Heard in the Hall

The Street Administration has just approved 178 promotions in the Police Department. It's a big number, and given that Mayor Street is on his way out, some find the timing fishy.

But with the exception of five new captains, most of the officers moving into new pay grades are relatively low-ranking: sergeants, lieutenants and detectives. According to both the Street Administration and the Fraternal Order of Police, there's a massive need for patrol supervisors, and that's what a lot of these newly promoted officers will become. City Councilman Frank Rizzo - a guy with a real interest in the police departments - also thinks the promotions seem reasonable.

Still, mayoral nominee Michael Nutter wishes the Street administration had held off the next mayor takes office.

"We need lieutenants and seargants," Nutter said. "At the same time, I don't know that the upper level promotions are completely necessary."

Would a Mayor Nutter have Chief of Staff Jim Kenney as his right-hand man?

No chance, Councilman Kenney says, shooting down a rumor that was first publicly floated in a City Paper article the other day.

“If he asked me I’d be flattered, but I’m not interested,” Kenney said. “It’s too much work. It's like being mayor."

Kenney and Nutter worked well together as council members, and they are often of similar minds when it comes to policy. But Kenney thinks he can accomplish just as much — and put in a few less hours at the office — by staying on Council.

“I’m going to be loyal oarsman for the next administration,” he said. “People expect council and the mayor to be on the same page. For a lot of reasons that hasn’t happened, but we have a new chance to get our act together.”

Nutter of course isn’t yet saying who he will ask to serve in his adminstration. It's premature, there's an election in November, so forth and so on.

Democractic mayoral nominee has three "Town Hall" appearances on tap this month. The ever-careful-not-to-sound-presumptuous Team Nutter characterizes them as campaign stops, but Al Taubenberger won't be in the room.

October 17th – YMCA – 1724 Christian Street – 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm
October 20th – Boys and Girls club – 1709 Kinsey Street – 2 pm – 4 pm
October 25th – 5120 Chestnut Street – YMCA - 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm

Tonight, dozens and dozens of them were stuck in the grass divider at Columbus Boulevard and also across the fences and walls not very far away. They were blue and red and green and yellow. They were square and rectangular, sort-of-large and extraordinary large.

CAMPAIGN SIGNS! FINALLY!

Yes, Election Day is three weeks away - and here at long last in this lackluster campaign season was indisputable evidence.

The occasion: The Democratic City Committee's pre-election day fundraiser, held at the cavernous Sheet Metal Workers Hall.

"There are too many people who think this election is done. It is not done!" shouted party chairman Bob Brady, squashed on the dais by the dozens of candidates - for judge, City Council, statewide jobs - that he had just called up to join him.

And then he announced the main attraction: "The next mayor of Philadelphia - Mayor. Michael. Nutter!"

And Nutter for the first time had before him an audience he never quite had before. "It's party time! It's party time! It's Democratic Party time!... Bob Brady is absolutely right. This election is not over," he continued, repeating that 22 - "22! 22!" - days remain.

But so much for the pomp and circumstance. On to two of the more memorable happenings of the night.

The first was the appearance of Tom Knox who Brady, in his good-natured way, made a point of inviting up to the dais. (Knox has said he is interested in running for governor or a U.S. Senate seat, and tonight he sought to affirm that. "I'm going to do something," he said.)

So along with Nutter, there on a shared stage stood three of the five candidates who ran in the May primary - Brady and Knox (the former archenemies) and Nutter.

Brady referred to it as something about "showing Democratic unity."

The second intriguing episode happened a short time after. As Nutter exited the stage and worked the crowd, he stopped at a certain table to take a photo.

It was with state Rep. Frank Oliver, the party treasurer, and Councilwoman Carol Campbell, the party secretary who last year denounced Nutter for "sticking a knife in my back."

Campbell's likely successor - she lost her seat in the primary - had a word for that picture. "It's an oxymoron," said Curtis Jones. "An oxymoron."

With last night's not-so-ferociuos YouTube mayoral debate behind him, Michael Nutter popped up in Harrisburg a few hours ago, striding into the newsroom where state Capitol reporters work.

He apparently spent the morning meeting with various legislative leaders, doing what Mayor Street has been criticized for not doing. And he is apparently spending the evening hours raising campaign money - surprise! - at a fancy Harrisburg wine bar named the Red Door.

He was upbeat, Terry Gillen was with him, and he was looking very mayoral, reports Inquirer Harrisburg reporter Angela Couloumbis.

And in case anyone wasn't certain who he was, he also left behind some business cards: "Michael A. Nutter. Candidate for Mayor."

