Law firm retains its City Hall connections

Two of its key lawyers have died, but the law firm Ballard, Spahr, Andrews & Ingersoll - where Gov. Rendell used to work - will nonetheless keep its lock on handling the city's municipal labor negotiations.

Lawyers H. Thomas Felix and Alan Davis died in 2006 and 2007, respectively, ceasing to represent the city at the bargaining table as they had for decades.

But make no mistake. Ballard Spahr will be there to hash out new contracts this year.

The city has hired one Ballard Spahr lawyer, Shannon Farmer, as its chief negotiator, and another, Kenneth Jarin, to work on the arbitration panel deciding the police contract. Jarin will probably do the same work on the firefighters' contract.

Ballard Spahr already is one of the city's largest winners of legal work on bond issues, and this will ensure the firm's foothold on Philadelphia's labor-management work as well.

"We interviewed several firms, and we listened to all the presentations," City Solicitor Shelley Smith said last week. In the end, Ballard Spahr was the top choice of the deciding panel, which included Smith, Mayor Nutter, chief of staff Clay Armbrister, Finance Director Rob Dubow, and Labor Relations Director Joe Tolan.

What of the fact that Smith also used to work at Ballard Spahr?

"I have no particular allegiance," Smith said. "Anybody who knows me knows I don't recommend people just because I know them or have worked with them. I don't recommend lightly. I don't suffer fools gladly."

- Marcia Gelbart

Parking lot owners beat back former Mayor John F. Street's efforts to increase the parking tax in 2004 and 2005, and the Philadelphia Parking Association is already on the march against a similar proposal by Mayor Nutter.

The group of parking lot owners began distributing flowers this weekend at the Philadelphia Flower Show, placing on car windshields fliers with a stop-sign logo that read "Stop the parking tax" and warning customers that a tax increase would mean higher parking fees. (Flower show attendees have noted in the past that the popular event itself inspires an increase in the price of parking.)

Nutter hopes to raise $16 million for his fiscal 2009 budget by raising the parking tax from 15 percent to 20 percent. The tax, which will help pay for street repairs, supposedly targets visitors.

But Robert Zuritsky, president of city parking giant Parkway Corp., testified last week that half of the people who use parking lots are city residents.

There will be an interesting dynamic in play, because the parking lot owners were one of Nutter's big supporters - Parkway Corp. employees alone gave Nutter more than $17,600 for the primary, close to the $20,000 limit.

- Jeff Shields

Philadelphia, meet your new director of veteran affairs: Democratic ward leader and former city commissioner Edgar Howard.

As reported in The Inquirer last week, Howard is, to put it bluntly, not remotely qualified for the position, at least not by the standards of the official job posting.

But Howard got the gig anyway, even after a commission of veterans unanimously recommended the job instead go to a guy with more than 20 years experience in the field.

Howard has one thing his rival for the job lacked. Real political clout.

As leader of the voter-rich 10th Ward in West Oak Lane, Howard is an influential figure within the Democratic Party. He has close ties to senior politicians, including State Rep. Dwight Evans, who preceded him as the Democratic 10th Ward leader.

As city commissioner, he had a post befitting his influence within the party until last year's May primary, when he was defeated handily by Anthony Clark. Forced to leave office in January, Howard needed a job.

Just a few weeks later, he was named the city's next director of veteran affairs.

To plenty of veterans in the city, it's a crystal clear case of patronage.

Not so, says Council President Anna C. Verna, who supervises the office and picks its director.

"People can think what they want. We can't change people's way of thinking, but I assure you he will prove to be an asset to that office," Verna said.

- Patrick Kerkstra