Former city employee fined $2,201 for ethics violations

The Philadelphia Board of Ethics has concluded that a former deputy city commissioner solicited money from someone she helped in her office and engaged in prohibited political activity.

Tracey Gordon, who held the post from February 2012 until December 2014, was fined $2,201 for six City Charter violations, the Ethics Board announced Wednesday.

Gordon, who was suspended without pay in May 2014 after the Ethics Board impounded her City Hall office computer and who later was fired, insisted she did nothing wrong.

"All of this is untrue and unfounded," Gordon said Tuesday. "I denied every last one of those charges."

Shane Creamer, executive director of the Board of Ethics, stood by his agency's ruling.

"Ms. Gordon can continue to deny that she committed these violations, but these are adjudicatory findings by the board based on credible evidence that she was unable or unwilling to challenge," Creamer said.

The board, in a 17-page Final Determination, said that Gordon:

Told a writer for One Step Away, a newspaper produced and sold by homeless and jobless people, that she should "pay for the services she had received" after the writer asked Gordon for help in having a letter typed in April 2014. The writer gave Gordon $10 and $20 to the clerk who typed the letter.

Held a fund-raiser for herself after she was suspended, and told the writer "she was contacting all of the people she has helped in her role as deputy commissioner so they could help her now and demanded to know how many tickets" the writer would buy.

Encouraged an office volunteer she supervised to run for a post as a Democratic committeewoman in the 32nd Ward in order to support a candidate for ward leader there. Gordon also destroyed a letter the volunteer drafted to the Board of Ethics on the matter.

Used a website created to release election-related information to post a notice about the Democratic City Committee's annual fund-raiser.

Gordon was briefly represented by two attorneys during the investigation, but showed up for a hearing on the charges in August 2015 without an attorney and refused to participate.

"I never got a chance to defend myself because I couldn't afford an attorney," Gordon said. "They had a boatload of attorneys. I think this is a travesty."

Gordon said she did not have the money to pay the $2,201 fine.

Gordon had previously been fined $675 by the board in November 2012 for using her computer in City Hall to post political messages on Facebook.

Gordon ran unsuccessfully in the 2015 Democratic primary election for city commissioner. She also lost a bid, running as an independent, in an August 2015 special election for a state House seat.

brennac@phillynews.com

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@ByChrisBrennan