Maybe you thought it would not happen at all.
But truth be told, the first TV debate between Mike and Al has been scheduled - and it will occur this Saturday, on CBS 3, at 7:30 p.m.
So think about trading in those reservations at El Vez, Alma De Cuba and the Prime Rib for Chinese takeout.
I mean, really, who would want to miss this?

To read more on the debate:

An animated Michael Nutter held forth at a South Philadelphia town hall tonight, swinging back-and-forth between his familiar wonkish riffs on taxes and a rhetorical style that can only be likened to that of an African American minister or some sort of populist rabble-rouser.
He was working the cadence, the repetition, the call-and-response, the whole thing.

Judging by the reaction of the crowd, Nutter pulled it off. He was emphatic, he was passionate, he was ... distinctly mayoral. The event was held in a cavernous YMCA gym, which helped lend a church hall feel to the meeting, but it made for terrible recording acoustics. We have some fuzzy audio which we'll try to clean up and bring to you tomorrow, but for now, take a look at some of what he said.

On Philly's Dirty Streets & Looking Out For Each Other
When we were younger we didn't need a law, we didn't need a bill, we didn't need a resolution, we didn't need a government to tell us: come outside and sweep your steps, wash down your sidewalk and make your neighborhoods clean. We didn't need anybody to tell us that because we cared. About where we lived and who we were and what we were about. We need to bring that back, a sense of community pride, a sense of ownership, a sense of caring about each other. We are our brothers and sisters keepers. We ARE our brothers and sisters keepers. And we need to pay more attention to what goes on next door and down the street. Now I understand from time to time you might see a kid doing something wrong and you say, 'well I don't want to say anything to the kid because they might say something back to me.' Say something. Say something. Show that you care. They're looking for direction and they need your help.

On Voting For Change
We're sick and tired of what's been going on. We're sick and tired of corruption in our own City Hall. We're sick and tired of indictments coming down like raindrops, here in the city. We're sick and tired of being sick and tired. And that's what happened, and that's what that election was all about. Well let's finish what we started in the primaries, because there is an election on Nov. 6. ... Because if you want change in the city, you got to come out and vote for it, ain't nobody giving up nothing for free. Bring a friend, bring a neighbor, bring a family member, bring somebody you don't even like...

What I need to know is... are you ready? Are you ready for change? Are you ready for change in this city? Have you had enough of what's going on? Do you want to get a job opputunity up in here? Do you want to make a safe neighborhood? Do you want to create economic opportunity?

On Supreme Court Elections
They only handle the big cases. You know, things like whether there should be a school takeover or not. Who should be in charge of the Parking Authority. Who's going to run the Convention Center. Or whether or not we should have gaming in this city. All decdied by the Pennsylvania Supreme Sourt. Some folks think that we're not going to show up to vote, and they can just go and grab two Supreme Court seats and three Superior Court seats, and let them have the mayors race and we'll run the city and the state by holding the court system. ... I don't think so. I don't think so. I don't think so.

Note: file photo from election night.

Since practically the day of his primary win, Michael Nutter has consistently denied that his thoughts have been focused on anything except his general election campaign.
Hogwash.
For one thing, there are the rumors: About a certain current city department head or two who have already been told they would be part of a Nutter Administration. About at least one outside professional who has turned down an invitation to join the new mayor. About a certain former City Councilman who wouldn't mind returning to City Hall - this time on the 2nd floor.
But brush all that aside. Those are just rumors after all.
HERE is the proof.
Over at Nutter campaign headquarters on Friday was a little diagram on a dry erase board of a certain flow chart. At the top was one box that said "mayor" with two lines, one drawn to another box saying "MDO" and the other to a box that read "deputy mayor." From the "deputy mayor" box was one line drawn to a box that said "DHS Comm."
The dry erase board was on a wall just behind Nutter as he met with reporters Friday. When it was pointed out to him, Nutter just smiled and asked this: "Do you have any recommendations?"

Sometime tonight or tomorrow, depending what TV station you watch, expect to see some ads up for Michael Nutter for mayor.

It's true.

The Democratic nominee has not hit the airwaves since winning the May primary.

But beginning now through Nov. 6, he'll be up everyday, says campaign manager Tricia Enright.

That also means he'll be digging into the wad of cash he's collected. On Friday, he reported having $2.1 million in the bank. After purchasing TV time, he has winnowed that down to about $1.5 million.

There will actually be just one ad (no word of whether or not daughter Olivia makes a reappearance), and it will run on ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX.

It's got Bush and Cheney. It's got Olivia and Lisa.
Why is it important to vote Nov. 6.
Michael Nutter puts it this way:

Here it is. Just hitting the airwaves.

