Council has a full plate
PHILADELPHIA HAS A $450 million gap in its five-year financial plan, the controversial casino issue is about to heat up again and the clamor for ethics reform in city government is coming back louder than ever.
PHILADELPHIA HAS A $450 million gap in its five-year financial plan, the controversial casino issue is about to heat up again and the clamor for ethics reform in city government is coming back louder than ever.
Welcome back from summer vacation, City Council!
After a three-month hiatus, Council reconvenes today to deal with those pressing issues, along with a host of pet issues dear to its member's hearts.
Some details:
_ The budget: Mayor Nutter, who announced the bad economic news last week, can't make Council trim its budget, but he clearly is hoping his former colleagues consider the crisis.
"It's certainly something that will come up as part of our conversations," Nutter said this week as his administration looks to cut department budgets and slow hiring. "If Council decides certainly to provide some additional savings, that's all in the same pot of money. That would certainly be helpful."
Councilwoman Marian Tasco, the Democratic majority leader, said most of Council's budget goes for personnel. Nutter's budget this year included a $750,000 increase for those costs.
Would Council give some or all of that back?
"I don't think so," Tasco said. "That money is long gone."
_ Casinos: After 18 months of angry community protests during Council meetings, the proposed Foxwoods casino last week agreed to consider moving from its South Philly site to the Gallery in Center City.
Council and the casino investors, who agreed to the proposed move to stop delays on opening, will now face protests from Chinatown residents, businesses and other nearby neighborhoods.
Foxwoods will need zoning changes from Council to make the Gallery location work. Councilman Frank DiCicco, who represents that part of Center City, has already heard from opponents.
DiCicco, who is studying the move, fears that any "roadblocks" from Council or angry neighbors could lead the state Supreme Court to appoint a "special master" to make casino decisions for the city. Foxwoods, frustrated by past delays, asked the court for a special master in July.
Nutter, who pushed for the relocation, said the process will take some time to complete and will be part of a larger examination of the East Market Street area.
"It's not like it's going to happen overnight," Nutter said. "We're not talking about opening a water-ice stand."
_ Ethics: Councilman Frank Rizzo will introduce today six pieces of legislation (see related editorial, Page 13) that would impact hiring family members for city jobs, require lobbyists to register with the city, ban some outside employment by city workers, prohibit employees from receiving some gifts and change the way political candidates can collect campaign contributions.
Rizzo proposed four of those changes in the last legislative session but never took action on them, he said yesterday, because then-Mayor John Street's administration and later Nutter's administration asked him to wait. Rizzo said Nutter is now on board with his ethics bills.
Tasco yesterday said Nutter would soon name a panel of experts to examine the city's ethics legislation, along with any proposed changes. Previous ethics laws were passed, she said, without enough consideration of "unintended consequences" for the city and its employees.
"We're not going to rush to pass legislation until we've had a full discussion of what the impact means and what are the unintended consequences," Tasco said. *
