is this the guy who inspired the Rendelli hoagie (ham, provolone, lettuce, tomato, onion, sweet peppers and pepperoni)?

Governor Rendell Proclaims Older Pennsylvanians’ Nutrition Awareness Week

HARRISBURG – Governor Edward G. Rendell today proclaimed March 10-14 as Older Pennsylvanians’ Nutrition Awareness Week and encouraged people of all ages to consider how simple dietary changes can help to improve their health and enjoyment of life.
“Eating properly is a major factor in staying healthy, and that’s especially true for older adults,” Governor Rendell said. “Pennsylvania is third in the nation for the percentage of seniors and their care and health are very important to me, which is why I encourage them to learn about and practice good nutrition.”

The Robin Hood Dell East 2008 summer concert series will go on whether or not the long-deteriorating venue is closed for repairs, Mayor Nutter’s top aide said yesterday.
Nutter’s chief of staff, Clay Armbrister, told City Council that the administration would find a venue other than the Dell East to hold the concerts or would consider a construction schedule to allow the Dell East to still play host this summer.
“It is our commitment to have entertainment — somewhere,” Armbrister said.
No decisions will be made, Armbrister said, until an engineer’s report determines whether the outdoor amphitheater, which holds 9,000 people, is safe. The most urgent question: whether erosion to the concrete and the ground underneath has created a safety hazard. That report is expected in three weeks.
Council members were up in arms when Armbrister told them in a budget hearing last week that the Dell East would close down for the summer while the city made $3 million in repairs to concrete, drainage, lighting, and replacement of all 5,800 seats (the lawn area seats 3,000 and there is room for 200 wheelchairs).
Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown, chair of the Committee on Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs, said she had a private conversation with Nutter about the lack of notice Council had received, but that he also had assured her that the series would find a home.
“The question is — what venue,” she said.

A long-debated, still controversial proposal to build a 5-star hotel and condominiums on 1.5 acre parcel in Society Hill is expected to move forward in City Council Thursday.
Disctrict Councilman Frank DiCicco is expected to introduce zoning legislation that would allow a 150-room, six--story hotel and a 15-story condo tower to be built on the site between 2nd and Front streets, near South Street. The project, on the former New Market Village site, is now being called Stamper Square. It is to be built by developer Mark Stein.
Critics say the project is too much for the low-rise neighborhood, though the developer is expected to bring neighborhood supporters to Council Thursday.
See what Inquirer achitecture critic Inga Saffron had to say about Stamper Square.

Yesterday, we pondered what Mayor Nutter's support for presidential candidate Hillary Clinton would look like over the next few weeks. The answer? Robust. Nutter said yesterday he would back Clinton to the hilt. Although some African American elected officials who've backed Clinton have been pressured by their consituents to support Barack Obama instead, the consensus among local political observers is that Nutter likely won't be dinged in the least for endorsing Clinton.

The safest course, naturally, is to sit the contest out. But that's not Nutter's style. And from all accounts he is a huge Clinton fan. Heard in the Hall was told Nutter whooped it up louder than anyone Tuesday night as Clinton supporters watched the election results come in at Finnigans Wake in Northern Liberties.

If City Council is any indication of the upcoming Democratic primary fight, it's going to be darn close, with Obama perhaps in for a bit of a groundswell.

As of Thursday, 12 of the 14 Democrats on Council had chosen a side, and it was dead even _ 6 for Clinton, 6 for Obama. Three council members are actually running as Clinton delegates -- Blondell Reynolds Brown, Maria Quinones Sanchez and Marian Tasco. None are on the ballot for Obama. At least two Councilmembers who had been with Clinton previously, Jannie L. Blackwell and Donna Reed Miller, say they are behind Obama now. Miller said she was inundated with Obama calls from young supporters."We value what they say," said Miller.

Council President Anna C. Verna and Majority Whip Darrell Clarke have not yet chosen sides -- or do they seem to relish the prospect of doing so.

Here's the breakdown:

Clinton: Blondell Reynolds Brown, Frank DiCicco, William Greenlee, Joan Krajewski, Maria Quinones Sanchez and Marian Tasco.

Obama: Jannie Blackwell, Wilson Goode Jr., Bill Green, Curtis Jones Jr., Jim Kenney and Donna Reed Miller.

At-large Councilmen Bill Green and W. Wilson Goode Jr., both sons of former mayors, have joined forces to take on the multitude of quasi-public agencies that City leaders have depended on for years to stuff with patronage hires, squirrel away money, and handle pet projects without the same scrutiny aimed at City Hall.
The duo introduced a resolution Thursday for Goode's Committee on Commerce and Economic Development "to hold hearings to inquire and investigate the missions, agreements, funding, policies, structure, business plans, operating and capital budgets, coordination efforts and effectiveness of various economic development departments, authories and agencies operating in the city of Philadelphia."
Good luck, gentlemen. In identifying 43 such entities, from the Art Commission to the Zoning Code Commission, from the Plumbing Advisory Board to the Redevelopment Authority to the Greater Philadelphia Film Office, you have taken on one big assignment.