In his first address as mayor elect, Michael Nutter hearkened back to John F. Kennedy's call to public service and asked for the city's "best and brightest" to join his administration.

I want people to start thinking about changing their lives and changing their careers, to come into the government of the City of Philadelphia. Whether it's an executive loan program for experienced executives or also the rising stars in your company. We need your help in order to turn this government around, to change our policies and practices, to have new ideas and new ways of doing business in this city... We need your help and support to show us some of the things you do in your companies to drive value, to enhance shareholder value, to drive revenue up, cut costs and make your bottom line work.

I want you to start thinking about it. Whether it's time for you to make a change, take a detour. And I understand that public service may not be for everyone for the long haul. There is no higher calling, there is no better way to serve your fellow Philadelphians and people in the region then to consider coming into public service. I need your help and I'm asking for your support.

Nutter's remarks seem tailored to the audience, a large group of business leaders who'd asembled for a traditional post-election Committee of 70 breakfast. His speech was mellower than many he has delivered recently, and he spent plenty of time talking about what executives could do to help his administration.

Still, he was received like a rock star ("Bad to the Bone" was played as he entered the ballroom at the Bellevue Hotel where the event was held), and he drew plenty of applause in his 20-minute speech with lines like this: "We need to get over ourselves at a certain level, and stop being so envious of other places. ... We are Philadelphia, and we need to be proud of that."

More to come later.

Update: Want to apply. Nutter is taking resumes over at www.nutter2007.com.

When Mayor Street becomes Professor Street next year, guess who's going to join him behind the lectern as a guest speaker? None other than mayor-elect Michael Nutter, a guy who's locked horns with Street perhaps more than any other public figure in the city. In an interview this morning (which you can read all about in Sunday's Inquirer), Nutter said that Street asked him to speak to his class, and Nutter quickly agreed. "I think that'd probably be one of the most well-attended classes that he gives," Nutter said.

The mayor-elect also praised Street for moving quickly to set up transition meetings.

"He wants things to be as smooth as possible and I greatly appreciate that," Nutter said. "We’re two very deeply passionate caring public servants, and from time to time we might have a difference of opinion about some public policy sisues. It’s not personal. And I think Mayor Street wants to make sure that the city of Philadelphia ... functions and operates well after his term is up."

Mayor Street's decision to officiate at a same-sex commitment ceremony this Saturday has not gone over well with the American Family Association of Pennsylvania. In a press release issued this morning, the conservative organization included a summary of the official position of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, to which Street belongs, on homosexuality.

NEWS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 20, 2007

CONTACT: Diane Gramley 1.1814.437.5355 or 1.814.271.9078

No, Mayor Street, Same-Sex Marriage is Not Legal In Pennsylvania

(Philadelphia) – Outgoing Mayor John Street’s decision to perform a same-sex commitment ceremony on Saturday at City Hall offers a further explanation in the course Philadelphia has taken in the past several years. Today the American Family Association of Pennsylvania (AFA of PA), a statewide group which supports Pennsylvania’s one man, one woman marriage law and the effort to pass a Marriage Protection Amendment to the PA Constitution, faxed the mayor a letter of concern outlining the wrong messages that will be sent by his involvement in Saturday’s activities.

“Mayor Street has drifted off course during his political career. Once a strong advocate for traditional values, he can no longer be trusted to uphold those values that are supposedly part of his belief system,” said Diane Gramley, President of the AFA of PA.

Mayor Street is a practicing Seventh Day Adventist. Their beliefs include, “Marriage was divinely established in Eden and affirmed by Jesus Christ to be both monogamous and heterosexual, a lifelong union of loving companionship between a man and a woman. . . . . To this biblical view of marriage the Seventh-day Adventist Church adheres without reservation, believing that any lowering of this high view is to that extent a lowering of the heavenly ideal.”

To keep reading, go here:

The mayor-elect has actually gone 12 days without making a staff announcement.

Well, that drought is about to end.

At 11 a.m. tomorrow, Michael Nutter will name his managing director. The announcement will take place inside City Hall, in Conversation Hall.

The mayor-elect has actually gone 12 days without making a staff announcement.

Well, that drought is about to end.

At 11 a.m. tomorrow, Michael Nutter will name his managing director. The announcement will take place inside City Hall, in Conversation Hall.

]In the latest addition to his staff, Mayor-elect Michael Nutter this afternoon named Stephen J. Agostini, a 47-year-old municipal finance expert, to be his budget director.

A native of Queens, N.Y., Agostini currently works as the chief financial officer and director of administration for the economics and statistics bureau of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

His municipal finance experience comes from a variety of positions he has held in Milwaukee and San Francisco.

As budget director, he will report to city Finance Director Rob Dubow.

