Goode cuts staff salaries, but not his own
Here's how 2009 started for Latrice Bryant: She got a salary cut. The beleaguered senior legislative aide to Councilman W. Wilson Goode Jr. now makes $85,500 - 5 percent less than last year.
Here's how 2009 started for Latrice Bryant: She got a salary cut.
The beleaguered senior legislative aide to Councilman W. Wilson Goode Jr. now makes $85,500 - 5 percent less than last year.
But Bryant, who has said she made mistakes on time sheets that were scrutinized by Fox29 in the fall, isn't the only one with less money to burn in the new year.
Goode said he also cut the salaries of his chief of staff and a special assistant, and eliminated the job of another special assistant.
In all, he cut his staff budget by 23 percent, from $310,000 to $237,500.
One thing the councilman didn't touch: his own $102,000 salary.
"It's absolutely on the table," Goode said when asked why he had not cut his own income. But he also defended his overall office spending, including cars (he doesn't drive a city car) and cell phones (no one on his staff has a city-issued cell phone).
"I am the least expensive Council person by far, period." - Marcia Gelbart
Calling the silent majority
Councilman Jim Kenney is growing tired of the most vocal opponents of Mayor Nutter's recent budget cuts.
"I don't believe the people protesting the cuts - especially the library cuts - represent the vast majority of Philadelphians," Kenney said in a phone interview last week.
Rather, he thinks the protesters and bloggers who have led opposition to Nutter's proposed library closings are more or less professional activists, many of them veterans of the anticasino movement.
"This is basically the same group that was part of Casino Free Philadelphia," Kenney said.
There certainly is some overlap between casino opponents and those hoping to keep the libraries open. But an Inquirer report on the makeup of the pro-library coalition earlier this month found that it included a diverse mix of people: home-schoolers, rich and poor, black and white, and, yes, some habitual protesters.
Whatever their composition, Kenney said, their aim is not simply to keep libraries open. He said they want to change the balance of power in city government.
"They're using libraries because everybody likes libraries. I think their real complaint is with the strong-mayor form of government," Kenney said. "Some of these folks would like City Council to have more power, because that would give them more access to decision-making and resource dividing." - Patrick Kerkstra
Schadenfreude watch
One has to wonder: What does former Mayor John F. Street make of his successor's budget trouble?
Street, who warred with Councilman Michael Nutter over the issue of taxes for years, has so far kept mum on Nutter's woes.
"It's got to be killing him, but he won't do it," said Councilman Darrell Clarke, a longtime Street ally.
Given the fiscal crisis, Nutter may well have to raise taxes. As mayor, Street pleaded with Nutter - and other tax cutters - to slow down. The city, he said, could not afford the tax cuts they wanted.
"I got to tell you, if it were me, I'd be hard-pressed not to say, 'See, I told you so,' " said Clarke, who is now openly calling for tax hikes.
The Inquirer has called Street repeatedly, hoping to get his perspective on the budget crisis. He has not returned those calls. - Patrick Kerkstra