Voters will be asked to change the City Charter for two initiatives backed by Mayor Nutter, which were cleared for the primary ballot by City Council Thursday.
One measure would allow the mayor to hire up to 10 non-Civil Service deputies per department, an increase from the current limit of two. Nutter has said the measure would both allow a mayor to hire a team to implement policy, while also ending a practice of working around the rules without public scrutiny.
The other ballot question would separate the position of City Representative from the Commerce Department, giving more freedom and authority to the City Representative’s office to market the city. The current City Representative is Melanie Johnson, Nutter's former campaign spokeswoman.
Both are to voted on in the April 22 primary.

Councilman William Greenlee’s bill to prevent the Water Department from cutting off water on days that prevent people turning it back on is headed to Mayor Nutter after getting final Council approval Thursday.http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news_update/20080303_Daniel_Rubin__Lots_of_money_down_the_drain.html
Greenlee said the bill, which prohibits water shutoffs on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and legal holdiays and any day preceding a holiday, “is a fair and reasonable enforcement policy.”
He cautioned that it is not meant as a way for people avoid paying their water bill. The Water Department has $161 million in uncollected bills, according to a recent City Controller’s audit.

"The Republican committeepersons of the 35th ward voted yesterday [Thursday] evening to recall Phil Kerwick as ward leader," Republican City Committee executive director Al Schmidt reported Friday. Kerwick, an outspoken critic of his own party, ran unsuccessfully for City Council and was a vocal opponent of incumbent Jack Kelly. Party leaders accused Kerwick of helping an anti-gay smear campaign against Kelly in the weeks before the election -- a charge Kerwick denied.

UPDATE: Kerwick said the vote was not legitimate and the City Committee "is making a mistake in doing this." Kerwick said he will to appeal to the state Committee.

Baltimore's tourism office probably didn't come courting.

But Mayor Nutter did, and so it was Philadelphia's City Hall that was home tonight to a screening of The Wire's final episode.

It was easy to see why Baltimore might not have had such keen interest, given the storyline of despair among the poor; the mayor's decision to keep hush-hush news that a purported serial killer who murders homeless men didn't really exist; successful efforts to blackmail the police chief who resigned after refusing to play with numbers to make the homicide count drop.

It's stuff that really makes a city shine, huh?

Well, maybe not in Baltimore.

But in Philadephia, the night started with a 7 p.m. popcorn-and-wine reception inside Conversation Hall. Some of the usual suspects were there, including most of the mayor's Cabinet and several department heads (including at least two who admitted they were about to watch their first Wire episode).

But it was unusual suspects who mostly filled the room - including nine of the Wire's stars.

Omar. Bunk. Dookey. Fletcher. Gus (a Philadelphia native).

They were all there.

So was Sgt. Carver. Detectives Carver, Holley and Freeman. Councilman Grey.

Standing in various corners of the room shaking hands and smiling for photos, they eventually walked a few dozen feet away into the mayor's Reception Room, where the 93-minute episode got underway about 8:30 p.m.

Nutter, sitting in the first row next to Baltimore Sun City Editor Gus Haines (Clark Johnson in real life), bobbed his head enthusiastically as the show's theme song came on. It was finally starting.

All in all, the night was one of the mayor's greatest moments yet, he said. "Right up there, in a different way comparable to the open house," he said, that he held in City Hall after his inauguration.

The writing was so real, he said, about a shrinking city budget, a troubled police department, the political sharkfest and, oh, what happens when an elected official has his eyes set on another office.

Not Nutter, though. "I only have eyes on one office. It's around the corner."

If you've every tried to pay your city water bill or your city tax bill online, you have found that the city of Philadelphia likes to charge a percentage or fee -- 2.49 percent on a property tax bill can make a sane person run screaming from their computer.
"Thjere's not a reason out there for charging people a price to pay their bills online," Terry Phillis, the city's chief information officer, said yesterday. So, in an bold attempt to join the modern world, Phillis said "Our intention is to end them or reduce them significantly." (Phillis inherited the city's E-Pay system which began in 2004 as a pilot program.)
The city currently takes in $8 million a month, mostly for water bills, in a system that isn't even marketed to the customers, Phillis said. He thinks the city can generate 10 times that amount, saving paperwork and man-hours. First, Phillis, said, he must negotiate better rates with credit card companies, which charge a percentage, often around 2 percent, to process a transaction. That's already happening he said. Heard in the Hall will keep an eye on his progress.