Although Agostini won’t be a member of Nutter’s cabinet, Nutter said today that he hoped to announce his remaining Cabinet-level positions — city solicitor and city representative — before his Jan. 7 inauguration.

Today is Mayor Street's second to last Wednesday in office, and he spent part of the day singing.

As in: "On the first day of Christmas, the Mayor gave to me
A health plan, en-tire-ly FREE!"

That's the first verse of "a healthy re-interpretation" of the 12 Days of Christmas that was unveiled at an afternoon press conference in City Hall. The purpose of the presser: To announce the city's newest health initiative, which will feature different fitness activities everyday until Jan. 6.

Street, along with his fitness czar, Gwen Foster, also lauded the city's achivements - it is less fat, they said, then when he took office.

Here's the rest of the song.

Senior members of Michael Nutter's staff are meeting for a retreat at the University of Pennsylvania this afternoon. No word yet on what team-building exercises they have in mind.

Bring on the champagne, the whiskey, the cerveza.

In just about an hour from now, Mayor Street and dozens of his current top aides and those from years past will begin toasting The End.

A private 200-person goodbye party is being held at the Convention Center. It's Street's way of saying "thanks" and a way to celebrate and bring closure to a turbulent eight years. (Okay, turbulent is our word.)

The party's official organizer: David L. Cohen, Mayor Rendell's former chief of staff.

In the fall, Cohen said, "The mayor and I had a conversation about what Ed did at the end of his term, from packing and storing of files to helping people find jobs to employment for himself. I sort of made a list of things for him (Street)."

Also on that list: Hosting a reception and dinner for senior staff members. Street, Cohen said, "decided this would be a nice thing to do for his administration."

Mayor Nutter's first act was to sign an executive order declaring a crime emergency. He'd pledged to do that during the campaign, but backed off that pledge in recent weeks, so the signing was a bit of a surprise. It likely won't lead to any clear tactical changes for at least a few weeks. New Police Commissioner Ramsey will report back to Nutter at the end of the month with his plan.

With his second act, Nutter formally established the office of Chief Integrity Officer, a post he filled a few weeks ago with former assistant U.S. Attorney Joan Markman. The third executive order gave his deputy mayors and yet-to-be-announced deputy managing directors the authority to oversee certain city departments.

This just in...
After 31 years, Daily News city hall fixture Mark McDonald has hung up his reporter's hat, and is crossing over to be part of Mayor Nutter's "new day, new way."
In fact, McDonald will still be writing the news. But now he will write it for the new occupant of the second-floor executive office across the hall from the press room he has occupied for so many years.
And instead of writing articles, he'll be writing speeches for the new mayor.
Affectionately nicknamed as "the dean" by former Mayor Street, McDonald showed in press conferences that he could go head-to-head with most any city bureaucrat about, say, the genesis of the liquor-by-the-drink tax.
His last newsroom day was Sunday.

Elvis is in the house!

Err... well, he's in City Hall.

Err... well, it's not actually Elvis, but Michael Nutter.

At this moment, with the new mayor shaking the hands of what feels like thousands of people waiting in line to greet him, City Hall is feeling more love than it has in years. Maybe decades.

The buzz, the aura, the excitment is unmistakable. It must be true: Philadelphians sure like to get to know their mayor.

As of 6 p.m., the line extended halfway around City Hall, from the portal facing South Broad Street, west to Market Street, and then to the portal facing North Broad, up a staircase that hasn't been open to the public in years, and finally, into Conversation Hall.

There, one by one they come to shake Nutter's hand. His personal assistant, Jordan Schwartz, stands behind him to collect whatever it is people give him. Some have brought pictures of Nutter and seek his autograph.

Also standing by as trusty greeters of the public: Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey, Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers, and City Councilman Jim Kenney.

Then it's down to the City Hall courtyard where a large white tent is pitched. Inside: Tastykakes, pretzels, chocolate chip cookies.

Evening has arrived, but it's still a new day.

One moment you're grilling a witness on the stand.

The next, you are occupying his office.

Welcome to Joan Markman's world.

Two years ago, as a veteran federal prosecutor, she was cross-examining George Burrell during the first City Hall corruption trial. Burrell, then a senior adviser to Mayor Street, had testified as a defense witness in the case of acquitted investment banker Denis J. Carlson, who was accused of lying to the FBI about his relationship with lawyer Ronald A. White.

Of course, that was then.

Today, Markman worked her first full day as Mayor Nutter's chief integrity officer - from a desk inside the same digs, inside the mayor's second-floor suite, that Burrell toiled in for years.

Says Markman: "It's a lovely office."

As Mayor Nutter himself put it, it was as if he was doing a campaign transit stop.

