Big change on tap for Council?

CITY COUNCIL, a body not known for embracing change, could be headed for political upheaval next May.

Candidates - some new, others itching for rematches - are lining up to take on some of Council's 17 members in the May Democratic primary election.

Could Council be in for a shake-up akin to 1979, when seven new members were elected?

The palace intrigue naturally starts at the top.

Council President Anna Verna, in office since 1976, is enrolled in the city's controversial Deferred Retirement Option Plan, which would bring her a $584,777 windfall when her four-year term ends in early 2012.

Verna has declined to say whether she will retire or, as Councilwoman Joan Krajewski did in 2007, run for another term, retire for just one day to pick up the DROP payment, then resume office when the new Council is sworn in in January 2012.

"I'll make up my mind before long," Verna said last week.

A complicated political negotiation surrounds Verna's return. It's not clear whether she could hold on to the presidency if she comes back. Councilwoman Marian Tasco - another DROP participant - is rumored to be seeking support for the top job and appears to be within striking distance.

Tasco declined to discuss whether she will run again or if she will seek Verna's post.

The unanswered question here: Would Verna come back if she couldn't run the show?

A race for the Northeast

Republican Brian O'Neill has held Council's 10th District seat in the Far Northeast for 30 years.

But Democrats are eagerly eyeing the only district seat they don't hold. Two at-large seats, reserved for candidates from minority parties, are held by the GOP.

City Commission's election supervisor, Bill Rubin, launched an exploratory committee this week.

Rubin, also vice chairman of the city's pension board, must resign his job when he declares or files paperwork to become a candidate because of city regulations.

Rubin said that the committee allows him to test the waters and see if "individuals that wanted to support me financially . . . are serious about that."

O'Neill plans to run again and has said that he is focused on his own race. But has Rubin's emergence sparked his recent focus on the city's pension problems?

O'Neill last week introduced a resolution in Council calling for hearings on the pension fund.

A Sanchez/Savage rematch?

Councilwoman Maria Quinones-Sanchez defeated incumbent Dan Savage in 2007 for the seat in the 7th District, which includes parts of North Philadelphia and the Lower Northeast.

Now Savage, a ward leader who returned to work for the Turnpike Commission after the loss, is considering a run for his old seat or for an at-large Council seat.

"A lot of people want me to run," said Savage, who took office in a special election. "They're disappointed with the direction that the city is heading in, and they were impressed with my 13 months in office."

Quinones-Sanchez is not the showboat that her fellow Council freshmen, Curtis Jones Jr. and Bill Green, have sometimes been, but she has gained respect from colleagues for a workaday approach to the job that still allows room for the big political picture.

Will a candidate be DROPped?

DROP has become a flashpoint of ire from fed-up taxpayers. Future elected officials are barred from joining the program, but six sitting Council members are now enrolled.

They are Verna, Tasco, Frank Rizzo, Jack Kelly, Donna Reed Miller and Frank DiCicco.

DiCicco and Rizzo say they plan to run again next year.

DROP could become a potent political attack for challengers.

DiCicco will face a challenge from Karen Brown, a city committeewoman and retired Catholic-school teacher. Mike Boyle, a lawyer and leader of Center City's 5th Ward, is also considering a DiCicco challenge.

DiCicco plans to keep his DROP money and pension payments while donating his salary back to the city if he wins another term.

Rizzo plans to collect his DROP money and pension payments along with his Council salary if reelected.

Leaving on their own terms

Krajewski, in office for 30 years, is the only Council member who has publicly announced plans to retire.

State Rep. Mike McGeehan is already considered a party favorite to replace her in the Northeast's 6th District seat if he decides to run. McGeehan said that the "tidal wave" that washed Democrats out of control of the state House in last week's election, will probably play a part in that decision.

"There's not much opportunity for the Democrats and in particular Philadelphia Democrats to have much sway in Harrisburg," McGeehan said this week. "I have to really assess whether I have a future in Harrisburg or if I can do more in Philadelphia."

Kelly says that he is undecided about seeking a second at-large term - he was also a district councilman for one term - but is widely expected to retire.

The GOP at-large tussle

The city charter allows each political party to nominate just five people for the seven Council at-large seats. The seven top vote-getters wind up with seats - in effect giving at least two seats to Republicans, independents, tea-party nominees or anyone else who can get enough votes.

Since the 1950s, those two at-large seats have gone to Republicans, now Rizzo and Kelly.

Kelly's retirement would mean at least one new GOP face. There will be plenty of competition for the at-large seats, given the ongoing friction between the party leadership - general counsel Mike Meehan and chairman Vito Canuso - and a dissident faction, financed by Republican State Committee and led by Al Schmidt, last year's GOP candidate for city controller.

Al Taubenberger, the Republican candidate for mayor in 2007, is running at-large, as is lawyer David Oh, who lost to Kelly four years ago by just 122 votes.

Schmidt says that he is considering a run, and Michael Untermeyer, who ran for district attorney last year, is reportedly interested, although he did not return a call from the Daily News.

Other declared Republican candidates for Council at-large include Elmer Money, a hospital administrator from the Northeast, and Joe McColgan, who ran twice for Congress in the 1990s, against then-U. S. Rep. Bob Borski.

Winning in a crowd

There is one easy prediction for the Council elections - Northwest Philadelphia's 8th District race will be crowded.

Miller has made a career of winning packed primaries, even when she doesn't pull in a simple majority of the votes.

Cindy Bass, a Democratic committeewoman and staffer for U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah, is running for the seat again after finishing second to Miller in 2007.

Community activist Greg Paulmier, who finished fourth out of four in the 2007 primary, is also running.

Irv Ackelsberg, a lawyer who finished third in 2007, along with two staffers from other Council offices, Derek Green and Latrice Bryant, are also considering campaigns for the 8th District seat.