Wireless Philadelphia, the allegedly cost-free solution the digital divide, has not come completely free to the city, the city's Chief Information Officer said yesterday.
City Councilman Frank Rizzo elicited the point during budget hearings Tuesday. Under questioning yesterday by Rizzo, the city CIO Terry M. Phillis acknowledged that he is paying a consultant $200,000 this year as his "technical project manager." (As first reported by KYW 1060 AM on Monday).
The consulting company, Strategic Staffing, gets the money. Their representative is Varinia Robinson, who was first contracted in 2004 as an assistant to former city CIO Dianah Neff. Before this year, the city paid Strategic Staffing $128,000 in Fiscal Year 2005, $4,000 in FY 2006 (the rest paid for by Wireless Philadelphia), and $188,000 in FY2007, and $200,000 in FY 2008 for a cost of $520,000.,
Although Mayor Street promised that Wireless Philadelphia would be built at no-cost by Earthlink, Phillis said it was always anticipated that someone from the city would have to oversee it. "This is the cost for managing this, not for building it -- I know this is splitting hairs," Phillis said in an interview. "Doesn't it make sense that you have someone to manage the project?"
Wireless Philadelphia is about 70 percent built -- the Northeast and Northwest parts of the city remain uncovered -- but Earthlink has announced plans to sell its municipal wi-fi business. Phillis said the project must be completed by November or Earthlink is in default of its contract.

Mayor Nutter came out shooting today in response to an Obama campaign memo that seeks to deemphasize the importance of winning just Pennsylvania, with a total of 10 primary state elections remaining.

“It’s one of the silliest things I’ve seen in recent times,” Nutter said of the memo during a conference call with reporters this morning. The call was coordinated by the Clinton campaign, and also included Gov. Rendell.

Nobody else talked much about the memo directly, but it seemed to weigh on the mayor's mind.

“I question its seriousness and authenticity for that matter,” Nutter said. “Any suggestion that Pennsylvania is one of a bunch of states, whatever suggestion they are trying to convey, is quite silly.”

And for good measure, he said: “If someone on my staff wrote that, I’d fire them.”

Gov. Rendell honored Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown and seven other women for Women's History Month in Harrisburg Thursday. See release below:

Now that state Sen. Vince Fumo has decided not to seek reelection, he's got a hefty war chest to spread among his friends.
Ken Snyder, Fumo’s media consultant, said the senator has about $600,000 cash on hand.
He already started in before he announced his intention to withdraw from the primary, helping out City Council friends Frank DiCicco and Jim Kenney with $10,000 each -- the maximum allowed in Philadelphia.
Fumo gave out the money in the last few weeks, Kenney said. It’s wasn’t an issue of Fumo liquidating his campaign fund; “It’s a question of us needing money,” said Kenney. With everyone from Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama down to state legislative candidates seeking money, Kenney said, “It’s a tough fundraising season.” Frank DiCicco said one of those candidates, Christian DiCicco (Frank's son) is expected to get financial support from Fumo in his challenge to incumbent William Keller, D., Phila.
Fumo hasn't made up his mind how to spend his money, Snyder said. “It’s his intention to support candidates that he believes in with the remaining money,” said Snyder.

Yesterday turned into musical appreciation day in chambers with as Council honored recording industry legends Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff, the founders of Philadelphia International Records, who were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Monday.
“We’ve received a lot of awards all over the world, but the hometown is the special one,” said Huff, a Camden native. Gamble, who has become a developer and activist in Philadelphia, said the duo’s next target was winning an Oscar (if any producers out there are listening).
Bob Cerulli might not be in the Rock and Roll Hall of fame, but he is a member of the South Philadelphia High School Alumni Association’s Cultural Hall-of-Fame. Cerulli, a master of the string bass, was recognized for a long career in symphonies across the east coast and for backing up artists from Elvis Presley to Lou Rawls to Henry Mancini. He composed more than 300 orchestral arrangements for Warner Brothers Music.
Also honored was Philadelphia native Quiara Alegria Hudes, whose Broadway musical, In the Heights, opened on Sunday. Hudes is the niece of City Councilwoman Maria Quiñones Sanchez.

Stu Bykofsky has joined the ranks of retired committeemen.

The well-known Daily News columnist quietly gave up the elected post - which established him as an official in Philadelphia's Democratic Party - after last November's mayoral election.

Although Daily News Editor Michael Days gave Bykofsky his blessing to run for the position back in May 2006, Days "blew a sign of relief," Bykofsky said, when he agreed to resign. "I could see pain in his eyes," he said. "So I said, would you be happier if I weren't doing this?"

The answer was clear.

The renegade columnist said nobody called to complain about his dual positions. But there were apparently some internal newsroom complaints. Bykofsky chalked it up to "some jealous fool here, or someone consumed with the ideas of ethics, with a capital E."

In his columns, Bykofsky often wrote about his committeeman experiences, beginning with his decision to run for the job.