This morning, after taking part in a press conference about new federal funds for SEPTA, the mayor took nary a step back from the podium before being surrounded by People.

More Ordinary People just reaching out to shake his hand beneath the Clothespin at 15th and Market Streets.

Not everyone could make it to City Hall yesterday to wait in line to meet the mayor during the open house, one woman told him.

Another thrust her cell phone at him. “It’s my mother’s birthday, she’s on the phone!”

“Hello? This is Michael Nutter,” he told Betsy Paris, newly 67.

“Oh, you’re at the hairdresser! Getting ready for tonight, eh?” he went on.

Betsy’s daughter beamed as the mayor handed her back the phone. “Thank you! You’re like a breath of fresh air.”

Now that the rapping is done, and the greatest hand-shaking marathon in the city's recent history is over, it seems the time has come for Mayor Nutter to buckle down.

For the first time since taking office, Nutter has no public appearances on his schedule. He's holed up with his senior staff right now, and so far he no public events scheduled for tomorrow either. We're told the meetings are of the basic, settling-in variety.

He's certainly got plenty of work to do.

As one mayoral aide put it while Nutter was shaking the hands of thousands who attended Tuesday's City Hall open house: "This is the easy part."

The hard part starts today.

Mayor Nutter's top aides just filed into Room 221 for their their first Cabinet meeting.

So who's in the Cabinet? Not the education secretary; the Nutter Administration doesn't have one.

In any mayor's Cabinet, the City Charter dictates the inclusion of four people: the managing director, the finance director; the city solicitor and the city representative. In addition to those folks, initial plans for Nutter's Cabinet also include his three deputy mayors, his chief of staff, and the commerce director. Excluding the mayor himself, that's nine.

"The goal for the first meeting is to really begin to develop a team atmosphere and see to it that everyone understands where we are going," said Chief of Staff Clay Armbrister. Efforts to do so at a retreat two weeks ago were interrupted by the sudden news of the death of managing director Camille Barnett's husband, Jim.

Armbrister said the group this afternoon would also discuss "near-term challenges" and legislative initiatives, beginning with the budget and five-year plan, which must be submitted to Council by the end of this month. No time to waste.

Referring in jest to the chaos in setting up a new administration, Armbrister said he has another goal in mind as well: "To make sure we can get to the second Cabinet meeting."

Inquirer columnist Monica Yant Kinney reports that Nutter was yukking it up at this morning's Independence Historical National Park Service dedication of the "People's Plaza," a new $268,000 granite space at Independence National Park dedicated for groups to demonstrate and celebrate the ever-important First Amendment.

After speaking about the power of free speech - "You never know what you might learn if you listen to other people" - Nutter turned his attention to a Park Service maintenance staffer named Steve Murphy, who won a department-wide contest by coming up with the name, "People's Plaza."

"To Steve, by the power vested in me, you have the rest of the day off," Nutter said, to laughter and shivers at the outdoor event. "Of course, I have nothing to do with the National Park Service."

Following Nutter, Joe Torsella, president of the Constitution Center, said his staff would be watching closely to see whether Murphy indeed got the day off, to see if our system of "checks and balances" actually works.

It does.

"He's getting a day off, but not today, said Park Service spokeswoman Jane Cowley, noting that this way he'll get an entire day off, not just part of it. The Park Service had already planned on giving Murphy a free day, she said, but Nutter sort of moved it along.

This in from intrepid Inquirer education reporter Sue Snyder:

Lori Shorr, vice president for policies and planning at the Philadelphia Youth Network — the organization that is pioneering an effort to cut the city's dropout rate — is expected to be named Mayor Nutter's point person on education, sources said today.

Shorr, who previously worked in the Pennsylvania Department of Education and at Temple University, did not return calls for comment.

Nutter's staff also declined comment.

Shorr reportedly will be appointed director of education initiatives under an office of education that Nutter plans to create. More details are expected later this month.

Nutter in his inaugural address said he planned to cut the city school’s 45 percent dropout rate in half over the next five to seven years.

Shorr lives in the city, and her children have attended Philadelphia public schools.

At the state department of education, she served as a special assistant to Education Secretary Gerald Zahorchak. While at Temple, Shorr was the director of schools and community partnerships.

In addition to today's story, here is a fuller look at the salaries of high-level aides in the Nutter administration, according to a list the Inquirer requested from the mayor's press office. Many of the salaries for commissioners and department heads are determined according to ranges set under a city ordinance. And this list is by no means complete; several top positions have yet to be announced.

