Who's in with the new mayor?
The Daily News looks at likely hires by the Kenney administration
WHO'S IN and who's out at City Hall with the new Kenney administration? Daily News reporters have been talking with City Hall sources, making a list and checking it twice. Here's what we've found out:
* Deputy Police Commissioner Richard Ross is the overwhelming choice to replace his boss, Charles Ramsey, when the current police commissioner retires at year's end.
Ross was usually in charge of day-to-day operations whenever Ramsey left town for outside obligations - which was frequently. Deputy Commissioner Kevin Bethel, viewed by some police insiders as Ross' chief competition, recently announced that he's leaving the department for a fellowship position.
* Kenney's campaign manager, Jane Slusser, is widely expected to serve as his mayoral chief of staff. The 33-year-old California native has held a variety of posts, working for President Obama's campaign in upstate Pennsylvania as well as the LGBT-rights group Equality Pennsylvania.
* Michael DiBerardinis, a highly popular veteran of City Hall who is deputy mayor for environmental and community resources, is in the running for managing director. He's seen as someone who could settle agency turf wars.
* One key official in Mayor Nutter's administration, city finance director Rob Dubow - who guided Philadelphia through the Great Recession - is likely to be asked to stay on, although perhaps in a new structure that would have him reporting directly to Kenney. The incoming mayor is also expected to scrap the system of deputy mayors set up under Nutter.
"There's no perfect way to organize the government. It has to work for the person who's in charge," Nutter said yesterday. "The new mayor gets to put his thumbprint all over what his agenda will be going forward."
* One other Nutter official said to be in line for a likely promotion in the Kenney administration is the current streets commissioner, David Perri.
* One outsider, the former Committee of Seventy policy chief Ellen Mattleman Kaplan, is believed to be in line for a watchdog role at City Hall, possibly as chief integrity officer.
* Jay McCalla, a government-affairs expert who served as deputy managing director for former mayors Ed Rendell and John Street, said a group of powerful African-American politicians from the Northwest who threw their support to Kenney in the primary will look for the mayor-elect to tap African-Americans to be among his most prominent appointees.
"They're going to send some names, and they're in a position to demand," McCalla said of state Rep. Dwight Evans, retiring City Councilwoman Marian Tasco and State Rep. Cherelle Parker, who last night won Tasco's seat.
* Meanwhile, one source said the fire commissioner choice is between incumbent Derrick Sawyer and FEMA official Fred Endrikat, who was with the department for some 30 years before going to Washington.
* Other names bandied about as possible key hires are Deborah Mahler, who served as Kenney's chief of staff in City Council; executive director Brian Abernathy of the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority; aide Rich Lazer; Kenney policy director Jim Engler; and Jeff Hornstein of the City Controller's Office.
* Otis Hackney, principal of South Philadelphia High School, is in the mix for a position as top education aide.
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