By the way, throughout his two-year tenure, he declined to accept any Election Day "street money." Why? "It didn't feel right," he said.

His successor - in Center City's 5th Ward, 9th Division - is already in place: A health-care consultant named Gregory Walker.

So that's that. He's officially retired. "By the way," he said, "there's no pension."

So if you are the mayor of Philadelphia, what do you do at a luncheon of the Philadelphia Bar Association?

If you are Michael Nutter, you don't tell lawyer jokes. He made that crystal clear when he gave a keynote talk at today's gathering, at the Park Hyatt Bellevue.

Besides, he's not such a good joke-teller, Nutter said. "I'm the sarcastic counterpuncher type," he said. "I'm just a sarcastic kind of smart ass."

Then he went on to prove his point.

"This time last year, I was very solidly in fourth-place," Nutter told the lawyers listening, reminding them of his standing in the five-way Democratic primary.

He thanked those legal beagles who gave as much as they could last year under the city's campaign caps, and said, "If we've not been in touch with you yet this year, we will be shortly. ...I'm just kidding," he smiled.

Then he paused and added: "Not really."

City Councilman Curtis Jones Jr. met with the state's Secretary of General Services Monday over the recent opening of the Gaudenzia, Inc. drug rehab center at the former Eastern State Psychiatrict Institute (EPPI) at 3200 Henry Ave. Jones was unhappy to discover that Guadenzia had opened last month without his knowledge -- he found out during a tour of EPPI, which he was visiting because it is also to be the temporary home for the city's Youth Study Center. Jones, like surrounding neighbors, is concerned that the site is being abandoned by the state for the kind of economic development he and others envision for EPPI and surrounding parcels including former Tasty Kake facilities and the Budd plant site. State Department of General Services Secretary James P. Creedon came to Philadelphia to assuage his concerns. Jones said he was happy to learn that Gaudenzia will not be using the site for methadone treatment, but that he wanted to make sure the site was run in a way that didn't discourage future development.

Philadelphia's lease with the Barnes Foundation calls for the transfer by May of the site currently occupied by the city's juvenile detention facility (Youth Study Center) on the Ben Franklin Parkway. Butt city officials said Monday that the property won't be vacated until late summer.
Mayor Nutter's spokesman, Doug Oliver, said the delay is not likely to inspire the Barnes Foundation to break its 99-year lease -- which it would have the option of doing -- because the new $100 million museum is still in the design phase and not ready for construction.
Here is the timetable for the Youth Study Center:
Spring 2008: Groundbreaking for New Youth Center in at 48th and Haverford Ave. in West Philadelphia. Two year construction schdedule.
Last Summer 2008: Current Youth Study Center moves to temporary quarters in former Eastern State Psychiatric Facility in East Falls. The state Department of General Services is doing renovations now.
Spring 2010: Youth Study Center moves into New Youth Center facility in West Philadelphia.

Wendell Pritchett, one of Mayor Nutter's most senior advisers and director of the city office of Research, Planning, and Policy could be headed for a new job.

Pritchett is one of three finalists vying to become Dean of Temple's Beasley School of Law. Prior to joining the Nutter administration, Pritchett was a professor and associate dean at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. He was educated at Brown and Yale, and his scholarly focus has been on urban policy, so it's easy to see why Temple is interested in Pritchett. The other finalists include a professor at the University of Connecticut, and long-time Temple associate dean JoAnne Epps.

UPDATE: Pritchett declined to comment until the dean selection is finalized.

A Pittsburgh-based bank on Tuesday announced more than $5 million in affordable housing grants for Philadelphia, a boost for Mayor Nutter as he seeks to fill one of the city’s greatest needs.
Nutter’s first budget has already left City Council members wondering how he’s going to fund lofty affordable housing goals — Nutter wants to build 1,000 units a year through the city’s Housing Trust Fund — but today’s announcement will speed him toward that mark.
The $5.3 million in grants to be announced today by Federal Home Loan Bank of Pittsburgh will help build 645 units on projects totaling $77.3 million.
The bank is actually a financial co-op of 331 lenders. Spokesman Neil Cotiaux said the number of grants in Philadelphia far outstrips previous years, as government officials and housing advocates become aware of their availability. Last year, for instance, a total of 11 projects were funded for $2.6 million — and only six were in Philadelphia, Cotiaux said.
Developments range from a 54 new one-bedroom apartments for low-income seniors in Mill Creek (West Philadelphia) to rebabilitation of 23 units for the formerly homeless in Tacony. Click here for a list of projects

Barack Obama held a brief and private meeting with a small group of Philadelphia labor leaders this morning, following his speech on America's racial divide at the National Constitution Center.

Among those present: John Dougherty, head of Local 98 of the electricans' union - and also a candidate for office.