Mayor Michael Nutter $186,044
Chief of Staff Clay Armbrister $198,500
Managing Director Camille Barnett $195,000
Deputy Chief of Staff Patricia Enright $155,000
Chief Integrity Officer Joan Markman $150,000
Director of Legislative Affiars Julia Chapman $150,000
Director of Multicultural Affairs Israel Colon $90,000
Director of Research, Policy and Planning Wendell Pritchett $150,000

Mayor Nutter is continuing to clean house, replacing all five of Mayor Street's last-minute appointments to the Zoning Code Commission with five new appointees. That means Mayor Streeet's son, Sharif Street, is off the commission.

Nutter also appointed five new members to what he hopes will be a much more muscular Planning Commission. He also retained one Street planning appointee, Pat Eiding, president of the Philadelphia Council of the AFL-CIO. We'll have more on this in tomorrow's paper, but you can read the full release and the bios of the new members after the jump.

My colleague Jeff Shields reports that there is a frenzy of activity going on in Council chambers, where Council is convening its first session with Mayor Nutter at the helm.
Here's a look at some of what is taking place.

In addition, Nutter has transmitted three proposed charter changes:

The first would give the inspector general broader jurisdiction than just the executive branch, which it is limited to under current law. However, the proposal is not as far reaching as the one set forth by former Councilwoman Carol Campbell last fall.

The second would define and separate the duties of the city representative and the Commerce Director. Right now, they are joined at the hip as one job.

The third would allow the Nutter administration to increase the number of departmental deputies who are exempt from Civil Service.

As a candidate, Mayor Nutter paid homage to other cities, visiting their City Halls to see what Philadelphia could learn from what they did right.

Tomorrow, Nutter's press secretary, Doug Oliver, will embark on a similar "best practices" tour.

He is expected to go to Chicago, with a visit to Washington scheduled for this Wednesday, and a brief trip to New York City slated for the following week. The fact that these cities have good reputations and are well-positioned nationally "doesn't happen by accident, it is by design," Oliver said.

Some of what he will be looking for are tips on how to better structure the press office; how much time to spend reacting to news versus pro-actively placing it; who to choose what are good issues to associate his mayor with; and how to choose what are potential national stories versus local.

"We're doing okay," he said, "but if there is some trick of the trade, I want to know it."

And why not? More money for the city's schools, more money for Philly cops. It's a Philly friendly budget. Nutter's release on the state budget is after the jump. Not that all elected Philadelphia officials are pleased. As one commenter pointed out (at length), State Rep. John Perzel thinks 100 new cops doesn't go near far enough. As reported by the Inquirer today, Perzel wants 10,000 more statewide, a plan that's been stymied by Harrisburg Dems for a long while.

Here they are, Mayor Nutter's just-named members of the board that will oversee the operation of PGW:

Today Mayor Nutter announced his appointments to the Board of Philadelphia Facilities Management Corporation (PFMC): Gerald Davis, Maryam Mahdavi, Sharmain Matlock-Turner, Pedro Rivera, David Seltzer, Seth Shapiro and Hal Sorgenti. Mayor Nutter has asked David Seltzer to serve as Chairman of the Board. “I am flattered to be given this opportunity by Mayor Nutter. I know the board will try to bring the same objectivity, dedication and fresh thinking to overseeing PGW that have already become a hallmark of the new Nutter Administration,” said Mr. Seltzer.

PFMC, a non-profit corporation, operates and manages Philadelphia Gas Works (PGW) under a contract with the City of Philadelphia. The seven member board is appointed by the Mayor and its responsibilities, as set forth in a Management Agreement between the City and PFMC, make PFMC responsible for all operations of PGW through an executive management team including a chief executive officer, a chief operating officer, and a chief financial officer.

If you didn't catch it Wednesday night, take a look at the glowing profile of Mayor Nutter that aired on ABC News with Charlie Gibson. You've got the Mayor dropping Olivia off at school, eating at Little Pete's, shaking the hands of the thousands who snaked around City Hall at his open house. It's about as positive as a national news segment gets, except for that bit about Philadelphia's epic struggle with violent crime.

We took note of Mayor Nutter's early success on the national stage a few weeks ago. It's worth remembering that the new mayor of a big city like Philadelphia would get some broad exposure no matter who they were, but Nutter appears to be getting more than his fair share. Take a look.

So much for a free and frank exchange of ideas.

John McNesby, president of Lodge Five of the Fraternal Order of Police, showed up as expected Tuesday night to participate on a panel discussing possible ways to combat gun violence in the city. The forum, which took place at the Beasley School of Law at Temple University, was hosted by a law-student group named the Student Public Interest Network.

But McNesby never made his way to the panel.

Shortly after stepping into the law school building, he learned that the opening address was not going to be delivered by Mayor Nutter, who had to cancel his appearance, but by Everett A. Gillison, Nutter's deputy mayor for public safety.

Therein was the problem.

When Nutter announced Gillison for the job in early January, it was news to McNesby, who blasted the appointment since Gillison
was the public defender who represented the man who killed Police Officer Gary Skerski last year. "Here's a guy named to a high-profile position as a deputy mayor for public safety, and he sat next to a man who killed a police officer," McNesby told the Inquirer at the time.

Nutter promptly apologized for not alerting the police union of Gillison's appointment before he made it.

But it seems clear from McNesby's actions Tuesday night that that apology may not be enough.

McNesby, with the forum minutes from starting, turned and left the building, telling the forum organizers that he was unwilling to share a stage with the man who defended a cop killer.

McNesby did not return a call for comment this afternoon. But a police union spokesman, Gene Blagmond, offered a different explanation for why the union president left. "I think he thought he was participating on a panel with the mayor. Plus he had something at the lodge he had to take care of right away."

Gillison did not return a call for comment.

Michael Nutter has sure had his fill of network news shows since taking office last month. ABC World News with Charles Gibson, and Hardball with Chris Matthews, to name two.

Perhaps then it's no surprise that someone in the administration committed a certain Freudian slip on the city's web site.

Among the reports available for the public to download onto their computers are the city's budget in brief, the administration's proposed five-year spending plan, and this: "Mayor Nutter's First Budget Address to Congress."
Can't wait for the second budget address.

3:30 p.m. UPDATE: The mayor is no longer addressing Congress. A Nutter press aide informs us that a correction has been made. "It was the web team that for whatever reason in their head wrote that," the aide said.

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.

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.

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."

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."

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?

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.

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.

Still a popular guy, it seemed unlikely that Mayor Nutter would be booed by baseball fans Monday when he tossed out the first pitch at the Phillies opening game. And he wasn’t.

In case he had been, though, the mayor had his own cheering section on hand.

Fifteen members of Nutter’s staff received tickets to watch the game from the free box that Nutter now controls as Philadelphia’s CEO. They were raffled off as part of an intra-office lottery.

Some of the winners included Nutter spokesman Doug Oliver; chief integrity officer Joan Markman; senior economic development adviser Terry Gillen; research, policy and planning director Wendell Pritchett; city solicitor Shelley Smith; and deputy chief of staff Patricia Enright.

How that box – and other ones like it at Lincoln Financial Field, the Wachovia Center, and the Spectrum – were used grew controversial under former Mayor John F. Street. During the 2003 federal investigation of City Hall, the FBI secretly recorded Street talking with his chief fund-raiser, lawyer Ronald White, about “selling" seats at the Eagles stadium for as much as $20,000 apiece.

By now, anyone who wants to know knows that Mayor Nutter is backing Hillary Rodham Clinton over Barack Obama in Pennsylvania's April 22 primary.

What has received less attention, though, is why Nutter predicted that Obama would win the race for president in February 2007 at a mayoral forum at Central High School.

The Huffington Post asked him this question last week, and here was his response.

"It wasn't so much a prediction," he recalled. "We were at a high school sponsored candidates forum and we were asked who do you think will be the democratic nominee or who will be the next president. I said I thought Sen. Obama. Now, at that point, I was at fifth place. Since I was a long shot and it appeared to me that he was a long shot, I was trying to get some solidarity with the long shots."

Had his political crystal ball changed?

"Absolutely," Nutter replied, saying he thought Clinton would now win. "Obviously, I had no way of knowing that we would be where we are here today... [Back then] I was trying to give little hope to my own candidacy."

To read the entire story, click on The Huffington Post above.

Want to get an audience with Mayor Mike?

You might try serving up a grilled cheese, and chocolate milk.

That was Michael Nutter's food of choice at Little Pete's the other day, where he sat down with a New York Times reporter to explain, yet again, his reasons for backing Hillary Rodham Clinton over Barack Obama. It seems to be a conundrum to others, but not, of course, to him.

From the story:

“

He’s a really nice guy who’s talking about really important issues,” Mr. Nutter said last week while sitting over a late dinner of grilled cheese and chocolate milk at his favorite diner, Little Pete’s, “and I am aware that he is African-American.” Mr. Nutter’s wit is dry almost to the point of brittle.

“But there is this fascination, mostly in the press, with certain elements of race issues that, for whatever reason, only get raised with high-profile African-Americans,” Mr. Nutter said. “Have you asked any non-African-American politicians why they are supporting Senator Obama, and if they are getting flak from their constituents for supporting Senator Obama?”

Nutter said much the same last week in The Inquirer.

Next?