Sitting at lunch later at the Marathon Grille on Chestnut Street, Dougherty recounted part of his exchange with the Democratic presidential candidate:

"I hear you're running for state Senate," Obama told him.

Yes, replied Dougherty.

Then Obama - who got his start as a state senator from Illinois - quipped: "That's not a bad place to start."

These days, you never know what's going on in City Hall when the workweek is over.

Two Sunday nights ago, there was Mayor Nutter hosting nine actors from HBO's "The Wire" at a special screening of the final episode.

And last Saturday, there were about 65 mayoral employees couped up on the second floor for a semi-executive branch retreat.

Only this meeting wasn't publicized.

Held from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., it mirrored a giant get-to-know-you session, with staff games like "tell me something about you that I don't know."

For some, it was quite easy as many aides never before met one another - even though Saturday was Day No. 69 of the Nutter Administration.

Picture this: Scheduling staff - meet the constitutent action aides.

Nutter reportedly stayed for the whole four hours, taking some time off from his effort to get Hillary elected president.

Event ideas for the coming weekend in City Hall? Anyone?

First Ken Snyder signed on to become a media consultant for Larry Farnese.

And now, as of Monday, Brian Abernathy will be on board as well, handling policy and public relations matters for the 1st district state senate candidate.

What do Snyder and Abernathy have in common? Both have ties to state Sen. Vincent Fumo.

The South Philadelphia senator last week announced he would not seek to retain his seat in the April 22 primary, leaving Farnese to duke it out with electrician John Dougherty and political activist Anne Dicker.

Dougherty allies had thought all along that Farnese got into the race as a placeholder of sorts for Fumo.

Snyder's and Abernathy's latest moves would appear to strengthen that idea.

But Abernathy, an aide to Fumo supporter City Councilman Frank DiCicco, says A plus B does not always equal C.

"Nothing should be read into that," said Abernathy, who is taking a leave from DiCicco's office beginning Monday and through April 28. He said he believes DiCicco and another Fumo ally, Councilman Jim Kenney, "will end up endorsing Larry," though he does not profess to know what Fumo's own intent is.

As for his decision to help Farnese, Abernathy said: "I respect Larry and what he wants to bring to Harrisburg. Normally, I would not take a leave for a candidate, but I think this race is very important. I don't think John Dougherty is the right guy for the seat.... Anne is a nice person, I appreciate her ideals, but she has not proven to me or a lot of folks that she has built the coalition to get things done."

City Councilman Frank Rizzo's ethics package introduced last year won't be seeing daylight any time soon. In the fall Rizzo proposed a series of four reforms, recommended by the Committee of Seventy, that wasn't exactly met with open arms by Council. The bills addressed nepotism, lobbyist disclosure, gifts and the most sensitive -- outside employment with company's that seek city contracts. A number of Council members would be affected by such a restriction on such work.
Rizzo met last week with Mayor Nutter -- who was elected on an ethics platform -- and both decided that it would be a good idea to wait a while. Rizzo said Nutter wanted to let his new ethics team, which includes a newly appointed inspector general and newly created chief integrity officer and new appointment to the Ethics Board settle in.
Rizzo also acknowledged that he didn't want to put Nutter in the position of straining his relationship with City Council, and expending a good deal of political capital, as soon as he stepped into the Mayor's Office.
"I did not want to rock the boat immediately for this new administration," Rizzo said Friday, adding that he expected to meet with the administration over summer break and come up with a plan.

It's hardly Watergate, but there has reportedly been a burglary at the South Philadelphia campaign office of Christian DiCicco (read: state Sen. Vince Fumo), who is trying to unseat Pennsylvania state Rep. Bill Keller (read: electrical union leader John J. Dougherty) in next month's primary.

Police were on hand this morning, at 1616 E. Passyunk Ave., to eyeball a couch and 10 pictures that were slashed with a razor or other sharp-edged tool Sunday night.

Missing were a camera, some policy papers and internal poll data.

Not missing were a $500 radio, a flat-screen TV and two laptop computers.

"Obviously, we have our suspicions," said DiCicco friend Brian Abernathy, a legislative aide on leave from the office of City Councilman Frank DiCicco, Christian DiCicco's father. Abernathy was referring to the Dougherty camp, as this race is largely viewed as the latest battle between Fumo and Dougherty.

"We don't have proof of anything, but the fact that the most expensive item they stole was a polling memo... Well, we are comfortable making some assumptions," Abernathy said.

It's not clear how the perpetrator, or perpetrators, got in. There were no broken doors or windows.

Update: The Dougherty campaign responds. "Obviously, we had no involvement. We had no knowledge of anyone associated with this campaign participating in this alleged break-in," said Dougherty spokesman Frank Keel. "This kindof stuff should not happen in this or any political campaign. There is no place for it."