Mayor Nutter (who, let's face it, has enjoyed glowing press coverage for pretty much his whole career) ruminated on his relationship with the media in a Penn classroom today.

His "basic philosophy," Nutter said, was to start with the idea that the media are "not my biographers."

"It's not their responsibility, directly, to make me look good or make me look smart," Nutter said. "On the other hand, commensurately, it's not their job to make me look stupid, which they have not done."

Another key, he said, was to actually talk to the media. That's a more novel approach then you might assume.

Before taking office, for instance, Nutter met with reporters and top brass at the city's largest media outlets to "talk about the city's image, to talk about trying to change the nature of the relationship between the mayor's office and the news media."

"Not commenting on the previous mayor, but you know, it was kind of a challenged relationship," Nutter said of Mayor Streets (lack of) rapport with the press corps. "I have a much more open and engaged relationship with the media."

Which might help explain why Nutter is one of those few long-serving public officials who says he has rarely been misquoted or badly misrepresented by the news media.

Students wondered what Nutter made of the media’s relentless focus on what you might call bad news: crime, corruption, that sort of thing. Nutter said it cut two ways. He said the intense coverage of crime last year clearly shaped the mayor’s race (in his favor, it would seem) and focused the city – including the Police Department – on the magnitude of the problem. But daily homicide headlines definitely take a toll on the city's image, Nutter said.

Pennsylvania’s primary election is over, but that doesn’t mean folks have forgotten which candidate Mayor Nutter backed.

When introducing Nutter at a Pennsylvania Bar Association luncheon for minority lawyers on Friday, attorney Jettie Newkirk called him “Philadelphia’s Obama.”

Nutter, of course, is among Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s biggest fans, but he took the joke well.

“I always thought that Senator Obama was the country’s Mike Nutter,” the mayor cracked, as he took the stage.

There were big laughs all around, and the episode seemed to confirm the conventional wisdom on Nutter’s endorsement of Clinton: Plenty of Philadelphians didn’t get why he backed her, but neither did they hold his choice against him.

The press crashed what Mayor Nutter intended to be a private budget briefing for City Council yesterday. The fullest accounts of the incident can be found here and here, while the Inquirer report dealt principally with the substance of the meeting. Reporters, who tend for obvious reasons to take an expansive view of state open meetings law, felt that the session (which included well over a quorum of council members) constituted a public meeting under the act. Nutter's administration takes the view that it is free to hold closed informational sessions with council, so long as no work is done on legislation. It isn't a new disagreement. Governments and the press dispute the scope of the law all the time. In December, for instance, City Council held what amounted to an illegal closed meeting to hammer out an agreement on minority inclusion for the Convention Center expansion project.

What was new was the tenor of the confrontation between the press and the Nutter administration. It wasn't a friendly disagreement. At one point Councilman Frank Rizzo cracked, "the honeymoon is over."

Nutter administration officials are plainly angry about the incident. They say that the administration has so far been remarkably open and transparent. That is absolutely true. Reporters' questions are answered promptly. Facts and figures that in past administration were difficult to obtain without filing an official and time consuming right to know request are now handed over with little to no fuss. And Nutter and his senior staff remain remarkably accessible to the press.

But given his campaign commitments to transparency and open government, Nutter is being held to a higher standard. The press isn't alone on this either. It's clear that at least a few council members also felt the meeting should have been open. How else would reporters have known there was a meeting to crash?

Bonus reading: a state primer on the open meetings law.

So far, Mayor Nutter is a pretty popular guy in Philadelphia. But it's looks as though his appeal isn't limited to the city, or even to the region.

According to an internal presidential poll obtained by The Inquirer, Nutter has fast become relatively well-known and well-liked on a statewide level. More than 60 percent of respondents statewide were familiar enough with the mayor to have formed an opinion of him, and his favorable-to-unfavorable ratings ratio was almost 3.7 to 1, which is outstanding.

"I'm impressed," said Pennsylvania pollster Terry Madonna.

"His image is very strong, he's considered kind of an independent reform voice."

The poll also offered a close-up of public opinion in a few congressional districts in and near Philadelphia, where Nutter fared even better than he did statewide. That backs up anecdotal evidence suggesting the mayor is wildly popular in the suburbs.

And it raises an interesting question for him: What role, if any, will he attempt to play in suburban politics? State Democrats think suburban Republicans are highly vulnerable. Might Nutter fund-raising and campaigning on behalf of some challengers put Democrats on top?

The poll's findings should be taken with a few grains of salt. First, the poll is dated. It was conducted in late March. Also, the copy obtained by The Inquirer was heavily redacted, and no sample size was available. Still, internal campaign polls are generally considered to be reasonably accurate.