Some council members are asking increasingly pointed questions about Mayor Nutter's tax proposals, wondering aloud what evidence there is that tax cuts create jobs and pushing the administration not to do away with the so-called David Cohen tax cut for the working poor.

Councilman Darrell Clarke seemed the most skeptical at today's budget hearing. If tax cuts are luring businesses back to the city, Clarke said there's no evidence of it in his district. He asked city Finance Director Rob Dubow to research the job-creating effects of tax cuts "in a serious way."

"There’s looking into it and then there’s really looking into it," Clarke said.

We haven't heard the last of this issue...

UPDATE: Told you we haven't heard the last of the issue. Brett Mandel, the city's chief tax cut proponent and head of Philadelphia Forward, called Heard in the Hall to note that already enacted tax cuts have saved the city more than 22,000 jobs, according to an expert hired by the Street administration. The city's Tax Reform Commission, however, predicted its proposed cuts would save 47,000 by 2010. There's a lot of job saving left to be done over the next two years to meet that goal.

Electricians' union leader John Dougherty may have a lesbian daughter.

And political organizer Anne Dicker may be a self-described bisexual woman.

But it was straight-man Larry Farnese who won the endorsement tonight of the Liberty City Democratic Club, an organization of gay and lesbian activists, for the bid to succeed state Sen. Vincent Fumo in the First Senate District. The primary is April 22.

In addition, the political organization also endorsed Hillary Rodham Clinton over Barack Obama for president.

Mayor Nutter in the Daily News today, explaining why he wants presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama to debate urban issues in their campaign.

"Health care is very important," Nutter said. "The war is very, very important. But if you live at 56th and Master, you're not as focused on what al Qaeda is doing. What you're focused on is what 'Al Gangster' is doing. Because Osama bin Laden wouldn't last five minutes at 56th and Master.

Six weeks ago, shortly after Camille Barnett took over as city managing director, Tumar Alexander, chief of staff in that office during the Street administration, resigned his job.

But as of next week, Alexander's back in City Hall - working directly for Mayor Nutter.

He is joining what is so far a four-person team in the newly expanded Office of Government and Legislative Affairs. The office is in somewhat a state of flux as it is still evolving, but Alexander's charges will include working with City Council, as well helping lawmakers in Harrisburg "connect to services in the city," as he puts it.

So fast was his departure and return that his name never disappeared from the city's online municipal phone directory.

This is the same Alexander who found himself in hot water in 2003. Working then as an assistant city managing director, he was accompanying Sharif Street, the mayor's son, in a hunt for office space to rent for Mayor Street's campaign.

That's when he allegedly exchanged words with the landlord of a North Philadelphia campaign office then being rented by Sam Katz. A Republican, Katz was trying (but failed) to unseat Mayor Street.

It was hours later that a suspected unlit firebomb was tossed through the Katz office window. No one was ever charged.

Alexander faced a misdemeanor charge of making a terroristic threat, but entered a six-month program for first-time offenders. He was suspended without pay for a week for violating a City Charter provision that bans government officials from political activity.

In the years since, Alexander has been praised for his skills and abilities.

But the 2003 incident did earn him a cameo in "The Shame of A City" - the documentary about the 2003 mayoral race that Nutter used last year to help fatten his mayoral campaign warchest.

With an important committee vote slated for Thursday on a bill to change the city's residency requirement, Councilman W. Wilson Goode Jr. said he would propose a companion bill Thursday to give current Philly residents a preference for jobs in case of a tie.
Councilman Jim Kenney's bill to eliminate the rule that any new hire must have lived in the city for a year prior to hiring ran into resistance by Goode and others who sought some type of advantage for Philadelphia residents. Goode's bill would give the job to a current resident if they are ranked equally with a nonresident after Civil Service testing.
Kenney's bill is expected to pass to Council Thursday with a favorable recommendation by the Committee on Labor and Civil Service, with a first reading next week. Goode's bill will require a change of the city charter by referendum; the soonest it could be approved by voters is November because the deadlines for the primary have passed.
Kenney's bill would require any new hire to move into the city within 6 months.

Former City Councilman Juan Ramos will start calling Phillies games for the Spanish Baseball Network (SBN) on Opening Day, joining the broadcast team of Danny Martinez and Billy Kulik. The Spanish-language broadcasts can be heard on WUBA 1480 AM or online at www.rumba1480.com.

Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers on Wednesday said that only seven people have died in fires this year compared with 22 during the same period last year - a 68 percent downturn. Ayers said the mild winter certainly contributed to the decline, but he mostly credited the impact of fire prevention efforts including the installation of smoke alarms (see Jan. 3 Inquirer story below). Ayers said he will have a better handle on how impressive the numbers are in April, when he can review a first-quarter report comparing number of deaths to number of actual fires, which would account for the good winter weather.

Center City tour guides will have to hit the books to get their official tour guide certifications under Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown's bill that City Council passed Thursday, a year after it was first introduced last March.
Brown's bill, expected to be signed by Mayor Nutter, requires guides pass a test, administered monthly by a department to be determined by Nutter. The test will be "designed to test the applicant's knowledge of the geography, history, historic sites, historic structures, historic objects and other places of interest in the Center City Tourist Area," according to the legislation. Guides can take the test as many times as they need to pass.
Anyone caught leading tours without al icense could lose their business license for at least six months, and up to three years for a third offense.
Brown amended the bill yesterday to ensure that organizations consulted by the city in making up the test represent the city's demographics to properly account for the histories of various groups.

Sheriff John Green will postpone all sales of foreclosed properties in April and go to court seeking a longer moratorium, City Council announced Thursday.
Council Majority Leader Marian B. Tasco, who sponsored a resolution today urging Green to take such action, interrupted the Council to make the announcement about a half hour after Council unanimously passed the resolution. Which was co-sponsored by Councilman Curtis Jones Jr.

City Councilman Darrell L. Clarke Thursday called for Mayor Nutter to increase fivefold his administration's financial committment to affordable housing. Nutter had proposed adding $1 million to the city's affordable housing trust fund, to offset a decline in real estate recording fees that replenish the fund. But Clarke introduced legislation Thursday calling for $5 million. Clarke said the landscape has changed because more than $100 million in funds for acquiring properties that has been available for seven years through Mayor Street's Neighborhood Transformation Initiative is no longer available -- the program has ended.

In City Hall on April 9, owners of big general contracting firms will meet with a bevy of minority construction firms at a "speed-dating" networking event called "Meet the Generals."

It's gimmicky and cheesy, sure, but who could possibly object to the goal of more construction business for minority contractors?

Enter Edward Coryell, general manager of the Carpenters Union (the union is an investor in Philadelphia Media Holdings L.L.C., the owner of The Inquirer, the Philadelphia Daily News, and Philly.com).

"I can say there are labor concerns that this is a provocative event. I don't see how it's provocative, but Ed Coryell does," said Sam Sherman, president of the Building Industry Association of Philadelphia, which is taking part in the event.

Raising a fuss over an event designed to benefit minority-owned companies is an interesting move for the Carpenters Union, which was one of only four unions that did not sign off on a February agreement with the city designed to increase minority participation in the building trades.

Coryell did not return two calls to his office last week, but his secretary referred Heard in the Hall to Patrick Gillespie, business manager of the Philadelphia Building and Construction Trades Council.

Gillespie said he didn't know why Coryell objected to the event. But when told the event's lead sponsor was the Associated Builders and Contractors, a trade group of the region's nonunion firms, Gillespie had a reaction of his own.

"The whole predicate for their existence is to destroy the sanctity of collective bargaining," Gillespie said. "We couldn't hold them in any lower regard. They're as disingenuous a group as you can find. I wouldn't expect City Hall to allow the Klan to meet there, or Aryan Nation."

Wow.

ABC Southeast Pennsylvania president Jeff Zeh said the event had no antiunion agenda, and he noted that two of the big general contractors attending are union contractors.

"I would hope they could see the value in an event that's trying to provide more work opportunities to minority contractors," Zeh said.

Asked whether he were concerned union pressure would shut the event down, Zeh acknowledged he was.

"I would hope not," he said.

While the city’s Health Centers are reducing the waiting time for doctor’s visits, withthe intention of reducing them further across the board, the outlook is not so rosy for public dental clinics.
Dentists willing to work for the city salary between $74,000 and $95,000 are becoming more scarce, new health commissioner Dr. Donald Schwarz testified in a budget hearing before City Council Monday.
The city has difficulty attracting a number of positions in the medical field – nurses, pharmacists and, according to the fire department, paramedics. In the case of dentists, it’s getting harder to get an initial appointment at the city’s health centers – 34 days now versus 24 days last year, a 42 percent increase in waiting time.
In contrast, the medical and pre-natal waiting times are going down, Schwarz reported. The average waiting time for an initial medical appointment was down to 55 days in March, versus 60 days in March 2007; two days for return visits, down from 12 last year. Pediactric appointments are now 9 days, down from 10 last year, with return visits at 20 days, down from 21 last year. New prenatal appointments have a 20-day waiting time, versus 29 last year, with return visits at 10 days versus 13 last year.
The numbers are an average – some centers have longer waits than others (Health Center 10 in the Northeast has notoriously long waits). But another $3 million added to the budget year beginning in July will help to move those averages down from the 55-day initial waiting time to 30 days across the board by June 2010, Schwarz said.
The six areas for improvement outlined by Schwarz are:
-Increase staff to improve customer service (including wait times) at health centers;
-Improve turnaround time for autopsies.
-Increase food establishment inspections.
-Establish better planning for the health department.
-Workforce hiring, recruitment and planning.
-Replace funding for the $1.4-million Steps for a Healthier U.S. Grant, which targeted preventative programs to reduce diabetes, obesity, and asthma.

The fact that Majority Leader Marian B. Tasco and rookie Councilman Curtis Jones Jr. cosponsored a resolution last week calling for a suspension of sales of foreclosed houses had a political significance far beyond the substance of the bill, observers said.
It may have been the outward sign of a truce between warring factions of the city's African American politicians.
The sides separate themselves geographically, from the West and Northwest sections of the city. U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah (a Jones ally) heads the West faction, and the Northwest has traditionally been the territory of former U.S. Rep. Bill Gray and State Rep. Dwight Evans (a Tasco friend).."
The feud is decades old, its origins murky, but one insider called last week's partnership "a real positive sign" that signals "some level of detente."
Jones agreed, calling Tasco a "political mentor."
"I think it indicates that the cold war between the Northwest and West is beginning to subside," Jones said. "The days of territorial politics are being replaced with issue-based politics, and if it continues along that path, it is a new day."

With three weeks to go before Pennsylvania's April 22 primary, campaign fatigue may have set in with some Philadelphians - but not those in City Hall.
In a meeting scheduled for today, the recently formed Philadelphia Primary Media Task Force will convene to discuss how to best take advantage of an opportunity presented.

That is: how to make Philadelphia shine before the eyes of hundreds of political journalists descending here and elsewhere in the state.

Among those leading the effort are Mayor Nutter's spokesman, Doug Oliver, and City Representative Melanie Johnson. Others include officials from the state, the hotel industry, and Philadelphia tourism organizations.

"We wanted to make sure we are thinking the same way, that we have the same message," Johnson said. "So far, it's paid off."

Strategies include making life easier for visiting reporters by providing a one-stop shopping Web site (phillyprimary.com) with information on satellite-truck parking and portable toilets, and a list of suggested locations for stand-up news shots, such as LOVE Park and Independence Hall.

There's also a media reception in the works for the night before the big debate between Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, which is April 16 at the National Constitution Center.

Of course, not everything can be controlled.

Remember the last time so much political attention was showered on Philadelphia in this race? It was in October, the night of a televised debate of Democratic presidential contenders at Drexel University.

They emerged to see police helicopters and divers searching the Schuylkill for a suspect in the shooting of three civilians and an officer.

Mayor Nutter on Monday announced the creation of the Mayor’s Advisory Commission on Construction Industry Diversity, the entity that is supposed to oversee the implementation of building trades' diversity plans in the construction of the $700 million Convention Center expansion and beyond.
The board is full of longtime critics of the unions' minority inclusion practices, including Wharton professor Bernard E. Anderson and public relations executive Bruce Crawley. (See press release below for a full roster) The big question for this board is: Willl it have any teeth? City Council had threatened to open the Convention Center project to nonunion contractors unless members of the Philadelphia Building and Construction Trades Council detailed their unions' demographics, and provided long-term plans to attract minority members.
In a compromise, Council approved its end of the agreement with the state and Convention Center Authority that will allow construction to move forward, though not all the unions provided statistics and/or inclusion plans -- most notably the electricians and carpenters' unions. The unions did not want to be subject to City Council oversight, but agreed to work with the Mayor's advisory commission, which had not yet been created. There are no penalties outlined in the Council legislation, and some -- including at least one of Nutter's appointees -- have questioned whether the commission can force the unions to do anything.

On paper, it looked dicey.

Mayor Nutter's official schedule had him in City Hall for a 9:30 a.m. press conference; in Harrisburg at noon for a luncheon with state government reporters; and inside Citizens Bank Park at 2:45 p.m., throwing out the first pitch for the Phillies season opener.

So much to do, so little time - so little, in fact, that driving was out of the question.

But for Nutter, traveling by helicopter wasn't.

Today's plans called for the mayor to fly from Philadelphia to Harrisburg, and back, aboard one of two city-owned police helicopters.

Purchased for $3.4 million in 1998, it isn't clear if former Mayors Ed Rendell and John Street ever flew them. Both helicopters are primarily used to to pursue fleeing suspects, or for other public safety reasons.

But at the time Nutter wanted to go to Harrisburg, both helicopters were on the ground, according to Nutter spokesman Doug Oliver.

Of all the Philadelphia agencies, few have endured as much criticism as the Minority Business Enterprise Council.

Now the longtime city official who used to head the agency - before being ousted from his job by former Mayor John Street - is back on the scene.

James A. Roundtree is the new director of construction diversity at the Pennsylvania Convention Center.

Until 2004, Roundtree was the director of MBEC, which implements, monitors and enforces the city's contractor diversity laws.

His tenure was not unremarkable.